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Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 5: Upaśama-Khanda (On Quietism). Chapter 75 - On Mancipation and Emancipation

Vasistha continued- See, Janaka the king employed in the government of his realm, and yet liberated in his lifetime from his bondage in the world; by means of his mental release from all its cares and anxieties.

Remember your grand sire Dilīpa, who though deeply engaged in his state affairs, had yet enjoyed his long and peaceful reign, owing to the dispassionateness of his disposition; ¹.

Think of intelligent Manu who ruled over his people, freed from all his passions and affections; and bring to your mind, how he ruled over in peace, his realm and who was as an examplar of liberation in his lifetime.

Remember how the monarch Māndhātā, had obtained the blessed state of his affranchisement; though he was incessantly engaged in various warfares and state affairs.

Think of Bali, who while he was confined in the infernal region, conducted himself in his virtuous course, and became liberated in his lifetime, by his unbounded bounty and want of attachment to the world.

Namuci the lord of Dānavas, who carried continued wars and contentions against the gods; was notwithstanding cool and quiet in his mind: ².

Vrtra the Asura who fell in his battle with the god Indra, was however, of a great and calmly quiet mind, as long as he fought with him: ³.

Prahlāda the prince of the Daityas, dwelling in the demoniac world underneath the ground, dispensed his dispensations to them, with an unruffled and glad-some mind; ⁴.

Sambara the demon, who was a sorcerer in warfare, was as cool blooded as water in his heart; whereby he was delivered from the sorcery of the world, as a fleet deer flying from the dart. ⁵

The demon Kusala also, whose mind was not fettered to the world, waged on unprofitable war against Visnu; from whom he obtained his spiritual knowledge, and his deliverance from this temporary scene.

Look at fire how free and uncompressed it is, while it answers for the month of gods, and serves to intromit for them the oblations that are offered to it, and perform the endless works of fusion for them. ⁶

See the gods drinking the juice of Some plants, and presiding over the endless functions of the world; are ever as free as air: ⁷.

Jupiter the leader of the gods, and Moon the pursuer of his wife-Rohini, have been continually performing their revolutions, without changing their place in heaven; and so the other planets also.

Śukra-(Venus) the learned preceptor of the Asura demons, shines in the same manner in the heavenly sphere, and runs in his unvaried course, of protecting the interests of the Asuras.

See also the winds to be flying freely at all times, and through all the worlds, with their charge of enlivening and giving motion to all bodies.

See Brahmā continuing in the same unchangeable state of his mind, and giving life and velocity to all beings, which have been therety continually moving about in the world.

The lord Hari, though ever liberated from every bond, has been continually employed in his contests and combats with the Asuras as if in sport.

The three-eyed god Śiva, though ever freed from all concerns, is joined in one body with his dearer half the beauteous Gaurī, in the manner of a lover enamoured of his beloved one.

The fair Hara you ever free, is bound to the embrace of his fairy Gourī, and was as a crescent of the fair moon, or as a lace of pure pearls about her neck.

The heroic Skanda who was of vast understanding, and like a sea of the gems of his learning, and perfectly free ⁸, made war with Taraka of his free will.

Mark how Bhrngī the attendant of Śiva, was absorbed in his meditation, and thinking himself to be free from the burden of his body, made a free offering of his blood and flešh to his goddess Gaurī.

The sage Nārada, who was of a liberated nature from his very birth, and resigned the world and all its concerns altogether, was still engaged in many affairs with his cool understandings.

The honorable Visvāmitra who is now present here, is liberated in his life time, and yet he does not slight to preside at sacrifices, solemnized according to the ritual of the sacred veda.

The infernal snake bears the earth of its head, and the sun makes the day by turns; the god of death is ever employed in his act of destruction, and still they are all free agents of their acts.

There are many others among the Yaksas, Suras and Asuras of the world, who are all liberated in their life time, and still employed in their respective employments.

What numbers of them are employed in worldly affairs, and how many more are engaged in different courses of life; and still they are cold blooded and cool headed within themselves, and as still and quiet as cold stones without.

Some attaining the acme of their understanding, have retired to solitude, to pass their lives in abstract meditation; and among these are the venerable Bhrgu and Bharadvāja, Śukra and Visvāmitra ⁹.

Many among mankind were rulers of their realms, and held the exalted canopy and chouri and other ensigns of royalty on their heads, and were not less distinguished for the piety and spirituality at the same time. Among these, the conduct of the royal personages Janaka, Saryāti and Māndhātr, stand preeminent above the rest.

