Posts
Yoga Vashishtha 3.115.10–17
(The mind when clothed in the power of Consciousness, appears as the living individual)
श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच।
काष्ठकुड्योपमो देहो न किंचन इहानघ।
स्वप्नालोक इवानेन चेतसा परिकल्प्यते ॥ १०॥
चेतस्तु जीवतां यातं चिच्छक्तिपरिभूषितम्।
विद्यात्संसारसंरम्भं कपिपोतकचञ्चलम् ॥ ११॥
देही हि कर्मभाग्यो हि नानाकारशरीरधृक्।
अहंकारमनोजीवनामभिः परिकल्प्यते ॥ १२॥
तस्येमान्यप्रबुद्धस्य न प्रबुद्धस्य राघव।
सुखदुःखान्यनन्तानि शरीरस्य न कानिचित् ॥ १३॥
अप्रबुद्धं मनो नानासंज्ञाकल्पितकल्पनम्।
वृत्तीरनुपतच्चित्रा विचित्राकृतितां गतम् ॥ १४॥
अप्रबुद्धं मनो यावन्निद्रितं तावदेव हि।
संभ्रमं पश्यति स्वप्ने न प्रबुद्धं कदाचन ॥ १५॥
अज्ञाननिद्राक्षुभितो जीवो यावन्न बोधितः।
तावत्पश्यति दुर्भेदं संसारारम्भविभ्रमम् ॥ १६॥
संप्रबुद्धस्य मनसस्तमः सर्वं विलीयते।
कमलस्य यथा हार्दं दिनालोकविकासिनः ॥ १७॥
Sage Vashishta continued:
3.115.10–17
> O sinless One, the body is nothing at all here, like a wall of wood. It is only imagined by this mind, just as the scenes of a dream are imagined.
> Know that the mind has become the living Being, decorated with the power of Pure Consciousness. The whole busy activity of Worldly existence is as restless and fickle as a young monkey.
> The embodied one is simply the experiencer of the results of actions and wears many different kinds of bodies. It is only imagined under the names of ego and mind.
> For the one who is not awakened, O Raghava, these endless pleasures and pains belong to the body. For the one who is awakened, there are none of them at all.
> The unawakened mind is full of imaginations created by many names and concepts. Following its various movements, it takes on countless strange and different forms.
> As long as the unawakened mind remains asleep, it keeps seeing the confusion of the dream. The awakened mind never sees any such confusion.
> As long as the individual soul, disturbed by the sleep of ignorance, has not been awakened, it continues to see the hard-to-break delusion that is the whole show of Worldly existence.
> When the mind is fully awakened, all darkness completely dissolves, just as the darkness inside a lotus dissolves when the flower opens in the light of day.
Detailed Summary of the teachings:
These verses teach that the physical body has no independent reality. It is only a mental construction, as insubstantial as a wooden wall or the objects seen in a dream. The mind itself, when it is clothed in the power of consciousness, appears as the living individual. All the restless activity of the World is nothing more than the restless play of this mind, as unpredictable as a young monkey.
What we call the ego, and the the mind are only different names for the same imagined entity. This entity experiences the results of past actions and takes on many different bodily forms. Pleasure and pain belong only to the unawakened State. For the one who has woken up, the body and its joys and sufferings no longer exist as real experiences.
The unawakened mind is a factory of endless imaginations. It invents names, concepts and stories, and by following its own restless movements it appears in countless changing shapes. As long as this mind remains asleep in ignorance, it continues to dream the confusing drama of the world. The moment it truly wakes up, the dream and its confusion disappear.
Ignorance is described as a deep sleep that keeps the individual agitated and bound. Until that sleep is broken by True Knowledge, the mind keeps seeing the solid-seeming illusion of Worldly existence. Once the mind is completely awakened, every trace of this darkness vanishes, just as the darkness inside a closed lotus vanishes when the flower opens in the light of the sun.
The central teaching is therefore very simple: the body, the ego, pleasure, pain and the whole of Worldly life are products of an unawakened mind. When the mind wakes up to its own True Nature, all of these imagined things dissolve of themselves, leaving only clear, open Awareness.
No comments:
Post a Comment