Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 99, February 11
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Ganesaya Namaha
Sri Saraswatyai Namaha
Sripada Vallabha
Narasimha Saraswati
Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha
Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Sadgurubhyo Namaha
asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrityor ma amrtam gamaya
Om Santissantissantihi
Please lead me from untruth to Truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. May there be peace.
Yoga Vasishtha Dhyana Slokas:
yatassarvāṇi bhūtāni pratibhānti sthitāni ca
yatraivōpaśamaṁ yānti tasmai satyātmanē namaḥ || 1
jñātā jñānaṁ tathā jñēyaṁ draṣṭādarśana dr̥śyabhūḥ
kartā hētuḥ kriyā yasmāt tasmai jñaptyātmanē namaḥ || 2
sphuranti sīkarā yasmāt ānanandasyāṁbarē vanau
sarvēṣām jīvanam tasmai brahmānandātmanē namaḥ || 3
Om santissantissantihi
Vasishtha praised Sri Rama for His naturally acquired dispassion/Vairagya. You are an eligible disciple and I wish to instruct you. Whatever you are taught will bear fruit.
Rama, please lend me your ears and listen attentively. Whatever one is listening to or doing, full concentration must be placed there. Your dispassion, equanimity, self-restraint, purity of mind, and virtue are all fully developed in you.
We see this tendency in animals. Dogs, horses, and cows raise their ears to listen attentively to their masters or to music. Much research has been done recently. Listening to music makes cows yield more milk, dogs become more loyal, and horses run faster. Any music, here referred to as the sound of Veena, benefits animals/living beings greatly.
Scholarship, and association with good souls, along with penance, and self-control (as a branch of a tree bends to your will) are all your attributes. O Rama, you penetrate deeply into any subject. Therefore, whatever is taught to you will be fruitful.
Tatva Mahatmya is the next sarga.
Jada Svabhava is laziness or inertia. People set the alarm but shut it off repeatedly and wake up late in the morning. This is sloth. They miss their classes, and even exams and interviews. One must pray to Mother Saraswati to dispel the weakness of laziness. Saraswati fills a lazy person with the spark of activity. Sloth causes all kinds of troubles.
Unless laziness is nipped in the bud, one’s life gets wasted. Just as you miss a bus or a flight if you arrive late, similarly, your lifetime itself will be missed if you keep postponing and procrastinating. Never encourage that tendency.
Flowing water solidifies in winter time and becomes hard, solid ice. At Niagara Falls you witness this. Laziness will turn one into a rock. Glacier is harder than rock. Unless it melts very slowly, it will cause inundation. It is now a danger due to global warming. With inertia, even the mind and intellect become solid as rock and will not function. Ahalya was cursed due to Indra’s mischief. When Sri Rama entered the ashrama of Gowtama, the dust from His feet touched the rock and Ahalya was released from her curse. When she appeared, instead of her bowing to Rama, Rama fell at her feet.
One must not allow the intellect to become dull. It must be kept sharp and active. Whether in worldly affairs or in spirituality, an alert mind is most essential. Negligence and absent-mindedness can cause one great problems.
santu ..
Rama, in you, even a trace laziness cannot be detected. Rama is most virtuous. A country should have plentiful water supply for it to thrive. That is why in the patriotic Vande Mataram song, it says sujalaam.
Rama, you grasp the essence of the scriptures that are taught to you. Your intellect has blossomed like a lotus at sunrise.
verse
This is a great guidance to all students. Sri Rama is none other than Lord Vishnu Himself, no doubt. As if he is praising Rama, Vasishtha is indirectly exhorting us all to ever remain as students, ready to learn eagerly.
Mere listeners may be one hundred. Five of them will perhaps understand the lesson. Perhaps one among them, if any, will put into practice what has been learned.
Rama, you are eager to learn. I feel very happy to see that readiness in you. The way the animals wait to listen to good music, you are eager to listen to my instruction.
A few years ago, Swamiji’s healing music was played to the cows in the cow shelter. A disease that the veterinary doctor said would take 20 days to cure, was cured in 3 days.
During harvest time, much music is used in the fields by the villagers.
When a band music begins to play in the meadow, the animals gather around to listen. Music has that power to attract different creatures.
Student should go to school prepared to learn. Listeners should go to a concert, prepared and ready to listen with full attention.
A wife asked a husband where she should hide her pocket money. Wherever I hide, our son steals it, she said. The husband said: hide it in his text books. He will never open the books. Your money will be safe there.
