[Chaturamnaya] Yoga Vasishtha Sara - The Essence of the Yoga Vasishtha - CHAPTER IX (EXPOSITION OF THE SELF)

[S Jayanarayanan]

(Continued from previous post)
 
 
CHAPTER IX: EXPOSITION OF THE SELF
 
1. When this assemblage of body, senses,
etc. acts of its own accord there arises an idea
'I am this'. This is the jiva (ego) stained
by the dirt of ignorance.
 
2. When the conviction that everything is
the space-like (all pervasive) Consciousness
becomes firm the jiva comes to an end like
a lamp without oil.
 
3. Like a misguided Brahmin, who abandons
his own nobility, and adopts the life of
a Sudra, the Lord assumes the role of the jiva.
 
4. Just as a child sees an apparition
(created by its own fancy), so also the stupid
jiva creates, on account of delusion, this unreal
body and sees it (as separate from him).
 
5. A child superimposes a (real) elephant
on a clay elephant and plays with it ; even so,
an ignorant man superimposes the body, etc.,
on the Self and carries on his activities.
 
6. The picture of a snake does not cause
fear of a snake when it is realised to be only
a picture. Similarly when the jiva-snake is
clearly understood there is neither misery nor
the cause of misery.
 
7. The snake superimposed on a garland
merges in it; so also the sense of separateness
rising from the Self merges in the Self.
 
8. Although bracelets, etc., appear to be
many, as gold they are one. Similarly although
the adjuncts are many, the Self is really one.
 
9. Like the organs of the body and modifications
of clay (vessels of clay) non-duality
appears as duality (multiplicity) in the form
of the moving and unmoving objects.
 
10. Just as a single face is reflected as
many in a crystal, in water, or in ghee or in
a mirror ; so also the (one) Self is reflected
in the (many) intellects (or minds).
 
11. Just as the sky is (appears to be)
stained by dust, smoke and clouds, so also the
pure Self in contact with the qualities of Maya
(prakriti) is (appears to be) soiled by them.
 
12. Just as metal in contact with fire
acquires the quality of fire (namely heat), so
also the senses, etc., in contact with the Self
acquire the quality of the Self.
 
13. Just as the invisible Rahu becomes
visible when it is seized by the moon (i.e.,
comes in contact with the moon), even so the
Self is known by experiencing objects of perception.
 
14. When water and fire come together
they acquire the qualities of each other. Even
so when the Self and the inert body come
together the Self looks like the non-Self and
the non-Self looks like the Self.
 
15. Just as fire thrown into a large sheet
of water loses its quality, so also Consciousness
in contact with the unreal and the inert
seems to lose its real nature and becomes
inert.
 
16. The Self is realised in the body only
with effort, like sugar from the sugarcane, oil
from sesame seeds, fire from wood, butter
from a cow and iron from stones (ore).
 
17. Like the sky seen in an unbroken
crystal, the Supreme Lord of the nature of
consciousness is seen (exists) in all objects.
 
18. Just as a big lamp kept inside a vessel
made of precious stones illumines by its light
both outside and inside, so also the one Self
illumines (everything).
 
19. Just as the sun's reflection in a mirror
illumines (other things) so also the reflection
of the Self in pure intellects illumines (other
things).
 
20. That in which this wonderful universe
appears like a snake in a rope is the eternal
luminous Self.
 
21. The Self is without beginning or end.
It is immutable Existence and Consciousness.
It manifests space, it is the source of the jiva
and higher than the highest.
 
22. The Self is pure Consciousness,
eternal, omnipresent, immutable and selfeffulgent
like the light of the sun.
 
23. The omnipresent Self, the substratum
of all, is non-different from the effulgent
Consciousness like heat from fire. It can only
be experienced (not known).
 
24. Pure Consciousness without intellect,
the Supreme Self, the illuminator of all, the
indivisible, pervading (everything) within and
without, is the firm support (of all).
 
25. The Self is absolute consciousness. It
is pure awareness, undecaying, free from all
ideas of acceptance or rejection and not limited
by space, time or genus.
 
26. Just as the air in the universe pervades
everything, so also the Self, the Lord, abides
bodiless (in everything).
 
27. The Consciousness which exists in the
expanse of earth, in the ornaments, in the sky
and in the sun exists also inside the worms
lying in their shells under the earth.
 
28. There is neither bondage nor liberation,
neither duality nor non-duality. There
is only Brahman always shining as Consciousness.
 
29. Awareness is Brahman ; the world is
Brahman ; the various elements are Brahman ;
I am Brahman ; my enemy is Brahman ; my
friends and relatives are Brahman.
 
30. The idea of a consciousness and an
object of consciousness is bondage ; freedom
from it is liberation. Consciousness, the
object of consciousness and everything else is
the Self; this is the gist of all systems of
philosophy.
 
31. There is only consciousness here ; this
universe is nothing but consciousness ; you
are consciousness ; I am consciousness ; the
worlds are consciousness — that is the conclusion.
 
32. That which exists and that which
shines (is known to exist) are all the Self;
anything else which seems to shine does not
(really) exist. Consciousness alone shines by
itself. Ideas of knower and known are idle
postulates.
 
 
(To be Continued)