THE STORY OF UDDHALAKA.
Summary. Having shewn in the previous story that if Brahman, which enables one to visit personally Maya of the nature of mind, be visited, then all ideas of the universe vanish, the author narrates the present story to illustrate that this degreeless bliss arises through Samadhi consequent upon Atmic enquiry.
Thus you will find that Maya pervades everywhere, hard to be mastered ; and generating- different degrees of illusions high and low, has as its substratum Parabrahm. Therefore 1 have to declare to you that whoever is not ever in the Brahmic Reality, will be drowned by the Gunas* of Maya into pains which are ever seething like the billows of an ocean.
I solemnly affirm that the fell disease can be removed only through the divine panacea of the mind-mastery and not through any other means. Oh, Rama, the wise will perform duly all actions arising, out of their castes and orders of life, every moment of their lives during their present period, but will never concern themselves w r ith actions, past or future.
If every moment of your life you try to abandon all Sankalpas, desires and past actions, then this itself is called the absorp tion of the mind. That Jnana which is associated with the destruction of the mind is the Jnana of the partless Pratya- g&tma. Such a Jnana is without the mental modifications and being, It is without the Vikalpa of the mind.
The entire freedom from the bondage of Manas leads to the unveiled cognition of truth, the auspicious (or Siva,) the Brahmic state, the omniscient, the all-full bliss and the stain less. May you, my child, after destroying Ajnana, associate your mind with the stainless \vLse and Atma-JnaiKi books with a true exultation of heart and a certitude of conviction ; and live with bliss without any care or worry as the Absolute Consciousness itself, though ever engaged in all actions such as talking, renouncing or taking to, opening or shutting the eyelids and others.
May you live in your Atmic Reality as Brahman itself, severing mentally all your connexion with the visibles, purging your mind of all stains and destroying the weeds of bondage-giving desires. May you live as Brahman itself, the quintessence of all Jnana without being invaded by love or hatred producing fluctuation of mind or by the poisonous pest of desires for objects, pleasurable or otherwise. May you, O Rama live immutably as the absolute Sat and Chit by attaining quiescence through the meditation that there is non-dual Parabrahm alone without the countless conceptions of I, he, it and other diversities. May you cognize personally that non-dual state of Atma-Jnana like an adaman tine pillar denuded of all conceptions of duality or meum and tuum.
The moment you rest in that stainless and all- full Jnana without any conception of separate existence, that moment will all conceptions of duality, the root of all delu sions of re-birth, be effaced off your mind. If you cognize personally that real state yielding the blissful essence, then even the rare Ambrosia will be to you tantamount to a fatal poison. If you allow your (lower) mind to get pampered (with earthly things), then the never-drooping true Jnana will recede to a great distance from you. Will the full-moon appear visibly to us, when sable clouds intervene between it and our eyes ? So long as there is the centering of affec tion on this body which is non-Atma and the mistaken identi fication of it with Atma, so long will the mind grow fatter and fatter in its association with the Samsara of wife, children, &c.
The mind waxes stronger and stronger also through its egoistic sports (or actions) and the dualities of conception arising through Ahankara. O my son Raghava. with every birth, the mind grows through the mental disease (of objects) getting more and more prevalent in it and the consequent tenacity of mundane existence and efforts directed towards the gain or loss of objects in the same. Of course, when women, wealth, gems, and other objects are longed after and acquired, such gain or the greed arising out of the gain produces for the time being pleasure and seems to be produc tive of good to him. But such good tends only to glut the mind.
Having quaffed the milk of vicious desires, this serpent of mind will be invigorated and crawl about everywhere, breath ing the atmosphere of the long standing enjoyments. Now Rama, attend to what I say. Like Muni Uddhalaka of old, having pulverized all the five Bhutas (elements), thou shalt set about enquiring- through thy non-painful mind.At which, Sri Rama asked Vasishta thus “ How did Muni Uddhalaka, manage to destroy the five Bhutas (elements) and to introspect within himself?”
Vasishta replied “Though Atmic enquiry, Oh graceful Rama, did Muni Uddhalaka conquer the five Bhutas and reach Brahman, the non-dual state. His story I shall now proceed to relate. This Muni lived on the slopes of Gandhama- dana hills teeming with forests of flower-bunches redolent of camphor. He was a stainless Muni of great intelli gence and enquiring spirit. But he had not yet reached that quiescent Plenum in which all pains are destroyed, though he had purged his mind free of all impurities.
With the follow ing of a virtuous course, the due performance of a Nish- kama Tapas (or a Tapas without the longing after fruits), a right understanding of the significance of the spiritual books and a proper observance of Yam a* and Nyama, an unsullied discrimination set in upon Uddhalaka s mind and he began to meditate thus-wise.
“ What is that seat which is the safe asylum without pains? What is that imperishable state without the pang of re-births? Is it not this, that above all should be soon sought after? When shall I be able to secure and rest for a long time in that non-dual immaculate Brahmic seat without any Sankalpa of the mind, like clouds in the top of Mahameru ?
When shall I be able to rid my mind of the wealth of material enjoyments, which mind after having exhausted one, yet craves for another in an agitated state? When shall I be able to cross, through the instrumentality of the vessel of my intelligence, this ocean of my desires with its seething billows of the mind with its egoism ? I shall there fore ever exult in the seat of the Light within my heart with out actions or inactions, attractions or repulsions towards objects. I shall therefore remain in Nirvikalpa Sama dhi as immovable as a rock in the caves of a mountain, having merged in Atma without any Sankalpas.
When shall I be through my one pointed and deep concentrated) Dhyana Yama and Nyama or forbearance and religious observance are the two first parts of Yoga, (meditation), become oblivious of a bevy of birds building their nests on my head with the hair on it and inhabiting it ?
” Thus did Uddhalaka contemplate in his mind and be coming ecstatic within, resolved upon the mastery of Brahma Dhyana. But the monkey of his mind perched speedily from one branch to another of sensual objects ; and therefore he was not able to master Samadhi which lands one in the ecstatic realm of Keality. In forests, he roamed without any settled mind : at another time being freed from all external vision, his mischievous mind went into Samadhi with great difficulty. Thus was he whirling his days in various ways in the mountains. That cave in which no creature exists and which is hard to be reached by all is called the seat of Moksha. Into such a cave did the Muni enter alone ; and- having spread a deerskin on the sylvan kunja leaves and having through his discriminative mind lessened the actions of his mind, he began to contemplate like Buddha. With his face towards the north, he seated himself in Padma posture and saluted Brahman ; and having concentrated his mind whirling through Vasanas, began to meditate thus, in order to develop Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
