THE YOGA VASISTHA
IN
POEM
CHAPTER Three
By Swami Suryadevananda
14. THE STORY OF THE GREAT
FOREST
There was a great forest—millions of miles
Just like the space within a single atom
In it lived one person with thousands of limbs
Forever restless was his nature
He beat himself with his own mace
And ran away in panic immediately
Afraid of the beating he gave himself
And jumped into a blind well in fear
He repeated this act again and again
Now beating himself with his own mace
Then running into a banana grove
Weeping and crying aloud in fear
Witnessing this I restrained him
With the power of my own will
Asking him about his identity
Sorely distressed was he in return
Calling me enemy he wept aloud
After crying he then laughed
Next he did the strangest thing
He abandoned his body limb by limb
Immediately I saw another like him
Doing the same thing in the forest
On inquiry I was abused by some
Others held me in great contempt
Some refused to talk to me at all
Some refused to come out of the well
Others went deeper into the forest
Few listened and were enlightened
This great forest is not far away
Nor is the strange man we talked about
The world itself is the great forest
Seen as a void in the light of inquiry
The light of inquiry in the story
Is the 'I' who attempted to reason
Those accepting attain enlightenment
Those rejecting continue to suffer
The thousand-limbed person is the mind
With all its countless manifestations
Punishing its own self constantly
By its very own latent tendencies
In the world it wanders restlessly
The blind well is the hell it endures
The banana grove is the heaven
The dense forest is its worldly life
Mind’s attachments are its thorns
Which hurt him all the time
Still it wanders experiencing
Hell and heaven within itself
When wisdom somehow shines on him
He rejects it considering it enemy
While still wailing and weeping for help
Drifting without proper understanding
Sometimes he does experience
An improper awakening of sorts
He renounces without understanding
Increasing the sorrow he already endures
Renunciation must be based on
Wisdom born of inquiry
And fullness of understanding
So it will lead to supreme bliss
The limbs he seemed to abandon
Were tendencies attempted to abandon
Which when there is no real understanding
Ever remain—never really getting abandoned
Great is the hurt in ignorance's play
Great panic darting from shore to sea
When wisdom dawns based on inquiry
Understanding calms the mind's passion
The absolute Brahman is omnipresent
His energy pervades and sustains all
Instruments of action, doer and deed
Birth, death, existence—all is Brahman
Duality and its resulting offspring
Such as delusion, craving and attachment
All these have no real existence
All notions the mind experiences
Listen attentively to this legend
It illustrates this point best
Don't get wrapped up in the story
Look at what it points to
15. THE STORY OF THE THREE NON-EXISTENT PRINCES
The Story
A nanny once narrated this story
To a young boy who listened attentively
Of a city of yore which did not exist
In which there were three brave princes
Of three princes two were unborn
The third had not been conceived
Since all their relatives died somehow
They left the city to go elsewhere
The heat of the sun was unbearable
Hot sands burnt their feet severely
They hastened to the shade of three trees
Two did not exist, the third was unplanted
In the cool shade they rested awhile
Eating the fruits they felt refreshed
Then proceeded to the bank of three rivers
Two were dry, third had no water
The princes had a most refreshing bath
Quenched their thirst and continued on
Towards a huge city yet to be built
Entering, they beheld three palaces
Two palaces has not been built
No walls did the third one have
They found all three most beautiful
And joyfully entered them
Gold plates they found in the palaces
Two broken, the third had been pulverized
Using the third pulverized plate
They cooked 99 minus 100 grains of rice
Three holy men they invited to dine
Two were bodiless, the third had no mouth
After they ate, the princes ate the rest
Greatly pleased by the experience
They lived there for a long time
In peace and joy in the palaces
Two of which had not been built
The third was without any walls
"Remember this well and you will be wise"
Said the nanny to the little boy
Who was thrilled to hear such story
Really creation is no more than this
Vasistha's Insight
The world we see is a notion too
Not different at all from the story
In consciousness once did it arise
An idea of creation—this is what it is
This world is nothing but an idea
All that you see are ideas too
Reject the errors—dirt in the mind
Be free of ideas—abide in truth peacefully
The Fire of Self-Inquiry
The wise are not deluded by ideas
Fools succumb to ideas—get deluded
Egotism is an idea based on association
Of the self with bodies and physical elements
When infinite consciousness alone exists
Egotism is just like water in a mirage
Abandon your baseless imperfect vision
Rest in perfect vision grounded in truth
Inquire directly into the nature of truth
Abandon falsehood knowing for yourself
You are free just now—why for do you grieve
Who can bind the infinite and just how?
