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CAUSES OF BONDAGE

Moksha , or liberation, is intertwined in the relationship between the observer (the seer) and the observed (the world). Yoga-Vasistha (3.1.1-48) delves into the causes of bondage to it. It says the root cause of suffering is the bonding, or the relationship between the observer (mind) and the observed (manifest objects). The mind paints its world and then gets lost in the painting. That is the relationship between the mind and the objects. That relationship is a mental trap; when the mind fastens itself to an object of sight, sound, or desire, it becomes tethered to it. This mental attachment to the external world through the sensory organs is the root cause of bondage. The sensory organs constantly feed exterior information to the mind, provoking desires, attachments, and egoism. The mind acts like a mirror. When it reflects external objects and mistakes those reflections for Ultimate Reality, it enters into the myriad nets of Maya , or a state of illusion. This cycle keeps the Jivat...
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BEING ALONE AND BEING IN CREATION

Brahman is “Real, Consciousness, and Infinite", asserts Taittiriya Upanishad (Book II-Brahmavalli, Chapter IV). The Upanishad says Brahman is infinite in three respects—in respect of time, in respect of place, and in respect of things, respectively. Akasa , or space, for example, is infinite in space; for there is no limit to it in space. But Akasa is not infinite either in respect of time or in respect of things, because it is an effect (Kārya) . Adi Shankaracharya in his introduction to Taittiriya Upanishad says, "From whom is born the whole universe, in whom alone it is dissolved, and by whom alone is this upheld— to that Self who is Consciousness be this bow!" Before the creation of the universe, "Being alone was," or "Existence alone was," proclaims Chandogya Upanishad (6.2.1-2). The Upanishad states: sadeva somyedamagra āsīdekamevādvitīyam |  taddhaika āhurasadevedamagra āsīdekamevādvitīyaṃ tasmādasataḥ sajjāyata || kutastu khalu somyaivaṃsyā...
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SCARCITY AMIDST PLENTY

You are Atman (Self), the imperishable, eternal Witness Consciousness. You are that eternal Witness Consciousness, the changeless and self-luminous Ultimate Reality. You are the unchanging observer of the body-mind complex, its actions, and thoughts. The Jivatma , or the individual self, is identical to Brahman , or the Universal Self. It is beyond attributes and untouched by birth, death, time, space, and causation. You need to be aware of the Ultimate Reality that you are an inseparable essence of Brahman . You need only to arise, awake to the goal of realisation of Self, so says Swami Vivekananda in his clarion call to humanity. He says to arise, awake, and shake off the deep sleep of ignorance, weakness, and self-doubt. the sharp edge of a razor is that path. Swami Vivekananda popularised the assertion of Katha Upanishad (1.3.14): ' Uttishthata Jagrata ' – 'Arise! Awake!' from the slumber of Avidya , or ignorance. Realise that Atman having approached the exalted te...
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SEEKER AND SPEAKER

An enquirer is an earnest seeker of Self-knowledge, who asks fervent questions to the speaker, or preceptor, to clear his doubts clouded by Avidya , or ignorance. Both the seeker and the preceptor are persons of perceptive virtues unparalleled in humility, transparency, honesty, tranquillity, dispassion, discipline, endurance and equanimity. The only difference between the two is that the teacher, or speaker, is a person who has realised Self and seen Truth, and the other is a seeker of Self-knowledge, and of Truth. The seeker seeks to dismantle the veil of ignorance and the illusionary edifice of Maya , or illusion, by asking questions not out of mere curiosity, pride, or intellectual vanity but to remove the Avidya , or ignorance, for Atma-jñāna (Self-knowledge) or Ātma-darśana (Self-realisation). Those whose minds are turned from this world, emphasises Swami Sivananda, and who have become indifferent towards the objects of this world and who are thirsting for liberation are real s...
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PARALLEL REALITIES

Ours is one among the perceptibly innumerable parallel ones, asserts Yoga-Vasistha (3.7.1-45), coexisting with myriad others as a projection of the interplay of Maya , or illusion, and Mahat , or the Cosmic Mind. Maya is non-existent, and so also is the mind, and anything that comes out from that interplay is of illusionary ones of finitude. All the same manifestly illusionary processes and symbols can manifest only that. All these finitudes coexist with similar others of infinite-dimensional multiverses with subsumption under 'Rta', or the cosmic order of Existence One only. It is the fundamental principle of natural, moral, and cosmic harmony. It asserts that every element of manifest and unmanifest existence operates in an interdependent, unified system. And Brahman , or Cosmic Self, is the Ultimate Reality, the singular, unchangeable, eternal and infinite One only that encompasses all multiplicity and diversity across space, time and causation. The concepts of parallel rea...
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MIND-CREATION AND CAUSATION

The cosmological descriptions include mind as emerging in the creative process or as a crucial subtle layer and the chain of cause-and-effect from Brahman to the manifest world. The Upanishadic texts often portray creation as a hierarchical emanation from Pure Consciousness, or Brahman , with mind (Manas) arising as an intermediary principle of causation involving Kama , or desire; Ikshana , or sight, seeing, or a look; Aasakti , or attachment; and Maya , or illusionary appearance. However, the same texts emphasise tapas (austerity, will, or concentration) and Dhyana , or meditation, all of which resolve back into the non-dual source. In the exploration of memory and existence, Yoga-Vasistha (3.3.1–3.3.40) establishes that all memories and experiences are mental projections rather than tangible records. Yoga-Vasistha (3.3.1–3.3.40) poses and responds to the fundamental question, "All beings are bound by their Karmas , and desires, gross as well as subtle, but the firstborn Brahm...
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A PSYCHOPHYSICAL FRAMEWORK

A person with an unsteady and uncontrolled mind becomes easily vulnerable to a matrix of psychophysical frameworks. That matrix envelops them in a transient sphere of illusory entrapment, distancing them from their original true Self, which is the eternal, inseparable, and undifferentiated essence of Brahman , or Cosmic Self: " Aham Brahmāsmi ", or "I am Brahman " (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.4.10); " Pragyanam Brahma ", or "Consciousness is Brahman " or " Brahman is the Ultimate Reality" (Aitareya Upanishad, 3.3); " Tat Tvam Asi ", or "Thou art That" (Chandogya Upanishad, 6.8.7); and " Ayam Atma Brahma ", or "This Self is Brahman" (Mandukya Upanishad, 1.2). Srimad Bhagavad Gita (2.14-16) expresses this illusionary entrapment, as the contact between the senses and the sense objects gives rise to fleeting perceptions of happiness and distress. These are non-permanent and come and go, like the wint...
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