The proper means to subjugate the mind is Jnana or the development of spiritual wisdom. And it is done only through the path of (the realisation of) these Jnana Bhumikas. Without the aid of these transcendent Jnana Bhumikas, the noble Brahmic Seat can never be attained.
That Self-shining principle is non-dual which has not the heterogeneity of con ceptions such as thou, I, or one self or another, &c., which is differenceless, stainless or causeless ; which is the surprise- less bliss, the quiescent Jnana and the one, without destruc tion, name, highness or lowness, being, or non-being, begin ning or end, affinities, positive or negative (attributes), diversity, light, Jnana (wisdom) or ignorance or any like, which is in Chidakas, all pervading, the all, non-existent (to us) above the reach of Manas and speech, the bliss of bliss and the Plenum of all bereft of all desires. This is that Brahman to which you can reach, through the septenary Bhumikas.
Now hearken, oh Rama, to the marvellous effects of Maya. After the great King Lavana had recovered from his trance, he saw, through his mirror of mind, the forests on the slopes of the Vindhya Mountains, and consulted with his courtiers as to whether it was possible for him to go and see thosesit.es through his physical vision and witness (if true) the events enacted therein ; and being resolved upon trying the experiment, he started with all his suite towards the south and came in sight of the Vindhya hills, like a King bent upon extending his conquests in all directions.
He roved about in all quarters except the north but all in vain. But all at once (in the northern direction), he saw the forest he had lived in formerly, as if his thoughts had taken a tangible form.
There he scrutinizingly observed the several places and towns in the forest he had passed in as Neecha (outcaste) which were like unto the city of Yama. To his great surprise, the King of Kings observed, without fail, all the huts of Neechas of both sexes who were tenanting them then ; and his heart began to give way under the grief caused by his old associa tions.
At this juncture, a troop of old Neecha dames turned upon the spot with their minds full of racking pains, eyes trickling down tears, and bodies emaciated to the last degree ; and one of the group, unable to overpower her grief, opened her mouth wide agape and gasping, gave went to a long and loud wailing, wherein she thus recounted the incidents connected with her children and others who had died on the previous date “ oh my darlings, who have forsaken my lap and embrace to only perish in some foreign land, whether have you gone through your bad Karmas ? how distressed will you be at the sight of strangers faces ? Oh my daughter, my daughter, when will you too return to alleviate my scorching- fire of grief with the cool embrace of your arms bedecked with scarlet garlands.
Oh my son-in-law of a King, who came to us through our previous Tapas, like a treasure newly dis- covered, and led to the hymeneal altar my daughter after having 1 abandoned his harem containing ladies like unto Lakshmi herself, have you forgotten us ? Will you again present yourself before us with your moon-like face in this very spot ? Or are you estranged from us through any paltry venial offences committed by my daughter like Lakshmi ? Being caught in the snare of Karmas in the great ocean of dire births, you abandoned your regality, accepted my daugh ter s hand and degraded yourself, a lord of men, into the most degraded condition of an outcaste through such an alliance. Our lives of re-births flash like lightning and are as imperma nent.
Dire indeed are the decrees of destiny.” So saying she wailed more and more.
The King, having heard her weep, told his handmaids to go and pacify the old dame and return with her, The old lady having approached him, he accosted her thus “Who are you? who is your daughter? And \vhc are your children ? Relate to me all without omittlnsr any incident.” At which she replied “ In this hamlet of Pariahs lived an outcaste who was my lord. Through him, I beg.it a daughter. She lived as wife with a king who came to this forest like another Devendra. Through her good fate from a long time, she bore three children to him and lived happily ; to make amends for it, the fates become perverse and my children were subjected to misfortunes and died.
After my daughter and others were living happily for a long time, the clouds became relentless and shed not a drop of water ; there was a drought all throughout the land and the outcastes flew in all directions and lay dead in piles of carcases jet black as Yama. We have survived all these shocks only to be alone, and to surfer all the more.”
Whereupon the king wearing lance, eyed his ministers with great marvel and ordered them to furnish the Neecha ladies with all necessary things, relieve them of their pains and conduct them to his kingdom. Having returned to his city, he reflected over the situation and becoming convinced of the seemingly real nature of the universe created by the potent power of Maya, he sought initiation into the mysteries of Brahman at our hands and attained quiescence in it. Oh Ramachandra of fate bounty, this great Muya generates such dire -delusions as are indeed uncrossable. Through the power of this Maya, Sat will appear as Asat and vice-versd.”
So said Vasishta when Rama questioned him thus “ Oh guru of my race, how came the things enacted in the regions of the perturbed mind to objectivise themselves in the physi cal world ?” To which the Rishi replied thus “ You will be able to better understand the heterogeneous manifestations of Maya, later on, in the story of Gadhi, wherein Maya is shown as producing diverse objects. Like the coincidence of the fall of palmyra fruit on the perching of a crow thereon, the wise of great knowledge say that the mind will merge unto itself through Vasanas.
Therefore King Lavana saw as true, on the subsequent day, that illu sion which Sambarika, the Siddha imposed on the previous day through his Indra-Jrda on him (the king) as a Chandala (outcaste) and so on. That illusion which was wrought on the king s brains in his Jagrat-Swapna state, the Chandalas, living on the slopes of the hills, saw to be real through their own intelligence. Now what happened was this. That which dawned on the king s mind (as Jagrat- Swapna) was reflected on those of the Chandalas as Jagrat for waking reality) ; and that which happened among the Chandalas again reflected itself on the mind of the king (as the same Jagrat reality). If this is the work of Maya, who will be able to gauge its tremendous powers ? It is only to Jnana light that all the visible Mayavic objects owe their ex istence in this world.
Likewise are all objects observed through the five organs, non-existent except through Jnana. Jnana-Atma occupies a state intermediate between the knower and the known. Hence Moksha may be said to^be that state wherein are not to be found the objects, their knower or the knowledge but which is yet the source of all these three. May you be ever impartite in that Chidananda wherein are uni fied “that,” the Brahman and “thou,” the Kutastha, which is the neutral state of the mind when it passes from one ob ject to another, and which is without name, intelligence or inertness.
May you rest in your innate self in an illuminated state, having enquired thoroughly through your subtle mind and having eradicated all the conceptions of your mind which makes you falsely believe yourself to be under the trammels of Samsara.
Now, Rama, you should rend asunder, through enor mous efforts on your part, the long rope of Vasanas tied to the vessels (of men) whirled on waterlifts. All the univer ses with their heterogeneity, though really Atma-Jnana, shine as worlds only through our illusory mind like the blue- ness in the sky which is really non-existent. If with the ex tinction of the pains-producing Sankalpa, the mind is also destroyed, then will the thick frost of Moha (delusion) affect ing us from remote periods dissipate itself. Then like an un- obscured sky in the autumnal season, Brahman alone will shine resplendent, blissful, imperishable, non-dual, formless and without birth or death.
