YOGA-VASISTHA: BODY, MIND AND SOUL

The text of Yoga-Vasistha is based on questions from Sri Rāma, the main character of the Rāmayana of Sage Valmiki, and answers by Sage Vasistha. Stories and fables tell much of the text of Yoga-Vasistha, revolving around the idea that our own sense perception of the illusionary world causes worldly miseries. It affirms that whatever we perceive on the outside is merely a reflection of thoughts manufactured by our thought machine, the mind. Within the body, mind, and intellect combination, the mind is the most dynamic. In terms of subtlety, speed, thought, quickness, ability to produce ideas and think critically, and multidimensionality, it is omnipresent and pervasive. A mind is a collection of ideas, according to Swami Sivananda. He continues by saying that the idea "I" is the primary and fundamental thought of all thoughts. The mind uses sensory mechanisms to process information and carry out actions. However, due to its inability to function independently, the mind's primary weakness is attachment. A basic aspect of the mind is attachment. Its sense organs enable it to form a connection with outside objects. Following the dissipation of such sense, grief and pain reappear.

We need to move beyond the transient to the realm of the sentient to become conscious of the Ātman (Self or Soul) that is eternal, imperishable, self-luminous, and one with the Cosmic-Self. By realising this, one can elevate oneself in the journey toward moksha, or liberation. There are four gatekeepers at the gate to the realm of Moksha, or liberation. They, as per Yoga-Vasistha, are Shānti (quiescence of mind), Santosha (contentment), Satsanga (association with sages), and Vichāra (atmic inquiry)—the four sentinels who guard the gates of Moksha. If you make friends with them, you will easily enter the kingdom of Moksha. Even if you keep company with one of them, he will surely introduce you to his other three companions. The student should have an unshakeable conviction that Brahmān is the only Reality, that everything is Brahmān, and that Brahmān is the very Self of all beings. Then he should realise this truth through direct cognition or intuition (Aparokshanubhava). This direct knowledge of Brahmān alone is the means of liberation.

1. Outline

 Yoga-Vasistha, an work of Sage Valmiki, is a discourse by Sage Vasistha to Sri Rāma upon His Vairagya (detachment) towards the world of phenomena of ephemeral. It arises following His long tour of Bhāratvarsha to get a first hand insight into the peoples lives, social, economic and political. But unintended and undesired thoughts of Vairagya (detachment) creeps into His mind. He views that the world is full of miseries, sorrows, pain, falsity and ephemerality. Sage Vasistha was entrusted with the responsibility by King Dasaratha, the father, to get Sri Rāma on track to His natural royal enshrined duties.

Swami Sivananda, in his commentary on Yoga-Vasistha, stated that the lectures of Sage Vasistha to Sri Rāma encompass the science of ontology, knowledge of the Ātman (Self), psychology, science of emotions, ethics and practical morality, discourses on theology, etc. In his teachings to Sri Rāma, Sage Vasistha emphasises that the universe is nothing more than a variety of Māyā (illusion) and that the only consciousness in the universe is Caitanya (consciousness) in its purest form, which may be seen through Divine Vision. In his discourses to Sri Rāma, Sage Vasistha emphasises

antaḥ saṃtyaktasarvāśo vītarāgo vivāsanaḥ |

bahiḥ sarvasamācāro loke vihara rāghava || 18 || (Yoga-Vasishta, Verse 5.18.18)

Being free from all your inward passions and feelings of affection, and having given up all your desires and expectations, continue in the performance of your outward duties in this world.

pūrṇāṃ dṛṣṭimavaṣṭabhya dhyeyatyāgavilāsinīm |

jīvanmuktatayā svastho loke vihara rāghava || 17 || (Yoga-Vasishta, Verse 5.18.17)

 Being free from all your inward passions and feelings of affection, and having given up all your desires and expectations, continue in the performance of your outward duties in this world. Therefore, Rāghava (Sri Rāma)! Keep your sight on the full view of your spirit by retracting it from the external visibles and internal thoughts, and conduct yourself in this world as one liberated in his lifetime.

udāraḥ peśalācāraḥ sarvācārānuvṛttimān |

antaḥ sarvaparityāgī loke vihara rāghava || 19 || (Yoga-Vasishta, Verse 5.18.19)

 Being magnanimous, gracious, and amicable with all worldly norms, but having given up everything inwardly, move about in this world, Rāghava! Follow all your duties in life with a noble pliability of your disposition, but preserve the philosophic renunciation of everything in your mind and conduct yourself accordingly in this world.

