[Advaita-l] Yoga Vasishtha Sara - The Essence of the Yoga Vasishtha - CHAPTER X (NIRVANA)

[S Jayanarayanan]

(Continued from previous post)
 
 
CHAPTER X: NIRVANA
 
1. Supreme Bliss cannot be experienced
through contact with the senses and their
objects. The supreme state is that in which
the mind is annihilated through one-pointed
enquiry.
 
2. The bliss arising from the contact of the
senses with their objects is inferior. Contact
with the sense-objects is bondage; freedom
from it is liberation.
 
3. Attain the pure state between existence
and non-existence and hold on to it ; do not
accept or reject the inner or the outer world.
 
4. Depend always on that true reality
between the sentient and the inert which is
the infinite space-like heart.
 
5. The belief in a knower and the known
is called bondage. The knower is bound by
the known; he is liberated when there is
nothing to know.
 
6. Abandoning the ideas of seer, seen and
sight along with latent desires (vasanas) of
the past we meditate on that Self which is the
primal light that is the basis of sight.
 
7. We meditate on the eternal Self, the
light of lights which lies between the two ideas
of existence and non-existence.
 
8. We meditate on that Self of consciousness,
the bestower of the fruits of all our
thoughts, the illuminator of all radiant objects
and the farthest limit of all accepted objects.
 
9. We meditate on that immutable Self, our
reality, the bliss of which arises in the mind
on account of the close contact between the
seer and the seen.
 
10. If one meditates on that state which
comes at the end of the waking state and the
beginning of sleep he will directly experience
undecaying bliss.
 
11. The rock-like state in which all thoughts
are still and which is different from the waking
and dream states, is one's supreme state.
 
12. Like mud in a mud pot the Supreme
Lord who is existence and space-like consciousness
and bliss exists everywhere nonseparate
(from things).
 
13. The Self shines by itself as the one
boundless ocean of consciousness agitated
by waves of thought.
 
14. Just as the ocean is nothing but water
the entire world of things is nothing but consciousness
filling all the quarters like the
infinite space.
 
15. Brahman and space are alike as to
their invisibility, all-pervasiveness and indestructibility
but Brahman is also consciousness.
 
16. There is only the one waveless and
profound ocean of pure nectar sweet through
and through (blissful) everywhere.
 
17. All this is truly Brahman ; ail this is
Atman. Do not cut up Brahman into 'I am
one thing' and 'This is another.'
 
18. As soon as it is realised that Brahman
is all-pervasive and indivisible this vast samsara
is found to be the Supreme Lord.
 
19. One who realises that everything is
Brahman truly becomes Brahman ; who would
not become immortal if he were to drink
nectar ?
 
20. If you are wise you would become this
(Brahman) by such conviction ; if not even
if you are repeatedly told it would be (useless
like offerings) thrown on ashes.
 
21. Even if you have known the real truth
you have to practise always. Water will not
become clear by merely uttering the word
kataka fruit.
 
22. If one has the firm conviction 'I am
the Supreme Self called the undecaying Vasudeva'
he is liberated ; otherwise he remains
bound.
 
23. After eliminating everything as 'not
this', 'not this', the Supreme Being (lit. "state")
which cannot be eliminated remains. Think
'I am That' and be happy.
 
24. Know always that the Self is Brahman,
one and whole. How can that which is indivisible
be divided into 'I am the meditator'
and 'the others is the object of meditation' ?
 
25. When one thinks 'I am pure consciousness'
it is called meditation and when even
the idea of meditation is forgotten it is
samadhi.
 
26. The constant flow of mental concepts
relating to Brahman without the sense of 'I'
achieved through intense practice of Self
Enquiry (jnana) is what is called samprajnata
samadhi (meditation with concepts).
 
27. Let violent winds which characterise the
end of aeons (kalpas) blow ; let all the oceans
unite, let the twelve suns burn (simultaneously),
still no harm befalls one whose mind is
extinct.
 
28. That consciousness which is the witness
of the rise and fall of all beings, know that to
be the immortal state of supreme bliss.
 
29. Every moving or unmoving thing whatsoever
is only an object visualised by the mind.
When the mind is annihilated duality (multiplicity)
is not perceived.
 
30. That which is immutable, auspicious
and tranquil, that in which this world exists,
that which manifests itself as the mutable and
immutable objects -— that is the sole consciousness.
 
31. Before discarding the slough the snake
regards it as itself, but when once it has discarded
it in its hole it does not look upon it
as itself any longer.
 
32. He who has transcended both good
and evil does not like a child refrain from
prohibited acts from a sense of sin, nor does
he do what is prescribed from a sense of merit.
 
33. Just as a statue is contained in a pillar
(block) even if it is not actually carved out,
so also the world exists in Brahman. Therefore
the Supreme State is not a void.
 
34. Just as a pillar is said to be devoid of
the statue when it has not actually been carved
out, so also Brahman is said to be void when
it is devoid of the impression of the world.
 
35. Just as still-water may be said to contain
or not contain ripples, so also Brahman
may be said to contain or not to contain the
world. It is neither void nor existence.
 
OM TAT SAT
 
(Concluded)