yogavasishta upashama prakaranam part 2

7/29/2019 YogaVasishta Upashama Prakaranam Part 2

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YOGAVAASISHTA

A PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISE

COMPOSED BY

VAALMIKI MAHARSHI

ESSENCE OF YOGAVAASISHTA

Compiled by

Tejasvini


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INTRODUCTION

In this part of the Upashama Prakarana, Sage Vasishta teaches Rama the methods ofcontrolling the mind. Since a mind identified with the physical body is very much

attached to the body-related relatives, he instructs Rama to get rid of such attachments by

contemplating on the Self and understanding the true nature of the Self.

The Sage here narrates the story of two brothers Punya and Paavana and explains why

such an attachment towards relatives is meaningless.

OM TAT SAT


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UPASHAMA PRAKARANAM

SECTION V PART TWO

QUIESCENCE

CHAPTER ONE

DESTRUCTION OF THE MIND

Vasishta spoke

||

||

The origin of the tree of worldly existence is caused by the sprout of misconception.

O Noble one!

With a bold intellect filled with courage and capable of breaking free;cutting asunder the mind with the mind, like cutting asunder the tree with an axe;

attain the supremely sacred state instantly;

and remain stabilized there.

||

Cutting asunder the mind with the mind;

forgetting even the dead mind;

cutting asunder even the present mind;get the worldly existence cut off, once for all.

{When the thoughts are subdued, the thought that the thoughts are subdued also must go off;

the thought that there was once this mind with conceptions which has been destroyed also should go off.

The very thought of having existed as a limited being should not be there like when we wake up from a

dream we totally forget even the dreaming of a dream and remain as our wakeful selves only.}


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||

By forgetting the worldly existence, the delusion does not raise again.By forgetting the mind, the worldly existence does not raise again.

||

Standing, going, sleeping, awake, exhaling, climbing up, climbing down-

at all times be completely without attachments,

with the in-born understanding that the world is unreal.

s||

Endowed with utmost equanimity;

performing whatever actions fall to ones lot;

not thinking about what is not attained;

live in this world Raaghava!

s

||

The Supreme Lord Shiva supports

all the eightfold varieties of creation (by his very presence);

yet does not support also (as he is the Self of all).

You also likewise do and yet dont do any actions, O Taintless one!

s II

You are the one who is aware of all perceptions.

You are unborn.

You are the essence of all.

You are the Supreme Lord.

You alone pervade everything in this manner, being not distinct from the Self.


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||

Free of attractions and repulsions,

equally viewing a lump of clay and gold (as just illusory appearances)a yogi who has renounced all Vaasanaas connected to the world

is said to be one with the Self.

||

Whatever one does, whatever one eats, whatever one gives, whatever one destroys,

he who is completely free of attachments is equal-minded in pains and pleasures.

||

He who has removed from his mind all thoughts of likes and dislikes

and performs the actions that fall to his lot as his prescribed duties

never drowns in the delusions.

{MIND IS INERT/MIND CANNOT ACT BY ITSELF}

||

The mind by nature is inert

and follows the objects revealed by the principle of consciousness

like the cat following the lion greedy for the meat.

s

||

Any worthless animal following the lion

gets to eat the meat obtained by the lions own prowess.

The mind likewise experiences the objects revealed by the power of consciousness.


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||

In this manner,

the unreal (mind) lives by the grace of Chit,(conceiving the unreal world as real)

by conceiving this ever changing phenomenon of the world;

and by remembering the Self, attains the Chit State too!

||

As the mind is inert,

how can it ever rise up without getting empowered by the light of consciousness,

as it is equal to a corpse bereft of consciousness?

||

The unreal conception, the power of vibration arising by the contact of consciousness-

that alone is termed as the mind

by those learned in scriptures.

||

The hiss of the hooded serpent namely mind alone

is known as the perceived appearance of the world.

By realizing I am the Chit,

all that is perceived also is realized as Chit.

||

The consciousness bereft of perception

is the ancient principle of Brahman.

The consciousness with perception

is this perceived appearance of the world.


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||When the perception rises,

the perceiving principle of consciousness becomes widely known as the mind.In that state it forgets its conscious nature and remains as if inert.

{PERCEIVED WORLD ALSO IS INERT}

||

Like the lotus blooming by the contact of the sun,

this perceived appearance of the world, which is inert like a rock

rises because of the principle of consciousness.

{BODY IS ALSO INERT}

II

Just like a statue of a girl will not dance even when you push it,

this perception cannot arise in the body even in the least.

{PRAANA AND MIND}

s:

||

That which vibrates, is known as the mind, by the ignorant.

Understand it to be the power of the wind, the inner sheath of vital force.

s

||

This one; he; I; this; that; mine;

all these tainted ideas in totality is termed as Jeeva;

which arises by the conjoining of the principles of the vital force and the Self.


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||

Intellect, Mental Faculty, Jeeva-all these differently known terms are just the names

invented for the unreal conception by the wise.

Actually they are not different.

||

In actuality, there is no mind; no thinking; no intellect; no physical body.

Always the Self alone exists as it is.

||

The conceiving phenomenon

which imagines an embodied person as differently existing,

is known as the mental faculty.

Non- conceiving and remaining without the mind leads to liberation.

||

When the power of the vital force is controlled, the mind melts off

like the image in the mirror vanishing off along with the destruction of the mirror.

Mind exists in the form of vital force alone.

||

The experience of extended space is sensed

by the vital force seated in the center of individual consciousness

through the vibrating perceptions; that alone is termed as the mind.

(Consciousness + vital force=Mind ->world perception)


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||

Through dispassion, through the practice of Praanaayaama etc,

through contemplation methods,through the control of the outgoing tendency of the mind,

and by understanding the true nature of the Self,

the vital airs gets controlled.

||

Maybe the power of burning may exist in a stone sometimes;

but there never is there the power for the mind to vibrate or perceive.

||

The vibration is the power of the vital air; it is of the nature of movement; it is inert.

