Creation - the Yoga Vasistha

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 Yoga Vasistha presents a profound and radical view on creation, asserting that all creation, including the diversity of creatures, is ultimately a projection of the Cosmic Mind (Brahman) or, from the individual perspective, one's own mind.
Nirakar Brahman or almighty is the cause of entire creation. As gold remains gold in all forms of its jewellery, the entire inanimate and animate world is non-different from Brahman though names & forms are seen as different. Nirakar Brahman is also called as Cosmic Mind as the entire world is the projection of the cosmic mind. On similar lines, entire world manifests in our mind. If mind is still, no world exists. Pairs of opposites - fame-disgrace, loss-gain, life-death, happiness-sorrow all manifest in mind. If mind don’t bother them, nothing is there.
 
Birth and death are mental concepts; they have nothing to do with the self. Only that which entertains notions of the ego-sense can be grasped and bound. The self is free from the ego-sense and therefore beyond being and non-being.
 
We have our own world: one man’s world is not experienced by another person. People sleeping in one house have different dreams in which they experience life in different worlds, as it were: even so. Some people have different worlds in the same space, while others may not have. All this is but the mysterious and efficient work of the infinite consciousness.
 
Advaita (Non-Dualism) & Dvaita (Dualism) -
Dualism presupposes unity, and non-dualism suggest dualism. Only when the creation is known to be utterly non-existent the Lord is realised.
 
Creation -
From the infinite, the infinite emerges and exists in it as the infinite; hence the world has never really been created – it is the same as that from which it emerges. The creation of the world has no cause, and therefore it has had no beginning. It does not exist even now; how can it reach destruction?
This universe is in fact the eternal effulgent infinite consciousness which generates within itself the know able (which would be known as that which is to be) with an idea concerning its form (which is space), and with an enquiry concerning itself. Thus, is space brought into being. When, after considerable time the consciousness of creation becomes strong in the infinite being, the future Jiva (living cosmic soul -also known as Hiranyagarbha) arises within it: and the infinite abandons, as it were, its supreme state, to limit itself as the Jiva. However, even than Brahman remains infinite, and there is no real transformation into any of these.
The Jiva that arose in the beginning of ‘creation’ have no karma because they are pure consciousness. It is only when one becomes firmly rooted in the notion of this world-appearance as the reality, that the notion of karma arises. Then the Jiva roam here, bound by their karma.
When the senses are engaged in the experience of the external world, then the field of internal notions in vague and unclear. The aggregate of the senses of hearing, touch (skin), sight (eyes), smell (nose), taste (tongue) and desire is known as Jiva, which is of the nature of pure consciousness endowed with life-force. This Jiva exists, therefore, in everything everywhere as everything, and hence he experiences everything everywhere.
 
Dharma (virtue), adharma (sin), Vasana (latent tendency), the active self and Jiva – all these are synonyms which are notions with no corresponding reality. The one pure consciousness appears as the diverse dream-objects in a dream. All these millions of objects which appear in the dream become one again in deep sleep. Similarly, when this dream-world appears in the infinite consciousness that itself is called creation; when this itself enters into the equivalent of the deep sleep state, it is known as cosmic dissolution.
This creation was but a mirror-reflection in the indivisible consciousness in the beginning and hence it was non-different from that consciousness. There is no other external factor known as samskara (popularly translated into ‘latent impressions of past experiences and actions).

When the experience of a thousand things arises in consciousness, it is known as creation; and when the experience of the thousand things ceases in consciousness, that is known as the cosmic dissolution. Thus, the pure consciousness (Chit Akasa) brings into being this diversity with all its names and forms without ever abandoning its indivisibility, just as you create a world in your dream.
You and I consciousness, the entire world is consciousness. This creation arises without desire and without psychological causation.
In space the faculty of sound manifests itself. Then comes into being egotism which is vital to further creation. By similar exercise of the creative-thought, air is created. There are fourteen planes of existence, each with its own type of inhabitants. All these are the manifestations of the creative-thought of consciousness.
 
Brahman & Creation –
Brahman or the supreme self is one without a cause and without an effect, for it has no reason (motivation or need) to do anything, to create anything. It is therefore, not the doer, neither is there any action, instrument nor seed for such activity. Hence it is not the cause for this creation or the creator. Hence, there is no such thing as creation. You are therefore neither the doer of actions nor the enjoyer of the experiences. You are the all, ever at peace, unborn and perfect. Since there is no cause (reason for creation), there is no effect known as the world; the world appearance is but delusion.
When thus the objectivity of the world is seen to be unreal, what is experience and of what? When there is no experience, there is no experiencer (the ego-sense). Thus, you are pure and liberated. Bondage and liberation are mere words.
The self is neither the doer, nor the action nor the instrument. It is the truth. It is the eternal consciousness. it is self-knowledge. there is no creation in the supreme Brahman.

