Posts
Yoga Vashishtha 3.110.38–50
(The mind alone creates and sustains every experience of the World)
श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच।
कुसुमोल्लासिधम्मिल्ला हेलाचलितलोचना।
काष्ठकुड्योपमाङ्गेषु लग्नाप्यमनसोऽङ्गना ॥ ३८॥
मनस्यन्यत्र संसक्ते वीतरागेण कानने।
क्रव्यादचर्वितोऽङ्कस्थः स्वकरोऽपि न लक्षितः ॥ ३९॥
सुखीकर्तुं सुदुःखानि दुःखीकर्तुं सुखानि च।
सुखेनैवाशु युज्यन्ते मनसोऽतिशया मुनेः ॥ ४०॥
मनस्यन्यत्र संसक्ते कथ्यमानापि यत्नतः।
लता परशुकृत्तेव कथा विच्छिद्यते बत ॥ ४१॥
मनस्यद्रितटारूढे गृहस्थेनापि जन्तुना।
शुभ्राभ्रकन्दरभ्रान्तिदुःखं समनुभूयते ॥ ४२॥
मनस्युल्लसिते स्वप्ने हृद्येव पुरपर्वताः।
आकाश इव विस्तीर्णे दृश्यन्ते निर्मिताः क्षमाः ॥ ४३॥
मनो विलुलिते स्वप्ने हृद्येवाद्रिपुरावलिम्।
तनोति चलिताम्भोधिर्वीचीचयमिवात्मनि ॥ ४४॥
अन्तरब्धिजलाद्यद्वत्तरङ्गापीडवीचयः।
देहान्तर्मनसस्तद्वत्स्वप्नाद्रिपुरराजयः ॥ ४५॥
अङ्कुरस्य यथा पत्रलतापुष्पफलश्रियः।
मनसोऽस्य तथा जाग्रत्स्वप्नविभ्रमभूमयः ॥ ४६॥
व्यतिरिक्ता यथा हेम्नो न हेमवनिता तथा।
जाग्रत्स्वप्नक्रियालक्ष्मीर्व्यतिरिक्ता न चेतसः ॥ ४७॥
धाराकणोर्मिफेनश्रीर्यथा संलक्ष्यतेऽम्भसः।
तथा विचित्रविभवा नानातेयं हि चेतसः ॥ ४८॥
स्वचित्तवृत्तिरेवेह जाग्रत्स्वप्नदृशोदितम्।
रसावेशादुपादत्ते शैलूष इव भूमिकाम् ॥ ४९॥
चण्डालत्वं हि लवणे प्रतिभासवशाद्यथा।
तथेदं जगदाभोगि मनो मननमात्रकम् ॥ ५०॥
Sage Vashishta continued:
3.110.38–44
> A woman with flowers blooming in her hair and eyes moving playfully remains like a wooden log or a wall to one whose mind is elsewhere, even if she clings to his body.
> When the mind of a passionless person is fixed elsewhere in the forest, even his own hand, chewed by a flesh-eating beast while resting on his lap, goes unnoticed.
> With ease and speed, the extraordinary mind of a Sage can turn sufferings into joys and joys into sufferings.
> When the mind is attached elsewhere, even a story carefully told is cut short and broken, like a creeper severed by an axe. Alas!
> When the mind of even a householder climbs a mountain slope, he experiences the misery of wandering in the caves of white clouds.
> When the mind is lively in a dream, cities and mountains appear built right inside the heart, as if in the vast sky.
> When the mind is restless in a dream, it spreads out rows of mountains and cities within the heart, just as a moving ocean spreads waves of foam within itself.
3.110.45–50
> Just as waves and rows of foam arise from the waters of the inner ocean, so rows of dream mountains and cities arise from the mind within the body.
> Just as leaves, creepers, flowers and the glory of fruits arise from a sprout, so the fields of waking and dream delusions arise from this mind.
> Just as a golden woman is not separate from gold, so the glory of waking and dream activities is not separate from the mind.
> Just as the glory of streams, drops, waves and foam is seen as belonging to water, so this manifold variety of wondrous powers belongs only to the mind.
> The movements of one’s own mind alone rise as the sights of waking and dream; under the force of emotion it takes on roles, like an actor on the stage.
> Just as the state of being an outcaste appears in salt through mere appearance, so this whole expanse of the world is only the mind’s mere thinking.
Summary of the Teachings:
These verses teach that the mind alone creates and sustains every experience of the world. When attention is withdrawn or fixed elsewhere, even the most attractive or painful bodily contacts lose all power and become as lifeless as wood or stone. A controlled mind can instantly reverse feelings of pleasure and pain, while an uncontrolled mind breaks the flow of even careful teaching and projects distant dangers into ordinary life.
Dreams show the mind’s creative power most clearly: cities, mountains and entire landscapes arise and spread within the heart itself, exactly as waves and foam arise within the ocean. The same power continues in the waking state. All the variety of life grows from the mind just as leaves, flowers and fruit grow from a single seed.
Nothing that appears in waking or dream exists apart from the mind, any more than a golden image exists apart from gold, or foam and waves exist apart from water. The mind simply plays different parts, like an actor putting on costumes, and the entire world is only its own continuous thinking.
The famous example of King Lavana shows how a mere idea can make a person experience a completely different identity and life. In the same way, the whole visible Universe is nothing but the mind’s temporary assumption of form through its own thought.
Therefore the teaching is that freedom lies in recognising the mind as the sole source of every appearance. By withdrawing attention, mastering thought and seeing that waking and dream are of one nature, the Sage remains undisturbed by outer events and rests in Pure Awareness beyond the play of the mind.
