Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 160, June 29
Sri Sadgurubhyo namaha
Om Santissantissantihi
Sri Rama asked: What is mind?
Sage Vasishtha replied: Mind has no form whatsoever. We only refer to mind by name, just as we do for the sky. The sky is limitless. Whether or not we reach the distant points in the sky, still the sky exists there also. We say that it is one of the five elements.
This mind also is there wherever we travel. It is what goes everywhere, not us. There is nothing else inside or outside the mind. Mind is the only thing there is. This is the source of this entire creation. It is placed between Sat and Asat, the real and the unreal, the existent and the non-existent. Because it veils truth, we see only unreality and get deluded that what is unreal is actually real. We therefore forget the existence of Truth. It blocks the view of reality. That is its function. It makes illusory substances appear as if they exist. The mind and the substances which it brings into our view are one and the same. There is no difference between the two. This appearance of things happens because of the conceptualizations the mind makes, the Sankalpas/ideas, thoughts, images, intentions, resolves, visualizations, conceptualizations, …and so on. It is similar to the statement we hear that Karma is the cause of our birth. Birth, growth, living – all of this happens because of the mind. It derives its strength from Avidya/ignorance. Like a mirage, it projects before us the entire world. Its power is such. In an instant, it creates. Before you can snap your fingers, it creates situations. Even the intention of snapping the fingers arises from the mind.
Sankalpa and Manas are one and the same. If one exists, the other also exists. If this Manas/Mind is annihilated, wiped out, swept off, then Atma Darshana – Self-Realization will occur. It is called Kevalee Bhaava. When the mind is made to disappear by merging it into Reality, this Kevalee Bhaava or enlightened state is experienced.
Sri Rama asked again: If it becomes impossible to make this world get erased from view, then, enlightenment will never occur. If that is so, then what is the solution?
Sage Vasishtha gives an answer. That is the lesson we will learn today.
madhye..
This mind is between reality and unreality. It reflects itself as the unreal world. The mind cannot be seen with the eye.
yato vaachaa nivartante ..
Truth is not perceived by the mind. Unless the mind dissolves into Jnana, Truth will not be perceived. Jnana/knowledge of Truth voids Ajnana/ignorance. Jnana does not remove the substances. It only dispels the unreal world. Jnana is light. One must think deeply about this subject. It is not as if one goes away giving place to another. Ajnana does not go away, allowing Jnana to replace it.
When one sees a snake in a rope, when the truth is revealed that it is only a rope, it is not as if the snake was chased away. Light only made it known that what exists is just a rope.
Mind makes the world come into our experience. It lights up the unreal world.
yatpratibhanam ..
The mind makes the formless Brahma appear as if He has a form. This is the mischief made by the mind. We get trapped into it. The eye does not create the world. The mind is the culprit. Even a blind person can know and recognize a pillar and an elephant. The eye is only a tool that the mind uses. Mind is the substance itself, whatever it might be.
What obstructs Truth is mind.
sankalpa ..
Ideas or thoughts is mind. Without those the mind does not exist. There are positive and negative thoughts, or thoughts which complement or contradict one another. The swimmer keeps on swimming endlessly when he proceed without any direction, extending the ocean limitlessly as he proceeds. A similar thing happens when one goes around in circles lost in a jungle, not knowing the way out of it. The jungle then seems without any boundaries. To get out of the jungle, you need to find a proper guide. That guide, who knows the way out, is Sadguru. He will guide you out of the endless maze.
This is a never ending game played by the mind. No wise person wishes to ever remain in the ocean or the jungle, struggling interminably to get out. If the jungle is your home, then it is a different matter, or if the ocean is your permanent home. But here, we do not belong to the jungle or the ocean and we are struggling to get out of our predicament, of being trapped here.
yathaa ..
Just as you cannot separate the attribute of flowing, from water, or the nature of blowing from the breeze, we cannot separate Manas from Sankalpa, mind from thoughts or ideas.
So, what should be the target of our attack? It is the mind. That point has been made very clear.
yatra …
Sankalapanam and Sankalpam are the same. Sankalpa and the mind are inseparable.
verse
Sri Rama has a doubt in his mind. But without his having to verbalize it, Sage Vasishtha guesses and answers it.
What is the source of the mind? Consciousness. That is its root. Then it implies that out of Truth, untruth has emerged. How is it possible? This is the statement earlier made by Vasishtha. The mind is a product of Consciousness, but with a stain called ignorance applied to it. How is that possible?
If mind is also is Truth, having come out of Truth, then, what it creates, namely, the world, also must be truth, which is what we are believing and experiencing. If the world is Truth, then Brahma has to be untruth. Because two truths cannot coexist. If that is the case, then, this misery has no end to it. But that is not what we want. There are Jeevanmuktas and Sadgurus in this world who are experiencing the highest bliss. They are declaring so. Why are the others not experiencing it? What is the answer to this?
satva ..