1. The creation exists in Brahman just as the sprout exists in the seed, liquidity in water, sweetness in milk and pungency in capsicum; but in ignorance it appears to be different from and independent of Brahman. There is no cause for the world’s existence as a pure reflection in the absolute brahman.
2. Nothing has ever been created anywhere at any time; and nothing comes to an end either. The absolute Brahman is all, the supreme peace, unborn, pure consciousness and permanent.
3. One cannot say that this universe which is reflected in the infinite consciousness is real or unreal. Again, just as space is unaffected by the clouds that floats in it, this infinite consciousness is unaffected and untouched by the universe that appears in it. This consciousness is not created, nor does it perish; it is eternal and the world appears is superimposed on it, even as waves in relation to the ocean.
4. This entire creation of the world-appearance is but an accidental manifestation of the intention of the omnipotent conscious energy (chit-shakti) of the infinite consciousness or Brahman.
5. Among many species of living beings only human beings are fit to be instructed into the nature of truth.
6. The manifestation of the omnipotence of the infinite consciousness enters into an alliance with time, space and causation, which are indispensable to the manifestation. Thence arose the infinite names and forms. But all these apparent manifestations are in reality non-different from the infinite consciousness.
7. The incidental manifestation of the power of the infinite consciousness appears as the millions of species of beings in this universe. Just as in the universe there are countless beings of various species, in other universe, too, there are similar beings, with different bodies suited to those universes.
8. Knowing that the entire universe, including one’s wealth, wife, son, etc. are nothing but the creation of the jugglery of the mind, one does not grieve when they are lost, nor does one feel elated when they prosper. If an unreal appearance has vanished, what does one lose? It may be proper to feel unhappy when they prosper; for such prosperity may be intensify one’s ignorance.
9. After the creation of the world appearance the living beings that arose in the ocean of infinite consciousness like waves and ripples entered into the physical space; and when the elements like air, fire, water and earth were evolved they because became involved in them. Then the cycle of birth and death began to revolve.
10. The Jiva comes down. As it were, riding the rays of the moon, and enter into the plants and herbs. They became the fruits, as it were, of those plants. Then they are ready to incarnate. The subtle notions, ideas and mental conditioning are dormant even in the unborn being; the veil that covered them is removed.
11. In reality, consciousness cannot be conditioned. It is unlimited and subtler than the subtlest atom, hence beyond the influence of mental conditioning. The mind rests in the ego-sense and the reflected consciousness in the senses; and from this there arises the illusion of self-limitation of consciousness.

 
Creation of Physical & Spiritual Bodies –
In the creator there is no memory of the past since he had no previous karma. He does not even have a physical body; the unborn is the spiritual substance. Mortal beings have two bodies, as it were, one physical and the other spiritual, but the unborn creator has only spiritual, since the cause that gives rise to the physical does not exist.
A throbbing arose in the creator whose thought had spread out as the universe. This throb brought into being the subtle body (made of intelligence) of all beings. The creator is also of a dual nature – consciousness and thought.
The Creator is spiritual. The creation is causeless. Hence, it is essentially spiritual even as the supreme being. Brahman is. The materiality of the creation is illusionary, projection of one’s mind – imaginary.
 
Spiritual Body, Thought & Mind -
Thought is mind. The self that is clothed in the spiritual body is known as mind; it is that which brings the material or physical body into existence. Ignorance, samsara, mind-stuff, bondage, impurity, darkness and inertia are all synonyms.
As radiant women decked with pearls and other jewels are but the creation of one’s own delusion; they are ripples that arise in the ocean of lust. It is on account of delusion that one seeks wealth and prosperity – which are sweet in the beginning to the dull-witted, which are the cause of the pairs of opposites (happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and pain, success and failure) in the middle, and which comes to an end very soon. From the pursuit of prosperity arise countless branches of pleasure and numberless branches of happiness.
A notion entertained by consciousness appears as the body. It has a corresponding subtle body (ativahika, which is also known as puryastaka) composed of mind, intellect, ego-sense and the five elements. The self is formless, but the puryastaka roams in this creation in sentient and insentient bodies until it purifies itself, lives as if in deep sleep and attain liberation. The subtle body exists all the time, during dreams and during sleep. It continuous to exist in insentient bodies (like inanimate objects) as if it were inert and insentient, its dream-state is the experience of this creation, its waking state is truly the transcendental (turiya) consciousness. Beyond that is Brahman which turiya-atita (beyond turiya). In every atom of existence there is naught else than the supreme being; wherever the world is seen, that is but an illusory world appearance. This illusion, and therefore bondage, is sustained by psychological conditioning. Such conditioning is bondage and its abandonment is freedom. Dense and heavy conditioning is existence as inert objects, middling conditioning as animal and thin conditioning as humans. But enough of the perception of division: the whole universe is but the modification of the energy of infinite consciousness.
The wrong notion that this world is real has become deep rooted on account of persistent wrong thinking. However, it can be removed that very day on which you resort to the company of holy men and to study of the holy scriptures.