Chapter 3.40, Verses 45–54

Yoga Vashishtha 3.40.45–54

(These verses explain how the individual soul -jiva- creates and experiences its own personal world at the moment of death or in the process of birth and rebirth)

श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच ।

यत्रैव म्रियते जन्तुः पश्यत्याशु तदेव सः।

तत्रैव भुवनाभोगमिममित्थमिव स्थितम् ॥ ४५ ॥

व्योमैवानुभवत्यच्छमहं जगदिति भ्रमम्।

व्योमरूपं व्योमरूपी जीवो जात इवात्मवान् ॥ ४६ ॥

सुरपत्तनशैलार्कतारानिकरसुन्दरम् ।

जरामरणवैक्लव्यव्याधिसंकटकोटरम् ॥ ४७ ॥

स्वभावाभावसंरम्भस्थूलसूक्ष्मचराचरम् ।

साव्ध्यद्व्युर्वीनदीशाहोरात्रिकल्पक्षणक्षयम् ॥ ४८ ॥

अहं जातोऽमुना पित्रा किलात्रेत्याप्तनिश्चयम् ।

इयं माता धनमिदं ममेत्युदितवासनम् ॥ ४९ ॥

सुकृतं दुष्कृतं चेदं ममेति कृतकल्पनम्।

बालोऽभूवमहं त्वद्य युवेति विलसद्धृदि ॥ ५० ॥

प्रत्येकमेवमुदितः संसारवनखण्डकः।

ताराकुसुमितो नीलमेघचञ्चलपल्लवः ॥ ५१ ॥

चरन्नरमृगानीकः सुरासुरविहंगमः ।

आलोककौसुमरजाः श्यामागहनकुञ्जकः ॥ ५२ ॥

अब्धिपुष्करिणीपूर्णो मेर्वाद्यचललोष्टकः ।

चित्तपुष्करबीजान्तर्निलीनानुभवाङ्कुरः ॥ ५३ ॥

यत्रैष म्रियते जीवस्तत्रैवं पश्यति क्षणात् ।

प्रत्येकमुदितेष्वेवं जगत्खण्डेषु भूरिशः ॥ ५४ ॥

Maharishi Vashishta said:

3.40.45–50

> Wherever a living Being dies, he quickly sees that very place as his world spread out before him in this manner.

> The clear space (void) itself experiences the delusion "I am the world." The soul, having the form of Space and being of the nature of Space, appears as if born with ego-sense.

> It appears beautiful with cities of gods, mountains, suns, clusters of stars; yet it is hollow with the miseries of old age, death, distress, and diseases.

> It is made of natural absence and presence, gross and subtle, moving and unmoving; it includes mountains, earth, rivers, days and nights, eons, moments, and their destruction.

> With the firm conviction "I was born here through this father," and the latent impression "This is my mother, this wealth is mine."

> Imagining "These good and bad deeds are mine," and in the heart thinking "I was a child before, now I am young."

3.40.51–54

> In this way, each one individually rises as a fragment of the world-forest — flowered with stars, having fickle leaves of dark clouds.

> Moving with herds of men and animals, with birds of gods and demons; sprinkled with rays of light like flowers, thick with dark groves.

> Full of oceans and lakes, with lumps of mountains like Meru; the sprout of experience hidden inside the lotus seed of the mind.

> Wherever this soul dies, in that very instant it sees this; thus in many such individually arisen world-fragments, it happens repeatedly.

Detailed summary of the teachings:

The teaching emphasizes that death is not an end but an instant transition where the dying being immediately perceives a new or continued world based on its own mind and vasanas (latent impressions). The world is not objective or shared in the same way for everyone; instead, each soul projects its Reality from Pure Space-like Consciousness, showing the illusory and subjective nature of existence.

The core idea is that the entire Universe appears within the Infinite, Formless Space (vyoma) of Consciousness. The soul, being non-different from this empty Space, mistakenly identifies itself as a limited entity and imagines a vast, beautiful yet painful world full of celestial cities, mountains, stars, gods, demons, aging, diseases, time cycles, and natural elements. This projection arises from delusion (bhrama), where the clear void experiences itself as "I am the world," highlighting non-duality — there is no real creation apart from mind.

The verses describe how egoistic notions solidify this illusion: beliefs like "I was born to this father in this place," "This is my mother," "This is my wealth," "These are my good and bad actions," and the sense of time passing from childhood to youth. These vasanas and convictions bind the soul to repeated cycles of samsara, making the world seem solid and personal, even though it is merely a mental construct without true substance.

Using poetic metaphors, Sage Vasishta portrays each individual's world as a separate "fragment" of a vast forest-like samsara: starry flowers, cloudy leaves, moving creatures, light rays like blossoms, dense dark groves, oceans, mountains, all sprouting from the tiny seed of chitta (mind). This illustrates the multiplicity of worlds within Consciousness — countless private Universes arising and vanishing, each unique to the perceiver, yet all rooted in the same underlying Reality.

Ultimately, the teaching points to liberation through understanding this process. Since the soul sees its world instantly upon "death" in any fragment, and this repeats across many such worlds, true freedom comes from recognizing the dream-like, mind-born nature of all experience. By transcending identification with the body, ego, and vasanas, one Realizes the Pure, Unchanging Space of Awareness beyond birth and death, dissolving the illusion of separate worlds and individual suffering.