During exam time, the students become very tense because they do not regularly study. Similarly, in spirituality, daily practice is very essential.
vairagya ..
Rama, make a more deliberate effort to retain what you hear from me. Develop your focus. Be one-pointed. Increase your virtues. Dispassion and practice will make it possible to control your mind from wandering.
Concentrate on a lamp light or a picture, and then even when you close your eyes, the imprint will appear on the mental screen.
In the Bhagavad Gita also it is said by Lord Krishna that it is possible to achieve concentration, although it is difficult. Placing a ladder to go up in the sky is not possible. More effort is needed to control the mind, but it is possible to achieve.
Know by reading the scriptures, what is possible to achieve and what is impossible to achieve.
These days beggars do not come to our homes. We have to go looking for them to give them food.
No one should be allowed to starve. Good natured deeds will always yield great benefits.
Sastra sajjana
What is the benefit of studying the scriptures? It is to attain liberation. We wish to be rid of our sorrows. It is a common universal wish. To know what real happiness is, and to make a proper effort to achieve it, one must first develop good intelligence, and an eagerness to strive for proper judgment. Associate with saintly souls. Exercise judgment in utilizing your presence in an ashram. Read scriptures or meditate while you are here. Do not misuse your time by engaging in gossip. Do penance or perform austerities. Do not complain about comforts lacking here. An ashram is not a five star hotel. It is a comfortable place, no doubt, but one should not demand luxuries.
In Bonsai garden you notice how the trunk and branches of the trees are trained with twisted wire. Similarly, the mind can be controlled and trained to remain calm and composed. Sama and Dama are like twins – restraint of mind and organs.
The aged cannot control organs but they can control their minds. One supports the other. The sense organs try to run away like horses. They have to be kept under control.
One should have clarity in understanding what the goal of life is and the procedure for reaching it. This is the difference between Yoga and Vedanta. One explains the training techniques and the other defines the goal to be reached.
Nothing is achieved overnight. But daily practice gives good results. School children have to wear a uniform to remind them of their student status.
There is no remedy for foolishness. But by following my methods, one can get rid of foolishness, says Sage Vasishtha.
yadidam
Even if Yoga Vasishtha is studied a little bit, a certain mental development occurs. It is because of some merit earned in a past life, our Sadguru has granted us this opportunity to follow this spiritual path. It is so difficult to even get the inclination to turn towards this path.
A mind that is cultured is free from foolish ignorance.
Birth and death called Samsara, is a poisonous tree. This Samsara is at the root of all sorrow. Instead of searching for the root cause of suffering, we simply worry and go hither and thither wastefully.
A doctor may give a pill for temporary relief. But alongside he finds the root cause for the problem. While treating a headache, he gives a medicine for indigestion in Ayurveda, because the indigestion was the cause of the headache.
One should at least develop an inkling that birth and death are the basic cause of all difficulties. All other reasons are secondary.
Rama, therefore, since this ignorance drowns everyone in delusion, be very alert. Even ace swimmers are sometimes carried away in the gushing force of water. But non-swimmers have no chance of survival whatsoever. A strong swimmer at least stands a chance of rescuing himself.
There are those idiots who think it is fashionable to say that they are happy in their blissful ignorance. Everyone must make an effort to learn the Truth. People should not simply follow the mob foolishly.
duraashaa sarpa
Greed is like the sting of a serpent. It prevents one from following the straight path of Dharma. It forces one to follow a crooked path. The mind becomes crooked. The mind should be broadened. One should not allow the mind to become narrow and constricted. Just as skin that gets scorched or burned, loses its elasticity, the mind also shrinks with disuse.
We must listen well, and study well to learn the ability to differentiate between the real and the unreal. Just as the light of the full moon gives us clarity of vision, knowledge gives us clarity of understanding.
verse
One must develop the skill of subtle understanding. One must develop the technique of making the mind blossom. Only one who makes a deliberate effort to develop the mind deserves to be called a human being.
verse
O Rama, your mind is calm, stable and capable of grasping subtle concepts. Your deep contemplation has given you a serene and pure mind. Just as moonlight fills the sky, your virtues fill your entire being.
Rama is born in the lineage of the Sun and yet, He is compared to the full moon.
Krishna was born in the lineage of the Moon and He is described as radiant as countless suns.
Tatva mahatmya is the next topic. Many ask why we should listen to Vedanta philosophy. They want to know what the benefit is in learning about it.
We will continue tomorrow.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta
Om Santissantissantihi