Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 144, June 9
Sri Sadgurubhyo namaha
Om Santissantissantihi
Sri Rama asked how this Creation came into being.
We know that this world is made of the five elements, including our body. Our own body is the world. If we know about our body thoroughly, then the same is reflected outside in the world, as mountains, rivers, and so on.
Upanishads go further deeper than the five elements/Pancha Bhootas, and say that there are only 3 elements, Tejaha, Apaha, and Annam – Light, Water, and Food. Then Vayu/Air comes in and gives life.
What is the root cause of this Creation? We must know that.
What is it that gets destroyed in this Creation? At the end of the Kalpa, The Lalita Sahasranama describes Mother Goddess as Maha Pralayasaakshinee – the witness of the great dissolution. Siva is known to do His Maha Tandava Dance of Destruction when it occurs. What happens to Her, during the Maha Pralaya? She remains as a witness to it.
What is the largest thing in the Universe? Sky. There is nothing larger than that. Space gives room for even the oceans to exist. Even the sky, which is like dust, gets sucked in, as into a vacuum cleaner during Pralaya. Then what remains?
Yesterday, Swamiji came out of the recording studio after narrating the story of Jada Bharata. He was explaining the meaning of the story. I asked Swamiji some questions. Some others were also present. He said: When you are under the illusion that you are the body, you cannot deliberately place your hand in the fire and expect it not to burn. It certainly will burn. At that time, to complain that you got burned, is a sin. You have to follow your duty and get the burn treated. If you neglect to do so, it will be another sin.
I asked: With Yoga, there is a procedure of forcefully enduring the burns. He said: It is not a good method. With Realization, understanding and experiencing that this is all an illusion, to touch fire is okay. But simply verbally denying the existence of Creation is not good. You have to sweep out all that exists until Pure Consciousness alone remains. It has to become a personal experience.
Yesterday, in the Utpatti Prakarana, we learned that the entire Creation dissolves into Parmatma, the way our dreams dissolve into deep sleep. What remains is Pure Consciousness. That is what is called by infinite number of names such as Atma, Param, Rtam, Brahma, and so on. Lingam is a symbol, a sign. Names are like that. We are reminded that in a Siva Lingam, God exists. Names are for the purpose of understanding. We also learned the meaning of those terms yesterday.
Now we may ask, how did Creation come into being, if all that remained was only Pure Consciousness. Why did it not just remain as Pure Consciousness/Suddha Chaitanya? Why did it have to turn into Creation?
satataa..
Paramatma even encompasses Space. What remains is not Soonya/Nothingness.
If you ask a child to go looking inside an empty pot and tell us what he finds in it, he will tell us that there is nothing there. But that statement is not true. Space is occupying the pot. But in normal usage, if someone says the box is filled with space, when it is empty, people will ridicule.
But if you set aside worldly norms, the truth is that there are space and air filling the pot or the box.
Soonya is depression. You should say that it is full/Poorna.
Even the mind dissolves into Pure Consciousness. It is neither light nor darkness. It cannot be described. It has to be experienced.
Jeeva Bhava, known as Avidya or Ajnana/Ignorance, stemmed out of Pure Consciousness. Out of its own Maya/illusory aspect, it created a limitation which it imposed upon itself.
A second entity was created.
It is when you think that someone else is going to be looking at you, that you take the pains to decorate yourself.
From the original, a reflection was created. When we walk away from our reflection in the mirror, the reflection becomes non-existent. But when Paramatma created from Himself a reflection, as in a mirror, the reflection began to have a life of its own and began acting as per its will. Paramatma remained as He always was, with no change. He was unchanged.
Computer animation can perhaps demonstrate this, for us to understand better.
This is one explanation. Another way of describing it is that the reflection thus created, separated itself from Paramatma. Either argument we can consider.
However, it is important to remember that Pure Consciousness has no change whatsoever occurring in it.
This, therefore, is not like milk turning into curds/yogurt. When that happens, the milk does not remain as milk. But, when gold turns into an ornament, the gold still remains as gold. It can be extracted out of the jewel.
Once you understand that you are none other than Paramatma, you feel great comfort and confidence. Or, following the path of devotion, you may firmly believe that there is a higher power that is guiding you and giving you strength.
Sri Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita: You are not a worthless being. You are of the same aspect as I. How great you feel, to believe and know that you are none other than an aspect of the divine! The entire Creation is His aspect.
Thereafter, mind came into being, followed by life force, the sense organs, and so on. Then the five elements and the physical body took shape. The first individual is called Hiranyagarbha. This whole Creation is His dream. Since we are He, this is our dream.
This experience will come to us eventually.
When someone strays from the right path, we remind that person: Your father was such a great man. You grandfather had done such noble deeds. Your mother is so good. You should live up to that reputation and the proud lineage you hail from.
It is as if some of the water from the ocean was poured into a bucket. The water in the bucket is still sea water. But the container has a small capacity. We are the same as Pure Consciousness. We are one with it. The aim of Yoga Vasishtha is to make us realize it, to make us experience it. We limit ourselves. We should set aside that false concept that we are small.
To know how the world came into being, you should first learn about yourself, how you came into being. Because you exist, the universe exists.
The world is like a dream.
