Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 152, June 20
Sri Sadgurubhyo namaha
Om Santissantissantihi
Treat Vedanta as a science. First listen, and learn the theory. Later the practical experience will occur. You cannot expect to experience while you are listening. This is Science of Brahman. Brahma Jnana. The Science of the Individual, Jeeva Sastra. To remove our delusions is its purpose. This is guidance given from Guru. Listen, ponder, contemplate, and then the experience will occur. This is eternal knowledge. We have many misconceptions. We must get rid of them. If you listen with attention, the right questions will arise in your minds and the correct answers will arrive. If you ask out of ignorance, without listening, the wrong questions emerge in your mind, and they will not yield the right answers.
Therefore, let us properly listen and clear our doubts.
Everyone in the world is afraid of death. We always think of death. While alive, think about this nectar of life you are enjoying. Do not anticipate death and live in fear and think that you are going to go somewhere when you die. We do not go anywhere. The soul Atma, has no death. It does not go anywhere. Only the body is given up. We say that the soul wears the body and so on for us to understand better. Soul has no movement. It is always existing everywhere.
In Vedanta, there is no such terminology used. It does not say that the souls goes here and there assuming different bodies, and so on.
Giving Akasaja as an example, we are told that no such thing as death has any existence. Normally if we are told that, we will not accept it as a fact. We have not experienced it. We say that we have seen our elders die and we expect that when we become old, we will also die. We live in this illusion. We treat it as the truth. Once we let go of the fear of death, we can live in absolute freedom. Why assume that there is such a thing called death? To realize this as a personal experience, requires Samskara, past accumulated merit and maturity, and Sadhana.
Therefore they began the explanation with Maha Pralaya, where everything perceptible in Creation dissolves, and only one thing remains, and that one remaining eternal entity is referred to as God. Bhagavanta. We accept that statement. Parabrahma, we imagine and equate with God, to whom we offer prayers with desires and whom we also subject to blame and abuse if our prayers do not get fulfilled. We praise God if our work gets done. If not, we place blame upon Him. it is wrong to do so. We behave like that in our ignorance.
When everything else goes out of existence, only Sat remains. Sat is Truth. Pure Consciousness, or Knowledge alone remains.
Now, we are discussing about the original Creator, who first brought this Creation into existence. Does this Creator also suffer from death? No. The original creator here has been given the name Akasaja. The name Brahma is not mentioned here. We are kept in suspense.
Death, who had succeeded in consuming everything else, was not able to gobble up Akasaja. Death asked his master Yama why he is failing to swallow Akasaja. Yama is also in front of him. He has not been swallowed by Death. He is still remaining. But Yama does not address that issue. It is interesting. Death is not questioning why he is not able to consume his master as well. This is an interesting twist given by Valmiki, the composer of this work.
Yama does not speak of that, about his mastery over death. The dialog occurs.
Yama explained to Death that unless the karma of the individual comes to Death’s assistance, Death cannot swallow anyone. Death was asked to go in search of Akasaja’s karma.
Death searched everywhere. Where did he search? What remained, if death had already swallowed everything in existence? There should not have been anything left in Creation, where he could go to search, if Death had consumed all. This question also has not been asked.
Death failed to find any karma for Akasaja.
Akasaja has no birth, no death, and no karma. He does not do any karma, he does not engage in any action. How can you capture one who has absolutely no karma?
verse
If Akasaja should conceptualize death, if and when he does that, then, he would at once assume the presence of all the five elements. The moment one thinks of death coming to swallow him, the five elements and the substances that death can destroy, come into existence. That moment, the individual assumes the Paarthiva (earthly) sareera (body), the material physical body. It constitutes the gross body. With the five elements, the house, the address, the body, and everything comes into existence. Death can only swallow whatever has a gross existence. Akasaja has none of these. Hence he cannot be destroyed.
Prithv..
Akasaja has no such concept. He has no reason for death.
We have made sankalpas (desires, determinations, intentions) and therefore, we have these destructible bodies. Akasaja has no form.
Death is seeing Akasaja as having a form.
Even with the longest and strongest rope one cannot tie up space. Akasaja cannot be bound or swallowed.
bhagavan …
Death asked: How could out of void, something be born? How is it possible?
Death also asked: I am seeing him. Do the five elements even exist? or do they not? I am seeing the body made of the five elements in Akasaja.
We must understand that the five elements are false, illusory, and have no true existence. Both Atma, and the five elements cannot be eternal. and be Truth. Truth can only be one. Atma or Soul alone is Truth.
na ..
Yama replied: This man whom you see, has never been born. That he exists, is your imagination alone, or the idea that you alone entertain in your mind.
Sadguru’s faults are only in your mind. They do not exist.
Akasaja has never been born. He has no birth. There is no question of his ever being gone. He is eternal. He is Truth. He is permanent. Sadguru is the same.
Akasaja ever exists. He is only Knowledge. He has no vikara whatsoever. Knowledge has no perversions, modifications, or changes. Knowledge is radiance. Enlightenment. It is just Light. A brain dead person has no knowledge.
Buddhi Yoga. Knowledge is Light.
He is without any changes.
verse
Before and after Creation, only Chit exists. It is the greatest treasure, the truest wealth. Brahman alone remains. Nothing else lasts. Not a single part of this creation, including the five elements, and their perceptions are destroyed. Brahman or Parabrahma or Paramatma alone remains. He has no old age. He is limitless. He is the Supreme Soul.
Nothingness means, nothing is visible. It is not darkness. There is light. Knowledge is always rising. There is no setting. It is very subtle. The word Sookshma is used, only to help us understand. The moment subtle or Sookshma is mentioned, it presupposes a substance, no matter how minute.
