The dialogues between Rama and the Preceptor (Vashistha), form the text of ‘Yogavasistha’, a treatise which is meaningful and mellow. It is also referred as the Ramagita. (R.K.R.V. - p. 49)
Vashistha fondled Rama lovingly, playing with his hair and patting his back. He said, ‘Rama! Why have you thus become quiet and silent? Your mothers and father are suffering from grief and fear, unable to explain this inscrutable change. You have to pay heed to their happiness too, isn’t it? You have to demonstrate the validity of the precious axioms, Matru Devo Bhava (Treat the mother as God) Pitru Devo Bhava (Treat the father as God) by your own action, isn’t it?’
Yogavashistha:
Vashistha placed before Rama many such lessons and truths for his consideration. Rama sat smiling, listening to the Guru. When he had finished, he spoke calmly, ‘Master! You speak of mother; but, who exactly is ‘mother’? Who exactly is ‘son’? Why, what exactly is ‘body’? And what is the ‘Jivi’ (the individual)? Is this objective world real? Or is the Supreme Soul real? This body is but the image of the Supreme Soul isn’t it? The five elements that comprise the substance called ‘body’ are also the substance of the entire Universe. This Universe is but the concatenation of the five elements isn’t it? The elements persist, in spite of all permutations and combinations. They have also a deeper base. Without realising this, if this created Universe is itself assumed to be real, and if one yields to the fascination of this falsehood, if the truth be discarded for the sake of the lie, what are we to say of such colossal ignorance? What can the individual gain by ignoring the Eternal Absolute Real Reality, the Atma?’
When Vashistha observed Rama raising such profound philosophical problems, he noticed also a halo of bright rays of spiritual splendour that emanated and surrounded his face! He knew that the Light was an indication of Divinity, attempting to surge outwards! So, he wanted Rama himself to provide the answers to the questions that Rama put forward. And the replies and explanations Rama gave were verily the Voice of God. Vashistha could see this fact clearly. He bowed his head before him, mentally, for fear of being noticed. He said, ‘Son! I shall see you again in the evening,’ and left the palace, without even meeting Dasharatha. He was so overcome by the illumination of the occasion. He fondled the children with a joyous sense of gratitude and love.
Dasharatha saw the princes after some time. He too saw the strange Glow of Divine Awareness shining in their countenances. He could not understand how it happened and he awaited the arrival of Vashistha in the evening. No sooner did he enter the shrine than the children, the mothers and Dasharatha fell at his feet and sat in their places with palms folded in prayerful humility.
All of a sudden, Rama surprised everyone by asking a series of questions: ‘The Jiva, the Deva, the Prakriti (Soul, God, Nature) what is the interrelation between these? Are these three, One? Or are they distinct entities? If One, how did it become three and for what purpose? What is the unifying principle underlying these? What benefit is gained by recognising them as different, giving up the cognition of the Unity?’ The parents were aghast at the profundity of these questions and the tender age of Rama. They became fully merged in that stream of instruction and inquiry, that showered precious axioms which shed light on the problems raised, as if Heaven answered the questions raised by Earth!
They forgot that Rama was their own child. The hours of the night rolled by in the analysis and understanding of the great monistic wisdom. Vashistha saw that the words that flowed from the lips of Rama were indeed drops of the Nectar of Immortality, which can ensure Peace for mankind. He blessed the King and Queens and returned to the hermitage. The dialogues between Rama and the Preceptor form the text of ‘Yogavashistha‘ a treatise which is meaningful and mellow. It is also referred to as the Ramagita. (RKRV Part I, pp. 75-78)
Once in the midst of conversation, Vashistha spoke thus to Rama; ‘Listen, O, Rama, the Valiant! The Jiva is a bull reclining in the shade (Moha) of a vastly spreading tree in the forest, Samsara. It is bound by the rope of Desire and so, it is infected by the fleas and insects of unrest and worry and disease. It rolls in the mire of wrong, while struggling in the dark night of ignorance to slake the thirst of the senses. Then, some good men who are wise untie it and take it out of the dark recesses of the forest. Through Viveka (discrimination) and Vichara (inquiry), one achieves Vijnana (higher wisdom) and through Vijnana, one is able to grasp the Truth, to realise the Atma, to know the Atma. That is the ultimate goal of all Life, the stage that is beyond the Past, Present and Future.’
