Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 158, June 27
Sri Sadgurubhyo namaha
Om Santissantissantihi
Now, what exactly the Mind is, is explained. This entire visible world is illusory. Mind also is something that is perceived. Therefore, it is also illusory. You have to realize that Mind also, as such, has no existence. All the things are gathered inside a box, and then you declare that not only the objects in the box, but even the box itself is imaginary. Mind also is a made-up concept. Therefore, even the mind has to be erased. It has to become merged in the soul.
This is today’s upadesa.
After the second day’s upadesa of Sage Vasishtha, everyone retired, engaged in prayers and singing the glories of God, and they rested well. On the following day, the instruction resumed.
The assembly had pin drop silence, as everyone listened with rapt attention to the dialog between Sri Rama and Vasishtha.
The minds of everyone merged together at the end of the Kalpa and became the collective mind as Chaturmukha Brahma. The collective mind made a certain resolution that it would be a good idea to set up a creator to create the universe again, rather than for the Mind to begin the creation by itself. Hence, the collective Mind established a Creator out of itself. When Mind itself is Brahma, and Mind has no shape or form, how can Brahma have a form or a shape? One who is formless has to be Truth.
When formless Truth manifests a creation, what will be the nature of that creation? It will be nothing but Truth. If what does not have a substance creates something, how can such a creation have any substance?
Now what is Mind? What gives Mind the power to create? It is ignorance that veils Pure Consciousness and that is what causes the Mind to create. It is darkness that veils the light of Truth. The question as to how that darkness intruded into Truth in the first place has no answer. It is useless asking that question because no answer is available.
What is required is that the disease which has occurred should be cured. Happiness and comfort should be sought. Instead of finding a cure, if we keep searching for the source of the ailment, we will not succeed. There are others who are engaged in the search for the source of the disease. The Jeevanmuktas are the great souls who search for the reason that causes the disease, and try to prevent it from occurring in the first place. They are the Sadgurus. They have done the research and found ways to prevent the disease from occurring.
But the person who has suffered an injury requires immediately a medicine that will heal the wound. The wound is bleeding. The bleeding must be stopped to prevent further loss of blood. If at that moment one gets preoccupied with investigating as to where the fall occurred, and what makes blood flow, precious time will elapse and the patient will suffer.
First, apply first aid.
Mind is the root cause of the disease.
Chaturmukha Brahma’s form is not His creation. It is our creation, caused by our ignorance. The entire world is hidden inside the Mind. Inside a lotus seed many lotuses are hidden. Mind is the seed. It is the source. The truth is that the idea of the existence of Mind itself, is an illusion. If it is said that mind exists, then, we will begin to contemplate on the mind. That is not true. Even the mind has to be destroyed or surrendered to God in the path of devotion. Mind is the monkey that spoils everything. Tie up this monkey or the intoxicated elephant called Mind to the pillar called Devotion. Use as a rope, constant practice. That is the prayer of a devotee.
In the path of Jnana, because even the mind is something that can be perceived, even that, is untrue, unreal, and it has to be eradicated, wiped out. That is the teaching here.
Now Vasishtha continues:
yathaa..
Sri Rama, you have experienced how the mind creates a kingdom called a dream. Ideas, and dreams are all the kingdoms of the mind. There is absolutely no substance to those. Your own experience endorses it. You do not require any other examples. The extent of mind’s activity will be revealed to you, if you ponder about it.
This entire world that you see inside your heart is nothing but a fabrication of your mind.
tasmaat ..
A child imagines ghosts and ghouls in his mind and begins to be afraid of them.
If you remember Lord Hanuman, it is believed that no ghosts and evil spirits will ever approach you. It happens because you surrender you mind to the Lord. O Hanuman, please protect me from such imaginary negative thoughts and concepts. You please fill my heart yourself. That is our prayer.
Otherwise, the bad thoughts will certainly exercise their negative power over us. Similarly, this visible world that is hidden inside our minds torments us. It troubles the mind.
yathaam ..
This mind with the cooperation of time, space, karma and the five elements, assembles this creation and gives it a shape. If the mind were absent, this universe would not exist. Like a seed sprouts, not when it is just left alone, but only when it is given soil, water, and nutrients, this mind also, aided by space, time, and the five elements which it fabricates, sprouts and expands as this mighty universe. It has that kind of a capacity.