The power of consciousness belongs to the Self; it is pure; it is always everywhere.

||

The mind conceives a connection to the vibrating power and the power of consciousness.

This connection is not real and is known as unreal knowledge.

||

This alone is known as Avidyaa; it is called as Maayaa.This is the extreme level of ignorance.

This produces the poison called the worldly existence.

||


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If the imagined conception does not occur

conjoining the power of Chit and the power of vibration (Praana),

then all these fears of the worldly existence will vanish away.

||

When the vibrating power of the wind

produces the perceived phenomenon through the power of Chit,

that Chit which appears as the perceived phenomenon attains the state of the mind

through conception inside.

||

This state of the mind of the Chit is a misconception

like the ghost conceived by a child;

It is Chit alone of the nature of the vibration

in the form of the unbroken sphere of the world.

||

How ever can this level of the Chit be affected by something else?

How can anyone fight the Lord of un-diminishing power?!

ss

||

Therefore because of the absence of the connecting thing,

the connection does not exist here.

Without any connection what can ever happen?

Where is the question of the so-called mind?

||

The oneness of the Consciousness and Praana alone is known by the name of mind.

What is an army without the collection of horses and elephants at one place?


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{MIND IS UNREAL: MIND DOES NOT EXIST AT ALL}

||

Therefore there does not exist at all

anything called the mind the rascal, anywhere in the three worlds Rama!

This thing called the mind perishes by the true understanding of reality.

||

O Taintless one! Do not wastefully imagine this thing called mind

and get into difficulties.

Mind has arisen as a false conception.

In reality it is not there at all.

||

O Intelligent one!

Do not conceive anything anytime.Mind is just the other name for conception; it does not exist anywhere as a reality.

{MIND AND IGNORANCE}

||

Being inert and without any form, the mind is dead always.Yet, the dead one kills the ignorant person!

This wheel of ignorance is amazing!

s

||


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(Mind) That which has no essence, no body, no support, not even a shape

eats up everything!

The trap of ignorance is amazing!

||

He who gets killed by the mind which has no equipment at all,

should be thought off as his head crushed by getting hit by the petal of a blue lotus.

||

He who is killed by the mind which is inert, mute and blind

should be thought off as burning by the cool rays of the full moon.

s

||

A valorous man who is real and living can indeed defeat a weak person.

This mind rising from ignorance kills a fool, though not real and existing.

||

Understand that this creation is born because of ignorance due to foolishness.

Alas! Suffering also is the creation of the ignorant mind rising due to foolishness!

{THE IGNORANT SHOULD NOT BE TAUGHT THE ABSTRACT KNOWLEDGE OF THE SELF}

||

This creation filled with ignorant persons is only the mind, which has arisen falsely.

He who cannot control his mind should not be instructed at all about all this.

s

||


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This thing called mind (ignorant person) has a form produced all around oneself.

It is not capable of abstract thinking.

It is not fit to receive instructions about Brahman.

It is established complete in itself projecting itself outside.

||

The ignorant fool jumps with fear

even if a slightest sound of a Veena-string is heard (suddenly).

He fears even the facial contours of a sleeping relative!

s

||The ignorant fool runs away frightened

if any one just shouts loudly (about some danger).

He is indeed completely under the control of his own mind!


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CHAPTER TWO

Vasishta spoke

{THIS SCRIPTURE IS NOT FOR THE IGNORANT MINDS}

||

s ||

Dear Rama! The populace -

which is carried uncontrollably by the turbulent waves of the worldly existence,

and which remains dumb in the mind (without any enquiry or understanding)-

is not given instructions through this scripture (discourse)

which contains thought-provoking ideas describing in various ways,

the path towards the attainment of the Self-state!

s

||

Which fool will exhibit a beautiful painting of colorful panoramato a person who is excessively blind?

s ||

Which brainless idiot will discuss about various scents

with a person afflicted by leprosy and whose nose makes a gurgling noise?

Or which brainless idiot will discuss about Self-knowledge

with a fool drowned in worldly attachments?

||


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Which idiot will get his words proved

by inviting a drunkard with his rolling eyes and faltering limbs

to act as a witness in judging a case?

||

Who will clear his doubt by questioning

a corpse or

the crowd assembled there in the cremation ground (weeping madly)

absorbed in talking about hundreds of occurrences connected to the dead ones?

Who can ever teach that fool?

s ss

||How can anyone teach the idiot

who has not been able to subdue his mind-snake

which resides in the snake-hole of his own heart (brain)

and which is dumb and blind?

||

Understand the mind to be already conquered when it is non-existent actually!The rock which is close by is very far, as it is non-existent!

(One can never catch a rock which is seen but not really there)

{A KNOWER}

||

A knower is always conscious of the Self alone, Rama!

He sees the power of Praana vibrating and the senses engaged in their functions.Where is, the thing called mind?

s ||


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The vibrating power of the Praanaas is nothing but the Knowledge-power of the Chit.

The power of the senses also is one such power of the Supreme Self.

Who is bound here?

||

All that is there is the expression of the Omnipotent Self.

Why should you attribute different names to all these?

{WHERE IS THE JEEVA? WHERE IS THE MIND?}

||

What is thing called Jeeva by which the world is blinded?

Know the mind to be unreal only! What power does it have?

{ALAS! THE IGNORANT!}

||

Rama! Observing the continuous pain experienced by thosewhose understanding is completely burnt away by the unreal mind,

my mind is filled with compassion for them and is worried as it were.

||

Who is there as such (as different from the Chit)?

Wherefore starts this pain (which is not ones true nature)?

What for is this fool suffering so much (imagining the world)?

