The Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki ( Volume -4) -35

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The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki

The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala  Mitra (1891).







CHAPTER CCXIV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT JUBILEE OF THE ASSEMBLY.

Argument:--Demonstration of the exceeding exultation of the audience
at the close of the long winded lengthy lecture.

Valmiki[**Válmíki] related:--As the sage had finished saying these
things, or so far, the celestials sounded their trumpets
from heaven, as the clouds resounded in the rainy skies, with
showers of nectarious rain drops (on the earth below). The
face of the sky was whitened on all sides, as by drifts of snowfalls
in hoary winter, and the surface of the earth was covered
by rain drops, dropping like showers of flowers. (The sound of
celestial trumpets, is ever accompanied with or followed by a
shower refreshing rain).
2. The earth appeared to be blessed with prosperity in the
beauty of the flowers, stretching their pistils and peduncles[**ok/SOED]
like
beauties in their evening decorations, and sending afar the
fragrance of their farinacious[**farinaceous] dust, like the perfumery on
the
persons of fairies, their outer garniture[**ok/SOED] and inner cool
sweetness
are verily the gifts of the Gods.
3. The falling flowers of heavenly arbors, dropped down
from their dried boughs, by the rampant and apish hurricane
of heaven, are now vying with the glittering stars, scattered
all over the face of the firmament, and deriding at their grin
laughter with their bashful and blushing smiles.
4. The lowering clouds accompanied with sounds of trumpets,
and dizzling[**drizzling] rain drops and falling of flowers, (which bore
resemblance to one another); next lighted upon the court
hall, like the shadewy[**shadowy] snow fall on Himálaya's head, and
filled
the assembly with wonder, and gaping mouths and staring
eyes.
5. The assembly seated in their order, took hold of handfuls
of these heavenly flowers; and poured them upon Vasishtha
with their obeisance, and cast away all their earthly cares and
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woes with those celestial offerings to the sage. (Every offering
confers and recurs, with an equivalent blessing to the
offerer).
6. The King Dasaratha said:--O wander[**wonder]! that we are so
lightly released of our cares and woes, in this wide extended
vale of miseries of the world; and that our souls are now lightened
of their throws by your grace, like the heavy clouds lightened
of their weight, and floating lightly at last on Himálayas.
7. We have reached to the goal of our acts, and seen the
end of our miseries of this life; we have fully known the knowable
One (that is only to be known), and have found our entire
rest in that supreme state (by your good grace alone).
8. We have known to rest in the ultimate void in our meditation,
and to get rid of our erroneous thoughts of bodies, by
means of our intense application to the abstract (or Platonic
abstraction).
9. It is by our riddance from the coinage and vagaries of
our imagination, and by our escape from the feverish fervour
for the sights of the dreaming world; as also by our ceasing to mistake
the shells and cockles for silver, and by our deliverance
from misdeeming ourselves as dead either in our sleep or dream,
(that we may be enabled to the true knowledge of ourselves &c[**.]).
10. It is by our knowledge of the identity of the wind and
its oscillation, and of the sameness of the water with its fluidity;
as also by our distrust in this talismanic world, and in this fairy
land of our fancy, (that we can attain to the knowledge of
truth &c[**.]).
11. It must be by our discredit in the magical scenes of this
world, and in the aerial castles of fairies; as also by our mistrust
in the limpid currents of the mirage, and in the aerial
groves and double moons of heaven, (that we can come to know
the truth).
12. It is no earthquake, if our tottering foot steps should
shake and slip in our drunkenness; nor can we view a ghost
in a shadow as boys do, nor see the braids of hair hanging down
from the clouds in heaven.
13. From these and other instances; which you have given
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for our instruction; you have sir, at once effaced our credit in
the visible sights of this world.
14. Ráma added:--My ignorance is dispelled, and I have
come to the knowledge of truth by your good grace; and O
thou chief of sages, I acknowledge thee to have brought me to
light from my impervious darkness.
15. I am freed from my doubts, and set to the light of the
true nature of God; and I will now act as thou sayst, in acknowledging
the transpicuous[**ok/SOED] truth (or viewing God as manifest
in nature, and not as hidden under her veil).
16. Remembering and reconsidering thy words, that are
so fraught with ambrosial sweetness and full of delightsome
taste; I am filled with fresh delight, thou[**though] already satisfied and
refreshed by their sense (i. e. the more I think of them, the
happies[**happier] I seem to feel myself[**hyphen removed]).
