Sri Vasista

1. O Rāma, people can dissolve the mental activity by inquiry into truth.  Then thinking and reflection and ceases.  And when it is thus renounced, some advance will take place in self-realization.

2. When phenomena is given up, the distinction between good and bad phenomena will cease.  Then one sees any thing or phenomena as a witness.  If not as witness, he will not see anything.

3. Such a person will be aware of that to be aware, the Supreme self and will live with that awareness.  He will deeply asleep to the deadly infatuations for the worldly activities.

4. With intense disgust for the most pleasant things, he shall be averse to enjoy even the best of pleasures.

5. When the waters of Self unite with the cloud of declining stupidity, the evil fate of attachment will drop of  / melt like snow in sun.

6. Inside (lower down) disturbed waters, the waves subside (are not there).  Similarly (when stupidity declines or knowledge increases) intense desires subside like rivers at the end of rainy season (which will become quiet).

7. Like mice which bite the bird-cage, complete cessation of desire and distaste for the world loosen the knots of the heart and peck at the web of worldly vāsanas.

8. When water is treated with ‘kātaka’ fruit, it becomes clear and purified.  Similarly when one’s nature is influenced by knowledge, that nature will become delightful.

9. Lack of attachment, lack of sensuous attractions, non-duality and lack of dependence (on things) will free one from the cage of self-deluding mind.

10. -11. A mind that is liberated from the evil of doubt and hesitation, that is free from the whirl of vehement desires and pleasures and perfectly contented inside, will shine like full moon.  Then an attitude of equality will spread with beauty and grandeur.  It will be like a vast sea which is calm without any breeze (over it).

12. (On the other hand) if the inside (of a person) is worn out by darkness, stupidity and dumbness, worldly vāsanas triumph and overtake a person.

13. The sky will be pure and clear on a clean bright morning.  Similarly when the sun of consciousness – perception shines, the pond of lotuses of all-wise intelligence with its soft petals of virtue will open in full bloom.

14. When one’s heart is stolen by pure intelligence he will be able to delight the whole world.  A quality of poise, harmony and peace will be gained and it will increase like moon-beams.

15. Why wax eloquent?  For one of great mind who knows what is to be known, there is no rising or setting.  He is like the pure sky without any elemental states or becomings.

16. Even Brahma, Vishnu and Sankara become pitiable before one whose self is chastened and tempered by knowledge acquired through inquiry.

17. He will be internally free of ego even though he appears (and moves about) as an individual.  There will not be any deformations in his mind.  It is like a mirage from which an animal cannot drink water.

18. Souls move around and go through death and birth like ripples and waves on a sea.  Only ignorant ones fall into this trap not the ‘jnanis’.

19. Manifestation, disappearance, birth and death and such other sequences of the world grip only the ignorant.  The wise people with knowledge sail through ‘samsara’ enjoying it like a play.

20. The one who is in possession of his self will not care for praise or abuse.  When a pot is broken, the space-in-pot is neither born nor will vanish.

21. When discriminatory intelligence develops, the perplexity of illusion weakens vāsanas will decline as when it is cold a mirage disappears.

22. As long as one does not inquire into ‘who am I? How did this world arise?’ the vain, pompish world-display will remain like darkness.

23. This body, which is born out of host of perplexities is full of calamities.  He alone is the true observer of truth who looks at this world from the point of view Self.

24. ‘I am not that which is bound by time and space.  All sorrows and joys are for the body’ – one who sees thus with all the confusions gone, he is the one who perceives (truth).

25. ‘I am the one who is omnipresent in all this universe which is time and space-bound and full of action and works’ – one who sees this, is the one who perceives (truth).

26. ‘I am the one who is the subtle one subtler than the billionth part of end of hair’ – one, who sees this, is the one who perceives (truth).

27. ‘All that appears different from me is only the light of consciousness alone.’ – one who sees this, is the one who perceives (truth).

28. ‘The infinite self is all powerful.  It abides in all.  In that consciousness there is no second.’ – one ho sees this, is the one who perceives (truth).

29. ‘I am that embodied one who is shaken by birth, death, old age, disease mental and physical’ – a wise one, who does not perceive thus, is the one who perceives (truth).

30. The majesty of all this that is spread below, above and middle is mine.  There is no other than me’ – one who sees thus, is the one who perceives (truth).

31. ‘All this is in me strung together like diamonds (in a jewel).  I am not the mind’ – one who sees this is the one who perceives (truth).

32. ‘Neither I nor others exist.  Brahman alone exists.  I exist between the manifest and unmanifest’- one who sees this, is the one who perceives (truth).

33. ‘All the three worlds are like my limbs.  They are like waves in a sea.’ – one who sees thus is the one who perceives (truth).

34. ‘This triple of worlds is like my younger sister.  I am the elder one who take its sorrow and nourish and protect it ‘ – one who sees thus, is the one who perceives (truth).

35. Those great souls who consider ‘you and I’ from the high ground of absorption in self and thus abstain from enjoyment, their perception is the right perception.

36. ‘The web of the worlds is flooded with consciousness.  It is the auspicious body of Siva, the terrible.  It is free of the flow of objects’ – one who sees thus, is the one who perceives (truth).

37. ‘Joy and sorry, being and non-being, discrimination and fancy – all these are I’- one who sees thus, is the one who perceives (truth).

38. ‘This world is an aspect of that infinite which exists by itself.  If one moves in this, what is agreeable and what is disagreeable?’ – one who sees thus is one who is a good person of right perception.

39. ‘All this is beyond conjecture, beyond any likeness or reflection.’ – with this knowledge if ones fancy and imagination are beyond the agreeable and disagreeable syndrome, such a one is a real being.

40. One who is one self like the sky and who does not indulge in any thing, though he knows about all things, such a great soul is the Supreme Lord himself.

41. One who is liberated from light and darkness, one in whom the sense of time is not, such a gentle equal person will arrive at the supreme state.

42. I bow to him who is settled in the belief that all this world of multifarious risings and settings, charming manifestations is that great infinite, the Absolute.  I bow to that Siva.  I bow to that Supreme Knower and enlightened Siva, who is knowledge itself.