(i) The interminable forest referred to in the story is nothing but this Samsara (mundane exis tence) which is devoid of beginning, middle or end, is asso ciated with Maya (or is illusory) and is lofty, dire and replete with excessive Vikalpas.
(2) The Purusha (personage) resid ing in this forest of the universe filled with the vapor of fiery ire stands for the mind whirling with pains.
(3) He who checked the impetuous passage of the mind represents the incomparable discrimination.
(4) The mind attained through its enemy of discrimination the quiescent state of Para Brahm.
(5) The mind at first turned its back upon discrimination and hence entan gled itself in the folds of Vasanas of objects.
(6) The well into which the egos sink after macerating their bodies is Naraka(hell) ;
(7) but the plantain garden symbolises Swarga- loka (or Devachan) full of enjoyments.
(8) The forest of trees abounding with thorns is this Bhuloka (earth) filled with the two sexes of beings of excessive passion.
(9) Then the fact of that personage who, after toppling down into the well, was not able to rise from it for a long time and then (in another incarnation) entered the city, stands for the mind not yet freed from its sins.
(10) The long-pointed thorns represent the males and females of this world full of passions, (n) The words Thou art my enemy though paltry and It is only through thee that I have identified myself with the pains and pleasures, I have been suffering from are the outbursts of the mind in its last gasp of death through discrimination.
(12) The cry set up is when the desires are sought to be annihilated. (13) The bewailings and the invocation for aid are through the pains which the mind with half-developed Jnana feels when it relinquishes all desires.
(14) The final cool joy and the laugh consequent upon it, is the bliss arising from the mind merging into the stainless Jnana.
(15) And the real bliss is that one which arises when the mind, divested of all desires through the eternal Jnna, destroys its subtle form.
(16) The bridling of the mind through excessive power, refers to the concentration of the same through initiation into Jnana.
(17) The scourging of the body refers to the pains created through the excessive misconceptions of the mind.
(18). The peregrination of the personage over a vast field is the roving over the world, unconscious of the Reality that can be attained only through the mastery of the perishable Vasanas Hence it is that all the Sankalpas and Vasanas, which a man generates, enmesh him as in a net.
All become subject to bondage through their own Sankalpas and Vdsanas like a a silk-worm in its cocoon. Having delved into your mind through your stainless mind and thoroughly sifted it, may you destroy your stainful mind. So said the illuminated Yasishta to Rama of clear mind.
Summary. Through this story, it is sought to be shewn that persons without Atmic enquiry will see, as real this world which is nothing but of the nature of Sankalpa.
The stainless mind of Jnanis is no other than the ever- imperishable Brahman that has all 6aktis potencies and is ever full. Nought else is but that One. There is nothing which is not found in this Brahmic Reality. This indescribable Reality manifests itself as the many. Out of the infinite potencies in it, arises at one time one potency. This Jnana Sakti of the stainless Brahman then manifests itself as in the perishable bodies. The different Saktis producing fluctua tion, hardness, heat, voidness, moisture and destruc- tiveness in Vayu, stone, fire, Akas, water and Pralya are no other than the one Brahmic potency latent in Brahman like trees in seeds.
They appear multiform like the plants, etc., on this earth variegated by dint of time, space, &c. It is only the Brahmic Reality that is always and everywhere. It is only that Brahman which manifests itself as Manas through contemplation or as the Jivatma subject to bondage or as the emancipated Paramatma as well as the universe and the many Saktis in it. All the Vikalpas of the world seem to be as real to men as to a fickle child that in an old story is reported to have heard, as if true, all that her mother had narrated to her.
At these words of Vasishta, Rama of lotus-hands who was like a cloud raining his bounty upon all, wished to be acquainted with that story. Whereupon the Rishi of rare Tapas began thus this story of mind s illusions.
A certain lad that had not yet attained discretion prayed to his mother to tell a tale for his diversion. Whereupon she related, as if true, the following entirely mythical story. Once upon a time three princes of unflinching bravery and good qualities resided in a city called void. Of these three, two were never born and the third never went into any womb to be generated. These triumvirs bent upon the acquisition of all, rested in the forest of Akasa, full of countless fruits and having allayed their keen hunger by feeding themselves upon the delicious fruits therein, went on their way up- There they witnessed three rivers with dashing waves, winding their way on the out-skirts of that forest.
Of these three rivers with speedy current, two had no water in them, while in the third the dry white sands were quite visible on its surface. In this last river they bathed and drank its waters. At sun set they retired to a town to rise thereafter (and not then in existence) and there built three houses. Of these three houses, two did not at all exist. The third one did not rejoice in the possession of any encircling- walls or wooden superstructure. The three princes went to reside in these three contiguous houses without any wall (or support).
These three persons who abode in the three buildings in an invisible town in the Akasa, found three golden vases by them there. Two were tiles only, while the third was a mere pulverised one. They deposited, in this formless vessel, a quantity of rice equal to 6 measures minus 10 measures and cooked the same. Having done so, they meted it out to innumerable mouthless Brahmins. After the Brahmins had thus filled their stomach to the brim, the three princes partook of the remaining meal as a God-send. Then delighting them selves with hunting and other pursuits, they spent their rime most joyfully therein.” When the mother thus concluded her story, her innocent child rested in the profound conviction of the genuineness of the mother s tale. Similarly do the ignorant conceive and observe this world to be really existent.
The expansion of this mind alone isSankalpa; and Sankalpa, through its power of differentiation, generates this universe. Therefore, Oh Rama, may you divest yourself of all Sankalpas and be a Nirvikalpa.
