The Yoga Vasishta in Poem (Chapter Five) -9

THE YOGA VASISTHA

IN POEM

CHAPTER FIVE

By Swami Suryadevananda

Vasistha: On Sages

A sage is one who has realized the truth

While still living—right here in this world

The secret’s to see all without any craving

Without hopes and expectations of any kind  

He does not seek things or conditions at all

For his heart has withdrawn into itself

Hopes and memory have no grip on him

He lives in the present in perfect equilibrium  

His actions are natural—non-volitional

He is unattached to anyone or anything

His behavior may appear childish or even harsh

The attitude of others determines this

He appears devout to the devout

Harsh to the harsh he does appear

He appears as a child among children

Sorrowing he appears among the suffering

Never elated when efforts bear fruit

Never dejected when they do not

He knows infinite consciousness does everything

He is never surprised by turns of events

He knows beings are born and they will die

He never gives way to grief over this

He knows the world arises in his own vision

Even as dreams appear in one's own mind

Justification, pity and joy he’s abandoned

Concepts of pleasure and pain he has dropped

In him the desirable and undesirable don’t exist

When all notions cease—mind's errors cease too

When a firebrand swings, a circle of light appears

An illusion just like the world appearance

Appearing due to a vibration of consciousness

Vibration and consciousness being inseparable

Vasistha: Many Ways

Mind and movement of thought are inseparable

The cessation of one is cessation of both

This can be achieved by the yoga path

Or by direct realization—wisdom's path

The body has energy channels or nadis

In which circulate energy known as prana

Indistinguishably united with the mind it is

Consciousness tends to think due to prana

Movement of prana gives rise to thought

Movement of thought moves the prana

A mutually dependent cycle they form

Like waves and currents in the water

Some say mind is caused by pranic movement

And prana restrained is mind restrained

When thought moves not within the mind

World-appearance, its effect, ceases to be

Vasistha: The Yoga Way

The movement of prana is also arrested

By effortless breathing without any strain

Or repetition of the sacred mantra Om

And experience of its true meaning

Or by exhaling the breath, gently and slowly

It must leave the body quite effortlessly

Then retain, just as bringing to a standstill

You will notice thought too is arrested

Or by closing the posterior nares by tongue's tip

And moving prana to the crown of the head

Or by holding consciousness just outside

Twelve inches away from the tip of the nose

Or directing prana into the forehead

Through the palate and the upper aperture

Fixing the prana at eyebrow's center

Eyes turned towards the middle—this arrests thought

Control prana by any of these practices

Gradually it will come under control

Prana controlled—the mind is controlled

It will become quiet and stable for meditation

Vasistha: The Wisdom Way

The movement of prana can be arrested

When hopes and desires come to an end

Through earnest practice of the teachings

From the scriptures, sages and masters

Dispassion arises when one is sincere

And sincerely practices wisdom-teachings

Insight gained by others' realization

Practice makes the experience their own

Dedication to truth is dispassion's dawn

Requisite for meditation and inquiry

The discipline throws light on the path

The way is seen as one treads vigilantly

By regular meditation one discovers

Cosmic energy or shakti's wonder

One sees all forms that do appear

Are but her play only within consciousness

Only when cosmic energy or shakti

Merges again with consciousness

That meditation can take one deeper within

And the fullness of Brahman be realized

Vasistha: The Heart-Center

Mental conditioning can completely cease

If the prana is held in the heart-center

For a long time with protracted practice

As this leads to pranic and mental arrest

The physical heart is just an organ

Its concern is with the physical body

The heart we are referring to in heart-center

Is of the nature of pure consciousness

This heart is not just in the body

It is inside, outside, neither in nor out

In it the entire universe is reflected

It is the treasure house of all wealth

Consciousness alone is the heart of all

It is the substratum, source and sustainer

With the mind free of conditioning

It gathers in the heart—prana is restrained

Vasistha: Using a Focus Point

Any focus point can be used as an aid

To restrain prana by centering attention

Eyebrow center, palate or crown of head

Or twelve inches from the tip of the nose

Concentration may appear to be distracting

It is helpful in going beyond distractions

An undistracted mind is free of sorrow

It becomes the source of joy and happiness