Whether the world is real or unreal, the job of the mind is only to make it visible to you. Just because you see it, it does not mandate that it should be the truth.
You have asked about the mind.
What the mind does, is important. It shows the unreal world.
What it shows must be real. How can you deny it?
If that is your argument, then, forever remain under the delusion that the rope is a snake, because your mind has shown it to you as being a snake. You yourself have declared that in the night you saw a snake.
Yes. But in the daylight I realized that it is only a rope. After it became daylight, I could see that there is no snake there at all.
But you saw evil spirits and ghosts in the dark and felt afraid of them.
Yes. In the daylight, they are not there.
Exactly.
You cannot identify the mind with Consciousness and insist that everything that the mind shows has to be real. It is not so. Everything that the mind shows you is not true. Out of your love for the mind, you have decided to believe that everything it presents to you is the truth. Thereby you became oblivious to Reality.
How did that veil called the mind, come into existence, to obliterate the view of reality?
A teacher is in control of the class as long as he is facing the students. The moment his back is turned for him to write something on the blackboard, the students get into mischief. They get out of control. They start making paper rockets which they fling towards the teacher. They begin scribbling on the desks and writing notes and passing them to one another.
Similarly, the moment the veil called the mind came between man and Brahma, the mischief began. Absence of the veil is Kevalee bhaavam, enlightenment.
Sometimes the teacher does not even need to turn his back to the students. If another teacher or the principal comes in to speak with the teacher, and his attention is diverted from the class, the students at once become unruly. Similarly, momentarily if Truth is allowed to slip from one’s awareness, mind begins its mischief and drowns one in the make-believe world.
taavan ..
That mind is Brahma/Chaturmukha Brahma.
Whether it is real or unreal, is for you to decide. The mind made you believe that the rope is a snake. It is showing you the world and making you believe that it is real.
The answer will come later.
aativaahika ..
Mind is most subtle. It has no physical substance to it. It is creating the physical form with the five elements. It has the power, the capacity to create thus. From the subtle, the gross is brought into existence.
The collective mind is Chaturmukha Brahma. From that, the world has emerged.
The mind that is the manifestation of ignorance is referred to by many names. One such name is Avidya.
Avidya/Ignorance is what will vanish with Vidya. That is the correct definition. It is wrong to define Avidya as that which is not Vidya/Knowledge. Such a thing does not exist, as what is not knowledge. Is it not?
What is darkness? It is wrong to define darkness as that which is not light. No.
Darkness is what is removed by light. There is no such entity as that which is not light.
What is the world? It is that which is destroyed by enlightenment. It is wrong to define it as that which is not Brahma. Because, when everything is Brahma, that which is not Brahma, does not exist.
The demon Hiranyakasipu believed that he is not God. But God did not separate Himself from the demon. That is why He appeared and dissolved the demon into Himself. A process, an action was required to do so. Had God not believed that the demon was always a part of Himself, He would not have incarnated to merge the demon into Himself.
When Truth is Jnana, only it can exist. Ajnana cannot exist. Therefore, Avidya is that which is dispelled by Vidya.
samsrtihi ..
Samsrti means Samsara, this ongoing affair of births and deaths.
Manaha, Chittaha, Bandhaha, Malaha, Tamaha – are all names for Manas, the mind. It is bondage also. At the marriage ritual, it is said that the minds must merge. By merely going through the ritual, like automatons, without love and understanding, a true marriage does not occur.
Malaha is contamination, dust, dirt, as that which covers a mirror and blocks the reflection from being seen.
Tamaha is darkness. It goes away with light. This statement should at once jump to the lips. It must be established firmly in the mind.
All these are the names given to the world by the great souls.
What does it mean?
Gurus do not hurt the feelings of the students by snubbing them for their ignorance. They appear to agree with the false statements made by a child. They first listen patiently, analyze the reason for the wrong understanding, and then they correct the thinking of the student or disciple. Sage Vasishtha is teaching us how to instruct others the proper way. Teachers and parents must learn from this example. If parents or teachers abruptly disagree and put down the student or scold the disciple for making a wrong statement, then, thereafter, out of fear, the children or students will not express themselves to clear their doubts.
nahi ..
What is seen is Mind. Mind has no other form. Whatever is in your mind, whatever you are perceiving, that itself is the form of the mind. Mind takes the form of your every thought and image you visualize. Mind has no other form.
Vasishtha is now approaching the actual subject. What is it?
I have said that there is no mind other than the visible world. But what I wish to tell you is that this world was never born. It never came into existence. Only the mind exists.
Now you will understand this statement. But again when you get drowned in the delusion of the reality of the world, you will forget this and will begin to entertain doubts.
For one instant every day if you can remember this fact that this world has never come into existence in the first place, that it is only a fabrication of your mind, there will be absolutely no misery. Misery will have no existence.