17. I have nothing to do for myself at present, nor is there
any[**anything] left undone or remaining to be done by me. I am as I am
and have ever been, and always without any craving for me.
(This state of self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency, is the highest
bliss for man).
18. What other way to our true felicity can there be, than
this that has been shown by thee? or else I find this wide-extended
field of the earth, to be so full of our woe and misery.
19. I have no foe to annoy me nor a friend to give any joy
to me; I have no field to work in, nor an enemy to fear nor a
good soul to rely in. It is our misunderstanding that makes
this world appear so troublesome to ourselves, while our good
sense makes it all agreeable to us. (If the world will not suit
thee, suit thyself to it).
20. How could we know all this (for our happiness) without
thy good grace unto us; as it is never possible for a boy, to
ford and cross over a river, without the assistance of a boat or
bridge.
21. Lakshmana said:--It is by reason of your removing
the doubts, that had been inherent in and inherited by me in
my repeated births; and it is by virtue of the merit, that I
had acquired in my former births; that I have come to know
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the truth this day, by the divine sermon of the holy sage; and
to feel the radiance of a holy light in me, shining as brightly
as the cooling beams of moonlight.
22. It is strange that in disregard of this heavenly bright
and vivid light, that[**delete 'that'] men should be entangled in a thousand
errors, and be burnt at last as dried wood or fuel, by their foul
mistake and great misfortune,[**.]
23. Viswamitra said:--O! it is by our great merit, that we
have come this day, to hear this holy lecture from the mouth of
the sage; and which has at once expurgated our inner souls,
as a thousand lavations in the clear stream of Ganges.
24. Ráma rejoined:--We have seen the highest pitch of
all prosperity, and the best of all that is to be seen; we have
known the end of all learning, and the last extremity of adversity;
we have seen many countries and heard many speeches;
but never have we heard, nor seen nor known anything better
than the discourse on the beauty of the soul, which the sage
has shown to us to-day.
25. Nárada added:--Our ears are purified to-day, by the
hearing of what we have never heard heretofore; to be preached
by Brahma or the Gods above or men below.
26. Lakshmana rejoined:--Sir, you have entirely dissipated
all our inner and outer darkness also; and have shewn us the
transcendent light, of the bright sun of the Divine soul.
27. Satrughna said:--I am satisfied and tranquilized, and
uncomposed in the supreme soul; I am for ever full and perfect
in myself, and sit quite content with my soleity[**solity].
28. Dasaratha repeated:--It is by the merit of our deeds,
done and acquired in our repeated lives, that we have been,
O thou chief of sages, sanctified this day by thy sacred and
sanctifying speech.
29. Válmíki related:--As the king and his courtiers, were
speaking in this manner, the sage oped his mouth again, and
thus bespoke his words fraught with pure and purifying knowledge.
30. Vasishtha said:--Hear me, O thou moon like king of
Raghu's race, and do as I bid you to do; Rise now and honour
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the assembled Brahmans, who deserve their due honour at the
close of a discourse.
31. Rise therefore, and satisfy their desires with thy ample[**=print]
gifts; and thou will obtain thereby, the merit that attends on
the learning of the vedas, and doing thy duties according to
their dictates.
32. It is incumbent on even a mean worm-like[**hyphen added] man, to
honor
the Brahmans to their utmost at the termination of a sermon
on salvation; how much more important must it then be on
the part of a monarch to acquit himself of this necessary duty.
33. Hearing this behest of the sage, the king held his
reverential silence; and beckoned to his heralds to proceed to all
the ten sides of his dominions, and invite thousands of Brahmans,
that are acquainted with the vedas forthwith (to the
royal court).
34. He bade them to go to Mathura, Suráshtra and Gauda,
and to bring with them with due respect all the Brahmans,
that are born of Vedic families, and are abiding in those districts
and lands.
35. There then assembled more than ten thousands of
Brahmans to the royal palace, and the king fed them all alike
and paying particular regard to the more learned among them.
36. He treated them with the best sorts of food and rice,
honoured them with their honorariums, and gave them a good
many gifts; and after honouring them in this manner; he
offered his oblations to the manes of his ancestors, and gave
his offerings to the tutelar gods of his house. (A Brahman has
his precidence[**presidence] in a feast to the Gods and patres; but the
merit of giving a feast is lost unless it is followed by other
gifts[**)].
37. The king next treated his friends and relatives with
proper repast, and then fed his companions and servants and the
citizens all on the same day. His attention was at last directed
to the feeding of the poor and needy, and of the lame and
blind and lunatics.