Brahman is divisionless existence
What is bondage or liberation?
Confusion of appearance with reality
Sorrow and pain is based on this ignorance
Let the body fall, rise or go somewhere
How are you affected by any of this?
Know the relationship of self and body
To be like that of the wind and clouds
Wind is one with space when clouds disperse
Self is not destroyed when the body falls
Mind too remains until it is burnt
In the fire of self-knowledge by realization
Death is a veiling by time and space
Of the ever present deathless self
Abandon all your latent tendencies
And come out of this cage and be free
Hard to destroy latent tendencies
Though they give endless sorrow and grief
Though born of deep-rooted ignorance
The fire of self-inquiry can bring their end
All effort at self-inquiry does purify
The mind's dirt born of ignorance
Seek the Self in order to dissolve the self
'Tis the supreme goal—strive for this
The Mind Spread Out
Manifesting in infinite consciousness
Mind by its nature has spread itself out
It distorts all that appears to be
And lies claim to everything too
Mind creates and destroys the world
All in the blink of an eye
Playing the part of one and all
As an actor playing different roles
It makes the unreal appear as real
Causing confusion, joy and suffering
Asserting its claim on all it sees
And suffering when this is untenable
Just as time with its changing seasons
Is able to bring about change in nature
So also the mind by its power of thought
Makes things appear different though they are not
Time, space and all things the mind controls
Regardless of whether it is big or small
The intensity or dullness of the influenced
'Tis not incapable of doing anything at all
O Rama listen most attentively
To another ancient legend I will narrate
To illustrate further this very point
Listen carefully to the Story of Lavana
16. THE STORY OF LAVANA
The Juggler
Long ago lived a king called Lavana
Who ruled a small kingdom righteously
One day during a session of open court
A juggler appeared and spoke to the king
"Homage to you, O righteous king
May I show you something wonderful?"
Waving some feathers a horse appeared
Which he offered to the king as a gift
"Take a ride on this fine horse, O king
Roam freely to your heart's desire"
The king closed his eyes—sat quietly
All in the court sat silently too
The King Awakens
After some time the king awakened
Trembling in fear and confusion
The ministers tried to calm the king
Who seemed to have had a bad dream
After regaining his composure
The king narrated to his ministers
The experience he just underwent
What he felt the juggler had caused
The King Recounts
"As soon as the juggler waved his feathers
I jumped on the horse as suggested
And rode far beyond the desert
Into a place which was very cold
When I sat to rest my weary self
The horse ran away—leaving me alone
The night was spent in fear and hunger
It seemed a very long journey was undergone
Starving I begged for some food to eat
From a dark girl dressed in black who had some
After much begging she replied
"Only if you promise to marry me"
What to do, survival was at stake
I agreed—and was given food to eat
She then took me to her village
And introduced me to all as her husband
Hideous were all of the tribesmen
Barely appearing human at all
But they welcomed me with respect
Being the husband of one of them
We were married in a hideous ceremony
A member of the primitive tribe I became
My wife gave birth to four children
Each more dreadful than the other one
Years were spent in great agony
I forgot the past and lost my way
Hunting for food and cutting wood
To feed my family each and every day
Things got difficult as time rolled on
I traded in meat to try and survive
Often fighting with others for a share
My body too became black as coal
The mind had also become sinful
The heart had lost all compassion
With nets and traps I caught my prey
Causing untold hardship to animals
Eating rotten food, living in filth
Anger and abusiveness became natural
I felt bound by my own evil tendencies
And wept at my bondage and agony
Thus I lived for a very long time
Things got so difficult for all
People ate anything they could find
Corpses—decaying flesh and dirt as well
I took my family away from there
In hopes that we may find better
Sitting one evening after much travel
My youngest son cried in hunger
Helpless to give him anything at all
I offered him my own flesh to eat
