Sri Yoga Vasishtam

Sarga - 31

Sri Vasista

O Rāma of mighty intelligence, I am thus putting to you. Please do not even for a moment think of the logic of Dāma, Vyāla and Kata.
United with unintelligent ways, mind gets into difficulties of this kind. It invites the infinite grief of the world.
-5. (Look at the trio). Where was the Commandership of the fearful, deva-vanquishing armies of Sambara? Where was the life as fish in a sun-heated small pond? Where was the courage to make the deva armies flee? Where was the lovely servitude to a Kirata tribal king? Where was the egoless might of the consciousness? Where was the vile ego upheld by evil vāsanas?

This poisonous forest of heeper of corporeal world takes birth out of the sprout of ego.
And so O Rāma, wipe out with effort ego from your heart. Let not even a trace of it be left in you. Thus become happy.
The moon of Supreme spiritual truth, becomes invisible being covered by the semi-transparent and cool rain-bearing cloud of ‘ahamkāra’.
Struck and harassed by the ghoul of ‘ahamkāra’, the trio of Dāma, Vyāla and Kata had moved into a status of existent from their condition of non-being driven by the Titanic power of ‘Māya’ (deceptive power).
O Rāma, they are now lodged in a small pond in the forests of Kashmir, totally given to the aquatic plant called ‘saivala’.

Sri Rāma

O Sage, what is not cannot come into being. What is cannot become non existent. How can, then, the nonexistent ones acquire existence. Please let me know.

Sri Vasista

O mighty armed one, what you say is true. Once in a way even small things achieve a big form.
Tell me something which was non-existent which later acquired the status of being. I shall explain that to you with appropriate examples.

Sri Rāma

O knower of Brahman, those that are existent abide as existent. This is evident to oneself. However, Dāma and the others are said to become existent, though they are nonexistent.

Sri Vasista

O Rāma, the status of the ‘maya’-conceived Dama trio is like the water in a mirage. Though unreal they appear like real.
-17. The sense of I, the Vasista and, the sense of you, the Rama – both are unreal. Though experienced they are non-existent. It is like death in a dream. Similar are Dāma and others. All of us are manifesting and disappearing with aplomb.

Just like a near relative who is experienced as dead in a dream is still nonexistent, the feeling that ‘he is dead’ is also quite proper. Because this world is also of the same nature and kind.
However this (feeling of unreality) does not sound proper from (the mouth) of an absolute idiot. By habit he is light hearted (and so makes such statement), Without experience nothing becomes valid.
What is settled belief in one does not occur without constant practice/ reiteration. (Such a belief) does not get destroyed without (proper inquiry).
And so even a fool will ridicule a person who says ‘world is unreal, Brahman is real’ (without proper authority and inquiry).
There cannot be unity between one who is drunk and one who is not. Similarly an ignorant person and a wise man of knowledge cannot be united (agree in opinions). Light and shadow cannot mix.
An ignorant person cannot (easily) absorb an experience even with great effort. It is like attacking a corpse.
‘All world is Brahman’ – such a statement does not go well with an ignorant person. Because of lack of penance and education, he will think of world as truth/real.
O Rāma, an ignorant person’s words excel in unwise and unintelligent subjects – not in anything that is wise and enlightened.
Men of wisdom and good intelligence experience world as Brahman, the most peaceful. How can one take away such personal experience?
I am nothing other than that Supreme. If anything like “I” exists, it is like ring-ness existing in gold.
Nothing that opposes materiality/corporeal nature occurs in a foolish and stupid person. (Though about) Supreme exists in him like goldness in a wave (of water).
Foolish people are full with egoism and illusion. Wise men are one with truth. These two natures can never mix. It is difficult to annihilate natures.
Whatever something is full of, how can one destroy that something. If a person says ‘I am a pot’, that is purely madness.
And so neither you, I, Damā and others can claim to exist in truth. What is untrue can never claim existence – never.
Consciousness-ether, the ether of Truth is true, pure, unblemished. It is immanent in all. It is peaceful. It has no rising or setting.
This whole world is quiet and peaceful. It is not void. In that ether glitters this world as a self reflection and as a limb.
A person with night blindness sees hairs in the sky-space in a natural manner. In the same way is this creation in the Supreme.
That Supreme self becomes that which it experiences in a trice. Similar is the case with consciousness-ether.
And so there is nothing real or unreal in this triune world. Whatever form the consciousness experiences (knows itself to be) it becomes that. There is no doubt in this.
The way Dāma and others manifested in the consciousness-ether we also emerged. Where is the question of truth or untruth in this? Where is the question of any other kind of design in this?
The way (active) consciousness manifests in this immanent, infinite formless consciousness-ether, that way in that form alone the consciousness dazzles and shines.
-40. That consciousness actively conceived Dāma and others and so they occurred thus. We are conceived similarly and so we are now.

We call the sun’s rays in a desert as mirage. Similarly the self-dream of Consciousness-ether is called ‘the world’.
Where consciousness-ether reveals in form (or awake) that is called a visible object (a phenomenon). When it is asleep (with manifestation) that state is called ‘liberation’.
In fact Consciousness-ether is never awake or asleep. When manifest that manifestation is called world.
Creation is Nirvāna, Nirvāna is creation. These two are mere synonyms.
Supreme sees the world-form. It is its own. It is like the hair-view of sky by a man with night-blindness.
In fact there are no hairs (in the sky). It is mere a perception. There is neither world nor phenomenon. All is that Consciousness-ether.
Everything, everywhere exists as conceived and experienced by that Supreme, peaceful one. Nothing else ‘is’ or can be. Cast off fear, sorrow and division. Be like that infinite.
The great Consciousness is supremely quiet as in the middle of a stone. Nothing else ‘is’ or ‘is not’ what ‘is’ is ‘that’ alone.