38. Having discharged to his utmost the duties of the festival,
he commanded a great festivity to be held in his hall, all
-----File: 605.png---------------------------------------------------------
over decorated with silk and embroidery, and with gold, gems
and pearls.
39. The city then being adorned and lighted, like the ever
bright mount of Meru, there went on a merry dance and ball of
giddy girls and players in every house: (as a sign of general
joy).
40. There was a ringing of bells and sounding of cymbols[**cymbals]
all about, with the beating of drums and trimbrels[**timbrels] at every
door; flutes and wind instruments were blowing on every side,
and guitars and wired instrument were playing with loud
gingling[**ok/SOED],
and vying with each other.
41. The markets were closed, and the marketers stopped
in their course; the air appeared as an arbour of plants, shaking
with the uplifted and quavering and waving arms of the
merry dancers in the streets; and it seemed as the starry
heaven, by the glittering light of the teeth of strolling players,
displayed in their comic dance and loud laughter.
42. There was the heroic dance attended by the loud shouts
of the players, and melodramas accompanied with the soft and
sweet strains of the performers, there was also a staggering and
strutting dance on one foot and leg, and thumping the ground
with the other.
43. Here they flung wreaths of flowers glittering like stars
and falling down in showers; and there the scattered flowers,
which were strewn over the ground as rain drops, were indiscriminately
trodding[**trodden] down under the feet of passers.
44. Here the actresses dance[**danced] about with their loose ornaments
and gestures of love; and there the bards chanted their
hymns with clearness, as the Brahmans recited them and the
songstresses sang.
45. Here the sots and topers drank their fill of wine; and
the food mongers fed upon their eatables of various kinds (i. e.
some were seen to be indulging [**[in]] their drink and others in their
eating).
46. The insides of houses were daubed with wine, as the
outer bodies of the princes with ointment of moon light hue.
47. The attendent[**attendant] servants and waiting maids on the king,
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sauntered about trimmed in gaudy attires of various colours;
and graced the royal festival with their decorations of necklaces
and sweet perfumes on their persons.
48. The sprightly ballet girls, being besmeared with a paste
of all perfumeries (called the yaxa[**yaksha] dust), and decorated with
glittering ornaments, repaired to the ball at the royal hall with
all alacrity.
49. Thus the king Dasaratha held his entertainment for a
whole week, and passed full seven nights in festive mirth and
rejoicing; while he distributed his gifts and food for as many
days, which redounded to exhaustless prosperity on earth.
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CHAPTER CCXV.
EULOGY ON THIS WORK AND THE MODE OF ITS RECITAL.
Argument:--Válmíki speaks in praise of this work to this pupil
Bharadwája,
and blesst[**blesses] him to be as blessed as the divine Ráma with the
hearing of it.
Válmíki said:--O most intelligent Bharadwája, and
the chief of my pupils, you have now heard how the
great Ráma and others, came to the knowledge of the
knowable One, (that is only to be known), and passed across
this vale of misery and sorrow, by their attention to these
lectures.
2. Do you thus fix your sight to the light of Brahma, and
conduct yourself gladly, by abandoning all your affections and
cares of this world, and by remaining dauntless with your living
liberation and tranquility of mind.
3. Know, O thou sinless one, that the learned and the meek,
that do not mix with the society of worldly men, but remain
steady as Ráma and others in their right principles, are never
liable to be deluded although they are beset by temptations
on all sides.
4. Thus these men of great natures, as the king Dasaratha
and the prince Ráma and his brothers, together with companions,
have attended to the state of the living liberated (even in their
life time).
5. Thou my son Bharadwája! that art naturally of a liberal
mind, hast now become more liberated at present, by thy hearing
of these sermons on the salvation of our souls.
6. It is possible even for boys to obtain their liberation, by
their attention to those holy lectures, as the most evident and
surest means to salvation; and cannot therefore fail to convince
thee of the truth thereof.
7. As the high minded and sinless and sorrowless sons of
Raghu's race, have attained to their holy state of perfection
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and self-liberation; so do thou also obtain that best and highest
state, by your attending to the lectures of the divine sage
Vasishtha.
8. It is by advice of the good and service under the great,
as also by means of humble inquiries to and explications of the
learned;[** semi-colon not needed] that week[**weak] men of good
understandings, can know the
knowable, as the Rághavas and others did under Vasishtha.
