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Yoga Vashishtha 3.40.28–44
(These verses explore the nature of the mind as the root cause of the perceived world and individual existence)
श्रीराम उवाच ।
किं चित्तमेतद्भवति किंवा भवति नौ कथम् ।
कथमेव न सद्रूपं नान्यद्भवति वीक्षणात् ॥ २८ ॥
श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच ।
प्रत्येकमेव यच्चित्तं तदेवंरूपशक्तिकम् ।
पृथक्प्रत्येकमुदितः प्रतिचित्तं जगद्भ्रमः ॥ २९ ॥
क्षणकल्पजगत्संघा समुद्यन्ति गलन्ति च ।
निमेषात्कस्यचित्कल्पात्कस्यचिच्च क्रमं श्रृणु ॥ ३० ॥
मरणादिमयी मूर्च्छा प्रत्येकेनानुभूयते ।
यैषा तां विद्धि सुमते महाप्रलययामिनीम् ॥ ३१ ॥
तदन्ते तनुते सर्गं सर्व एव पृथक्पृथक् ।
सहजस्वप्नसंकल्पान्संभ्रमाचलनृत्यवत् ॥ ३२ ॥
महाप्रलयरात्र्यन्ते चिरादात्ममनोवपुः ।
यथेदं तनुते तद्वत्प्रत्येकं मृत्यनन्तरम् ॥ ३३ ॥
श्रीराम उवाच ।
मृतेरनन्तरं सर्गो यथा स्मृत्यानुभूयते।
चिरात्तथानुभवति नातो विश्वमकारणम् ॥ ३४ ॥
श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच ।
महति प्रलये राम सर्वे हरिहरादयः ।
विदेहमुक्ततां यान्ति स्मृतेः क इव संभव ॥ ३५ ॥
अस्मदादिः प्रबुद्धात्मा किलावश्यं विमुच्यते ।
कथं भवन्तु नो मुक्ता विदेहाः पद्मजातयः ॥ ३६ ॥
अन्ये त्वमिव ये जीवास्तेषां मरणजन्मसु ।
स्मृतिः कारणतामेति मोक्षाभाववशादिह ॥ ३७ ॥
भवत्यद्रिर्धराधारो बद्धपीठो नभः शिराः।
जीवो हि मृतिमूर्च्छान्ते यदन्तः प्रोन्मिषन्निव ।
अनुन्मिषित एवास्ते तत्प्रधानमुदाहृतम् ॥ ३८ ॥
तद्व्योमप्रकृतिः प्रोक्ता तदव्यक्तं जडाजडम् ।
संस्मृतेरस्मृतेश्चैव क्रम एष भवोदये ॥ ३९ ॥
बोधोन्मुखत्वे हि महत्तत्प्रबुद्धं यदा भवेत् ।
तदा तन्मात्रदिक्कालक्रिया भूताद्युदेति खात् ॥ ४० ॥
तदेवोच्छूनमाबुद्धं भवतीन्द्रियपञ्चकम्।
तदेव बुध्यते देहः स एषोऽस्यातिवाहिकः ॥ ४१ ॥
चिरकालप्रत्ययतः कल्पनापरिपीवरः।
आधिभौतिकताबोधमाधत्ते चैष बालवत् ॥ ४२ ॥
ततो दिक्कालकलनास्तदाधारतया स्थिताः ।
उद्यन्त्यनुदिता एव वायोः स्पन्दक्रिया इव ॥ ४३ ॥
वृद्धिमित्थमयं यातो मुधैव भुवनभ्रमः ।
स्वप्नाङ्गनासङ्गसमस्त्वनुभूतोऽप्यसन्मयः ॥ ४४ ॥
Sriram asked:
3.40.28
> What is this mind? How does it come into being, or how does it not? How is it that, upon seeing, it is not truly real, and nothing else appears?
Maharishi Vashishta answered:
3.40.29–33
> Each individual mind has the power to take such forms. From each mind arising separately, the illusion of the world appears distinctly for each one.
