Liberation from Sorrows – 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.

​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 -

1. He who engages himself in righteous actions and avoids evil is adorable.
2. This adorable holiness is sprouted in the second and attains fruition in the third. By diligent practice of the first three states of yoga, ignorance is destroyed and the light of wisdom arises in one’s heart.  Non-thinking is known as Yoga.
3. In the fourth state of yoga, the yogi beholds the one in all with a mind that is free from division. Division has ceased and unity is steady, and therefore, they behold the world as if it were a dream.
4. In the fifth state, only undivided reality remains. Hence it is likened to deep sleep. He has reached this state, though he is engaged in diverse external activities, rests in himself.
5. After thus proceeding from one state to another, he reaches the sixth which is the turiya. In this he realises, “I am neither real nor unreal, nor even egoless. I am beyond duality and unity. All doubts are at rest.
6. They who reach the seventh state are known as disembodied liberated beings.’ Their state is not for words to describe.

They who practise these seven states do not come to grief. Desire is that elephant. It roams in the forest known as body. It is maddened by sensuousness. It is restless with conditioning and tendencies (Vasana). This elephant destroys everybody in this world. Recognition of ‘objects’ gives rise to desire. Non-recognition of objects ends desire. When desire ends, the Jiva drops its self-limitation.
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 -

1. Contentment is another gate-keeper to liberation. As long as one is not satisfied in the self, he will be subjected to sorrow.
2. Satsanga (company of wise, holy and enlightened persons) is yet another gatekeeper to liberation. Satsanga enlarges one’s intelligence, destroys one’s ignorance and one’s psychological distress. Satsanga is indeed superior to all other forms of religious practices like charity, austerity, pilgrimage and the performance of religious rites.
3. By the persistent practice of such meditation, even the body will become one of pure consciousness and subtle.

Liberated Soul -
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.