9. The ties of avarice and affection that have fast bound the
hearts of the ignorant (to this world); do all tend to debar
them like playful boys from inquiring into the means of their
liberation, until they become too old to benefit by their knowledge.
10. Those that can discern the minds of high minded men,
can only come to their knowledge of truth; and such men only
have no more to return to this world of woe; and this is the
substance of all that I can speak to thee. (i. e. know and have
the minds of the great, in order to become as great thyself,
so says Gay in his Fables. (Hast thou fathomed Tully's mind,
and the vast sense of plato's[**Plato's] head)[**)].
11. Having first received your instruction from the preceptor,
you must weigh well and digest its meaning in yourself;
and then communicate its sense, to the most sensible and intelligent
student. This is said by sages and saints, as the trivium
of science; know this and you need no more, to become wise
when your boyhood is over.
12. Whoso will read this book, not without understanding
its sense and whoever will manuscript it without the expectation
of getting its fee; as also anybody who will recite or cause
it to be recited (to a public audience), either with or without any
desire of reward, shall have his ample recompense in the land
of Áryas, (both in his present and future lives). (So it is with
the public preaching of its doctrine).
13. These men receive the reward, awaiting on the performance
of the Rájasuya sacrifice, and are entitled to their
heavenly seats in their pure essence; as often as they ascend
to it after their demise on earth, and until they attain their
final liberation, which attains on them as prosperity does on the
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meritorious, (after the third transmigration of their expurged
souls).
14. It was at first that the God Brahma of unknowable
form, had composed this work in his excellent diction; and
then considering it as the only means to the liberation of mankind,
had revealed it to the assemblage of saints, (of which
Vasishtha or Válmíki has made this version). Let nobody
therefore take the truthfulness of this saying for an untruth.
15. At the close of the recital of these lectures, on the
means of human salvation, it becomes every sensible man[**space added]
of
good sense, to honour the Brahmans with diligence; and to
serve them with their desireable[**desirable] gifts of food and drink, and
furnish them with goodly houses for their lodging.
16. They should also be rewarded with their honorariums,
and supplied with monies to their hearts[**hearts'] desire, and to the
utmost capacity of the donor; and then the giver or master of
the ceremony should rest himself assured, of having acquitted
his duty to and reaped its merit to the intent of the sástras.
17. I have thus rehearsed to you the great sástra, in elucidation
of divine knowledge and its pure truth; with addition
of a great many tales and stories, serving as example and
illustrations of the abstruce[**abstruse] doctrines for your clear
understanding
of them. May your hearing of these, serve to lead you to
your utter indifference of this world, and to the desire of your
liberation in it, while you are alive herein. May this tend
also to your continued prosperity, in order to engage your attention
towards the perfection of your knowledge and devotion,
and to the discharge of the duties of your station without
failing.
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CHAPTER CCXVI.
CONCLUSION OF THE CELESTIAL MESSENGER'S MESSAGE OF
LIBERATION.
Argument:--Acknowledgment of the obligation of Arishtanemi and
others, to their preceptors and preachers.
Válmíki continued to say:--I have thus related to you,
prince, whatever the pot born Vasishtha had taught
and preached to the princes; and it is certain that you will
attain the same elevated state, as they did by the hearing of
these lectures on sacred knowledge.
2. The Prince Arishtanemi replied:--O Venerable sir, your
kind look is enough to extricate us from bondage in this world;
and it is hence that I am not only brought to light, but saved
from the ocean of this world by your favour.
3. The Heavenly Messenger said:--After saying so, the
said prince seemed to look amazed in his look; and then he
began to speak these words to me with a graceful voice.
4. The Prince said:--I bow down to thee, O Messenger
divine, and wish all safety to attend on thee; it is said that the
friendship of the good is attended with seven benefits, all [**[of]] which
hast thou[**thou hast] conferred upon me.
5. Now return in safety to your seat in the heaven of Indra,
and well know that, I am both gladdened as well as grown
insouciant of worldly concerns, by hearing this discourse of
thine.
6. I shall continue to remain here for ever more, and without
feeling any anxiety, to think well and ponder deeply into the
sense of all that I have heard from thee. Now I tell thee, O
Lady! that I was quite surprised (to see so much civility on the
part of a prince).
7. He said:--I have never heard before, such words and
fraught with so much knowledge, as I have come now to hear
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from thee; It has filled my inward spirit with as much joy,
as if I have drunk my fill of an ambrosial draught just now.
