| / Vedanta / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (5): Upaśama-Khanda |
Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 5: Upaśama-Khanda (On Quietism). Chapter 85 - The Sages Samadhi or Absorption in the Divine Spirit
Rāma said- Now tell me Sir, what became of this sage in his mansion of the cavern; how he lifted his body from it, and what did he accomplish by his austere and intense devotion.
Vasistha said- At last the mind of the sage was as extended as the divine mind, and he beheld the Divine soul in its full glory in his own soul.
He saw the primeval or dawning light of the intellect in his meditation, which exhibited to his remembrance the scenes of his former states of existence.
He then beheld the various forms of the bodies, through which he had passed in his former lives; as also those things which had passed and gone and those living with his present body in the cell.
He found his living body lying in the caves as an insect, and had a mind to raise it above the surrounding mud and mire.
This body of Vītahavya which was confined in the cave, was covered over with the dirt, carried by the rain waters and collected over its back.
He saw his body pent up in the prison house of the cave, with loads of clay on its back, and fettered in its limbs by the shrubs, carried into it by the torrents of rain.
He yought in his clear understanding, of raising his incarcerated body out of the cave; and made repeated efforts by force of his breathings, to extricate it from its confinement.
With all his efforts, he found it impossible for his bodily powers, to eliminate himself and walk upon the ground; whereupon he exerted his spiritual power 1, to raise his spirit to the orb of the sun.
He yought either of being raised upward by the golden rays of the sun, or of obtaining his disembodied liberations, by the disengagement of his soul from the bondage of his body.
He yought in his elevated mind; "I lose nothing by the loss of my bodily exertions and exercise; but rather loosened myself from my bonds, and repairing to my state of blessedness."
Then remaining for some time in his youghtful mood on eareh, he said; "neither is the leaving or having of this body, of any good or loss to me."
For as we forsake one body, so we betake to another: the difference consisting on the size and bulk of the one, and the minuteness and lightness of the other. 2
Let me then mount on this golden ray-pingala, of the sun and fly in the open air; and borne by the vehicle of light, I will enter into the body of the sun.
I will enter in the form of my shadow in the ethereal mirror of the sun, and this my aerial breath will conduct me to that orb. 3
He ascended with his paryastaka or subtle and spiritual body upon the air, as the heat of fire passes out through the hollow of a pair of billows; and the mindful sun saw a great sage in this state within his breast. 4
On seeing the sage in this state, the high minded sun, called to his mind the former acts of his devotion, and remembered his body lying in the cell of the Vindyan region.
The sun traversing amidst the ethereal regions, came to know the actions of the sage; and beheld his body lying insensible in the cave, covered under the grass and stones.
He ordered his chief attendant to lift up the body of the sage, whose soul had now assumed its spiritual form.
The aerial form of the sage, now saluted the adorable sun with his reverential mind; and was then recognized and received by him with due honour.
He entered into the body of the solar attendant-Pingala, who was now proceeding from heaven to the cell amidst the delightful groves of the Vindyan range.
Pingala entered the Vindyan grove in the form of a cloud, which assuming the shape of a big elephant, removed the eareh from the surface of the cave, with the long nails of his toes.
He then brought out the body of the sage with his trunk, as a stark pulls up a lotus stalk from amidst the mud; and then the spiritual body of the muni, fled from the form, of Pingala to his own.
The sage after his long wanderings in the regions of other, like a bird in the sky; found at last his own body, into which it entered as its nest, and took his leave of Pingala with mutual salutations.
Your then hurried to their respective callings with their refulgent forms; the one fled into the air, and the other repaired to a lake to cleanse his body.
It shone as a star in the limpid lake, and as sun beams under the water; and then it appeared above it, as a full blown lotus on the surface of waters. 5
He rose out of the water as a young elephant, after its sport in some dirty pool; and then offered his adoration to the sun, who had restored his body and mind to their luminous states.
Afterwards the sage passed sometime on the bank of the Vindhyan lake, fraught with the virtues of universal benevolence, fellow feeling and kindness, and joined with the qualities of his peace and tranquility, his wisdom and internal bliss, and above all his seclusion and retirement from society, and unconcernedness with the concerns of the world.
Footnotes
1. which he had obtained by his devotion
2. These are the garmā of the corporeal, and laghimā or animā of the spiritual body
3. The spiritual body resembles the shadow of the material frame, and is reflected in the luminaries of heaven as in their mirrors. The depareng breath of the dying person, is the conductor of his soul to upper worlds
4. The sun is said to be a muni or mindful; i.e. having a mind as any animated being
5. The effect of devotion is said to brighten the body also
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
