Sri Vasista
O Rama, I am telling you what Brahma told at the be- ginning of creation for the sake of peace in this world.
Sri Rama
O Bhagwan, Please relieve me of my immediate doubts. You can instruct me on the entire science of liberation later.
Why did the great, all-knowing, great intellectual Vyasa, the father of Suka, not attain Videha mukti, liberation after life, while Suka attained it ?
Sri Vasista
The photon like worlds that rise, fall and merge in the Supreme Effulgence (of consciousness) are uncount- ably infinite.
It is not possible to count even the existing set of triple worlds.
One does not know how many waves of worlds and creations arise in the future.
Sri Rama
O Sage, are the past and future series and sequences of worlds and creations worthy of enquiry as the present one?
Sri Vasista
This can be known (or seen) when the various species like animals, men and gods die.
(The jiva wears the subtle body at the time of death). In the heart-space of the subtle body, in the mental sheath, the three worlds are experienced (are seen). What is experienced is, in truth, The Brahman alone.
The beings that die and leave their body reincarnate (rise) again and again driven by the most dominant desire.
-13 . The movement of the world comes into experience in- ternally in one's self. It is like a fancied structure. It is like a dalliance in the mental kingdom. It is like a magic garland. It is like interpretation of a story. It is like a tremor caused by a gale. It is like a demon in the mind of a child. It is like pearls in a clean sky. It is like a shaking tree seen from a boat (on river), It is like a town- in-a dream. It is like a sky-flower recalled in one's memory.
There, by a massive perversion, the feeling `This is the present world (Iha)' gets strengthened and expansively blooms in the ` Jiva - Space `
There only the experiences of birth, death, and hope arise. Similar imaginations and fabrications (of birth, death etc) are made in what is called the `other world'.
Within that (body which is dead) there is another body and within that there is another like the layers in a ba- nana stalk. These together shine as `samsara'.
For the dead, there are neither the five elements (earth etc) nor any (operational) sequences of the world. Yet, the illusion about these remains.
This ignorance-which does not die even at the time of dissolution - is the deliverer of all actions of various types. The river of creation is long and wavy.
O Rama, these huge creation - waves arise in plenty in the vast ocean of Supreme.
These (creations and beings) are generally similar. Some are similar in mental attributes. Some are simi- lar in purposes. Some are distinctly different.
To the extent I can see with my knowledge of truth, this great sage Vyasa seems to be the thirty second one (in the line of Vyasas)
Among these, the first twelve look alike. They are of lesser intelligence except the tenth one, the rest be- long to the same class, caste and tribe.
Still a number of Vyasas, Valmikis, Bhrigus,Angarasas, Pulastyas and many such will be born in future with simi- lar and distinctive bodies.
Many human beings, devas, gods, rishis will be born in plenty. They will be born and also die again and again with many different and similar bodies.
This is the seventy second `Treta Yuga' in the Brahma- time. Many such have elapsed and many such are to come in the future. Similarly, in many such worlds, you and I were there. This I know.
I am visualizing the tenth incarnation of this great, far- sighted Vyasa of marvellous action.
We (you and I) were born many times as contemporar- ies of Vyasa and Valmiki. We were born in other times too.
You, I and many of these jnanis were born many times with similar bodies. Sometimes we were born with dif- ferent bodies (than now) but with same mental attitudes.
This Vyasa is going to be born yet another eight times in future. He will write Mahagharata eight times.
He will arange the vedas again and bring fame to his dynasty. He will then attain liberation and Brahmanhood.
This Vyasa (now) is a man liberated - while-in-life (Jivanmukta), he is a man of great peace. He is free from all mental fancies. He has conquered his mind. He is free from fear and sorrow.
-33 . All these beings live with similar knowledge, relatives, life-span, ability for effort, education and actions. In some creations they may be different. All this can be treated as Maya (deception).
Just like the grains,which rearrange themselves after measuring from a heap, these beings rearrange them- selves in different ways in different creations.
In this ocean of time, the waves of creation are differ- ent and similar. They are same in some and different in other creations.
And so a knower of truth abides in unaberrated peace, in full enjoyment of and satisfaction, with the essence of form. He abides in the nectar-sweetness of Supreme, perfect silence and Quiet.