8. I then repaired to thee, O thou sinless fairy, at the
bidding of Válmíki; in order to relate unto thee all that thou
hast asked of me. And now I shall[**space added] bend my course,
towards the
celestial city of Sakra.
9. The fairy said:--I must thank thee now, O thou very
fortunate emissary of the Gods! for all that thou hast related to
me; and my knowledge whereof, has entirely composed my
spirit, by its benign influence.
10. I am now quite satisfied in myself, and will ever remain [**[free]]
from sorrow and all the sickening cares of life; and you may
now [**[go]] to your destination at Indras, with all speed attending on
your journey thither.
11. So saying Suruchi-[**--]the best of fairies, continued to keep
her seat on the slope of the Himálayas, and contiguous to the
Gandhamádana mount of fragrance, and reflect on the sense of
what she had heard (of divine knowledge).
12. Now as you have fully heard, my son, all the precepts
of Vasishtha, you are at liberty to do as you like, by your
weighing well their purport. (For the effecting of your liberation
which is the main object of man, both in this life as well
as in the next).
13. Káranya said:--The remembrance of the past, the sight
of the present, and the talk of future events, together with the
existence of the world; are all as false as the sights in our
dreams or of water in mirage, or as the birth of a boy of a barren
woman.
14. I gain nothing from my deeds, nor lose aught by what
is left undone; I live to do as it happens, or at the impulse
of the occasion and without any assiduity on my part.
15. Agasti said:--Kárunya--The worthy son of Agnibesya[**Agnivesya],
said in the aforesaid manner, and continued to pass his time
in the discharge of his duties, as they occured[**occurred] to him from
time
to time.
16. And you O Sutikshana[**Sutíkshna]! should never entertain any
doubts regarding the acts, that you shall have to perform after
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your attainment of divine knowledge, (Lest they entail their
retribution on you afterwards). Because dubitation[**ok/SOED] destroys
the virtue of the deed, as selfishness takes away its merit.
17. Upon hearing this speech of the sage, which reconciles
the duplicity of action and reflection, into the unity of their
combination; he bowed to his preceptor and uttered as follows
with due submission to him.
18. Sutíkshana[**Sutíkshna] said:--Any action done in ignorance of the
actor, is reckoned as no act of his, unless it is done in his full
knowledge to be taken into account. (So the brute activities
of the giddy mob, bear no value or blame in them before the
wise). But actions done with reason and reasonable men, are
invaluable in their nature. All our acts are best seen by the
light of the intellect as the actions of stage-players are seen
only in the candle light. (So are all our mental and corporeal
acts, actuated by the essence of the great soul in us).
19. It is the presence of the supreme soul in us, that the
action of our hearts, directs the motions of our bodies; as it
is the malleability of gold, that moulds it to the many forms
of jewelleries. (Hence we should never reject the one for the
other).
20. As it is the great body of waters, that gives rise to the
boisterous waves, as well as the little playful billows, that heave
and move in our sight; so it is the inbeing[**in-being] of the great soul,
that fills all the great and small alike.
21. I submit to and bear with all that befals[**befalls?] to me, because
there is no escape from destiny, nor slighting of the
sound sayings of sages; and I acknowledge O Venerable sir, to
owe my knowledge of the knowable One to thy good grace only.
22. I own[**owe?] myself to be quite felicitous to thy favour, and
bow down prostrate to thee on the ground, for thy lifting me
up from the doleful pit of the world; because there is no other
way to repay my gratitude to my venerable preceptor.
23. Nay there is no other act, whereby one may give expression
to his obligation to his tutor, for his salvation in this world,
save by means of offering himself to his services; with his
whole body and mind and the words of his mouth.
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24. It is by thy good grace, O my good sir, that I have
passed over the Rubican[**Rubicon] of this world; I am filled with infinite
joy amidst all these worlds, and am set free from all my doubts.
25. I bow down to that Brahma, who is sung [**[of]] in the Sáma-veda,
as filling all this universe, as the waters of the ocean fill
the boundless deep; and whose remembrance fills our soul
with ecstasy.
26. I bow down also to the sage Vasishtha, who is of the
form of incarnate knowledge alone, and who is immerged in the
joyous bliss of divine felicity; who is beyond all duality and
sees the only One in the unity of infinite vacuity. Who is ever
alike the pure and immaculate One, and witnesseth the inmost
of all minds; who is beyond all states and conditions (of so and
so or of such and such); and who is quite devoid of the three
qualities (which belong to all bodies) i. e. There is no known
quality or property that can be predicated to the Deity. The
qualities of the unknown One, as unknown, peculiar and unique
as own nature.
