Sri Vasista

1. O Rāma, this ignorance get enraged, though false, and gets destroyed by proper view about it.  Hear about the cure for this disease.

2. O Rāma, I said that I will elaborate upon the beings with Rājassic and satturic qualities.  Now I shall dwell on the prowess of mind.

3. Brahman is all pervading.  It is immortal, unblemished.  It is infinite.  It is without any perplexities.

4. Consciousness is its body.  And so any of its vibrations are also consciousness alone.  It gets dense in space (some).  It is like movement in a calm sea.

5. Just as water in a sea exhibits movement (in some place) and remains passive (at some place), in the same way the omnipotent becomes potent with vibrations at some place.

6. Just like air which vibrates within itself, self also becomes oscillatory by itself, with its power.

7. Just like a flaming lamp increases itself by its own power (even in a motionless environment), self develops its own body by itself.

8. This is like water in a sea, which looks moving at some place.  Self also dalliances in vibratory movement by its own power.

9. In a sea, sun shines like an effulgent beam.  Similarly consciousness-sea self-vibrates.

10. Pearl like movements are visible in the sky.  In the same way shapes and forms are seen in the vast sea of consciousness.

11. Like waves in a sea, a small perturbation occurs in the sea of consciousness-energy.  This becomes ecstatic and sparkles.

12. This perturbation is not different from Self.  Even so it abides as separate.  It is like a bright ray in a beam of rays.

13. This Den (Consciousness) sparkles at an instant and becomes active by self prowess.  This movement is like the coolness of moon (not different from it).

14. This consciousness-force, called light effulgence, emerges in the Absolute Self.  This light gathers around itself, friends like space, time and action.

15. When this consciousness-force is aware of its timeless nature, it abides in the Absolute.  However, when it comprehends itself as limited by form, it thinks as one differentiated.

16. When thus the Supreme Nature/Existence comprehends itself as one with finite form, then follow the names, numbers and such kinds (of manifestational denominations).

17. Thus the most powerful Consciousness moves into sense of ego, it binds itself of its free accord like a silkworm in its nest.

18. By its own resolute determination, it binds itself in bodies and forms and then grieves ‘I am in this miserable state of bondage’.

19. ‘I am bound’ – thinking thus, it sheds its truth – consciousness in a slow measure and settles down in the internal denominations state of ignorance.

20. With the self-conceived five subtle energies working internally, it becomes greatly insensitive to the Absolute (Self).  It is like a mighty lion in chains.

21. Due to acquired and accumulated memories and tendencies (vāsanas), it assumes doership of a variety of works and actions.  And thus falls into a sequence of self-designed states of existence.

22. Sometimes and in some contexts this consciousness –force is known as ‘mind’.  In some it is intelligence; in some it is action; in some it is knowledge; sometimes it is ‘ego’.  In some contexts it is ‘Puryastaka’.

23. It is called ‘nature’ (prakriti) in some contexts.  In some cases it conceives ‘maya’ – deception.  In some contexts it is works.

24. In some contexts, it is (called) bondage.  In some contexts it is basic mind-stuff.  Sometimes it is will/desire and sometimes it is known as ‘avidya’ – falsehood and ignorance.

25. O Rāghava, in this way this ‘chitta’, this basic mental consciousness-force is grievously bound and is full of intense desire and sorrow.  It is a vast house of attachment.

26. 27. It is struck by birth, death and thoughts and musings about the mutable world.  It is coloured by attachments, likes and dislikes.  It is a disturbed, confused form of wills and desires.  It is at the root of the tree of works.  It is in a state of lost memory of its origins and full of fabricated and conjured up calamities.

28. It is bound in a cocoon of itself.  It is a picture of misery and sorrow.  It develops limbs out of the subtle energies.

29. It sees itself.  However it is scared by the sight of Meru-like heavy form.  It is the poisonous tree of world with birth and death as its branches.

30. It is the mutable world tied down by the ropes of greed and desire.  It is like a fruitless banyan tree.

31. This ‘chittam’ is burnt by the flames of worry and is squeezed by the python of anger.  It is struck by the disturbed ocean of desire.  It has forgotten its ancient parent of self.

32. This mind is like a grief stricken deer which has strayed from its herd.  It is like the honey-bee which is burnt by the fire of sense-desire.

33. It fades like a lotus pulled out of its roots.  It bemoans the displacement and mutilation of its limbs (over the cycle of births).

34. -35. It is surrounded by inimical sensuous objects and moves about in many kinds of afflictions and troubles.  Like a bird swooping dead into sea-waters, this mind is always drowning in fiercest states.  It binds itself into this web of worlds.

36. O godly Rāma, save this mind which is swayed out of its moorings by the senses.  Pull this elephant out of the mire.

37. O Rāma, save this mind which is intensely stuck in a small pond full of sensuous mud.  Its limbs are shorn and mutilated.

38. O Rāma, this mind is stained by good and bad (deeds).  It is flaming with birth and death and is in a trance of grief.  If one is not worried about such a mind he is a demon in the shape of man.