 2. Scriptures

 You shall be released from the shackles of reincarnation and death, according to Sage Vasistha, if you come to understand the Self, or Brahma Jñāna. Your doubts will all disappear, and your Karmas will all burn away. A person can achieve the eternal, blissful Brahmic seat only by their own efforts. Later on, in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna reiterated this.

eṣhā brāhmī sthitiḥ pārtha naināṁ prāpya vimuhyati

sthitvāsyām anta-kāle ’pi brahma-nirvāṇam ṛichchhati (2.72)

O Partha, such is the state of an enlightened soul that having attained it, one is never again deluded. Being established in this consciousness even at the hour of death, one is liberated from the cycle of life and death and reaches the Supreme Abode of God.

Ātman, or Soul, or Self, is eternal, unattached, self-luminous, and imperishable. In this backdrop, Sage Vasistha set his discourses for Rāghava (Sri Rāma).

Men whose souls are expanded and contented with the delight of their habitual unattachment to worldliness have set themselves above the reach of internal sorrow and fear, notwithstanding their engagement in worldly affairs.He whose mind is freed from the feverishness of the world, by his reliance in the intellect and remaining apart from the objects of intellection, throws a lustre over his associates, as the clearing kata fruit purifies the water wherein it is put. It is impossible to evade the impressions of the outer world until and unless the mind is strengthened in itself. It becomes strong by its knowledge of the Cosmic Self, removing the foulness of its fancied objects, and by meditation and enjoyment of the light of the soul, even when the mind is not in its meditative mood.It is by means of spiritual communion and internal rapture that the mind loses its attachments, and it is only through knowledge of the soul, and in no other way, that our worldly associations wear out of themselves.

It gains strength through meditation and the enjoyment of the soul's light, even when the mind is not in a meditative state, as well as through awareness of the Cosmic Self, which purges the foulness of its fancied things. The mind can only let go of its attachments through spiritual communication and internal rapture. Our worldly associations can only become obsolete through an understanding of the soul. Sage Vasistha says, O Rāma, in your state of hypnotism—Susupta, and continue in your course of worldly duties even in that state; so as your mind like the moon in painting may not be subject to its waning phases, nor be seized by any alarm.

Do not think that the waste or stability of your body can affect the state of your intellect, because the body bears no relation to the mind and is but an erroneous conception of the brain. Do not think, Sage Vasistha remarks, that the waste or stability of your body can affect the state of your intellect because the body bears no relation to the mind and is but an erroneous conception of the brain. Although the body is nothing, it must not be destroyed by any means, because you gain nothing by destroying it nor lose anything by its firmness; but remain in the continuance of your duties and leave the body to go on in its own wanted course.

 Sage Vasistha discourses that God presides over the world; you have understood the Divine nature in all its three-fold states; you have attained your true state of spirituality; and you are freed from your worldly sorrows.

You have got rid of your liking and disliking what you desire or despise and are graced with the cooling light of your reason; you have got out of the dark cloud of prejudice and have become as graceful as the autumnal sky with the lustre of the full moon of your intellect shining over it. Your mind has got its own possession and does not lower itself to meaner things; it has become as perfect as those that are accomplished in their devotion, so that you would not deign to stoop to earth from that higher sphere.

This is the region of the pure and uniform intellect, having no bounds to it, nor are there the false landmarks of "I, and thou, this and that, mine and thine and such like errors. This Divine Intellect is attributed with the imaginary title of Ātman, or Self, or else there is no occasion for the distinction of names and forms, with that being who is quite distinct from all. As the sea is a vast body of water, with its waves of the same element and no way different from it, so is all this plenum composed of the pure soul, and this earth and water are no other than themselves. As you see nothing in the ocean except the vast body of water, you find nothing in the sphere of the universe except the one universal soul.

Sage Vasistha says, O' Sri Rāma, what is it to which you apply the terms yourself, itself, and the like; what is it that you call yourself and to belong to you, and what is that other which is not yourself nor belongs to you?

