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Yoga Vashishtha 3.98.21~45
(The mind as a restless, self-torturing giant wandering in a vast, empty, terrifying desert that represents the World of samsara)
श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच।
इति पृष्टेन कथितं तेन मे रघुनन्दन।
नाहं कश्चिन्न चैवेदं मुने किंचित्करोम्यहम् ॥ २१॥
त्वयाहमवभग्नोऽस्मि त्वं मे शत्रुरहो वत।
त्वया दृष्टोऽस्मि नष्टोऽस्मि दुःखाय च सुखाय च ॥ २२॥
इत्युक्त्वा विक्लवान्यङ्गान्यालोक्य स्वान्यतुष्टिमान्।
रुरोदातिरवं दीनो मेघो वर्षन्निवाटवीम् ॥ २३॥
क्षणमात्रेण तत्रासावुपसंहृत्य रोदनम्।
स्वान्यङ्गानि समालोक्य जहास च ननाद च ॥ २४॥
अथाट्टहासपर्यन्ते स पुमान्पुरतो मम।
क्रमेण तानि तत्याज स्वान्यङ्गानि समंततः ॥ २५॥
(३.९८.२६–४०)
मदुक्तं नाभिनन्दन्ति केचिच्छवतनुं यथा।
विनिपत्यान्धकूपेभ्यः केचित्तत्प्रोत्थिताः पुनः ॥ ४१॥
कदलीखण्डकात्केचिच्चिरेणापि न निर्गताः।
केचिदन्तर्हिताः स्फारे करञ्जवनगुल्मके ॥ ४२॥
न क्वचित्स्थितिमायान्ति केचिद्धर्मपरायणाः।
एवंविधा सा वितता रघूद्वह महाटवी ॥ ४३॥
अद्यापि विद्यते यस्यामित्थं ते पुरुषाः स्थिताः।
सा च दृष्टा त्वया राम त्वयेह व्यवहारिणी।
बाल्यात्तु बुद्धितत्त्वस्य न तां स्मरसि राघव ॥ ४४॥
सा भीषणा विविधकण्टकसङ्कटाङ्गी घोराटवी घनतमोगहनापि लोके।
आगत्य निर्वृतिमलब्धपरावबोधैरासेव्यते कुसुमगुल्मकवाटिकेव ॥ ४५॥
Sage Vashishta continued:
3.98.21–25
> O joy of the Raghu race, when I asked him, he replied to me: “O sage, I am nobody, and I am doing nothing at all.”
> “You have broken me. You are my enemy, alas! You have seen me, and I am destroyed—both for sorrow and for joy.”
> Saying this, the miserable one looked at his own limbs with dissatisfaction, and wept loudly, like a cloud raining upon the forest.
> In a moment he stopped his weeping. Looking at his own limbs, he laughed and shouted.
> Then, at the end of his loud laughter, that man before me gradually abandoned all his own limbs on every side.
3.98.26–40
> Many more similar men appeared one after another in the same vast desert. They too struck themselves, ran about in fear, fell into dark pits, rose again or stayed trapped, entered thorny thickets or pleasant plantain groves, and either escaped, remained stuck, or disappeared. Vasistha tried to stop and question them, but most ignored him, answered with mixed crying and laughing, or simply continued their self-harm and flight until they discarded their bodies or vanished, showing the same endless pattern of self-inflicted suffering.
3.98.41–45
> Some do not welcome my words, just as one ignores a dead body. Some fall into blind wells and rise out again.
> Some never come out of the plantain thicket even after a long time. Some disappear forever inside the wide karanja bush thicket.
> Some devoted to dharma never find a settled place anywhere. Such is this vast great forest, O best of the Raghus.
> Even today that forest exists, and such men still stand in it in this way. You have seen that forest yourself, Rama, as the place of worldly action. From childhood until the rise of true understanding, you do not remember it, O Raghava.
> That fearful forest, with many kinds of thorny obstacles in its body, is terrible in the world and dense with thick darkness. Yet those who have not gained Higher Knowledge come and enjoy it as if it were a garden of flowering bushes, seeking rest but finding none.
Summary of the teachings:
These verses form part of the allegory of the mind as a restless, self-torturing giant wandering in a vast, empty, terrifying desert that represents the world of samsara. The desert is boundless, dark, full of dangers, and without true peace; the giant with a thousand arms and eyes is the individual mind that endlessly strikes itself with its own weapons of desire, fear, and attachment, then flees in panic, only to fall into pits of suffering, rise again, get caught in thorns of further misery, or briefly rest in temporary pleasures before repeating the cycle.
The conversation between Vasistha (as the voice of discriminating reason) and the self-harming figures shows that the mind denies its own actions and identity—“I am nobody and do nothing”—while still blaming the observer and oscillating between extreme grief and sudden laughter. This reveals the mind’s deep delusion: it refuses to recognize that all its pain is self-created, and it continues the same destructive pattern even when confronted with clear insight.
Verses 26–40 illustrate the universality of this condition. Countless similar minds appear one after another, each repeating the identical drama of self-punishment, flight, temporary relief, and renewed torment. Most ignore or reject the attempt to stop them; a few rise from the pits, some remain trapped in pleasant or painful places, and others vanish, showing that without awakening, the cycle simply multiplies across lives and individuals.
The forest still exists today and is none other than the ordinary world of human activity that every person experiences from childhood. Ordinary people, lacking Higher Knowledge, treat this thorny, dark wilderness as if it were a pleasant flower garden, seeking comfort and rest in it while remaining bound by its dangers. Only those who gain true understanding of the Self see it for what it is and cease to be trapped by it.
The core teaching is that bondage and liberation both depend entirely on the mind. When the mind is directed toward the Supreme and freed from latent desires and imaginations, it becomes Pure and rests in its True Nature. Until then, the mind continues to create and suffer its own endless desert of delusion. Discriminating Wisdom alone can stop the self-inflicted suffering and reveal the Peace that is already present beyond the illusory forest.
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