These donkeys and idiots are born only to suffer!

||

These blockheads, these fools get born in these bodies only to perish.

Like bubbles in the ocean, wicked acts rise out of them continuously.


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CHAPTER THREE

{The Sage ends the topic on Mind by showing pity for the ignorant minds which never can grasp theabstract truths explained by him in this text!

However he now warns Rama how that very feeling of compassion can become an obsession if it exceeds

the limit. One can act kindly towards anyone who is directly in trouble. That is true compassion. But one

cannot sit and cry about each and everyone who dies in this world.

A seeker after liberation of course should cultivate all Saatvic qualities of friendship, kindness, helping

nature etc. But he should not act through attachments. He must have equanimity of mind always.

Whether a mosquito dies somewhere in a corner of the earth or a relative dies in his very presence, he

cannot afford to break down. He should never swerve from the state of the Self.

When mind has been proved as unreal, when the world conceived by the mind also has been proved as

unreal, when the body also has been proved as unreal, how can one cry about the people in the world or

people in the family when they die? They also are unreal; just appearing as connected to this particular

body-shape in the present mode of space and time!

Sage Vasishta is not advising Rama to be cruel or rude to others. He is not asking him to discard the noblequality of compassion. But he is advising him to stop worrying about things which are beyond our

control.}

Vasishta spoke

{WHEN COMPASSION EXCEEDS THE LIMITS, IT BECOMES IDIOSYNCRASY}

||

Look- how many animals daily get killed by the butchers in every country!

Why lament about it?

||

Every moment wind killscountless biting insects like mosquitoes born on this earth!


||


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In every direction, in each and every mountain,

in each and every forest, hunters kill lakhs of animals!


||

In the water holes, the big fish kills cruelly countless groups of subtle life-forms!


The lice are eaten by the mosquitoes!

Mosquitoes get eaten by spiders!

Frogs eat spiders!

Snakes eat the frogs!

Birds eat the snakes!

Mongoose kills the snake!

Cat kills the mongoose! Dog attacks the cat!

Bear fights the dog!

Tiger kills the bear!

Lion attacks the tiger!

Sharabha (a fabulous animal having eight legs) kills the lion!

When thundering clouds fill the sky, Sharabha unable to bear the sound, falls down

from the mountain and dies!

Clouds get scattered by the wind!

Wind gets blocked by the mountain!

Mountains get hit by the thunderbolt weapon which belongs to Indra!

Indra is controlled by Vishnu!

Vishnu takes the form of so many animals! (Incarnations/ or exists in all the created

beings as Vaasudeva)

Thus the world is filled with various types of pains and pleasures!

Births and deaths are occurring everywhere!

Even huge animals depend on the parasites that cling to them!

The living things that exist in this creation depend on each other for their survival and

their number is beyond counting!

Each kills the other! Each protects the other!

Continuously these beings get born! Continuously they die!

Water, land, sky, forests, bodies, plants, stones, feces- in all these objects, various types

of living things get born continuously and die!

||

Looking at these countless living things getting born and die

the compassionate ones can feel happy or cry!


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||

In this pompous show called the world,where things get produced and destroyed ceaselessly,

one should not be excessively happy or sad about anything.

||

Rows and rows of multifarious beings abundantly rise and perish

like hosts of leaves coming again and again on the tree

only to fall on the ground and dry up.

||

The compassionate idiot

who wants to eradicate all the pains from the whole world,

is struggling hard to bring the entire sky bearing the heat of the sun,

under his little umbrella!

CHAPTER FOUR

Vasishta spoke

{THE IGNORANT CAN NEVER BE TAUGHT}

||

The men who live like lowly animals (eating and reproducing)

should never be given instructions on knowledge.

In a forest where only trees stand like wooden pillars

what meaning is there in any words addressed to them?


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||

What is the similarity between the cows and

the people whose minds chase after the sense pleasures?The cows are pulled by ropes tied to their necks;

the foolish are pulled by the mind!

||

Looking at the fools who are sinking in the mire of their own minds and

who are doing actions leading to their own destruction,

even stones weep!

||

For those who have not conquered their minds,

the painful states abound all around.

A man of wisdom never tries to eradicate all the pains of everybody.

{A KNOWER IS NOT AFFECTED BY ANY PAIN}

||

O Joy of Raghu dynasty!

For those who have conquered their minds,

pains are to be hunted for! (not at all there!)

Therefore get engaged in knowing That which is to be known!

||

O Mighty armed Rama!

There is nothing called mind at all.

Do not imagine such a thing meaninglessly.

By imagining it, you will get tormented as if by a ghostly spirit!


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||

When you forgot the principle of Self and became ignorant,

then the wicked rascal of you mind made its appearance.

s

s ||

If you are going to believe this world as real,

then you are with the mind and are bound for sure.

If you renounce the perceived world,

then you are without the mind and are indeed liberated.

||

I, the limited ego is not there; this perceived world is also not there.

Contemplate on this statement and remain unmoving like a mountain.

Be the lord of the heart (center of all existence);

and be taintless like the endless space.

||

Child! Renounce the dirt of this perceived phenomenon

which is made up of the Self and the world;

and is of a dual nature.

Be in the state of the Self with nothing else remaining;

and be stabilized in your true nature.


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CHAPTER FIVE

Vasishta spoke

{CONTEMPLATION ON THE SELF}

||

Contemplate always on the Selfwhich is known as perceiving

which is in between the state of perceiver and the perceived,

in this two-fold phenomenon of the world and your individual self.

||

Contemplate on the state which tastes only,

which is in between the tasted object and the tasting subject,

renouncing both the tasted and the taster;and remain as the Self.

||

Rama, catch that state which is in need of no support,

which is in-between the experienced object and the experiencing subject

and remain stable in that middle state.

||

When the realization arises

that the entire perceived phenomenon of the world is just the Self,

where is the seer, where is the mind, where is the seen, where is the conscious principle?


