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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.
Liberation is the realisation of total non-existence of the universe as such. Liberation is to realise that all this is pure consciousness. When objectivity in your consciousness, the latter become conditioned and limited: that is bondage. When objectivity is abandoned, you become mindless: that is liberation. Whatever terrible sufferings and calamities there are in the world are all the fruits of cravings. When this craving has ceased one’s life-force is pure and all divine qualities and virtues enter one’s heart. Ego-sense is the source of all sins. Cut at the very root of this ego sense with the sword of wisdom of the non-ego be free from fear. Bondage & Freedom - ‘I want this to be mine.’ When such craving arises in one’s heart, it gives rise to impurity. Such a craving should be abandoned by a wise person by all means at all times. Give up the desire that tends to bondage and the desire for liberation too. Remain still like the ocean. Knowing that the self is free from old age and death, let not these disturb your mind. When the whole universe is realised as illusory, craving loses its meaning. Fools are only interested in sexual pleasures and in the acquisition of wealth. We are unable to expound the path of rituals and routines which bestows all kinds of rewards in the shape of pain and pleasure. The following four types of feelings arise in the heart of man: 1. I am the body born of my parents, 2. I am the subtle atomic particle, different from the body, 3. I am the eternal principle in all the diverse perishable objects in the world, and 4. The ‘I’ as also the ‘world’ are pure void like space. Of these the first is conducive to bondage and the others to freedom. Attachment & Fear - One should become aware of one’s deluded notion in which one thinks ‘I belong to these objects of the world and my life depends upon them. I cannot live without them and they cannot exist without me, either.’ Then by profound enquiry, one contemplates ‘I do not belong to these objects, nor do these objects belong to me.’ He who acts without attachment merely with the organs of action, is not affected by anything, neither by joy or by sorrow. His actions are non-volitional. He sees not, through eyes sees; he hears not, through ears hear; he touches not, through the body touches. Surely, attachment (contact, association) is the cause for this world-illusion; it alone creates objects. Attachment causes bondage and endless sorrow. Therefore, holy ones declare that the abandonment of attachment is itself liberation. Abandon attachment and be a liberated sage. Attachment is that which makes the conditioning of the mind more and more dense, by repeatedly causing the experiences of pleasure and pain in relation to the existence and the non-existence of the objects of pleasure. If you rise beyond joy and sorrow and therefore treat them alike, and if you are free from attraction, aversion and fear, you are unattached. If you do not grieve in sorrow, if you do not exult in happiness and if you are independent of your own desires and hopes, you are unattached. By effortlessly remaining established in non-attachment, live here as a liberated sage. The liberated sage lives in the inner silence, without pride or vanity, without jealousy and with his senses fully under control. The liberated sage, who is free from cravings, is not tempted by them, but engages himself in mere natural actions. Whether he is subjected to great pain or he is appointed the ruler of heaven, he remains in a balanced state of mind. Attitude of non-attachment – Equip yourself with such attitude, remain unattached, endowed with the spirit of renunciation and with the realisation that whatever you do or you experience is an offering to the omnipresent being, Brahman. Then you will realise the truth, and that is the end of all doubts. He who is thus equipped with the spirit of non-duality (as if he is in deep sleep, though awake) is not disturbed though actively engaged in life. Such a person is liberated here and now. Egoism & Egolessness - Abandoning the ego-sense through intense contemplation, one should playfully engage oneself in the actions that happen naturally, but with the heart and mind ever cool and tranquil. Such an abandonment of the ego-sense and the conditioning is known as the contemplative egolessness. The desire that arises in the course of one’s natural functions devoid of craving is that of a liberated sage. But that desire which is bound up with craving for external objects is conducive to bondage. However, when all ego-based notions have ceased in one’s heart, the attention that is directed naturally is also the nature of the liberated sage. Realisation of Truth - The mind is but the movement of consciousness. the non-realisation of this truth is world-vision! Non realisation of the truth intensifies and aggravates the movement of thought in consciousness. thus, a cycle is formed. Ignorance and mental activity are perpetuated by each other. When the inner intelligence is awakened the craving for pleasure ceases; this is the nature of the wise. In him this cessation of craving for pleasure is therefore natural and effortless. He knows that it is the energy of the self that experience the experiences. He who, in order to please the public, refuses to experience what is to be experienced, he indeed beats the air with the stick! One attains self-knowledge by sometimes unsing appropriate means. Desire for liberation interferes with fullness of the self; absence of such desire promotes bondage! Hence, constant awareness is to be preferred. The sole cause for bondage and liberation is the movement in consciousness. awareness of this ends this movement. The ego-sense ceases the very moment one observes it, for it has no support any longer. Then who is bound by whom, or who is liberated by whom? Means of Liberation - By the diligent practice of the yoga method, by resorting to the company of the holy ones and the avoidance of evil company, the truth is clearly revealed. When thus one realises the supreme which is the only essence or truth beyond this ocean of samsara, he realises, ‘I am not the doer but God alone is the doer; not even in the past did I do anything.’ He abandons vain and meaningless words and remains inwardly and mentally silent. This superior non-attachment or freedom. Steps of Yoga -
