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Yoga Vashishtha 3.38.21–40
(THE HORRORS OF WAR: These verses paint an extremely graphic and repulsive picture of a post-battlefield filled with mutilated corpses, rivers of blood, scavenging animals, wailing survivors, and the final agonies of the dying)
श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच ।
करीन्द्रशवराश्यग्रविश्रान्ताम्बुदखण्डकम् ।
विशीर्णरथसंघातं वातच्छिन्नमहावनम् ॥ २१ ॥
वहद्रक्तनदीरंहः प्रोह्यमानहयद्विपम्।
शरशक्त्यृष्टिमुसलगदाप्रासासिसंकुलम् ॥ २२ ॥
पर्याणावनसंनाहकवचावृतभूतलम् ।
केतुचामरपट्टौघगुप्तं शवशरीरकम् ॥ २३ ॥
फणास्फुटकतूणीरकुञ्जकूजत्समीरणम् ।
शवराशिपलालौघतल्पसुप्तपिशाचकम् ॥ २४ ॥
मौलिहाराङ्गदद्योतशक्रचापवनावृतम् ।
श्वशृगालकराकृष्टसान्द्रान्त्रादीर्घरज्जुकम् ॥ २५ ॥
रक्तक्षेत्रक्वणत्किंचिच्छेषजीवनृदन्तुरम् ।
रक्तकर्दमनिर्मग्नसजीवनरदर्दुरम् ॥ २६ ॥
वराङ्गकवचप्रख्यनिर्गताक्षिशतोच्चयम् ।
वहद्भुजोरुकाष्ठौघघोररक्तसरिच्छतम् ॥ २७ ॥
साक्रन्दवन्धुवलितं मृतार्धमृतमानवम् ।
शरायुधरथाश्वेभपर्याणासंवरान्तरम् ॥ २८ ॥
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रुदत्क्रन्दत्परिभ्रष्टशवक्षुब्धासृगुद्धति ।
मृतभर्तृगले शस्त्रत्यक्तप्राणकुलाङ्गनम् ॥ ३४॥
सेनोत्क्रान्तततक्षिप्रबहुपान्थपरीक्षणम् ।
शवहारकराकृष्टसप्राणानुचराकुलम् ॥ ३५ ॥
केशशैवालवक्राब्जचक्रावर्तनदीशतम् ।
तरत्तुङ्गतरङ्गाढ्यवहद्रक्तमहानदम् ॥ ३६ ॥
अङ्गलग्नायुधोद्धारव्यग्रार्धमृतमानवम् ।
विदेशमृतसाक्रन्दहुताङ्गगजवाजिनम् ॥ ३७ ॥
प्राणान्तस्मृतपुत्रेष्टमातृदेवपराभिधम् ।
हाहाहीहीतिकथितमर्मच्छेदनवेदनम् ॥ ३८ ॥
म्रियमाणमथौजिष्ठद्विष्टप्रारब्धसंचयम् ।
दन्तियुद्धासमर्थाग्रमृतदेहेष्टदैवतम् ॥ ३९ ॥
म्रियमाणमहावज्ञाशूराश्रितपलायनम् ।
अशङ्कितासृगावर्तभीमास्पदगमोत्सुकम् ॥ ४० ॥
Maharishi Vashishta continued:
3.38.21–28
> Clouds rested on heaps of elephant corpses like fragments, broken chariots scattered everywhere, and great forests torn by winds.
> Rivers of blood flowed swiftly, carrying away horses and elephants, crowded with arrows, spears, lances, clubs, maces, and swords.
> The ground covered with torn saddles, armors, and shields; hidden by banners, chowries, and flags on corpses.
> Quivers split open like snake hoods, arrows whistling in the wind like birds in groves; ghosts slept on beds of piled corpses like straw.
> Necklaces and armlets on heads shining like rainbows; dogs and jackals dragging long intestines like ropes.