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s

||

I am the Self and I am the JeevaSuch thoughts alone make the so called mental structure.

Because of this, the pain which has no beginning or end continues.

||

I am the Self! The factors called Jeeva and others do not exist at all

This subsiding of the mind is the greatest bliss ever.

||

If you do not entertain the idea of the Self in the non-self

thus giving rise to pains then Rama

you will be revered as one of the knowers.

||

Cutting away this un-holy idea of ego with the sword of the non-ego

contemplating on the Self, O Noble one,

remain in the state beyond the worldly existence

with all the fears of the world subdued.


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CHAPTER SIX

TRISHNAA- THIRST FOR SENSE-EXPERIENCES

Vasishta spoke

||

||

The entire world is threaded by the leather rope of Trishnaa, Thirst for pleasures.

One can escape from the binding of a rope; but not from the binding of Trishnaa.

Rama spoke

||

Your words O Lord, are innate with deep meaning

as you are instructing me not to entertain this desire named ego.

(attachment to the identity of the body)

||

If I renounce this ego completely, O lord,

then I will be renouncing also the idea of the body completely.


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s ||

A huge tree is supported by its main trunk coming out of the earth.

The body is also supported likewise by the ego.

||

If the ego is destroyed, the body also perishes,

like the huge tree falling down when its base is cut off.

||

Then how will I renounce it and yet be alive, O Sage?

Clear my doubt O Best among orators!

{If the limited identity is gone, I will also be not there! If I am not there, body cannot be thought of as

belonging to me! Or, it may just vanish off! Then how do I act in the world? is Ramas doubt.

Vasishta explains-renouncing the ego means renouncing the idea of the limited self.

Contemplation on the Self or just understanding the Self-state, both these methods lead to the state of

liberation while living. The body does not vanish away; but is not identified with the Self. The body

remains as an appearance only unconnected to the Self. }

Vasishta spoke

{RENUNCIATION OF THE VAASANAAS}

: ||

O Lotus-eyed Rama!

The renunciation of Vaasanaas everywhere is said to be of two types

by the learned;

one is through knowledge, the other is through meditating.


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{DHYEYA-MEDITATION METHOD}

||

||

||

I exist only in these objects.

These are necessary for my life.

I am nothing without them.They are nothing without me .

Renouncing such an ascertainment;

analyzing well in the mind,

if one contemplates

I do not belong to these objects.

All these objects do not belong to me;

and performs action without anxiety and with a cool intellect,

such a method of renouncing the Vaasanaa is known as the meditative method.

{JNEYA-KNOWLEDGE METHOD}

s ||

The renunciation of the Vaasanaas

which is done with complete understanding of the Truth

and where the body identification is completely gone,

it is known as the understanding method.

{BOTH METHODS LEAD TO LIBERATION}

||


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One who follows the meditative method

and renounces the Vaasanaa of ego easily,

is known as a JeevanMukta.

||

He who follows the method of renouncing the Vaasanaas through understanding

and has renounced the delusory world from the root onwards

and has attained a quiescent state

is a liberated one, O Joy of Raghu dynasty!

||

Both these renunciations O Raaghava, are equal

and are established in the state of liberation.

Both these renunciations are the states in Brahman.

Both these renunciations are bereft of the fever of delusion.

{CONTEMPLATION OR NON-CONTEMPLATION

DOES NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE SELF-STATE

OF A REALIZED KNOWER}

s

s ||

Both of them, the one absorbed in contemplation (Yuktamati)

and the one performing actions in the world (Ayuktamati)

remain in the taintless Self-state only, O Taintless Rama!

One remains acting projecting a body-image;

the other remains with the subdued body-image.

s s ||

One is with the body-idea and remains liberated with the fever of the delusion gone.

The other has renounced the body-idea and remains liberated without any Vaasanaas.


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{After realization, a knower can maintain the appearance of the body or discard it away. He may remain in

Nirvikalpa Samaadhi always and give up the body like Shuka. Or, he may keep the appearance of the

body and act in the world like Vyaasa. Both states may appear to be different for the ignorant mind. But

from the state of the knower, it makes no difference. With or without the body, he is the same; he is

Brahman in essence!}

{THE KNOWER WHO APPEARS TO BE WITH A BODY}

||

When difficulties occur in the course of time,

when met with pains and pleasures again and again,

he who neither gets excited or distressed

is known as the liberated one.

||

There are no wants or dislikes for him.

He who moves as of in deep sleep when met with desired or undesired events,

is known as the liberated one.

s: ||

He who does not entertain in his mind,

the states of excitement, distress, fear, anger, thirst for pleasures, meanness etc.

is known as liberated while living.

||

He who goes through life

with all thoughts silent as if in deep sleep;

yet awake in the mind always

and cheerful like the crescent moon always,

is known as liberated while living.


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Vaalmiki spoke

As the Sage was speaking words profound with knowledge, the day ended; the people inthe court saluted the Sage and left to attend to their evening duties of bath etc; they

returned again with the Suns rays.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Vasishta spoke

{The Knowers who do not have bodies cannot be seen by anyone unless they will it by themselves. But the

Knowers with the body can be seen by one and all. How they behave is explained here.}

{KNOWERS WHO HAVE DISCARDED THE BODY}

||

Those who are liberated and are without the body

like spoken words, do not become the objects for the eyes.

Therefore you listen to the characteristics of the state of liberation while living.

{KNOWERS WHO HAVE NOT DISCARDED THE BODY}

||

Maintaining the desires as per ones position in life,

yet doing the needed actions without attachment

is the state of JeevanMukti according to the wise.


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{EXPERIENCE ANYTHING; BUT WITHOUT A VAASANAA}

||

Raaghava!