Without a body, how can something exist? That is what Vedanta teaches. Pure Consciousness alone remains. It is devoid of material substance.
A tiny movement began.
In water, sometimes you see a tiny bubble, it grows, and finally an animal may emerge. The tiny vibration causes all the Ajnana to gather in a mass in one place. It regenerates Creation. The emergence of ignorance is like that little tiny movement in water. It is called Avidya.
verse
Only Knowledge remains. But due to ignorance, the movement emanated. The idea of body started.
Why? How?
It is called ‘Kaakataaleeyam’ – Crow sat. The Palm Fruit fell. Both coincided. One cannot determine which happened first.
You and I therefore see this form. It is perceived by us. It does not mean that it actually exists.
verse
The sky is vast. We know. There is a lake on earth. The sky is reflected in the water. The movement is in the lake. The sky is still. We see as if the sky and the moon are moving, when we look at their reflections in the water in the lake. But the sky does not move. Because the water in the lake moved, we get deceived.
Parabrahma is unmoving.
The sky does not move just because we believe that it is moving.
The moving lake is called samishti jeeva – the collective being. The separate waves moving in the lake are the individuals. Actually, only the waves or ripples are moving. The lake is not moving.
This example helps us to understand.
At the beginning and end of Creation, Akasaja remains with no change, he exists eternally as Pure Consciousness and perfect knowledge.
You have done ‘adhyaasa’ – this is a very important word. You are ‘seeing what is not in existence’ or ‘seeing it differently than how it actually is’. Your wrong perception is your own doing. It is not the fault of the thing. If you think that a stick is a pen, you still cannot write with it. It is not the fault of the stick that you imagine it to be a pen. It remains a stick, regardless of your belief of what it is.
If you and I imagine that Rama and Krishna suffered, during their divine incarnations, it is our imagination, and it is false. There is no suffering for God.
He has no body, no action, He has no vaasanas, no karma. He is pristine and pure. He is the manifestation of congealed knowledge that does not even flow like water. He is eternal. Nitya.
verse
He has no past tendencies, no carry over traits. He is just like space, like radiance, like Knowledge. Yogis contemplate on this Jnana-form.
verse
The ‘vedana’, the movement in the mind, if that is stilled, the form is not seen anymore.
We go to the temple. We have darshan of God or Sadguru. We come out and close our eyes. The picture, the image remains in our heart. Slowly, the form disappears, and only a light remains in the mind as the memory. Only the outline remains after a while. Thereafter that outline also vanishes. Only a light remains. This is a worldly experience.
If the movement of the mind is stilled, the Chidakasa (the vast formless sky called Consciousness) is experienced.
Verse
A very clear explanation is given here.
Yama declares: O Death, in the question of Akasaja, there is no question of the five elements, birth, or death. You cannot overpower him or swallow him. All your efforts will certainly fail.
This is the upadesam given by Yama Dharmaja to Death.
We are always in fear of death. There is no need for such a fear. The soul is eternal.
verse
Since space cannot be bound, Akasaja cannot be clutched or grasped, or eaten up.
Death was surprised at hearing this final statement. He accepted the teaching of his master. He went home. Death was not able to even touch Akasaja, leave alone swallowing Him.
Death cannot even touch us. This is Mrityunjaya Stotra’s power. Try this for 40 days; daily tell yourselves: Death cannot touch me. Experience for yourselves the courage you gain.
This is the Upadesha about Akasaja.
Sri Rama got a tremendous insight.
verse
Sri Rama said: O Sadgurudeva, O Vasishtha,
the hero in this story is called Akasaja. The sidekick is Death. The Sadguru is called Yama Dharmaraja.
I feel as if you have been telling me the story of Chaturmukha Brahma, the four-faced Brahma.
Vasishtha felt very happy to hear this from Rama. Vasishtha had showed Rama his nose in a roundabout way, taking the arm from behind his head. But Rama directly understood that Vasishtha was pointing at his own nose. He correctly understood that Akasaja is none other than the Creator Brahma.
We ask whether the creator is subject to death. Vasishtha said the creator himself has no death. Rama realized that the world is non-existent, that this world is a myth.
Vasishtha was immensely pleased. Yes. I spoke about none other than Brahma Himself. This incident actually happened, Rama. This is how Yama Dharmaraja gave the Upadesha to Mrityu, Death.
We have conceptualized this form that appears to us, but it is not subject to death. That form is God. That form is Sadguru. Our mind has conceived of a form that is impervious to death and destruction. That is why we pray to God to remove our fear of death. We trust that God can free us from the grip of the fear of death.
We must always make a determination before we attempt to engage in any action. This entire world is born only out of a specific intention. One must be specific in one’s intentions. One must be clear about the idea. That is very important. Do not do things randomly without proper thought.
At the end of all the Manvantaras, at the end of the Kalpa, Death tried to destroy the Creator.
verse
Another question might arise. This incident may occur at the end of every Kalpa. This will keep happening. Whatever we desire, we keep thinking of it. We keep putting it into action. Mind is the cause of all actions. Mind has instigated this failed attempt of Death.
verse
A few more questions may arise. Vasishtha answers the questions of Sri Rama. Brahma is also called Hiranyagarbha. Why does he not have a body? Why does he appear as if he has a form?
We will continue the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow we celebrate the International Yoga day.
All of you please utilize the teachings of Datta Kriya Yoga kindly gifted to us by Sri Swamiji. Doing the Pranayama, the asanas, and exercises will benefit the body and mind and improve health. It will also aid in the understanding of the higher truths of Vedanta philosophy.
Today scholars are coming to give lectures for the Gna Na Bha conference. During the Sri Chakra Puja, let us listen to them.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta
Om Santissantissantihi