THE YOGA VASISTHA
IN
POEM
CHAPTER Six
By Swami Suryadevananda
18. THE STORY OF BHRINGISA
Background
Bhringisa once approached Lord Siva
For a way out of delusion and bondage
Siva gave this advice to Bhringisa
By which he attained total freedom
Give up doubts, resort to moral courage
Be a supreme doer of actions
A supreme enjoyer of delight
And, a supreme renouncer of all
Be a Great Doer
Be free of all doubt and confusion
Do what is appropriate in each situation
Natural action does not depend upon
Whether others consider it right or wrong
Do not be swayed by likes and dislikes
Success, failure, gain, ambition or greed
Remain steady in silence and purity
Unattached, without any selfish motive
Be a witness to all and everything
Do what needs to be done with full heart
Indifferent to how things may turn out
Do the best without any attachment
Act with a mind completely at peace
Steady, without excitement or exultation
Do the best in each situation afresh
In perfect equilibrium all the while you act
Be a Great Enjoyer
Free from hate or any longing
Enjoy what comes along naturally
Without clinging or rejecting
Even while engaged in action
Without experience though experiencing
Witness of world-play though unaffected
With mind balanced in pleasure and pain
These come naturally in the course of life
Free from natural changes that occur
Reactions to change cause confusion
Find joy in misfortune, poverty and calamity
In old age and death too—all natural changes
Be non-violent and an abode of virtue
Enjoy sweet and bitter with equal relish
Avoid completely all arbitrary distinctions
Enjoy each moment as it comes naturally
Be a Great Renouncer
Banish from your mind all concepts
Ideas of what is right and wrong too
What is considered pain and pleasure
Desires, doubts and all convictions too
See falsity in the experience of pain
By realizing that you are not the body
Abandon completely from the heart
The idea of world-appearance as reality
Vasistha's Comments
Thus did Siva instruct Bhringisa
Who then became enlightened
Adopt this very attitude yourself
And transcend sorrow completely
19. THE STORY OF IKSVAKU
When the Ego-Sense Dissolves
When the ego-sense dissolves in the mind
Such a mind is free of greed and delusion
No provocation can shake the virtue
Of he who delights in the true welfare of all
Conditioning and tendencies are undone
Anger does not surge uncontrollably
Desires just do not reside within
The senses function in perfect balance
Pleasure and pain come and go
Without disturbing the inner storefront
The heart regards these as insignificant
And rests in peace and equanimity
All these virtues reside naturally in him
Effortlessly he glides through all action
Responding to situations best as they come
Without personal agenda, confusion or pain
He who ignores self-knowledge's path
Which is within reach of all, in every condition
Abandons his highest good and supreme peace
Choosing to continue in samsara's wheel
Iksvaku, your Ancestor
Your own ancestor, the king Iksvaku
Pondered deeply while ruling as king
The way out of suffering once and for all
And sought instruction from his father
Manu's Instructions
His wise father, having attained the supreme
Instructed him thus: listen attentively
"What you see here does not exist
Beyond the senses, nothing is seen
The eternal and infinite self alone exists
The universe you see reflects within it
Because energy is inherent in consciousness
Everything appears alive and most real
There is neither bondage nor liberation
One infinite consciousness alone exists
Abandon notions of bondage and liberation
Abide in the self and rest in peace
The actions of one of self-knowledge
Are non-volitional, never motivated
Hence he is free of their merit
Beyond praise and censure is he
He is not agitated by others at all
He himself does not agitate anyone
The self isn't attained by rites or rituals
Only by worship of sages who've attained
Vasistha's Insight
Thus instructed Iksvaku was enlightened
You too should adopt such an attitude
The ignorant are dazzled by cheap tricks
Cheap shows put on by two-bit imposters
Psychic ability is not holiness's sign
Only purity of mind and craving's absence
Absence of confusion and delusion
These are real characteristics of the holy
When samsara has come to an end in one
He is free from confusion and delusion
Lust, anger, grief, greed and attachment
These are totally absent in the enlightened
The Lord assumes individuality as jivas
Creation arises in Him spontaneously
Individuals too arise without reason
Individual actions bring bondage, not other
Pleasure and pain come by our choices
Limitations are they in one's understanding
Resulting in actions that are solely individual
Inviting consequences of wrong understanding
Existing notions are the cause of bondage
Absence of all notions is itself liberation
Why do you harbor such painful seeds
Abandon all notions for your own welfare
The ropes of attraction bind the careless