The wasteful desire for the sense pleasures

which arises from the Vaasanaa to enjoy the objects outside in the world is binding.

That desire for sense objects which is freed of all Vaasanaas is liberating.

||

Raaghava! The idea Let this be mine is the desire in the mind

which chains you and causes the delusion.

: : ||

The great minded ones completely remove the attachment to all the objects

which are there and not there,

and attain the Supreme excellent state.

||

Renounce from the mind all ideas of bondage and liberation,

all states of pain and pleasure,

and remain like a huge ocean without any movement.

||

O Best among those of excellent intelligence!

Realize the Self as birth-less and deathless.

Do not taint the mind with the anxieties about old age and death.


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||

The phenomenon of objects does not exist for you Raaghava!

They are no there; you (as the limited identity) are not there!That is all something different; you are different from them all, Raaghava!

||

When this changing flux called the universe

is understood to be an illusion arisen falsely;

when the nature of the non-existing phenomenon

existing as reality is understood;

when you have attained that Supreme state of Self;where there is a chance for the desire for pleasures to arise?

{FOUR TYPES OF ASCERTAINMENTS}

: : ||

And again Rama, for a person who engages in enquiry,

four types of ascertainments of extensive nature occur.

||

I am this physical body from head to toe, born out of a mother and father

This sort of ascertainment Rama,

arises out of mistaken understanding and leads to bondage.

: : ||

I am subtler than the tip of the hair,

transcending the physical phenomenon of body etc.

This second type of ascertainment

develops in the good ones leading towards liberation.


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||

I am the essence all the things that exist in this network of worldly appearance

This third type of ascertainment also leads to liberation,

O Best among those born of Raghus dynasty!

s ||

I or this world and everything is empty like the skyThis fourth type of renunciation also leads to the attainment of liberation.

: ||

Among these, the first one mentioned shows the power of the desires to bind.

The other three desires are pure and lead one to the state of Jeevan Mukti.

||

O Wise one! The ascertainment that I am the Self of all,

when cultivated, my mind will never grieve.

{IDENTITY WITH THE SELF}

:

||

Void, Prakrti, Maayaa, Knowledge of Brahman,

Shiva, Purusha, Ishaana

all these terms refer always to the Self only.


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||

Therefore the identification with the Self alone is real.

The unreal does not exist at all.The waters alone are called the ocean; not the waves etc.

||

The bracelet, armlet or the anklets do not differ from gold.

The manifold varieties of trees, plants and other things do not differ from the Self.

||

The non-dual power of the Supreme alone shines

with the sportive creation of the world

which is divided by non-dual and dual natures.

||

Always in every event of yours or anothers lifein each and every action,

do not feel pain or pleasure whether met with loss or gain.

||

Existing with the complete vision of non-duality,

established well in the state of non-duality;

without disregarding the duality caused by performance of actions,

be in the state of both duality and non-duality.


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CHAPTER EIGHT

{THE STATE OF A JEEVANMUKTA}

Vasishta spoke

||

The Sage who is liberated while living,

though acting normally in the world,

will laugh at the worldly affairs which are completely essenceless

from beginning to the end.

||

Engaged in works which belong to him as per his station in life,

acting neutral in all situations,

he remains established in the

Dhyeya (Contemplative) type of renouncement of Vaasanaas.

{Though the understanding is also there of the Self-state, the JeevanMukta who maintains the body-

appearance acts as if with Vaasanaas, yet is without any Vaasanaas in reality. He has no identification with

the body. He looks at the body only as a camera to perceive the world; a vehicle to move about in the

world; a cell-woven cloth where others can see him centered in that point.}

{HOW A JEEVANMUKTA ACTS?}

||

||


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Never anxious about anything; co-operating with any good actions of others;

vision lighted up by discrimination; staying in the garden of enlightenment;

sheltered in the state which transcends everything;

mind cool and pleasant like the full moon;

never getting worried or over-exited about anything

A person with these qualities never has to grieve.

s||

Neutrally behaving towards enemies and friends;

filled with compassion and concern;

always performing actions that are his as ordained by the teachers


||

Does not like; does not dislike;

does not worry; does not want anything;

silent in the mind; doing just what needs to be done


: ||

When questioned, answers appropriately;

when not questioned remains unaffected like a pillar;

free of wants and dont wants


:

||

Talking as per the nature of the other person;when forced to talk, utters soft words;

understands the intentions of others


||


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Having ascended the Supreme state, with a mind cool and cheerful,

he observes the state of the world as if laughing.

{WHAT ABOUT THE IGNORANT?}

||

These qualities of those great men

who have conquered their minds

and realized the Supreme were explained till now Raaghava.

||

We do not know how to explain the thoughts of those fools

who have no control over their minds

and who wallow in the dirty mire of sense pleasures.

||

We are not capable of explaining

their varied behavior patterns;

their actions aimed at various goals;

all events of their life infected with pleasures or pains.

{BE FREE OF THE FEVER OF IGNORANCE}

||Taking recourse to a vision of complete understanding;

becoming a JeevanMukta

with all the Vaasanaas renounced through the meditative method,

wander in the world O Raaghava, free of all ailments.


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||

Having renounced all the desires in the mind;

freed of all attachments; freed of all Vaasanaas;wander in the world O Raaghava

externally performing all actions with interest.

:

||

Munificent; tender and soft when moving with others;

adjusting to all sorts of people;

mind completely empty of desires and attachments;

wander in the world O Raaghava.

||

After analyzing well all states of existence,

embracing the Supreme state which is far higher than the wretched state

of the worldly men;

remain as that state only and wander in the world O Raaghava.

s||

Keeping the mind free of all wants as the internal state;

externally performing all actions as if with desires;

burning outside but completely cool inside;


||

Externally acting excited as it were;

yet internally remaining extremely calm;

a doer outside, a non-doer inside;



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||

You now have the correct understanding

of all the perceptions that occur around you.Now wander in the world, Raaghava perceiving it in whatever way you like.

||

Wander in the world Raaghava,

acting out the emotions of joy, happiness, excitement, censure artificially;

artificially showing interest in all the enterprises.

||

(Renounce all these qualities of the Moon!)

