Herein is also given out the dual nature of Manas, the mind, the pure one being purely Satwic in nature and the impure one being full of Rajas and Tamas. The author says clearly that the non-dual Reality which exists amidst the many heterogeneous things of the world can be cognized through one s self-cognition only and not by any amount of words or logic or thought. Therefore if a person as a Jivanmukta cognizes through Samadhi the absolute identity of all things, and yet moves as usual in this world, then he will in course of time reach a state called Videhamukti, when he will throw aside all shackles of bodies and merge into the Absolute fontal Bliss. As, at the end of every Prakarana in this work, there is a chapter which summarizes the subjects dealt with in it, this Prakarana closes with a chapter called Nirvana Prakarana, wherein are described the seven states of Jnana, the seven states of Ajnana having been given out in a previous chapter, As regards the age of this work, we leave it to competent authorities to theorize as best as they may. The events re corded herein should have occurred in Tretayuga, when Rama incarnated. But in the initiation of Rama by Vasishta as re corded in this work, we find the story of Arjuna introduced herein. Is it not an anachronism, some may ask ? We shall find this objection will vanish into thin air if we bear in our mind the fact that nature is cycling round and round and is not a sealed book to our ancients.
Every recurrence of the Yugas brings with it its ownVyasas,Ramas and others. There fore before the divine vision of our omniscient Rishis, all the events, past as well as future, march in one procession as recorded in the tablets of Chittragupta. This is the very objection which many Orientalists have taken without under standing exactly the views of theHindus as regards the book of nature. This reply to the objection made is one that has been urged by some of our medieval commentators.
Whether Yoga-Vdsishta is considered as an authority or not, it is a matter of perfect indifference, so far as enquir ing minds who are thirsting after real knowledge are con cerned. We judge every work on its own merits and ac cording to that canon of interpretation, we leave this work to the public to be judged. There are many repetitions in this work which are inevitable in a Hindu religious book treating of the most abstruse questions of philo sophy and occultism. This work may well be given the title of an amplified “ Voice of Silence,” dressed in the Hindu garb. We launch out this translation of Yoga- Vasishta with the conviction that full justice has not been done to the original.
It will be found that in many places in this work the translation is free and many Sanscrit words have been left untranslated. Of course in a work like this teeming with stories, a literal translation will but mar the original. There are two reasons which induced me to retain the Sanscrit words themselves in this work. Some of the terms used herein have no proper English equivalents and hence do require peri phrastic expressions to express rightly the underlying ideas. Many of the terms have become commonly known to readers of Vedantic literature- To understand this work fully, its prede- cessor “ Vasudeva-Manana or the meditations of V&sudeva a compendium of Adwaita philosophy published by us will be of great help. One new feature of the present translation is the summary given for every chapter or story.
In this effort of mine, I was greatly assisted by my late lamented co-worker R. Sundareswara Sastrial. My thanks are especially due to Mr. Bertram Keightley, M. A, the General Secretary of the Indian Section T. S. for the great help he rendered me in revising my MSS.; as also to Messrs, N. Ramanujacharriar B. A. and B. S. Raghuthmacharriar B. A. for their kindly suggestions and aid during the progress of this work.
K. N. KUMBAKONAM.
YOGA-VA SISHTA.
VAIRAGGYA-PRAKARANA
SALUTATIONS TO THE NON-DUAL PRINCIPLE
Through the three organs (of mind, speech and body) that is the eternal Jnana (wisdom) Light illuminating (the three worlds) Bhu (earth), Antariksha (intervening space) and Swarga (heaven), as also our hearts and their exteriors and that has manifested itself everywhere as visible forms.
Persons qualified to read this work called Vdsishta (the work of Vasishta) should neither be Ajnanis (the ignorant or the worldly wise), nor those Jivanmuktas (liberated ones), who have reached their Jnana-Atma, freeing themselves from all pain, but only those who, conscious of being under bondage, long after freedom from it, and are in that vacilla ting position, from which they contemplate attaining Moksha.
Muni Baradwaja having prostrated before his omni scient Guru, Muni Valmiki addressed him softly thus How did Sri Rma of rare Satwaguna come to be in this terres trial Samsara (mundane existence) full of pains and genera tive of dire re-births.
To which Vdlmiki replied thus. “My son Bdradwaja, thy question is fraught with incalculable happiness (to thee and all the world). Thou art in possession of the four-fold f means of salvation which entitle thee to question me about Nirvanic bliss. Hence hearken to what I am going to say to thee. Thereby thou wilt be able to master Ajndna which is the source of all pains. This illusion of the universe manifests itself, though it really is not, in Parabrahm (the one Reality) The four-fold means are (i) The discrimination of Atma and Non-Atma, (2) Indifference to the enjoyments of objects both in this world and the higher, (4) Sama, Dama, Uparati, Titiksha, Samadhana and Sraddha, (4) Mumukshatwa or the longing after salvation.
Like the blue colour which is unreal, though it appears in the sky overhead. The Supreme NirvAnic bliss is attained the moment when one, after having: decided in himself, that it will be decidedly beneficial to, not in the least, bring to recollec tion and to forget this illusion of the universe, cognizes, through intuitive spiritual perception, the unreality of the universe which appears, as real, to the mind that is of the nature of Samskaras (self-reproductive thoughts). This Supreme Bliss is ever-shining, not created by any, self-existent and imperishable.a
But it will not be cognized and enjoyed by those ignorant persons who wallow in the mere pitfalls of the ^astras (book-learning) inculcating the lower (terrestrial) wisdom, as contra-distinguished from the higher (Divine) wisdom, which sets its face against the recollection of things; visible. The wise say that the best thing for a man to do in this world is to give up, without the least longing, Vasanas, (all affinities for objects) which cause the mind to fluctuate, and that such abdication constitutes the Eternal Moksha (salvation) and the stainless path.”