Some among the living-liberated, are situated in the planetary spheres, and are thence adored by their devotees for their blessings on the world. Of these Jupiter and Venus, the Sun and Moon, are the deities of gods, demons and human kind.

Some among the deities, are seated in their heavenly vehicles, and continually ministering to the wants of all created beings, as the regents of fire, air, water and death and Tumburu and Nārada.

Some situated in the secluded regions of Pātāla, are equally distinguished both for their holiness and piety; such as Bali, Suhotra, Andha, Prahlāda and others.

Among beasts of the field and fowls of the air, and inferior animals, you will find many intelligent beings, and among the demigods there are some that are foolish minded.

Thus it is possible for the universal soul that resides everywhere, and is at all times the same, to show itself in any form in any being according to its will, ¹⁰.

It is the multifarious law of His eternal decree, and the manifold display of His infinite power, that invests all things with multiform shapes and diverse capacities, as they appear to us.

This law of divine decree is the lord of all, and embodies in itself the creative, preservative and destructive powers under the titles of Brahmā, Visnu and Śiva. These names are indicative of the intelligent faculties of the universal soul.

It is not impossible for the supreme soul, to reside in all bodies in any manners it likes; it presides sometimes in the manner of the grains of pure gold, amidst worthless sands and dust; and at others as the mixture of some base metal in pure gold.

Seeing some good connected with or resulting from evil, our inclinations would lead us even to the evil, ¹¹; were it not for fear of the sinfulness of the act and its consequent punishment, that we are deterred from doing it. ¹²

We see sometimes something substantial arising from the unsubstantial, as we arrive to the substantial good of divine presence, by means of the unsubstantial meditation of his negative attributes: ¹³.

What never existed before, comes to existence at sometime or place unknown to us; as the horns of hare which are never to be seen in nature, are shown to us in magic play, and by the black are of sorcery.

Those which are seen to exist firm and solid as adamant, become null and void and disperse in air; as the sun and moon, the earth and mountains, and the godlike people of the antediluvian world.

Seeing these changes in the state of things, you must give up, O mighty armed Rāma! your joy and grief on any occasion, and preserve the equanimity of your mind at all times.

The unreal ¹⁴ seems as real, and the sober reality ¹⁵, appears as a non-eptity in nature; resign therefore your reliance in this deceitful world, and preserve the equanimity of your mind under all circumstances.

It is true that your gain nothing by you resignation of the world; and it is equally true on the other hand, that you lose nothing by your getting rid of its unrealities by yourself.

But it is true, O Rāma! that you gain a certain good by your getting rid of this world; and it is your riddance from the manifold evils and mischances, which are unavoidable concomitants with this life.

Again you obtain the certain gain of your salvation, by your resignation of the world, which you can never earn by your attachment to it. Therefore strive for your liberation by purging your mind from its attachments to the world.

He who wishes for his prosperity, must take the pains to have an insight of his soul; because a single glimpse of the soul, is sure to cut off all the pains and pangs of the world from their root.

There are many dispassionate and disconnected men, even in the present age; who are liberated in their lifetime, like the sacrificial king Janaka and others.

So you too are liberated for life, for your having an unpassionate and unprejudiced mind, and may manage to conduct yourself with your tolerant spirit, like the patient earth, stone and move-less metals.

There are two kinds of liberation for living beings, viz: one in their present life and body, and the other after separation of life from the body, both of which admit of some varieties as you will hear afterwards.

First of all the peace of mind, from its unconcernedness with everything is termed its liberation; and it is possible to be had by the sinless man either in this life or in the next.

Lessening of affections is fraught with the bliss of soliety (Kaivalya), and it is possible to become impossible both in the embodied as will as disembodied states of life.

He who lives in perfect apathy and without his affection for any body, is called the living liberated man; but the life which is bound by its affections is said to be in bondage; or else it is free as air.

It is possible to obtain liberation, by means of diligent inquiry and reasoning; or else it is as difficult to come to it, as it is hard for a lame man to leap over a hole, though as small as the foot-mark of a cow-gospada.

For know, O Rāma of great soul, that the soul! should not be cast into misery by your neglect of it, or by subjecting it through ignorance to its affection for others. ¹⁶

He who relies on his patience, and employs his mind, and cogitates upon the supreme soul in his own soul, for the attainment of his consummation; finds the deep abyss of the world, as a small chink in his vast comprehension.

The high station to which an itelligent had attained by his patience, and from which the prince fall to acceptieism by his impatience; and that summum bonum which is reached at by great minds, is the fruit of the tree of diligent inquiry, which like the Kalpa arbor, yields all what is desired of it.

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