(Moon shines with reflected light yet acts arrogant with false pride)

But you renounce the ego (and remain as the Self)!

(Moon diseased by waxing and waning acts restless)

But you maintain a calm disposition (by maintaining equanimity)!

(Moon shines in emptiness and gets happy by the emptiness)

But you remain as the Self bereft of emptiness!

(Moon is tainted)But you remain free of the taint of the world-conception!

and wander in the world Raaghava.

||

Freed of all hundreds of desires and attachments;

equal minded in all situations;

engaged in doing actions belonging to you;

wander in the world Raaghava.


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CHAPTER NINE

{GET RID OF ANXIETIES AND WORRIES RELATED TO RELATIVES}

s s

||

Bondage and liberation do not exist for the embodied one actually.

This grand show of magic

where the entire scene of the world keeps changing, is unreal.

||

Self is not at all bound; it is One; it pervades all.

How can bondage be there for Self?

When bondage is not there who is supposed to get liberation?

||

This expansive delusion of the world arises

because of not having proper understanding of the truth.

By understanding the truth, it disappears

like the snake idea vanishing when the rope is understood as just rope.

||

The Self is not at all connected to

enjoyments, relatives, objects of the world, actions -good or bad.

Why do you worry about them?

s

||


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When you have realized I am the essence of the principle of Self

Rama, you do not have any connection with fears at all!

Why do you fear the delusion of the world?

||

You are unborn and real.

What connection do you have with the delusions of pain and pleasures

of those related to those who are supposed to be related to you?

Why are you worried about them?

{Rama! If you had other births before this, you had relatives there. Now you are here as this identity due to

some Vaasanaas carried over. Here also you have relatives connected to this identity. These relatives are

recognized by you in this birth as connected to you! Do you want to worry about all the relatives of all the

births?

Though Rama is the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, he identifies now with the limited form of the prince, the

son of Dasharatha. In order to raise dispassion in him about the bodily connected relatives like father,

mothers and brothers, Vasishta talks about the futility of worrying about relatives of one birth when there

are countless numbers of relatives of countless births which the mind does not remember now in this birth.

These statements pave a way to the story of Punya and Paavana which will be narrated next}

s ||

What you were before, that alone you are now.You are here now!You already know that for certain.

{Rama!If you want to cry for those relatives who are dead in this life of yours, then what stops you from

crying about the relatives of a future birth who will die anyhow? Or why dont you cry about the dead

relatives of past births?}

||

Then why do you not cry forthose others who are going to be dead later,

who will be closer to you like your lives;

and those abundant relatives of other lives who have gone already?

{If you are certain that you are a Jeeva going through many births, then cry for all those relatives who

belong to all the various births of yours! Or remain as the Self which is one, birth less and deathless!

Which birth is real? Which relatives are real?}


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||

Before this you were another.

Now you are like this.You will be different later.

If this is what you believe, even then why do you attach reality to it?

{If you believe that you are a Jeeva who went through many births in the past; that you are practicing Self-

Knowledge now ; that you will have no more births; even then, why should you bother about the relatives

connected to this particular body?}

||

In the past you were born again and again; but you will not be born again.

If you believe this also, even then why should you cry

for, the world is only a temporary phenomenon.

{REMAIN UNAFFECTED AS THE SELF}

||

Do not feel sad about anything Rama.

Do not feel happy also.

Be equal minded everywhere.

The Supreme self is only everywhere.

||

The very world-phenomenon is like this.

It keeps on appearing and disappearing incessantly for the ignorant; not for the knower!

Rama, be blissful!

||


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Who is a true relative or a true enemy?

Always everyone is related to everyone by the will of the Lord!

(as the Self)

||

All those great people, all those relatives are observed to have disappeared

within just a few days.

||

Belongs to other; belongs to me; another one; yours; mineAll these ideas are not real O Mighty armed,

like seeing two moons when the eyes are infected.

||

This one is related to me. This one is different. I am so and so. You are so and so

Let all such misconceptions melt away from now onwards Rama!

:||

Inside your mind completely uproot and cut off all such ideas.

Yet externally maintain these misconceived notions

as if playing a game,

and wander with ease.

||

This one is related to me. This one is not.

Such notions belong to only ordinary minds.

For those broadened minds, the intellect is not blocked by misconceptions.


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||

The intellect of the wise is free of the misconception and has the ascertainment-

There is nothing where I am not. There is nothing which is not mine.

||

All the beings whatever species they belong to are related to you Rama!

It can never be a fact that

they are not at all connected to you in some way or other, Rama.

||

In this grand show of the world enacted with hundreds of births,

the notion of related and not-related occur because of delusion alone!

It is not an actuality.

The entire tri-world is connected to you (as Self)

though not actually connected (to the limited identity).

||

||

Here let me introduce from the ancient history,

a conversation that occurred between two sons of a Sage on the bank of River Ganges,

where the discussion is mainly about who is a relative and who is not!

Listen to this sacred tale, O Raaghava!


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CHAPTER TEN

STORY OF PUNYA AND PAAVANA

Vasishta spoke

||

In some mountain region of Jamboo Dveepathere is a very tall mountain namedMAHENDRA

filled with many groves of forests.

||

||

In some corner of that mountain;

on the banks of the River Gangaa descended down from the heavenly river Gangaa,

where all the Sages performed their bathing rituals and drank its water,

where the banks shone with trees covered by blossoms;

on the beautiful summit land shining like a jewel;

there lived a Sage namedDHEERGHA-TAPAS

whose intellect was shining with supreme wisdom,

who had the knowledge of the Supreme,

and who was like the personified form of penance.

||

The Sage had two sons handsome like the moon

named Punya and Paavana

like two Kachas born to Brhaspati, the preceptor of Gods.