Jeevodevassanaatanaha. If we travel deeper and deeper inside, we find the Light of the Soul residing within us. If the external ignorance is completely shed, then this realization comes to us.
Today, we learn how from this Jeeva, the rest of the Creation evolved.
Set aside the idea that you are limited.
How did the universe come into being, we asked. First ask, how did I come into existence? Because you are there, the universe exists. First find about you and I. You think that you are small and everything else is bigger than you. You yourself are the entire Universe, says Vedanta.
Similar to the perversion or conversion, that clay turns into a pot, the Supreme Soul turns into the limited individual. When the life energy leaves the body, you speak of the greatness of the person and of his great deeds. The one who was in the body, created his universe. First learn about yourself.
Paramatma appears as if He has become limited, when you identify yourself with the limited body.
All other names come after the individual comes into existence.
Bhaavinaamnaa . . All the fame and prestige come afterwards, after some time elapses, after the limited individual comes into existence.
One is reminded of the past good behavior and past accomplishments when one become negligent or idle. The individual forgets his true nature. That itself is ignorance. Remembering it is Jnana. Experiencing it is enlightenment.
We teach our children instead, about atoms and particles while teaching about creation. We should instead teach by beginning from the source of the individual.
Sri Rama’s first question was only that. Why was I born? Why do I die? What is all this? Why did all this come into existence?
You place a curtain in a lighted room to block the light. You remain on the dark side of the room and think that you yourself are darkness. You have forgotten light. You must either remove the curtain, or, know and remember that light exists. It is easier to remove the curtain.
tatassa ..
Later, after the individual comes, there is no movement. It is only the root. The reflection in the mirror does not move, unless you move. At least you must blink your eyes to see a movement in the reflection. Unless the life energy enters the individual, there is no movement. Then the mind enters. Afterwards, thoughts and intentions begins. The mind tells you about differences. If your mind is clean, the world will be clean. The pig finds its piglets clean and beautiful. Its mind is pure. A man might find the piglets dirty. A crow loves its little ones.
The mind creates the five elements. It has the power to move. It wants to accomplish things. The mind created the five perceptions. Whatever the mind intends to create, it creates.
The individual, equipped with the mind and the elements, becomes dull and limited. He, who had been free and unlimited until then, becomes dull and ignorant. We must go in the reverse direction now and get promoted to reach the unlimited source.
The individual constructs the compound around himself and becomes very small. This is Creation. We must understand this. If we keep examining the outside world, we will not realize this.
verse
Mind, and its thoughts and intentions create this world. In the dream world, no substance exists. Your mind alone brings the entire dream world into existence.
Manojavam maruta tulyam is a description of Lord Hanuman. Worship of Hanuman makes the mind brisk. He helps us to understand.
The ocean remains steady. It does not move. But the waves come and go. They rise and fall. Similarly, Paramatma has no movement. The individual comes and goes.
It is there. It is not there. Why? You look at the wave. You say it is there. Next moment, the wave has disappeared. That specific wave does not exist anymore. By the time you show it me, it is gone. Can you bring me that particular wave, which you had shown me before. It appears to be. But it is not there.
You may dismiss it as irrelevant. You do not call the rising and falling wave, the ocean. The child says, the ocean is rising high. We laugh and explain to the child that it is only the wave that is rising.
It is a name given to the rising object. We call it the wave. Giving a name gives it limitation. Name is more powerful than form. It is given great importance in the Bhakti path. chant Rama, Krishna, or Hanuman. The entire universe is based on name and form. Without them, there is no interaction, no worldly affairs.
Into the individual, the mind enters and creates everything.
Paramatma, individual feeling, and mind. These three alone are responsible for everything.
That is what is explained here.
verse.
The first individual is called the Prathama Jeeva.
How was I born? From your mother. She was born from her father. It is a never ending story. It is difficult to go backward all the way to the source. Children ask like that. That first individual who came from Paramatma is Hiranyagarbha. A cosmic egg. He became bored being alone. He wished for a companion. But not one, but two individuals, a male, and a female emerged out of him. Then the cinema began for his entertainment. Adam and Eve began like that. The source of Adam and Eve is given here.
But that is not the truth. The truth is, the one Himself became the many. The sprout created numerous branches. Some trees are so huge, that all you see is just one small branch. You have to go searching for its main trunk and its roots. Even the roots spread. They come down to the ground and create other trees. Like a banyan tree. But the actual original trunk is elsewhere. We are all the different roots taking new roots. If the branches are there, it means the source, Hiranyagarbha, is there. For this to go, the source has to be removed.
Hiranyagarbha or Brahma remembered the past and had the capacity to recreate. The chip, like a computer chip, or bowl contains the entire universe. He has Satya Sankalpa. After the final dissolution, He has the remembrance of what went on before, the sins and merits of all the individual souls. Those who were liberated are not reborn. Those others are reborn. Just like in a dream, they re-emerge, freely proliferating. Freely, effortlessly, instantaneously, the world comes into being. The moment you think of a person, he arrives in your mind. He may be far away or even dead and in another world.
It simply is said that it took seven days for the earth to come into existence. Where was it born? Inside His own mind. He is like a magician. He shows the whole world-drama on a movie screen, just by his intention. Now the secret of this creation process has been explained. But we still have questions. They will be answered gradually. We will discuss them later.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta
Om Santissantissantihi