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Yoga Vashishtha 3.48.15–29
(These verses describe a fierce battle full of magical weapons and counter weapons, but the deeper teaching in Yoga Vasistha is that everything happening here is only a play of the mind)
श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच ।
तेन बाणसमूहेन जयमाशङ्क्य भर्तरि ।
उवाच वाक्यमानन्दविकसन्मुखपङ्कजा ॥ १५ ॥
जय देवि जयत्येष नाथोऽस्माकं विलोकय ।
किंचानेन शरौघेण मेरुरप्येति चूर्णताम् ॥ १६ ॥
तस्यामेव वदन्त्या तु घनस्नेहरवाकुलम्।
प्रेक्षणव्यग्रयोर्देव्योर्हसन्त्योर्मानुषीं हृदा ॥ १७ ॥
तच्छरार्णवमामत्तमपिबत्सिन्धुवाडवः ।
शरोष्मणा ह्यगस्त्येन जह्नुर्मन्दाकिनीमिव ॥ १८ ॥
बाणवर्षेण कणशस्तं सायकमहाघनम्।
छित्त्वा तनुरजः कृत्वा चिक्षेप गगनार्णवे ॥ १९ ॥
यथा दीपस्य शान्तस्य न परिज्ञायते गतिः ।
तस्य सायकसङ्घस्य न विज्ञाता तथा गतिः ॥ २० ॥
तं छित्त्वा सायकासारं शरीराम्बुधरं घनम् ।
व्योम्नि प्रसारयामास रसाच्छवशतान्वितम् ॥ २१ ॥
विदूरथस्तमप्याशु व्यधमत्सायकोत्तमैः।
सामान्यजलदं मत्तं कल्पान्तपवनो यथा ॥ २२ ॥
कृतप्रतिकृतैरेवं बाणवर्षैर्महीपती ।
व्यर्थीकृतैरनयतां प्रहारमविचारणैः ॥ २३ ॥
अथादधे मोहनास्त्रं सिन्धुर्गन्धर्वसौहृदात् ।
प्राप्तं तेन ययुर्लोका विना मोहं विदूरथात् ॥ २४ ॥
व्यस्तशस्त्राम्बरा मूका विषण्णवदनेक्षणाः ।
मृता इवाभवन्योधाश्चित्रन्यस्ता इवाथवा ॥ २५ ॥
यावद्विदूरथादन्यं मोहो नयति मन्दताम्।
तावद्विदूरथो राजा प्रबोधास्त्रमथाददे ॥ २६ ॥
ततः प्रबोधमापन्नाः प्रजाः प्रातरिवाब्जिनी ।
विदूरथे भवत्सिन्धुः कुद्धोऽर्क इव राक्षसे ॥ २७ ॥
नागास्त्रमाददे भीमं पाशबन्धनखेददम्।
तेनाभवन्नभो व्याप्तं भोगिभिः पर्वतोपमैः ॥ २८ ॥
सर्पैर्विलसिता भूमिर्मृणालैः सरसी यथा।
संपन्ना गिरयः सर्वे कृष्णपन्नगकम्बलाः ॥ २९ ॥
Maharishi Vasistha said:
3.48.15–22
> Thinking her husband would win because of that huge group of arrows, she spoke words with her lotus face blooming with joy.
> Victory, O Goddess! Our lord is victorious, look! With this flood of arrows even Mount Meru turns to powder.
> While she was speaking this way, the two Goddesses, filled with deep affection, with eyes eagerly watching, laughed heartily at the human lady.
> That wild ocean of arrows was drunk by Sindhu’s submarine fire, just as Agastya drank the ocean with the heat of his arrows or Jahnu drank the Ganges.
> With a shower of arrows he cut that great dense mass of arrows into tiny pieces, turned it into fine dust and scattered it into the ocean of the sky.
> Just as the path of an extinguished lamp is not known, the path of that group of arrows was also not known.
> Cutting that stream of arrows, the dense cloud-like body, he spread it in the sky along with hundreds of clear essences.
> Viduratha quickly destroyed even that with his best arrows, like the wind at the end of the world age destroys an ordinary mad cloud.
3.48.23–29
> In this way the two kings made each other’s arrow showers useless with counter actions and carried on the fight with thoughtless strikes.
> Then Sindhu took the deluding weapon because of his friendship with the Gandharvas. With it the armies became deluded except Viduratha himself.
> The warriors had scattered weapons and clothes, became silent, with sad faces and eyes, like dead bodies or like pictures fixed in a painting.
> While the delusion made others slow and dull, King Viduratha then took the awakening weapon.
> Then the people woke up like lotus flowers at dawn. Sindhu became furious at Viduratha like an angry sun towards a demon.
> He took the terrible serpent weapon that causes painful bondage with nooses. With it the sky filled with huge serpents like mountains.
> The earth shone with serpents like a lake with lotus stalks. All mountains were covered as if with black serpent blankets.
Summary of the teachings:
Arrows fly, get cut and disappear like dust in the sky, showing that all forms in the world are created by thought and can vanish in a moment.
There is no real solid world outside our Consciousness; the battle teaches us to see life as a dream where one illusion quickly cancels another.
The queen feels joy thinking her husband is winning, and the Goddesses' smile at her human emotions. This teaches detachment. From the higher view of awakened Beings, our small victories and worries look funny and unimportant. We are asked to watch our own desires and fears without getting lost in them, just as the Goddesses' watch the fight with light laughter.
The deluding weapon puts the whole army into stupor and silence, but the awakening weapon brings them back to life like lotuses opening at sunrise. This is the central spiritual lesson: ignorance can bind even strong people in dullness, yet one touch of true Knowledge removes the veil instantly. The verses remind us that the path from confusion to clarity is always open through Inner Wisdom.
Huge clouds of arrows turn to nothing and giant serpents suddenly cover the earth and sky. These images show the changing and unreal nature of everything. Nothing stays, nothing has a lasting path or substance; all is like a lamp that goes out or a cloud blown away. The teaching is to stop clinging to temporary things and realise their empty, dream-like quality.
Finally, the verses drive home the non-dual truth of Yoga Vasistha. Kings, weapons, victory, defeat and even the entire battlefield exist only within one Consciousness. There is no Real “other” or real fight; it is all the same Self playing different roles. The seeker is guided to wake up from this dream, stop taking sides in illusory battles and rest in the peaceful Oneness beyond all appearances.
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