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||

He lived along with the two sons and his wifeon the river bank covered with trees full of fruits.

:

||

In course of time the eldest of the sons named Punya

who was also mature in virtues

attained the Knowledge of the Self.

s : ||

Paavana was not fully enlightened,

like the unblossomed lotus before the rise of the dawn.

Still he was filled with ignorance;

had not attained the supreme state;

was oscillating like a swing (between knowledge and ignorance).

||

||

||

As the immeasurable time which caused all the measures of life passed;

as hundred years were completed;

as the long span of life and the creeper of the body both deteriorated;

Sage DeerghaTapasrenounced the attachment to the worldly existence

filled with beings of momentary existence and hundreds of terrifying events of

birth, death, old age, heaven and hell;

having lived through the experiences of an old shattered body infected with ego;

discarded his body like a bird leaving its faulty nest;

like a peddler getting rid of his load.


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||

He attained the state of Chit free of all perceptions

with all the conceptions giving rise to the delusory world silenced;like the fragrance of the flower melting off into the colorless sky.

||

||

||

The Sages wife saw the body of her husband -

without the functions of Praana and Apaana;

stretched out lifeless like the lotus plucked out of its stem.

She immediately discarded her body like a bee leaving the lotus,

though her body was in full bloom of health;

through the method of Yoga as taught by her husband

which she had practiced for long.

Unseen by any mortal she followed her husbandwho was in the innermost space of the Supreme light

and who had set like the Moon.

(She also attained the state of Brahman like her husband).

s::||

With the parents departed,

Punya alone attended to the funeral rites without getting distressed.

Paavana was extremely sad.

s

||


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His mind drowned in deep sorrow, wandering in the forest paths,

without even observing what his elder brother was doing,

he wept aloud.

||

After finishing the funeral rites of his parents

by himself, alone and unaided by his brother,

Punya with the enlightened intellect

went after Paavana who was crying in some desolate corner of the forest.

Punya spoke

||

Son! Why are you immersed in such dense sorrow (cloud)

which will only cause your mind to go blind (dark)?

Your eyes are covered by the terrible torrent of tears (rain)

and have faded like the lotus in the monsoon season!

||

Your father was a great knower!

He, by his own will, has gone along with your mother

to that state of the Supreme Self named liberation.

||

That is the state to be reached by all living beings;

that is the nature of all those who have realized the Self.

When your father has attained his own natural state, why are crying for him?

||


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This sort of binding idea you entertain is caused by delusion.

That is why you are grieving about those who need not be grieved about, in this world.

||

She is not your mother! He is not your father!

And you are not their son, though they have countless sons (in many births)!

||

Thousands of mothers and fathers of yours have gone, O son,

like the countless holes that get crossed over by a flooded river.

||

They also had had countless sons; you were not their only son!

Hosts of sons get born to all men like waves rising in a river.

||

Many lakhs of sons have been born to our parents and died also.

Sons and relatives are there for a creature in each and every birth.

||

If all the dead mothers, fathers and sons

have to be mourned due to affection, then my dear son,

why not mourn for all the thousands and millions of beings who have died?

||

This collection of elements, O Good one, is perceived as a real world,

because of delusion.

In truth, O Wise one, there are no friends or relatives for you.


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||

My dear brother! Actually nothing gets destroyed.The water drops never evaporate even if there is excessive heat in the desert

(for they were never there at all)!

||

Whatever you see here as wealth is ephemeral

like the unceasing movements of the chowries!

O Wise one, whatever you number the days as -whether three or five,

everything is but a dream-experience!

||

See everything with the eyes of knowledge my son, and analyze the truth.

Neither you, nor me are real (as limited selves).

Discard the delusion clouding your mind.

||

This person is gone, This person is dead-

These perceptions seen in front of you

appear because of your own conceptions clouded by delusion.

They are really not there.

||

The waters (river) appear by the heat of ones own Vaasanaas.Waves of good and bad rise up ceaselessly

beautifying the desert of ignorance which spreads far and wide.This alone shines forth as multifarious shapes and forms.


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CHAPTER ELEVEN

Punya spoke

||

Who is the father? Who is a friend? Who is the mother? Who are these relatives?

The so called people are like sands rising up by the winds of ones own ideas.

||

This world keeps going on only through self-invented terms for imagined states like

relation, friend, son, affection, hatred, attachment, etc.

||

If one is thought off as related, he is a relation.If one is thought off as not-related, he is an outsider.

Like the poison and nectar in objects are different for different beings,

all states of objects are imagined only.

||

For the Self which is in all the objects as a single principle,

where can arise the fault of This one is related This one is an outsider?

s ||

My son! Enquire within yourself as to who you are other than

this cage of bones filled with the collection of blood, flesh, and bones.


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||

As seen from the level of truth, neither you nor do I exist.

The wrong understanding alone keeps jumping about as Punya and Paavana.

||

Who is your father? Who is your friend? Who is your mother? Who is an outsider?

In the great expansive state of the Self,

who belongs to one, who does not?

Tell me!

||

If you as this limited form only are real,

then why dont you cry

for those relations, those riches

of other countless births of your other limited forms?

||

You had many relations who were in the wombs of animals

and lived as animals in many sacred places.

Why dont you cry for them too?

||

When you were born as a swan, you had many relations

who were the swans living in the lotus groves in the lotus lakes.Why dont you cry for them too?

||


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You had many relations who were lions

living in the impassable peaks of mountains.


Many trees were related to you when you were a tree in some birth.