But one point has to be clearly noted and remembered always: mere giving up external activities connected with the satisfaction of sensory desires is not enough. The internal cravings have to be uprooted. The word Trishna covers both these, the internal promptings and the external proceedings. When all promptings cease, it is called Mukta-trishna. Knowledge of the Atma and faith in the Atma—these alone can destroy the irrelevant thirsts. (JV, p. 21)
The Yogavashistha says that Shri Ramachandra asked the sage Vashistha the question, ‘Divine Master! Is there a way by which death can be avoided?’ This same problem drove Gautama Buddha along the path of renunciation, and forced him to give up all traces of attachment. It showered on him eternal fame, as supreme among men. Prahlada, foremost among the devotees of the Lord, addressed his fellow pupils, even as a boy, ‘Friends! Have you not observed some boys of our own age fall dead and get burnt or buried?’ Thus, he drew their attention to the event of death and invited them to draw lessons from that inevitable fact. He taught them the higher wisdom. (SSVahini, p. 100)
In order to persuade a child to stop weeping and regain joy, the Ayah (nurse) relates a fairy tale which pleases it. The Ayah’s sole purpose is to calm the child. The fairy tale is only a means modelled on its intellectual level. In the same manner, the Jiva, fascinated by the beginningless attraction of Maya and bound by tendencies cultivated during many lives in the past, cannot avoid inquiring into the origins of the Universe which he encounters. The Sruti answers such inquiry in words that give temporary relief. For, the question, how was the Universe created, is on a par with the question, how is a dream created? The dream originates from sleep or Nidra; the Universe originates through illusion or Maya. Just as the dream has no order or law, the Universe also is too full of mystery and Maya. There is only One, not two as often happens in a dream. This is the doctrine of Advaita. Very much like the question of the origin of creation, another problem that generally worries man is, how did this ignorance happen? The solution has been provided by the sage-preceptor, Vashistha, to Shri Ramachandra. ‘Rama!’ he said, ‘Rather than entangling yourselves in the inquiry regarding how Ignorance entered Man, I would exhort you to be engaged in efforts to get rid of it.’ This lesson is directed not only to Rama but to all mankind. It helps all who do not possess the realisation of the Truth behind the objective world. Ajnana or ignorance is the name given to ignoring what is one’s own inner experience—that the universe is an ever-changing phenomenon. (SSVahini, pp. 159-160)
All this will disappear and lose individuality with the emergence of Jnana, the Highest Wisdom,’ said the Sage Vashistha to Rama. ‘Rama!’ he advised, ‘You have to understand how this non-knowledge grew and by what means it can be destroyed.’ There is one mystery hidden in this advice. Centuries of inquiry have failed to unravel the secret—wherefrom did the Cosmos originate? How did it emerge? If it had a Personal Cause, the inquiry could have succeeded. The Cosmos or Jagat is not such an object. The questions ‘How did it emerge?’ ‘Wherefrom did It originate?’ are exactly on a par with the question, ‘How did the ‘serpent’ appear on the ‘rope’ and cause the ‘terror’? Only the rope exists there; the serpent was imposed thereon, during dusk, by the defective intellect of the onlooker. That is to say, on account of the illusion created by reasoning. In other words, ignorance is the basis of the misapprehension. Brahmam is the ‘rope’; Jagat is the ‘serpent’ superimposed on it by Reason afflicted by illusion. We cognise Brahmam as Jagat; we take one thing as another, so long as this affliction holds sway. Therefore, it is best to conclude that the Jagat is an object which originated in our own Buddhi (Intellect) and emerged out of the same faulty faculty. An object born of such a delusion and confirmed by only an infirm intellect can never be true. When the delusion goes, when the infirmity disappears, the Jagat so caused also disappears. (SSVahini, pp. 161-162)
In the Yogavashistha, Sage Vashistha says, ‘Oh Rama, the boundless ocean can be drunk dry by man with great ease. The enormous Sumera mountain can be plucked from the face of the earth, with great ease. The flames of a huge conflagration can be swallowed with great ease. But controlling the mind is far more difficult than all these.’ Therefore, if one succeeds in overwhelming the mind, one achieves the awareness of the Atma. This success can result only when one undergoes many ordeals and denials. The bliss that one earns afterwards is the highest kind of happiness. As the fruition of all Sadhana one is established in the perfect equanimity of unruffled consciousness (Nirvikalpa Samadhi) and the Ananda that fills him is indescribable. It is ambrosial, equal to the nectar of immortality. Nirvikalpa means the state of consciousness when it is devoid of thought. This state can be reached through appropriate Sadhana. It is of two natures: Non dual in full experience and the state of non-duality when dual thought ends. The first takes man beyond the triune of Knower, the Known and Knowledge; and he is aware only of the Cosmic Intelligence of Brahman (This is Advaita Bhavana). The second stage is reached when all the attributes ascribed to God and man merge in the One which embraces the Cosmos and all its contents (This is Advaita Sthayi or Advaita Avastha). (V Vahini, p. 64)
Women can, by spiritual practice (sadhana), attain that unwavering unequalled auspicious Brahman; this is made clear in the Yogavashistha and in the Puranas. (DV, p. 57)
- Can women win Brahma jnana, even while leading the householder’s life?
- Why not? Madalasa and others were able to get Brahma jnana while in the Grihastha stage of life, the householder status. You must have heard of these from the Yogavashisthaand the Puranas, how they attained the height of auspiciousness, Brahma jnana itself. Then again, do not the Upanishads declare that Katyayini, Sarangi, Sulabha, Viswaveda and others were adepts in Brahma jnana? (PraV, p. 51)