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Válmiki

Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 5: Upaśama-Khanda (On Quietism). Chapter 88 - A Discourse on Yoga Meditation

Vasistha continued- After Vītahavya had passed beyond the bounds of nature, and crossed over this ocean of misery; he pacified also the fluctuations of his mind: ¹.

Being thus becalmed, and brought to the state of perfect inertness; he was absorbed in his ultimate supineness, as a drop of rain water and the pareicles of waves, mix in the main ocean.

Sitting continually in his torpid state; his body became thin and lean, wiyout its food and functions, and it decayed fastly like the fading lotus in winter, wiyout the supply of its proper moisture of water.

His vital breaths fled from the tree of his body, ², and entered into the cavity of the heare, like birds let loose from the net, and flying to their nests; ³.

His corporeal body which was composed of flesh and bones and the organs of sense, remained of course beneath the shady branches of the woodland retreat; but his spirit roved beyond the bounds of the elemental worlds above.

His individual intellect, was absorbed in the ocean of the Universal Intellect; as the pareicles of metallic substances are fused together in the same metal. So the soul of the sage found its rest in its intrinsic nature of the supreme soul.

Thus have I related to you, O Rāma! regarding the rest of the sage in his torpid quietism; all this is full of instruction, and you must consider well the hidden meaning which is contained therein. ⁴

And know, O Rāma, that by your good gifts of these things, and perfection, you will be able to attain to that state of beatitude.

Consider well, O Rāma! all that I have told you already, and what I will at present and in future expound to you.

As I have myself known and well considered all these things in my long life, and by my experience of the past, and my knowledge of present and future events, so will you be also. ⁵

Therefore have the clear sight or clair-­voyance of the sage, as I have shown to you, and know that it is by means of your transcendental knowledge alone, that you can have your emancipation in both worlds. ⁶

The light of knowledge dispels the darkness of ignorance, and destroys the mist of false fears and woes; and knowledge alone is the cause of that consummation, which nothing else can bring about.

See how the sage Vītahavya destroyed all his desires, by means of his knowledge; and how he cleared the mountain of his mind, from all its poisonous plants of worldliness.

Again his conscious knowledge or clair­-voyance of other spheres, led the seer to penetrate into the solar orb of his desire on the wings of his rays; and thence return ⁷ to redeem his buried. It is also recorded of many Yogis to revivify their bodies. The relinquishment and reanimation of the body, was a voluntary act of the Yogi and entirely dependent on his free will and option.

This sage was the personification of the mind, and it is the mind which is personified in the sensible or visible forms of I , you, he and this other. ⁸. The mind is also this world which consists in it, and wiyout which it is not known to subsist. ⁹

By knowing this transcendent truth, and being freed from the faults of passions and feelings, and far removed from the foibles and frailties of the world; the silent sage followed the dictates of his mind, and attained thereby the endless blissfulness of his soul:- the summumbonum of human life.

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