Many fish were related to you when you were a fish in some lotus lake.


You were a wild yellow monkey in Dashaarna.

You were a prince in Tushaara.

You were a forest-crow in Pundra.

You were an elephant in Haihaya.

You were a donkey in Trigarta.

You were a dog and also a bird living on a tree in Shaalva.

You have taken many births as an ant, as a wood-worm, Brahmin, etc.You were my brother also in many births as an ant, as a scorpion, as a bee, etc.

ss ||

Son! In this manner, in so many other wombs,

you have been born hundreds and thousands of times

in this Jamboo Dveepa in the past!

||

In this manner,

I see with my subtle intellect purified by the true vision of the Self,

all the past births of yours and mine

as induced by various Vaasanaas.

||

I have also passed through many wombs and lived in a deluded condition.

I remember them with my vision of knowledge.


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I was a parrot in Trigarta. I was a frog on the river bank.

I was a lowly bird in this very forest.

I was a sand particle; I was a tree; I was a chaataka bird; a king; a tiger; a vulture; a lion...

and so on!

You were my brother in many lives.

I remember so many births; so many lives; so many actions; so many sufferings.Hundreds of relations have died in all those births.

Countless mothers, brothers, and friends have died in those births.

||

For whom will we cry?

Or we do not cry for any of them!

We cry for these relations here, now!

This is the way of the world!

||

For the men born here,

countless mothers die; countless fathers die;

like countless leaves appear in the tree and fall off.

||

What measure is there my son, for pain or pleasure here?

Therefore let us renounce everything and remain in the pure state of the Self.

||

Discarding completely the belief in the reality of the world,which shows itself as the I in the mind,

reach that state which all the knowers of the Self have reached.

May auspiciousness befall you.

||


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Without any anxiety, contemplate on the Self

which is bereft of existence and non-existence,which is bereft of old age and death.

Do not have a deluded mind.

||

There is no pain for you.

There is no birth for you.

There is no mother for you.

There is no father for you.

O Intelligent one! You are the Self alone!

You are not any other thing whatsoever!

|

||

Son! Getting rid of faults in the form of various wants,

realizing the Self in the lotus of the heart by the contemplative Self,

completely renouncing the dirt of this pompous show of the world,

attain the Bliss of the Self, which is what is left over!


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CHAPTER TWELVE

Vasishta spoke

||

Thus enlightened by his brother Punya,

Paavana attained enlightenment

like the earth getting lighted by the sun rise.

||

Both of those blameless brothers

who had achieved the final state of realization

and had crossed the limits of knowledge and understanding,wandered in that forest as long they liked.

||

Then after sometime, they attained the state of final beatitude.

Freed from the bodies, having no attachments (Sneha) for anything or anybody,

they subsided into the Supreme

like the lights of the lamps disappear when the oil (Sneha) is over.

: s||

In this manner, for those who have gone through many births in the past,

the relatives connected to the bodies are countless.

Ah! What is got from them, by whom or

what is lost because of their absence, O Pure one!


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||

Therefore, for all these types of attachments and desires,

the only treatment is renouncement and not maintenance.

||

Thinking increases worries like the fire blazing high by the addition of fuel.

Non-thinking will kill the worry like the fire by the lack of fuel.

:

||

Climbing aboard the chariot of Dhyeya-Tyaaga,

with a broadened vision filled with love,

observing the state of the world as something to be pitied,

remain in the world and rise up.

s ||

This is the state of Brahman; the established state of the Self;without any desires; free of all afflictions.

O Mighty armed Rama!

After attaining this state, even an idiot will not get deluded.

||

Having two companions-

one the friend called Discrimination

and the other, the maturegirl-friend calledIntellect,if one wanders in the world,

he never gets deluded when met with problems.

||


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Except for an inbuilt-courage through which-one renounces all types of riches,

and throws the relatives out of his mind by shaking off their hands-

nothing else lifts one out of difficulties.

:||

The mind has to rise up by itself through effort

and get rid of the problems facing it,

through dispassion and help of scriptures and inbuilt virtues.

||

Neitherby all the riches of the three worlds,

nor by owning the treasure box of diamonds

that the mind can attain the fruit of Self-knowledge

other than the expansive view of its own greatness,

as the State of Brahman.

:

||

For the mind which is filled with the bliss of the Self,

the entire world becomes filled with the essence of nectar.For a person whose feet are covered by soft leather,

the ground feels soft wherever he walks.

||

The mind becomes filled with dispassion,

and does not chase the desired objects anymore.

It completely dries up the desires and becomes empty like the dried up ocean.It remains clear like the lake in the autumn season.

||


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For those who have freed their minds of desires,

the heart (mind) becomes empty and reveals what is inside the hollow,

like the ocean which has become empty by Sage Agastya drinking all its waters.

||

The full moon has no shine like that-

the overflowing milk ocean has no shine like that-

the pretty face of Goddess Lakshmi has no shine like that-

like the desire-less mind.

||

Thinking is called the quivering or vibration of the mind.

The mind remains alive because of desires.

Renouncing the quivering nature of the mind which is actually an unfulfilled want,

move in the world without a mind.

||

O Great one!

Remaining in the state of the Supreme Self,

with all wants completely destroyed,

remain bereft of the mind,

throwing away the shackles of Samsaara.

When the base desires which act as the binding ropes of the mind have melted off,

who does not become free!

PART TWO OF

SECTION FIVE UPASHAMA PRAKARANAM

COMPLETE


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About the Author:

Maa Tejasvini

The author spent many years doing research on ancient Sanskrit texts in the Himalayan

region. She was exposed to many unique spiritual experiences which are beyond human

comprehension.

Her mission in life was to translate all renowned spiritual texts and literature of Sanskrit

and bring them to the light of the public.


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yogavasishta upashama prakaranam part 2

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