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Yoga Vashishtha 3.96.16–25
(The many mental functions)
श्रीराम उवाच।
परायाः संविदो ब्रह्मन्नेताः पर्यायवृत्तयः।
कल्प्यमानविचित्रार्थाः कथं रूढिमुपागताः ॥ १६॥
श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच।
गतेव सकलङ्कत्वं कदाचित्कल्पनात्मकम्।
उन्मेषरूपिणी नाना तदैव हि मनःस्थिता ॥ १७॥
भावनामनुसंधानं यदा निश्चित्य संस्थिता।
तदैषा प्रोच्यते बुद्धिरियत्ताग्रहणक्षमा ॥ १८॥
यदा मिथ्याभिमानेन सत्तां कल्पयति स्वयम्।
अहंकाराभिमानेन प्रोच्यते भवबन्धनी ॥ १९॥
इदं त्यक्त्वेदमायाति बालवत्पेलवा यदा।
विचारं संपरित्यज्य तदा सा चित्तमुच्यते ॥ २०॥
यदा स्पन्दैकधर्मत्वात्कर्तुर्या शून्यशंसिनी।
आधावति स्पन्दफलं तदा कर्मेत्युदाहृता ॥ २१॥
काकतालीययोगेन त्यक्त्वैकघननिश्चयम्।
यदेहितं कल्पयति भावं तेनेह कल्पना ॥ २२॥
पूर्वदृष्टमदृष्टं वा प्राग्दृष्टमिति निश्चयैः।
यदैवेहां विधत्तेऽन्तस्तदा स्मृतिरुदाहृता ॥ २३॥
यदा पदार्थशक्तीनां संभुक्तानामिवाम्बरे।
वसत्यस्तमितान्येहा वासनेति तदोच्यते ॥ २४॥
अस्त्यात्मतत्त्वं विमलं द्वितीया दृष्टिरङ्किता।
जाता ह्यविद्यमानैव तदा विद्येति कथ्यते ॥ २५॥
Sriram asked:
3.96.16
> O Brahmin, how did these successive changes of the Supreme Consciousness, imagined with many different meanings, come to take firm, fixed forms?
Sage Vashishta answered:
3.96.17–25
> Sometimes Pure Consciousness seems to take on the nature of imagination and become stained. At that very moment, appearing in many forms, it settles as the mind.
> When it firmly settles after carefully examining a thought or idea, it is called the intellect. This intellect can grasp clear limits and measures of things.
> When, through false pride, it invents its own existence as Real, then by the sense of “I” it is called the ego that binds one to the World.
> When, like a tender child, it leaves one thing and runs to another without any proper thinking, it is called the mind-stuff.
> When, by its very nature of movement alone and showing no solid doer, it runs after the fruit of that movement, it is called action or karma.
> When, by chance like a crow landing on a palm tree, it drops its single firm decision and invents a desired idea, that is called imagination.
> When inside itself, with the firm belief “this was seen before,” it makes an effort about something once seen or not now seen, it is called memory.
> When the powers of objects, as if already enjoyed, rest quietly within like in open space, and other desires have set, that is called latent tendency or vasana.
> The Pure Essence of the Self truly exists. A second, stained view that arises even though it is not real is then called Knowledge (or rather ignorance appearing as knowledge).
Summary of the teachings:
These verses explain that the many names we give to mental functions—mind, intellect, ego, thought, action, imagination, memory, tendency, and so on—are not separate real things. They are only different appearances or stages of one Pure Consciousness when it seems to forget its own Pure Nature and starts imagining.
The Pure Self is ever free and stainless. Yet by a kind of accidental self-forgetfulness it begins to move and imagine. That first movement is called the mind. When the same power looks carefully and decides limits, it is called intellect. When it claims “I exist separately,” it becomes the ego that ties us to repeated birth and suffering.
When the same power jumps restlessly from one object to another without deep thought, it is mind-stuff. When it simply moves toward results, it is called karma. When it invents pictures of what it wants, it is imagination. When it holds past pictures as real, it is memory. When subtle impressions of past experiences stay hidden, they are vasanas. Even the sense of “knowing” objects is only a second, unreal view covering the Pure Self.
The teaching is that none of these States is ultimately Real. They arise only when Pure Consciousness seems to become limited and active. By clear understanding that all these are only names of One Consciousness in different moods, the restless movements quiet down. Then the Pure, Stainless Self shines by itself, free from every name and form.
The practical point is simple: do not take the changing mental states as the True Self. See them as temporary waves on the Ocean of Consciousness. When this clear seeing becomes firm, the waves settle and the boundless Pure Awareness remains.