Innocently he consented—asking for some
My world had tumbled within itself
I thought it best to end this suffering
And to end this life itself
Making a fire I entered the flames
I shuddered—found myself here again
The Ministers Speak
O king, the juggler was not a thief
He asked for no money, nothing he took
He must have come to teach a lesson
About this delusive world-appearance
World-appearance is mind's jugglery
Mind itself is a play of consciousness
It deludes the wisest of persons too
There is nothing this mind cannot do
Vasistha's Insight
I know firsthand—I was there in that court
How the mind veils the nature of self
Creating its web of illusory appearances
For peace—the illusion must be destroyed
The impure mind sees a ghost
Where there is nothing put a post
All relationships exist in the mind
Havoc and distress are mind's play too
A mind laden with tendencies
Is called an impure mind
Tendencies are springs for wrong action
Increasing delusion—strengthening tendencies
Mind is the whole world, O Rama
Atmosphere, sky, earth and wind
Mind is great and powerful too
It decided the time of the king's experience
Greatest mystery of all is this, Rama
How the omnipresent is veiled by the mind
Making one confuse it with reality
And be seen as reality—unquestionable
There’s no experience—if mind is elsewhere
Food eaten too is not experienced
Though the most tasty food be eaten as well
Senses are born of the mind—not the other way
Fools think body and mind differ
Body is non-different from mind
In truth it is mind externalized
Salutations to sages who've realized this
Those who've realized this great truth
Are never perturbed by physical conditions
For the switch to convert pleasant to unpleasant
He has discovered—lies within his mind
Just as an actor plays different
roles
Mind creates different states in consciousness
Like the waking and dreaming states
Just as the experiences of king Lavana
Conquest of Mind
Mind experiences what it constructs
Mind is a bundle of thoughts only
Know this by your direct inquiry
Be free of its clutches—then do as you please
He who does not let mind roam about
In objects of pleasure attains mastery
Just as something is tied to a post
The mind too can be tied to reality
With a quiet mind one can meditate
Constantly and without any break
Meditate ceaselessly—'tis your duty
And attain to the supreme being
Victory over the goblin mind
Is had by sincere self-effort
Knowledge is attained by self-inquiry
And abandonment of all desires
If there is sincere proper attitude
This can be attained without struggle
Like a child's attention can be easily diverted
If there be real interest in something new
Abandoning cravings is the sole means
To break the grip of the mind's torment
Woe unto him—unable and unwilling
To do what is for his own highest good
By intense effort is it possible
To gain victory over the mind
When individuality is broken through
There is absorption in infinite consciousness
Abandon reliance on fate or gods
All mental creations of the dull-witted
With self-effort and self-knowledge
Make the mind the no-mind
Let infinite consciousness swallow the mind
Soar high—beyond all and everything
With intelligence united with the supreme
Hold onto the self—which is imperishable
Unagitated is the conquered mind
The world's treasures cannot compare
Self-knowledge by direct self-inquiry
Is what is needed—why is this difficult?
How do you live in daily turmoil
Afraid of death and separation
The feeling of 'I' and 'mine' will dissolve
Only when the mind ceases to be
If you do not attain fearlessness
The mind's cravings will create havoc
Like rapids they will carry you forth
In their restlessness with great intensity
Deprive the mind of its restlessness
It will become 'dead mind' so to say
This is highest penance or tapas
Verification of scriptures and liberation
Like a pendulum the mind oscillates
Between reality and appearance
After it thinks of inert objects repeatedly
It assumes their characteristics—becomes them
The same mind devoted to self-inquiry
Becomes wise—shakes off conditioning
Returns once again to its original nature
Pure indivisible infinite consciousness
Mental conditioning has no reality
Still it arises somehow in the mind
Ignorance is the cause—abandon it
Be wise—renounce mental conditioning
You are not the doer of any action here
Why then do you assume doership?
One alone exists and ever will
What then is this doership and agency?