It is important to remember that if this world were the Truth, then, there is no question of wiping out sorrow. Only one Truth can exist. If the world is Truth, then the other Truth has to be false. This idea has to be strengthened in our minds.
sachenna ..
If this visible world were to be real, then sorrows will remain permanently. One has spend the entire lifetime weeping. Do we like to do that? No one wishes for illness or misery to last lifelong.
drsyen ..
The one who is yearning to seek enlightenment will never attain it, if this world were to be permanent and true. This will not subside and his enlightenment will never occur. Therefore, it has to be established that this world that is perceived, is false. Even the feeling that I am learning the Truth has to be dispelled from the seeker. Even the idea that I am on the journey towards Truth is painful. The seeker should at once jump to the state of being enlightened. That is the state of the liberated one, who does not even suffer from the stress and strain of the journey towards Truth. The process of travel involves unrest. Once the seeker is enlightened, he is at peace. That is liberation/Moksha/peace of mind.
What we consider as peace of mind normally is a state of reconciliation with the situations. If the mind is restless, it does not remain steady. An unsteady mind cannot merge or get dissolved. The mind must become merged in your Self. Then it has no separate entity.
Jagan Mithya – The Creation is an illusion – has been ascertained and proved.
Also that Brahman is non-dual has been established.
That Mind also is a part of the perceived world, and hence an illusion/Maya, has been proved. That leaves Brahman alone as the only One existing, as Truth.
A lion after climbing the mountain, looks back and takes an overview. It sees and remembers the path that it has traversed. We also have to keep reviewing, remembering the path that we have traveled so far.
Where have we begun? Where are we now? How much distance have we covered? We have to keep track of our progress. You do it and you will understand.
On the first day of Upadesa, Vasishtha covered up to the 5th Sarga of the Mumukshu Vyavahara Prakarana. On the second day he covered up to this point.
A guard arrived and noted the point at which the second day’s teaching had ended. Without reading the source text, I will just give you a summary. It is like a story.
It is a great description. It refreshes our mind to learn this nice description. It is like a needed respite for us. Vedanta has to be learned with laughter and play. It should be treated like a sport. It should be studied with enthusiasm and eagerness. It is not easy to extricate ourselves from the groove that we got ourselves stuck into. We should study this heavy subject joyfully. We should enjoy this study.
That is why Vasishtha gives nice stories and examples in between.
The audience in the assembly was listening with rapt attention.
Vasishta gave the matter. Valmiki put it into beautiful verse form for us. In Vedanta, this is a welcome distraction. Just like a recess given to children in the middle of the daily class routine.
Here we make announcements: turn off your cell phones. Those with coughs and sneezes please sit in the back and so on.
It is okay if you do not perform penance. But if you disturb the penance of others, you incur greater sin. One should not disturb another’s sleep wantonly. You should not interrupt when another person is listening to a discourse with interest and attention, or is listening to Nama Sankeertan. Even if you do not listen, at least make arrangements for others to listen. It will stimulate your interest in such things.
People were all appreciating the teaching wholeheartedly. They were all listening with full concentration, without distracting their neighbors. No sounds were heard, not even any jingling of bells, or the sounds of moving ornaments. Even the parrots in the cages were listening with quiet attention. It means that even in Ayodhya there was a Shuka Vana. Vasishtha’s instruction was so mesmerizing. The womenfolk were totally restrained in their speech.
Women, when they go to a temple, begin gossiping about neighbors. Unless thoughts are restrained, one’s mind does not dwell on Sadguru’s teaching.
Like pictures in paintings, the people and the living creatures present there, were completely still.
Had you heard with the same level of attention, you too would have absorbed the teaching taking place here.
It was evening. The sun was going down. The heat subsided. The people outside were also winding up their daily routines.
A light breeze was also present, eager to listen to the teaching, bearing with it the fragrance of lotuses. Even the inert objects were showing eagerness to listen to Vasishtha’s upadesa.
shrutam ..
It appeared as if even the sun was listening. He acted as if he wanted to sit still in solitude on the western hill to revise the subject in his own mind. What a beautiful description!
This is another illusion. We think the sun is traveling in the sky. But in truth, it is the earth that is going round the sun.
