Sri Vasista

1. O Rāma, in this context, hear the story of the ancient kacha, the son of Brihaspati.  Listen to the way he sung about it.

2. Sometime ago, the son of Brihaspati, the preceptor and teacher of the gods made his hermitage in the forests on the mountain Meru.  There he practiced that he learnt (from scriptures and other sources) and achieved repose in Self.

3. Being filled with the nectar of knowledge of self, his mind could not get interested in the phenomenal world of five elements.  His mind could get charmed by it.

4. And so, he was passive to any such stimulus, because of his state of repose in self.  He then started singing about it.

5. What shall I do?  Where shall I go?  What shall I take?  What shall I reject?  This world/universe is filled with Self like the waters at the time of the great dissolution.

6. Grief, happiness are unsubstantial void, thanks to the power of desire.  All is full of self.  This I know.  With all pain destroyed, I am in my self.

7. The self is inside, outside, in up and down regions.  There is no place where self is not.

8. Self is everywhere.  All is full of self.  I am of self.  All is made of self.

9. I am spread wide and far as self.  I am abiding everywhere as that truth.

10. I am abiding completely as self of delight.   It is like a sea of joy and happiness.  Thinking and singing thus, he sat in the arbours of Meru, the golden mountain.

11. He was uttering the ‘Om’ sound in high tones like a bell.  He was meditating on the Absolute in his heart.

12. With all thought being eliminated, his heart and mind were free of any stain.  All movement of vital airs was absorbed in his heart.  Kacha was like the cloud free sky in autumn.  In this state, he sat singing (as above).