Inactivity is the other extreme
It does not accomplish a thing
What has to be done—has to be done
Act without doership—abide in the self
Do the actions that are natural to you
Unattached—you will become non-doer
But doing nothing—attached to doing nothing
You become the doer of that nothing
This world is like a jugglery show
Nothing to be gained or given up
Ignorance of self’s nature is the seed
Abandon this grief-giver ruthlessly
It creates delusion, hides self-knowledge
Like it did for the king Lavana
In less than an hour he experienced
Several years of sorrow and much grief
Ignorance lacks any real continuity
Like a river—it flows in rapid succession
Veiling reality again and again
And giving the appearance of reality
When you try to grasp it—nothing is held
Because it has no real substance at all
It acquires strength and firmness
From your constant blind dwelling on it
A rope made of strands gains strength
Blueness of the sky is never challenged
Dream objects seem real in a dream
All due to ignorance or mental conditioning
Ignorance creates great confusion
Between appearance and reality
By becoming aware of its unreality
It is mastered—the mind ceases to be
As darkness disappears with the light
Ignorance disappears with self-knowledge
Without natural urge for self-knowledge
Ignorance will subject you to its tyranny
Natural must be your inner quest
You have to want to know above all
What is reality and what is appearance
How to go beyond this bondage
Mind is self-veiled consciousness
Presenting subject-object in indivisibility
The veil is an idea—an intention too
The mind is a thought born of that
The firm conviction of self-limitation
Blinds the mind and binds it too
Reverse this by unwavering conviction
That everything is the absolute Brahman
Ideas and thoughts are bondage themselves
Their abandonment and absence is liberation
Be free of them—do what is natural to you
Let appearances be—what does it matter?
What was in the beginning—exists now still
The absolute is still the absolute
Contemplate on this deep in your heart
And shake off this ignorance completely
Uproot hopes and all expectations
Using inner strength and intelligence
Hopes, expectations and attachments
Bind you slavishly to mental conditioning
People forget the truth—a great wonder
How do they live in such utter ignorance
Their lives are an invitation to suffering
The hell they weep about is self-created
Give up all mental conditioning, O Rama
Which alone is responsible for sorrow
This ignorance is duality perception's seed
Abandoned—you will attain supreme peace
Rama Speaks After Contemplation
Holy Sage—'tis incredible that non-existence
Creates such havoc—appearing so very real
Pray—kindly explain how this is possible
Why did king Lavana undergo such suffering
Vasistha's Reply
That consciousness is related to the body
Is not really true at all in any way
As in dream—body is the fancy of consciousness
Its own energy gives it the appearance of reality
Consciousness limits itself as it were
The limitation considers itself limited
This is the individual—the jiva
Restless amidst the world appearance
This embodied being, egotism or jiva
Enjoys and suffers the fruits as well
The body or enlightened ones never suffer
The mind alone experiences all suffering
Ignorance, heedlessness and unwisdom
All are nescience—it only does suffer
It is the mind that does everything
It is the mind that suffers all agony
Let me answer your question of king Lavana
And why he underwent such suffering
He was a descendant of Harischandra
He too aspired to be great like him
Lavana's Aspiration
His grandfather did great religious rites
Lavana too aspired to do so in some way
Gathering all that was needed for one
He performed the rite mentally in his garden
Though the rite was done mentally
He was entitled to its fullest fruit
The same mind thinks and also does
The same mind experiences pain and joy
Therefore guide your mind to salvation
Mind alone is the doer of all actions
I was witness in king Lavana's court
And saw the real effects he underwent
I saw through the eye of intuition
The juggler was a messenger of the gods
Out to test the mettle of king Lavana
As he had undertaken a particular rite
Lavana too was performing a rite mentally
The hallucinations he had were the result
Both the rite and the hallucinations
Were experienced by the very same mind
When the same mind is thoroughly purified
All duality will be disposed of completely
Diversity will vanish along with it
As will false notions of 'I' and 'mine'
Equipped with wisdom to ascend
The seven steps to inner perfection
Attain liberation from all bondage
Listen carefully to more on these states
17. STEPS OF IGNORANCE AND STATES OF WISDOM
Seven Descending Steps of Ignorance
Abidance in self-knowledge is liberation
In self-knowledge there is no agitation
Self-knowledge disturbed raises egotism
Distraction, dullness, bondage and suffering
The delusion that veils is sevenfold
First is when mind and jiva exist in name only
Second, when notion of 'I' and 'this' appear as real
Third, when strengthened, they are experienced
Fourth is when the mind is filled with desires
Fifth is when the unreal appears as real
Sixth is living in the past as though the present
Seventh is when one is trapped in dullness
Seven Ascending States of Wisdom
Hear now the seven states of wisdom
First is when pure wish or intention arise
Second is the spirit of inquiry into truth
Third is when the mind becomes subtle
Fourth is the mind established in truth
Fifth is total freedom from bondage
Sixth is cessation from objectivity
Seventh is beyond these—liberation
First is when one begins self-inquiry
"Why do I continue to live unwisely?"
