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Yoga Vashishtha 3.106.1–11
(King’s vivid recollection of how an ordinary royal assembly was suddenly transformed by the appearance of a magician)
राजोवाच।
अस्ति तावदयं देशो नानावननदीयुतः।
वसुधामण्डलस्यास्य सहोदर इवानुजः ॥ १॥
अस्मिंश्चायमहं राजा पौराभिमतवृत्तिमान्।
इन्द्रः स्वर्ग इवास्यां तु सभायां मध्यसंस्थित ॥ २॥
यावदभ्यागतो दूरात्कश्चिच्छाम्बरिकस्त्वयम्।
रसातलादभ्युदितो मायी मय इव स्वयम् ॥ ३॥
अनेन भ्रमिताद्येह पिच्छिका तेजसोर्जिता।
कल्पान्तपवनाभ्रेण शक्रचापलता यथा ॥ ४॥
आलोक्यैतामहं लोलामस्याश्वस्य पुरः स्थितः।
पृष्ठमारूढवानेक आत्मना भ्रान्तमानसः ॥ ५॥
ततोऽद्रिं प्रलयक्षुब्धं पुष्करावर्तको यथा।
तथा चलन्तं चलितः स्वश्वमारूढवानहम् ॥ ६॥
गन्तुं प्रवृत्तो मृगयामेकोऽहमतिरंहसा।
उर्वरामिव निर्भर्तुः कल्लोलः प्रलयाम्बुधेः ॥ ७॥
तेनानिलविलोलेन दूरं नीतोऽस्मि वाजिना।
योगाभ्यासजडेनाज्ञो मुग्धस्य मनसा यथा ॥ ८॥
अकिंचनमनःशून्यं स्त्रीचित्तमिव निर्भरम्।
ततः प्रलयनिर्दग्धजगदास्पद भीषणम् ॥ ९॥
निष्पक्षिक्षारनीहारं निर्वृक्षमजलं महत्।
संप्राप्तोऽहमपर्यन्तमरण्यं श्रान्तवाहनः ॥ १०॥
तद्द्वितीयमिवाकाशं तथाष्टममिवाम्बुधिम्।
पञ्चमं सागरमिव संशुष्कं शून्यकोटरम् ॥ ११॥
The King continued:
3.106.1–11
> There is this country full of various forests and rivers. It is like a younger brother of this whole circle of the Earth.
> In this land I am the King, living according to the wishes of the citizens. I sit in the middle of this assembly hall just as Indra sits in Heaven.
> Then a certain magician came from far away. He rose up from the nether world like the demon Maya himself.
> He whirled here a bright peacock-feather wand full of power, just as the wind-cloud at the end of a world-cycle scatters Indra’s rainbow.
> Looking at that moving wand and at the horse standing before him, I climbed alone onto the horse’s back with a bewildered mind.
> Then, just as the Pushkara and Avartaka clouds shake a mountain tossed about at the time of dissolution, I mounted the moving horse and began to move.
> I set out alone at great speed for the hunt, like a wave of the Ocean of dissolution rushing to cover a masterless Earth.
> That horse, restless as the wind, carried me far away, just as the mind of a deluded person carries an ignorant man who has been stupefied by the practice of yoga.
> Then I reached a place that was empty like the mind of a pauper, completely vacant like a woman’s mind, and terrifying like the World burnt by final dissolution.
> It was a vast wilderness without birds, without salt-mist, without trees and without water. With my tired horse I arrived at that endless forest.
> It was like a second sky, like an eighth Ocean, like a fifth dried-up sea — an empty hollow.
Detailed summary of the teachings:
These verses begin the King’s vivid recollection of how an ordinary royal assembly was suddenly transformed by the appearance of a magician. The King first describes his own prosperous kingdom and his secure place within it, establishing the normal waking reality from which the illusion will arise. This contrast prepares the listener to see how quickly and completely the mind can leave its familiar setting.
The arrival of the magician and the whirling of the peacock-feather wand mark the exact point at which the outer world begins to dissolve. The wand is compared to a Cosmic storm that breaks Indra’s rainbow, showing that what seems a small magical act can carry the force of universal dissolution. The mind, once caught by the spectacle, loses its ordinary bearings.
Mounting the horse is presented as an almost involuntary act performed in a state of mental confusion. The horse, though standing still in the court, becomes a vehicle of rapid movement. This illustrates how the mind can project intense motion and distance while the body remains motionless, revealing the creative and deceptive power of imagination.
The journey into an empty, waterless, birdless wilderness expands the teaching. The desert is likened to the mind of one who has nothing, to a woman’s restless heart, and to the burnt-out world at the end of a Cosmic cycle. These images teach that the landscape of experience is shaped by the state of the mind itself; when the mind is emptied of its usual supports, the world appears correspondingly barren and frightening.
Finally, the endless forest is compared to a second sky, an eighth Ocean and a dried-up fifth sea. Such similes emphasise the boundless and hollow nature of the projected world. The entire sequence shows that Time, Space, movement and desolation can all be generated within a brief interval of mental absorption, reminding the reader that ordinary waking life may be no more substantial than this magical ride.
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