They who desire liberation should engage themselves only in such actions which are free from defects, and desist from selfish and sinful actions. The Jiva is liberated when one contemplates, ‘I an that which is beyond the body, mind and senses’ when one is free from notions of ‘I am doer’ and ‘I am enjoyer’ as also from notions of pain and pleasure. Gatekeepers of Liberation -
The liberated sage who is disinterested in the events of the past, present and future looks at the state of the world with amusement. Enlightened men, though they be constantly engaged in activity, do nothing. It is not by means of inaction that they reach the state of non-action! This very fact of non-action frees you from experiences, for there is no harvest where there is no sowing. When thus both the notions of “I do” and “I experience” have ceased, there remains only peace; when that peace is firmly grounded there is liberation. Enlightened being do not exult in pleasure nor grieve in pain; they function non-volitionally. They are fully awake in self-knowledge, but they ae asleep, as it were, in relation to the world; they function in this world like children, without ego-sense and all the rest of its retinue. “This is pleasure”, ‘this is pain’, ‘this is’, ‘this is not’ – only the mind of the ignorant swings like this, not of the wise. “This is to be acquired” and “this is to be abandoned – such thoughts arise only in the minds of the ignorant. Liberation is of two kinds: ‘with body’ and ‘without body’. That state of liberation in which the mind is totally unattached to anything and in which there is no craving at all, is known as ‘liberation with body’. That itself is known as ‘libration without body’ when the body drops. In the case of ‘liberation with body’, all the tendencies and mental conditioning are like fried incapable of giving rise to future embodiment.
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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.
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 -
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 mind is nothing but bundle of thoughts. Victory over this goblin known as mind is gained when, with the aid of one’s own self-effort, one attains self-knowledge and abandons the craving for what the mind desires as pleasure. This can be easily be achieved by the cultivation of the proper attitude. When the mind is thus conquered by remaining completely unagitated, you will consider even the conquest of the three-world worthless. Wisdom destroys egotism and generates fearlessness. The pure mind is free from latent tendencies, and therefore it attains self-knowledge. The impure mind sees a ghost where there is just a post and pollutes all relationship, creating suspicion among friends and making enemies of them, even a drunken man sees that the world is revolving around him. A distressed mind turns food into poison and causes disease and death. Conditioning of Mind - The conditioned mind creates bondage even in ascetics; the unconditioned mind is pure even in a householder. The mind that is thus conditioned is bondage; liberation is freedom from conditioning (inner contact, attachment or identification). Actions performed by the unconditioned are non-action. Conditioning is cause of sorrow. Conditioning can be illustrated by the following example: the Donkey is led by the master’s rope and, afraid, it carries a heavy burden. The adorable conditioning recognises ‘natural’ limitations. However, attachment implies division and duality which is limitation of the infinite and conditioning of the unconditioned. The mind which is unattached to anything, which is established in the peace of infinite expansion, is conducive to delight. At all times, the mind should not be attached to the action, the thoughts or the object. Neither should it be attached to the heavens above, nor what is below nor in the other directions. When the mind is dead and craving is dead, delusion has vanished and egoless-ness is born. The very nature of the mind is stupidity. Hence when it dies, purity and noble qualities arise. Desires, aversions and cravings are born out of attachment (liking or disliking for something) in the mind. Once desires are fulfilled, one feels pleasure and on not getting fulfilled, one feels pain. Pleasure is heaven and pain is hell. Deeper the pain, more intense is hell. Hence, strive to eradicate the desire for experience. Get rid of idleness. Free yourself from experiences. Neither idleness nor strong desires are good for peace and bliss. Lower the desires, better is the life. If you strive to destroy the conditioning (the concepts, notions, habits etc.), then in a moment all your errors and illnesses will vanish. Renounce the pursuit of pleasure and resort to: cessation of conditioning, movement of thought and realisation of truth, simultaneously. One should practise the abandonment of conditioning and the restraint of prana simultaneously. Prana is restrained by the practice of pranayama and yoga asana, as taught by the guru, or by other means. When desires, aversions and cravings do not arise in the mind even though their objects are seen in the front, then it is to be inferred that mental conditioning has weakened; thence wisdom arises, further weakening the conditioning. Then the mind ceases. It is not possible to ‘kill the mind’ without proper methods. Knowledge of the self, company of the holy men, the abandonment of conditioning and the restraint of prana are the means to overcome the mind. Ignoring these and resorting to violent practices like Hatha Yoga, austerities, pilgrimage, rites and rituals, is of little use. The illusory notion of existence of the mind etc. persists only as long as the sublime realisation of the truth is not experienced. Remain pure at heart like space, but outwardly engage yourself in appropriate action; in situations which could provoke exultation or depression, remain unaffected by them like a log of wood. He who is friendly even to one who is about to murder him, is seer of truth. He in whom all concepts and habitual tendencies have ceased has overcome all mental conditioning and bondage. Mind & Duality - In the case of one who is not attracted by pleasure, whose heart is cool because of its purity and who has shattered the cage of desires, cravings