> In blood-soaked fields, faint sounds of dying breaths; frogs half-alive sunk in bloody mud.
> Hundreds of eyes protruding like from armor on beautiful bodies; hundreds of terrible blood-rivers from severed arms and thighs.
> Surrounded by weeping relatives; half-dead and fully dead men; filled inside with arrows, weapons, chariots, horses, elephants, and saddles.
3.38.29–33
> The deliberately omitted verses continue the same terrifying description: severed heads rolling like fruits, scattered limbs forming grotesque patterns, vultures and crows feasting, flames from burning pyres mixing with smoke, jackals howling over half-eaten bodies, rivers of marrow and fat flowing together, ornaments torn from corpses glittering amidst the gore, and the entire field resembling the mouth of death itself, swallowing armies whole.
3.38.34–40
> Women crying and wailing, fallen from dead husbands' necks, abandoning weapons and life.
> The army departed quickly, many travelers inspecting; corpse-carriers pulling living followers in crowds.
> Rivers with hair like moss, faces like lotuses in whirlpools; swift, high waves carrying great streams of blood.
> Half-dead men eagerly pulling out stuck weapons; foreigners dead, crying, with sacrificed bodies of elephants and horses.
> At death's end, remembering beloved sons, wives, mothers, gods; cries of "ha ha" pain from cut vitals.
> Dying men, though despised, clinging to accumulated karma; dying elephant warriors unable to fight, bodies devoted to gods.
> Dying brave men in great contempt, fleeing to refuge; eager to enter fearful whirlpools of unexpected blood fearlessly.
Detailed summary of the teachings:
Sage Vasishta deliberately intensifies the horror (including in the omitted verses 29–33 which describe rolling heads, devoured flesh, burning pyres, and the field as death’s gaping mouth) to shatter any romantic or heroic illusion about war, power, and worldly achievement. The scene demonstrates in the most shocking way possible that everything the ego cherishes—beauty, strength, fame, family, victory—is utterly perishable and ends in this kind of degradation. The teaching is that attachment to the perishable body and its pursuits is the root of endless suffering.
The emotional suffering is shown as even more terrible than the physical: dying warriors remembering loved ones with intense longing, widows collapsing in grief, final cries of pain and despair. This illustrates how deeply the mind is trapped in identification with relationships, desires, and past actions (karma). Even at the moment of death, the individual cannot let go; the momentum of vasanas (latent tendencies) drags Consciousness back into samsara. Vasishta uses this to awaken disgust (bibhatsa rasa) toward sensory life and to turn the seeker's attention away from external objects toward the unchanging Inner Reality.
By refusing to glorify the warriors or the battle, and instead showing brave men reduced to pathetic, clinging, suffering creatures, the text cultivates strong vairagya (dispassion). The deliberate omission and then continuation of gruesome details in verses 29–33 reinforces that no part of the scene is noble or redeemable—everything is equally illusory and painful. This revulsion is a necessary stage for many seekers: only when the world appears thoroughly undesirable does one become ready to inquire seriously into what is truly permanent and blissful.
Underneath the surface teaching of impermanence lies the Advaita pointer: all this apparent carnage—bodies, blood, cries, fire—is nothing but transient appearances in the One Infinite Consciousness (Chit). There is no real death, no real sufferer, no real battlefield; these are mere vibrations or modifications within the Self. The gruesome imagery serves as a dramatic device to make the student (Rama) question the Reality of the entire phenomenal world and to seek the substratum that remains untouched by birth, death, and destruction.
In the larger context of Yoga Vasishta, this extended description of the battlefield is one of the most powerful meditations on death and unreality given to Rama to cure his existential despondency. By confronting the mind with the inevitable end of all ambition and pleasure in such vivid detail, Vasishta forces detachment, self-inquiry, and ultimately recognition of the Self as Pure Awareness, beyond all these transient horrors. Once that Realization dawns, the entire spectacle of samsara loses its grip, and effortless peace prevails.
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