There being no duality beside the only soul, there can be no material body at all, nor is there any relation between this and that other than there is between the light of the sun and the gloom of night. Supposing the existence of a duality, yet I will tell you, O Sri Rāma, that the existence of material bodies bears no relation to the spiritual soul. As light and shade and darkness and sunshine bear no relation to one another, the embodied soul has no connection with the body.

Cold and hot can never combine together, so the body and soul can never join with one another. As the two opposites can have no relation between them, so can the body and soul, the one being dull matter and the other an intelligent principle. The sight of truth removes every false appearance, just as the knowledge of light in the sandy desert displaces the mirage of the ocean in the sunbeams. The intellectual soul is immortal and undecaying and perfectly pure and shining by itself, while the body is perishable and impure and cannot therefore be related to the spirit. The body is moved by the vital breath, is fattened by solid foods, and cannot therefore be related to the self-moving soul, which is without its increase or decrease.

Sage Vasistha reiterates that as we never hear of the union of cold and hot even in stories, nor of the junction of light and darkness in any place, such is the want of union between the soul and body, which bear no relation nor comparison between themselves; such is the case also, O Sri Rāma! between the body and soul, which are quite different from one another.

All bodies are moved by the air, and the human body moves to and fro by its breath; it is sonant by means of its breath and the machinery of its wind pipes. The human body utters its articulate sounds, combined with the letters of the alphabet, and by means of its internal breathing. Its mechanism is the same as that of a sounding bambu pipe.

So it is the internal air that moves the pupils and the eyelids; it is the same air that gives motion to the limbs of the body; but it is the intellect that moves the soul and gives movement to its consciousness. The soul is present in all places, whether in heaven above or in the worlds beneath, and its image is seen in the mind as its mirror. As the knowledge of the flower is accompanied by that of its odour, so the knowledge of the soul is inseparable from that of the mind. As the all-pervading sky is partly seen in a mirror, so is the omnipresent soul, which is partially seen in the mirror of the mind.

The knowledge of the reality or unreality of the world, which is reflected upon the internal organ of the mind, is all the working of the conscious soul, as light is the production of solar rays. This internal organ of the mind is regarded as the actual cause of all, while the soul, which is the prime cause of causes, is regarded as no cause at all, owing to its transcendent nature. It is ignorance that mistakes the mind for the cause of creation and recognises it under its various denominations, such as jiva, or the living soul, the internal organ, the mind, the thinking principle, and the thought. The several titles bestowed upon the singular object of the mind are merely the diverse manifestations of the one essence of the soul, whose intelligence demonstrates these modalities; analogously, the identical substance of water manifests itself in the multiplicity of its waves within an ocean. The soul is a dynamic essence that exists in all of its forms, just as water's fluidity exists in the sea's undulating waves. At times, the ultimate spirit ceases to vibrate and remains still within everything immovable, just like water exhibits both fluidity and inelasticity when it is in a resting state.

The infinite soul, being involved in that ignorance, takes the name of the living or animal soul, which is confined as an elephant in the prison house of the delusion of this world. It is called jiva, or the living substance of a living being, and also as the ego from its egoism; it is termed the understanding from its power of discernment; and as the mind from its will or volition. Thus, realise, O long-armed Sri Rāma, that this dynamic soul—rather than the lifeless, dull body that is incapable of acting on its own unless prompted by a spiritual force—is the source of creation. Therefore, while the body is wasted, the embodied soul is not subjected to it; it is consigned to live in exile from its previous home and dwell in the area of empty air, or the reservoir of the universal spirit. Bound by their needs, living creatures move endlessly from one body to another, much as monkeys leave the forest's decaying trees in search of other places to live.

 3. Remarks

Breathing and Desire are the two seeds that produce the human body plant and its worldly fruits. According to Sage Vasistha, the physical body is the source or origin of this world's arbour. This seed is the desire that lies dormant in the body's heart and blossoms profusely into both good and harmful actions and deeds. The mind, which is the body's seed, is a slave to every want it has. Its treasure house is composed of alternating poverty and riches, and the gems of both joy and grief are kept in its casket. The mind is the one that expands this web of truth and falsity in dreams and visions, just as it does in reality and unreality. The mind presents the image of the illusory body as real, just as the dying man imagines death's messengers standing before him. Just as toys and pots are made of clay, so too are all these forms and figures that we see in these realms as creations of the mind.

-Asutosh Satpathy