and hopes, the deluded notion of the existence of the mind ceases to be. When he sees even his body as the deluded experience of the non-entity, how can a mind arise? He who has the vision of the infinite and into whose heart the world-appearance has merged, does not entertain the deluded notion of a Jiva etc. Concepts of duality, unity or such others do not arise in them, for there are no tendencies in their heart. The very seed of ignorance is burnt in the state of sattva and it does not again give rise to delusion. The individual is nothing more than the personalised mind. Individuality ceases when that mind ceases; it remains as long as the notion of a personality remains. So long as there is a pot there is also the notion of a space enclosed within or confined to that pot; when it is broken, the infinite space time alone is, even where the pot-space was imagined before. Mind & Doership - The sense of doership (the notion ‘I do this’) which gives rise to both happiness and unhappiness. whatever the mind does, that alone is action: hence, the mind alone is the doer of actions, not the body. The mind alone is the world-appearance; this world-appearance has arisen in it and it rest in the mind. When the objects as well as the experiencing mind have become tranquil, consciousness alone remains. The wise declare that the mind of the enlightened is neither in a state of bliss nor devoid of bliss, neither in motion nor static, neither real nor unreal, but between these two propositions. Mind, Doership & Freedom - The sense of doership (the notion ‘I do this’) which gives rise to both happiness and unhappiness. whatever the mind does, that alone is action: hence, the mind alone is the doer of actions, not the body. The mind alone is the world-appearance; this world-appearance has arisen in it and it rest in the mind. When the objects as well as the experiencing mind have become tranquil, consciousness alone remains. The wise declare that the mind of the enlightened is neither in a state of bliss nor devoid of bliss, neither in motion nor static, neither real nor unreal, but between these two propositions. He who is wise, but who has not completely controlled the pleasure-seeking tendencies of his senses, sees the truth and sees the illusion. And, he who has clearly understood the nature of the world and the Jiva and who has firmly rejected the world-appearance as the reality, is liberated and is not born again. Bondage is bondage to these thoughts and notions: freedom is freedom from them. Give up all notions; even those of liberation. First, by the cultivation of good relationships like friendship, give up tendencies and notions which are gross and materialistic. There is no salvation without the total renunciation of all notions or ideas or mental conditioning. The sage of self-knowledge is not enamored of the gains or the pleasure of the entire universe. Cut down the mind with the mind itself – Even a terrible weapon is encountered and destroyed by a more powerful weapon, tranquillise the mind with the help of the mind itself. Forever abandon every form of mental agitation. Remain at peace within yourself like a tree freed from the disturbance caused by monkeys. Mind is but a product of ignorance; when ignorance wears out, then the mind wears out, too. O mind, I abandon you who are the source of sorrow. Hence, if actions are performed spontaneously without mental conditioning, their experience will be pure and free from memories of past happiness or unhappiness. When the mind has ceased to be because of the total absence of the notions of material existence, consciousness exists in its own nature as consciousness. that is known as pure being. When consciousness devoid of notions of objectivity merges in itself losing its separate identity, as it were, it is pure being. Mind & Self - In truth, there is no mind, no intelligence, no embodied being: the self alone exists at all times. Because it is extremely subtle it seems not to exist, though it exists. O mind: your intelligence is derived from infinite consciousness, why do you grieve? That is omnipresent, that is the all: when you realise it, you become the all. O mind, you are neither the doer nor the experiencer. O mind, you are the support of all our hopes and desires; when you cease to be, all these hopes and desire cease. One whose consciousness is extroverted experiences pleasure and pain; on the other hand, the yogi whose vision is introverted does not entertain ideas of pain and pleasure. You can punish the body; but you cannot punish the mind nor bring about the least change in it. If the mind is fully saturated with something, whatever happens to the body does not affect the mind. The mind alone is the seed for the body. The individualised consciousness (mind) has in it own manifold potentialities. The pure and infinite consciousness alone thinks of itself as the Jiva and as the mind and then believes itself to be the body. In the mind, the subject is believed to be sentient and the object is said to be inert. Thus, caught in delusion, the Jiva hangs around. In truth, this duality itself is the creation of mind. But when the mind enquires into its own nature, this division disappears. There is realisation of the one infinite consciousness, and one attains great bliss. Enlightened Mind - The characteristic of the enlightened one is purity of mind and absence of craving. He is devoid of confusion and delusion. Samsara has come to an end. And lust, anger, grief, delusion, greed and such disastrous qualities are greatly weakened in him. The pure and equanimous state which is devoid of ego-sense and non-ego-sense, of the real and unreal, and which is free, is known as turiya (the fourth state). It is the state of the liberated sage. It is the unbroken witness consciousness. It is different from the waking and dreaming states which are characterised by inertia and ignorance. When the ego-sense is abandoned, there arises the state of perfect equilibrium in which the turiya manifests itself. Waking, dream and sleep are states of the mind. Inwardly abandon everything; externally engage yourself in the appropriate action. 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 -
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.
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. |
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