One seeks holy men and teaching
Having cultivated dispassion and wisdom
Second is when direct observation begins
To see the mixture of the real with unreal
Looking within oneself thins the unreal
One discovers abidance in the substratum
Third is when non-attachment arises
Based on one's own direct observation
Of what is unreal and what is real
The mind becomes subtle and transparent
Fourth comes about on practicing these three
The seeker turns from pursuit of sense-pleasure
This happens naturally—without suppression
As one has seen pursuit of pleasure to be pain
Fifth is when non-attachment arises
As does conviction in the nature of truth
One rejoices in one's own self
One's direct experience is light on the path
Sixth is when there is rootedness
In experience of unity as the truth
Ideas of objectivity that lingered earlier
Have been abandoned completely
Seventh is when self-knowledge
Is spontaneous and unbroken
One is liberated while living here
This is the transcendental state
There is another state beyond these
The abandonment of body-consciousness
Rare indeed is this most high state
Holy are all who ascend these seven
Those attaining to the states of wisdom
Go beyond the grip of sorrow
They may lead an active or passive life
Rejoicing in the self—fully satisfied
All can attain to these states, O Rama
Unlearned people and animals too
For it involves the rise of wisdom
Great are they who have attained to them
In ignorance does the self imagine
Separate existence as the ego
But gold remains gold in a bracelet too
So too the self can never be non-self
The Rise of Ignorance in the Self
Best to ask questions about reality
Not unreality as it hath no existence
As gold remains gold—regardless of form
So infinite consciousness remains unchanged
Existence of unreality arises in consciousness
And vanishes when inquired into
As long as the truth is not directly seen
One suffers in bondage of ignorance
This world appearance is a delusion
Based on egotism’s utter ignorance
Egotism has no existence in the self
The infinite self is the only existence
Whatever is seen, all that is known
All is that supreme pure consciousness
No beginning, no middle and no end
Divisionless, self-luminous—Brahman only
Space and diversity are notions in the mind
Just as distance between objects in a mirror
The king visited the places he dreamt earlier
Saw them to exist and the people too
I explained the mystery to the king
Delusion created by power of nescience
Confusion between the real and unreal
Based on ignorance and resulting notions
When a notion arises in the mind
Delusion will very soon follow
As notions are not based on reality
Experience of the notion comes quickly
If one thinks repeatedly in some way
Division is made firm in the mind
The thinker and what is thought of
What was thought is soon experienced
If you see a crow alight on a coconut tree
And see a coconut fall at the same time
You feel and affirm these events are linked
You experience one event—not two separate ones
Just this way by pure coincidence
Ignorance arose and was affirmed
A feeling about it gave it reality
This reality of ignorance is bondage
The king experienced within himself
What was reflected in his consciousness
Though events happened in earlier births
The energy invested led to experience again
Nescience is unreal—unconnected with self
Like connects with like—a common fact
Is how everything becomes knowable finally
Since everything exists in infinite consciousness
Since consciousness alone is all this
Everything appears ever so real
Not only the link between all things
But the substance of things as well
Different things just do not exist
Or it would be impossible to know anything
If they were not vitally connected somehow
Then how can you call them different?
Relationship is realization of existing unity
Called relationship in ignorance
Based upon false notions and delusion
Of division between subject and object
In between the seer and the seen
Is the relationship known as the seer
When the division between these three
Is abolished—that alone is supreme
Be that pure undivided consciousness
Do not let imagination create a future
Do not get tangled in moods of the mind
Stay established in truth peacefully
I have investigated the truth concerning
The mind—does it exist or does it not?
Have found only pure consciousness exists
Be established in this realization, O Rama
When all mental conditioning is overcome
The mind is made perfectly tranquil
Delusion and ignorance come to an end
The illusion or maya is clearly understood
As long as the illusion is not understood
By one's direct observation
Most inevitable is great delusion
The source of endless sorrow and grief
Do not get wrapped up in the words
Theory or descriptions used to instruct
One alone is—all pure consciousness
Know this by your direct experience
The self is ever untouched by sorrow
Self is the self of all—therefore desireless
My precepts have dispelled your ignorance
Your consciousness is pure now, O Rama
Om Tat Sat
(End of Third Chapter)
( My
humble salutations to H H Sri Swami
Suryadevananda ji and H H Sri Swami Venkatesananda ji for the
collection)