You are free if attraction does not attract
You can still enjoy natural pleasures as they come
Without attraction which craves and binds
Do what has to be done, as it comes
With full heart, mind and energy
Avoid all personal interests—poisons all
Bringing untold suffering and increased delusion
All notions exist in the mind
Conquer the mind by the mind
Purify the mind by the mind
Destroy the mind by the mind
A washerman washes dirt with dirt
A thorn is removed by another thorn
Poison is the antidote for poison
Resort to the all—letting go of the small
Resort to pure unmodified consciousness
The supreme reality, the cosmic being
Remain ever firmly established in it
Resolutely and firmly rejecting all else
20. THE HUNTER AND THE DEER
The State of Turiya
That pure and equanimous state
Devoid of ego and non-ego too
Beyond real and unreal as well
Is a free fourth state called turiya
'Tis the state of liberated sages
Unbroken witness consciousness
Different from waking and dream
Both characterized by thought movement
'Tis different from deep sleep too
Characterized by inertia and ignorance
When the ego-sense is fully abandoned
Turiya manifests in that equilibrium
Hear now a story in this regard
It will bring out subtle points very well
If you hear it with rapt attention
You will certainly become enlightened
The Hunter and the Deer
In a certain forest there lived a sage
He shone with extraordinary radiance
A hunter once approached to ask
If he had seen a wounded deer recently
The sage replied to the hunter thus:
"Only holy men dwell in this forest
Our nature is peace, free from ego-sense
Ego-sense being the cause of restlessness
This ego-sense and its activating mind
Have come to a rest in us forest sages
We do not know what you're alluding to
In us, objects as such just do not exist"
Vasistha's Insight
The hunter could not understand at all
What the radiant sage was referring to
He went his way nodding his head
The sage was firmly established in turiya
There is naught but this glorious state
Turiya, unmodified consciousness alone exists
Waking, dream and sleep are in the mind
When they cease—the mind too ceases to be
The pure state that is—continues to be
This glorious state the yogis try to reach
This is the conclusion of all scriptures
Brahman alone exists—there is naught else
Some call it void, some consciousness
Others still call it the supreme Lord
Arguing foolishly among themselves
Abandon all these notions completely
Rest in nirvana without thought movement
With mind greatly weakened and at peace
The inner intelligence now fully awakened
Abide in the self, the eternal and infinite
Inwardly abandon, relinquish everything
Externally engage yourself in right action
The mind is happiness and unhappiness
Not objects, people or any conditions
Remain eternally aware of the mind
Unaffected by attraction and repulsion
By just this much self-effort you'll achieve
Freedom from samsara's grip completely
Be unaware of pleasure and pain too
And even that which lies in between
You'll rise beyond sorrow and limitation
This self-effort will take you to the infinite
21. THE SEVEN STATES OF YOGA
Background
Some accept world-appearance as reality
They bind themselves by attraction
Others who question world-appearance
Strive to know the truth by direct experience
The latter are seekers, they seek the truth
Not answers, explanations or vain theories
Dispassion naturally arises in seekers
As they seek truth, not passing pleasures
Truth is enduring, never at the mercy of change
But passing pleasures ever are
The seeker finds strength in the changeless
Those after pleasure must stay in pursuit
The First State of Yoga
When one is disinterested in passing pleasures
Seeing the defects in pursuing the sought
One faces the unchanging with all being
The seed of inner change flowers into dispassion
One is afraid to sin or cause anyone hurt
Knowing truth deep in heart—'one alone is'
He has set foot on the first state of yoga
And is devoted to the service of holy ones
With scriptures he engages in self-study
One thought fills his mind at all times
"Just how to cross samsara's ocean"
He alone is a seeker, others are still selfish
The Second State of Yoga
Inquiry's beginning heralds the second state
He now resorts to the company of holy ones
He seeks to understand the way, the path
The means of yoga for the other shore
He knows well what is to be done
And also knows what is not to be done
The blossoming of this inner clarity
Leaves no doubt about any decision
If there is still faltering in decision
Understand wisdom has not as yet dawned
Intellectual understanding is but ignorance
Concepts are impotent to empower change
He earnestly learns the yoga way
To discover the underlying unity
Sincere, humble, with unwavering dedication—
Inner flowering has
begun
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to H H Sri Swami
Suryadevananda ji and H H Sri Swami Venkatesananda ji for the
collection)
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