We take notes when we hear a lecture, and when we go home, we review the notes calmly. Only then, we will remember the lessons.
In the evening mist filled the atmosphere, and everything appeared uniform as if all the minds were covered in peace. The normal activities were carried on, but just as we give up our daily duties to come listen to the discourse of Swamiji, many were present there.
The long shadows appeared as if they were all stretching their necks to listen to the teaching of Sage Vasishtha.
The guard addressed the king reverentially: It is time for the evening bath. It is time for the evening worship.
Muslims set an alarm and wherever they may be, in a bus stop, or a railway station even, they offer their prayers five times a day, stopping their other activities. We must also make a habit of it. There is great pleasure in following such a strict schedule for prayers.
The kings appoint a person to remind them of the daily schedule.
King Dasaratha was reminded that he had other duties to attend to. Sage Vasishtha at once closed the discourse for the day. He announced that he would resume the following day.
Sri Rama had more questions to ask. Vasishtha had more things to teach.
But they obeyed the schedule and called it a day.
King Dasaratha, before he retired, offered all the dignitaries, elders, and the revered sages all the honors due to them. He served each one reverentially as per their status.
Everyone got up to leave. All their faces were radiant. All their ornaments glittered. The court was packed and people were jostling as they were trying to vacate the court. The ornaments jingled as they clanged against the ornaments of others in the crowd. The bees that were till then engrossed in sucking the nectar from the flowers worn in their hair, now disturbed, began buzzing. It shows that until then, even the bees remained quiet and still, all day long during the discourse.
Perhaps they also were listening, just as the fly that visits Swamiji during the Navaratri festival attentively witnesses the puja rituals.
The moving curls on the heads of the people as they moved about, danced as if to express happiness at listening to the discourse. Even the celestials who were in their subtle forms, who were witnessing the teaching from the skies, along with the humans on earth, restrained their thoughts and became meditative upon the conclusion of the lectures.
When Sadguru teaches, many beings will be present in their subtle forms to listen to the valuable teachings.
Yatra yatra raghunatha keertanam …
Wherever Sri Rama is praised, Lord Hanuman is said to be present in His subtle form shedding tears of joy, offering prostrations to Sri Rama. He may be here in the form of light, unnoticed by us.
Everyone attended to their duties quickly.
When a crowd is dispersing, no one pays attention to a grandmother who is struggling, to cross the street with heavy traffic. Everyone gathers around a youthful girl, offering her assistance with an umbrella, footwear, and so on. It is difficult for her to avoid these unwanted helpers. Quickly it became dark. Darkness is described as a young woman freeing herself from people harassing her.
desaa..
To light up another country, the sun proceeded.
When it is sunset here, it is sunrise in America.
A great soul follows the austerity of filling everyone with the light of knowledge.
The sun likewise fills all places with light and joy.
We feel very happy to see our Sadguru, touch the feet of Sadguru, and listen to Sadguru. Sadguru is like the Sun. The disciple is compared to the lotus which blossoms from the rays of the sun, who is Sadguru. This description is given in the Guru Gita.
The stars began to twinkle. The minds slowed down their activities and rested in sleep, as the birds reach their nests to retire for the day.
Unless the mind gets tired, it does not get sleep. Only if the body gets tired with exercise, the body will remain fit by getting proper sleep.
Mango, Neem and other trees were again filled with the birds which reached their nests built there.
bhanor..
The western horizon was red with the rays of the sun falling on the clouds like a border. The western hill appeared like Lord Vishnu decked in all His grandeur with all ornaments.
Sunrise and sunset times are the best times to offer prayers to God.
Darkness permeated everywhere. The moon filled the sky with moonrise.
Ignorance fled from the minds of the kings, the way darkness departed, with the sunrise the following day.
The stars in the sky disappeared like flowers fallen from the trees. Sunrise symbolizes enlightenment.
Now the eastern hill is being described. The golden glow of the sun opens the heart to fill it with light.
All the listeners got ready and assembled in the court, which appeared like a lake filled with still and unmoving lotuses.
Sri Rama addressed Sage Vasishtha:
Tomorrow we will learn about Sri Rama’s question. Everyone else had slept but Sri Rama could not sleep. He kept pondering on the teaching given by Sage Vasishtha and came ready with a relevant question to ask.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta
Om Santissantissantihi