Great souls/Mahatmas, even as they earn wealth, assume that it has been already taken away from them, either by theft or destruction.
There is no substance in this world, that is other than the mind itself.
That is the specialty of Sadguru that He makes such a great subject so easy to comprehend.
No lab will teach you this science. This is the ultimate Science. Where all other research ends, there Vedanta begins. Treat this as a great science. First learn the subject and ponder over it intensely and deeply, and then you will experience the truth of it. The journey itself is not the destination. Sadguru travels along with you, although he has already reached the destination. Paramatma Himself is Sadguru. He does not leave our side. Sadguru remains on the doorstep like Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swami. He is seeing in both directions. We wrongly assume that while he is enjoying the vision of the world himself, he is telling us that it does not exist. He does not see the world as real. Unless you keep a pure mind, and discard all doubts regarding his status, you will lose your eligibility for absorbing his teaching. Only Sadguru can guide us. He has come to us out of immense compassion. You have to trust his word. There is no one else in the world who has the competence to teach you. If you question his qualification and credence, you will never learn the subject.
This is our Science. Life Science, but not like the science you study at school about beings with physical forms, forms with the five elements. This is the Science of the Soul. It concerns each individual. It tells you about what happens to you even after the five elements which constitute your body no longer exist.
The world has its existence only in your own mind.
Avidya is eternal, it is said. But it has a point where it disappears. What is born, will also die. The illusion of the world comes into being and it also goes away. Just as the snake disappears from the mind that has recognized it as only a rope once light comes in, similarly, when knowledge awakens, Avidya/ignorance or wrong notion vanishes.
verse
What is the lifespan of this world? Mind makes resolutions and makes the world visible. This we understand. Our thoughts and ideas keep changing but the world itself seems to endure. How long does such a world last? What is its longevity? We call its lifespan as eons or Yugas, Maha Yugas, or Kalpas and so on. We give calculations, treating it as real, in the worldly parlance. This gives the impression that what we are experiencing does have a relative endurance. Just as in the mind, temporarily the snake existed, and eventually it vanished, the world exists until the wrong notion of its reality leaves the mind.
verse
Unless a hypochondriac patient is convinced in his own mind that he has no disease, no matter how many tests and scans prove it, and how many doctors and relatives assure him of it, he will continue to believe that he is sick.
Until the mind is freed from the notion of the existence of the snake, the individual will continue to live in fear. There is no comfort in living in such fear. An intelligent person seeks relief from such fear.
Students wish on the day of the exams, for which they have not prepared, that the institution such as a school itself never existed. But that is not the right time to entertain such thoughts. When faced with a test, one cannot escape. One has to take up the challenge and do one’s best.
Birth has occurred. It is causing us many troubles. How to get freed from this? A natural, proper remedy must be found. Forcibly and unnaturally ending life by committing suicide will land an individual in deeper trouble, because then the bad karma of that cowardly act will exercise its negative effect on him. The thought of committing suicide should never occur to a person. One must die a natural death. Jeevanmuktas do not discard their bodies unnaturally. They have the choice to do so. They know that they are living in an unreal world, and yet they remain to help others.
This upadesa helps to remove the seed of sorrow. The lotus has seeds in the middle of it. The seeds hide the future lotuses and lotus stalks.
Suppose you feel that you are having to leave the body prematurely, before attaining Atma Jnana, Self-Realization, the level that you have reached now in your spiritual journey, will help you in your next birth. You will then begin where you have left off in this present lifetime.
The mind contains the seeds for future creations.
Paramanu in Vedanta is not the same as the subatomic particle. It is the subtlest of the subtle, without any physical aspect to it.
yathaa
The mind is just light that shows us the things of the world. As inevitably as water flows downward, and air has the tendency to move, the world exists in the mind of the viewer. Therefore, the mind must be made to merge in the Paramatma. That alone will grant Supreme Bliss.
angada..
Unless a jewel lies hidden inside gold, the ornament will not be extracted from it. Water appears in a mirage. We run after it. But it does not exist. You see even a fort wall protecting a city you see in a dream. The world exists only because the mind exists.
The world and the mind are inseparable. They are one and the same. The way to attain bliss is to completely and totally sweep the mind aside and get rid of it. Merge the emptied mind in Paramatma, Supreme Soul. Then you will yourself become Jnana Swaroopa – Pure Consciousness itself.
The 16 names of Dattatreya of His sixteen incarnations are from Advaita Vedanta. They are all related to this Spiritual Science.
Jnana Sagara, Ocean of Jnana is one of the names in the list of names.
Clean the mirror of your mind of all its dust. What is then left is Pure Consciousness.
Pure Consciousness is always there. You will see it once the mirror is cleaned. How to clean the mind and how to merge it in Paramatma will be taught next.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta
Om Santissantissantihi