Restraining attention—restrains prana

Then seeking self-knowledge alone remains

World-appearance does not oppose liberation

Liberation is to be had while living here

Vasistha: Practice is Essential

The peace resulting from true yoga practice

Allows one the right vision of the truth

To see the supreme self as the self of all

To see the infinite self in all and as all

Our erroneous vision is the root of sorrow

It brings rebirth, more suffering and grief

We still cling to and nourish this deadly serpent

And cry for relief when it spews its venom

Subject-object relationships don’t exist

Pure, undivided consciousness alone is

All relationships presuppose division

Melting in non-division is liberation

The sage is firmly established in the self

Desires and pleasures do not bind him

He sees all people, things and conditions

As his very self and rests in perfect equilibrium

One who engages in unrelenting self-inquiry

Is not tempted or swayed by distractions

Though his senses function quite normally

They are not wrongly wired to conditioning

Vasistha Closing Thoughts

O eyes, let all objects rise and fall

They are but changing appearances

Don’t gaze long or linger on them

As this gives false value and brings grief

O mind, be the onlooker that you truly are

Countless scenes are seen by the eyes

Why do you get involved in them, O mind

The senses and objects have their own dance

Repeated thinking on imagined relationships

Has enlivened such imagination into reality

These clouds of ignorance must be destroyed

Through unbroken vigilance and self-inquiry

All suffering and grief experienced

Are products of the undisciplined mind

Slay this ghost that does not even exist

By realizing self as the only existence

Earlier I too was tormented by the mind

But have laid this ghost to final rest

I laugh now at my earlier foolishness

The mind is dead—all anxieties are dead as well

The ego-sense is dead beyond resurrection

Brought about through direct inquiry

I am free now and most happy too

You can also attain this very same state

The clouds of doubt and agitation have cleared

I am what I am without any craving at all

When the mind ceases—craving ceases too

You awaken to the grand state of wakefulness

You have to discover this for your own self

That one truth alone exists—not diversity

Only then will you know true happiness

There will be no further need for inquiry

I am the subtle eternal self—omnipresent

I have reached the state unreflected in anything

Beginningless, endless and utterly pure

The mind has merged into infinite consciousness

Knowing by direct experience that I am the all

There is supreme peace beyond comprehension

Let the senses function with objects naturally

I remain unmoved in utter equanimity

I remained in foolishness for a long time

Then inquired for a long time and realized

I am the unconditioned being—through inquiry

Now inquiry is useless—inner silence reigns

I remain in the self—in this inner silence

Unending abode of eternal peace

You too can attain this very state

If only you are sincere and make every effort

1. THE STORY OF VEETAHAVYA

Background

In sage Veetahavya arose burning dispassion

He became disenchanted with worldliness

He saw perverse notions as illusion's seeds

And the suffering that resulted from delusion

Immediately he sat in deep meditation

Firm like a mountain peak—immovable

Withdrawing his senses into their source

Turning the mind on itself in inquiry

Veetahavya's Contemplation

Most unsteady and fickle is this mind

Agitated even when it is introverted

Bouncing back to the senses again and again

Like an unintelligent ball—most shamelessly

Nourished by the senses—it is loyal to them

It continues to grasp what brings great pain

Repelling all attempts to see simple truths

It vehemently opposes change in any way

The very things that cause suffering

Seem delightful to it again and again

Like a monkey does this mind jump

From branch to branch of sorrow's tree

Veetahavya's Inquiry

These five senses are the mind's channels

I see how easily they get totally distracted

Blindly and in vain passionate excitement

They pursue pleasures though they deliver pain

Though inert and insentient are sense channels

The mind rushes through them for experience

I see very clearly that you are inert, O senses

I am consciousness, the real doer—not the mind

The mind functions in consciousness's light

Even as you, O senses, do your functions

Do not entertain false notions of independence

You are neither intelligent nor self-existent

There is nothing at all but consciousness

Just what are you, O most wicked mind

How do you assume doership and experiencing

You are not only deluded but delusion itself

You are neither doer nor experiencer

You are unrelated to anything in any way

Even the notion you feel—'I am alive'