> Groups of worlds lasting a moment or a kalpa arise and dissolve. Listen to the sequence: in a moment for someone, it is a kalpa for another.
> Each one experiences a fainting-like state involving death and so on. Know that this, O wise one, is the great dissolution night.
> After that, each one separately expands creation, like natural dream-thoughts, due to delusion, dancing like unsteady motion.
> Just as at the end of the great dissolution night, after a long time, the body of the Self-mind manifests this world, so too each one does after death.
Sriram asked:
3.40.34
> After death, Creation is experienced as if by memory. In the same way, after a long time, one experiences it; the world is not without cause.
Maharishi Vashishta answered:
3.40.35–38
> In the great dissolution, O Rama, all including Hari, Hara, etc., attain bodiless liberation. How can there be memory?
> People like us, whose Self is awakened, certainly attain liberation. How can Brahma and others, who are liberated without body, not be free?
> For others like you who are living beings, memory becomes the cause in deaths and births here, due to the absence of liberation.
> The mountain becomes the support of the earth, the bound seat has sky as head. The jiva, at the end of death-faint, as if opening inwardly, yet remains unopened; that is called the chief.
3.40.39–44
> That is called space-nature, the unmanifest, both inert and non-inert. This is the sequence from memory and non-memory in the rise of existence.
> When it turns towards awakening in the great, then that awakened one gives rise from Space to the subtle elements, direction, time, action, elements, etc.
> That very thing, swollen and awakened, becomes the five senses. That itself knows the body; this is its ativahika (transmigrating subtle body).
> Due to long-held conviction, fattened by imagination, it assumes the sense of physical materiality like a child.
> Then direction, time, and actions stand as its support. They arise as if unarisen, like the vibrations of wind.
> In this way, this world-delusion has grown vainly. Though experienced like the embrace of a dream-woman, it is unreal.
Detailed Summary of the Teachings:
Rama questions how the mind arises, why it appears real yet is not truly so upon examination, and how perception creates the illusion of an external reality. Vasishta explains that each mind independently projects its own world-illusion, arising separately for every Being. This highlights the subjective nature of Reality: the Universe is not one objective creation but countless personal dreams emerging from individual Consciousnesses. Worlds can seem momentary or eternal depending on the perceiver's scale of time, emphasizing relativity in experience.
The process of cosmic cycles (creation and dissolution) mirrors individual death and rebirth. Each Being experiences a "great dissolution" in the faint of death, where the world vanishes temporarily. After this "night," the mind recreates its world through innate, dream-like sankalpa (willful imagination), much like spontaneous thoughts in sleep. This recreation happens swiftly after death, driven by latent impressions, showing continuity through memory and vasanas rather than an external cause.
Rama notes that post-death Creation feels like recalling memories over time, implying the world lacks independent Reality. Vasishta clarifies that in true Cosmic dissolution, even gods attain videhamukti (liberation without body), leaving no room for memory or rebirth. Awakened souls (like Realized Beings) escape this cycle permanently. Ordinary jivas, bound by ignorance, retain memory across lives, causing repeated birth and death due to non-liberation.
The subtle body (ativahika or linga sharira) is described as the core: at death's faint, the jiva remains inwardly "unopened" yet potent, like unmanifest potential. This is the unmanifest prakriti or Space-like Essence—neither fully inert nor conscious—arising from memory or its absence. When inclined toward awakening, it manifests time, space, elements, senses, and the gross body from "Space" (void Consciousness). Long-held beliefs thicken this subtle form into a sense of physicality, child-like in its naive assumption of materiality.
Ultimately, the world-delusion grows meaninglessly through imagination and conviction.
Though vividly experienced—like intimate union in a dream—it remains unreal (asat). The teaching underscores Advaita non-duality: all appearance is mind-born illusion, sustained by ignorance and dissolved in Self-knowledge. Liberation comes from recognizing the mind's projective power, transcending memory-driven cycles, and Realizing the unchanging Self beyond birth, death, and worlds.
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