Is totally false as you just don’t exist

I am pure consciousness—you are the self

How then does sorrow arise in you

Realize that you are indeed the unlimited

You are pure unconditioned consciousness

Let me gently bring home this point again

Your intelligence is dependent on consciousness

Don't vainly assume doership or experiencing

Live in the realization—consciousness alone is

During harvesting the sickle seems to be doer

But the energy and intelligence is the farmer’s

So also with the sword that seems to cut

But the swordsman's energy and intelligence does

O mind, you too are inert in the same way

Energy and intelligence is not yours at all

All is derived from infinite consciousness

It is the doer and experiencer—self of all

Despite many attempts to enlighten you

That the self is the only existence there is

You insist on considering yourself separate

And suffer unnecessarily in your smallness

Realize the truth and be free at once

From the journey of suffering you endure

You not only suffer greatly your own self

But exert to make others suffer as well

O fool—you are infinite consciousness

Why do wallow in self-created filth

Realize the omnipresent is the only reality

Your existence is only an appearance in it

When you realize consciousness is the all

You become the all—immediately

Forget this delusion of identification

With the body-appearance and personality

If you are the self—self exists, not you

If you are inert—you have no existence

So abandon your self-imposed delusion

And realize that infinite self alone exists

You are neither the doer nor the experiencer

You've been used as a channel in instruction

The channel is not at all the reality

Like the sickle and sword earlier mentioned

Why do you grieve and suffer unnecessarily

The self is all-pervading and omnipotent

Self needs not your grief, care or worry

Self alone is—just what's to be feared at all

Just as fragrance is related to the flower

So also your relationship to the self

There is no relationship in any way

As relationship can only exist between two

You are ever agitated—self is ever at peace

There can thus never be any relationship at all

However, if you enter the state of equanimity

You'll be established in infinite consciousness

O senses, I feel your darkness has dispelled

By the light of all my admonitions

O mind, do you see the error of your ways

Or do you wish to continue loitering shamelessly

Why don't you see how desires and greed

Have reduced you to a state of beggary

All good qualities have been eroded

By your lust and appetite—death now awaits

O mind when you cease to be—goodness blossoms

There's no more doubt—peace and purity reign

Doubt, error, worry, fear and anxiety too

Are all abandoned when you cease to be

Light shines brightly when darkness is dispelled

Oceans are calm when winds stop agitating

Self-knowledge reveals itself without you

Infinite consciousness experiences itself only

As long as there are even roots of desires

There cannot be peace, happiness or calm

These roots sprout and suck all nourishment

For their own survival—most selfishly

Desires seek appeasement for themselves

They care not one bit for anyone or anything

Appeasement is fuel for more appeasement

Desires are vicious winds fanning delusion's fires

He who finds inner strength to resist this trap

Finds more strength as he sincerely persists

Soon he is disentangled from mind's tyranny

And experiences the bliss of self-realization

You are support for desires and hopes, O mind

When either ceases—the other perishes too

You can now choose to be one with reality

Or cease to be an independent entity

In choosing to be one with reality

You act in wisdom—choosing happiness

Or you will perish slowly by malnutrition

And realize you are indeed a non-entity

If you pick wisely that you are consciousness

Who will wish for your non-existence

But if you pick foolishly that you exist, O mind

Your delusion will wear you out painfully

You came into being in ignorance and delusion

By inquiry into your nature you now cease to be

You exist as long as one does not inquire

Into the truth of your non-existence

When the spirit of inquiry is aflame within

Wisdom rises and you, O mind, cease to be

Hence, I salute wisdom—goodbye, O mind

You have now lost all false limitation

You exist now as infinite consciousness

Now that you've lost all your conditioning

In spite of yourself—inquiry arose in you

This is itself the attainment of bliss

There is indeed no mind, O mind

Self alone exists—there is naught else

I am that self—infinite consciousness

My kinetic state appears as the universe

Vasistha's Insight

Veetahavya remained in total quiescence

For three hundred years as if but a day

The body which was reflected in consciousness

Was perfected, protected by it as well

He became one with infinite consciousness

He experienced the experiences of all

Liberated sages exist in all purity and peace

As perfection—Brahman the infinite

Vasistha: Transcend the Unreal

Veetajavya's creations and this, here now

Are both pure infinite consciousness

Appearances are mind's delusions

Mind is itself a trick in consciousness

Realizing the infinite consciousness

The sage knew the play of appearances

He saw all rise and fall in his own self

His body and all other forms as well

He entered into his subtle body

And then into the sun's orbit

Descending then to his physical body

Reviving it though it had earlier withered

Again the sage sat in deep meditation

And negated all imagination from the mind

All notions were discarded and abandoned

He was fully established in total equanimity

His mind was most blissful and balanced

He addressed his mind and offered it praise

Encouraging it to remain just like that

All the time and in all conditions

To the senses he said with firm resolve

"The self does not belong to you at all

Nor do you belong to the self in any way

May you all perish—your cravings have ceased

The error of your existence arose in the self

In the light of wisdom they've ceased to be

Error remains error till knowledge dawns

Then reality alone shines ever radiantly

Established in wisdom he lived a long time

Free of ignorance and resulting errors

His heart free of attraction and aversion

Through all experiences that came unsought

To ensure embodiment would be again

He entered deep meditation once more

And sequentially separated all from self

As he intoned the sacred mantra Om

All mind's earlier desires were utterly still

Well-grounded in non-dual consciousness

Continuing to intone the sacred mantra Om

He pierced through the darkness of ignorance

He renounced all visions and experiences

Had along the way in inner journey

Transcending both darkness and light too

And remained in pure infinite consciousness

He then abandoned objectivity of consciousness

Then even the slightest movements within

Negating all by—'not-this, not-this'

He became that—beyond description

Becoming one with infinite consciousness

His body decomposed back to the elements

This story just narrated of sage Veetahavya

Was born of direct perception and experience

Meditate on what has been said ceaselessly

And attain to liberation by your own effort

Liberation is attained by self-knowledge alone

Only then will you go beyond all sorrow

What has been described as Veetahavya

Is notion in the mind—just like you or me

The senses and world too are but the mind

Just what else can the world be, O Rama

Vasistha: Real Sages

Sages are established in self-knowledge

They don't perform tricks or conjure things

Only those devoid of self-knowledge

Feel the need to deceive by impressing

The sage is utterly content in himself

He does not pursue or showcase powers

He does not lead a lavish, extravagant life

Those who do such are full of ignorance

Anyone can attain by some practices

Power to manifest things as if magic

These are gained by those full of desires

The sage of self-knowledge avoids them

 

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

(Continued...)  

( My humble salutations to H H Sri Swami  Suryadevananda ji and H H Sri Swami Venkatesananda ji for the collection)