27. Here ends the Mahárámáyana of the sage Vasishtha,
with its continuation by his recorder Válmíki, and the speech
of the celestial messenger at the latter end of the Book on
Nirvána or the ultimate Extinction of the living soul.


[End of Yoga Vasishtha]






An old painting of people
talking in houses
A painting from the Yoga
Vasistha manuscript, 1602
Book of Juk - 1 result found: Wikipedia, twitter, Digg
English Wikipedia
Yoga Vasistha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Book of Juk)
Yoga Vasistha
(Sanskrit: ___-_____     )
(also known as
Vasistha's Yoga) is
a Hindu spiritual text
traditionally attributed
to Valmiki. It recounts a discourse of the sage
Vasistha to a young Prince Rama, during a period
when the latter is in a dejected state. The contents of
Vasistha's teaching to Rama is associated with
Advaita Vedanta, the illusory nature of the manifest
world[1] and the principle of non-duality. The book
has been dated between the 11th and 14th century
AD)[2] and is generally regarded as one of the longest
texts in Sanskrit (after the Mahabharata) and an
important text of Yoga. The book consists of about
32,000 shlokas (lines), including numerous short
stories and anecdotes used to help illustrate its
content. In terms of Hindu mythology, the
conversation in the Yoga Vasishta takes place
chronologically before the Ramayana.
Other names of this text are Maha-Ramayana, arsha
Ramayana, Vasi__ha Ramayana,[3] Yogavasistha-
Ramayana and Jnanavasistha.[1]

The Yoga Vasistha is a syncretic work, containing
elements of Vedanta, Jainism, Yoga, Samkhya, Saiva
Siddhanta and Mahayana Buddhism.[4] The oldest
available manuscript (the Moksopaya or Moksopaya
Shastra) is a philosophical text on salvation (moksaupaya:
"means to release"), written on the
Pradyumna hill in Srinagar in the 10th century AD.[5]
[6][7][8] This text was [2] expanded and Vedanticized
from the 11th to the 14th century AD – resulting in
the present text, which was influenced by the Saivite
Trika school.[9] This version contains about 32,000
verses; an abridged version by Abhinanda of Kashmir
(son of Jayanta Bhatta) is known as the Laghu
("Little") Yogavasistha and contains 6,000 verses.[10]
Recent research has shown that in this version frame
stories have been introduced, emphasis on Rama
Bhakti has been added, the meaning of certain
passages is reversed, all Buddhist terminology is
deleted and the "public sermon" mode has been
changed to Vasistha's instructions to Rama.[8]
Book of Juk - The Free Online Dictionary and Encyclopedia (TFODE) http://enc.tfode.com/Book_of_Juk
2 of 11 6/29/2012 1:33 AM
Since 1999, the Moksopaya Project (supervised by
professor Walter Slaje at the Martin Luther University
of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany) has been working on
a critical edition of the Moksopaya.[2][11]
Context
Prince Rama returns from touring the country, and
becomes utterly disillusioned after experiencing the
apparent reality of the world. This worries his father,
King Dasaratha, who expresses his concern to Sage
Vasistha upon Rama's arrival. Sage Vasistha consoles
the king by telling him that Rama's dis-passion
(vairagya) is a sign that the prince is now ready for
spiritual enlightenment. He says that Rama has begun
understanding profound spiritual truths, which is the
cause of his confusion; he needs confirmation. Sage
Vasistha asks the king to summon Rama. Then, in
King Dasaratha's court, the sage begins his discourse
to Rama (which lasts several days). The answer to
Rama's questions forms the entire scripture that is
Yoga Vasistha.
Content
The traditional belief is that reading this book leads to
spiritual liberation. The conversation between
Vasistha and Prince Rama is that between a great,
enlightened sage and a seeker who is about to reach
wholeness. This is said to be among those rare
conversations which directly leads to Truth.
The scripture provides understanding, scientific ideas
and philosophy; it explains consciousness, the
creation of the world, the multiple universes in this
world, our perception of the world, its ultimate
dissolution, the liberation of the soul and the non-dual
approach to creation.
An oft-repeated verse in the text is that relating to
Kakathaliya, ("coincidence"). The story is that a crow
alights on a palm tree, and that very moment the ripe
palm fruit falls on the ground. The two events are
Book of Juk - The Free Online Dictionary and Encyclopedia (TFODE)  
apparently related, yet the crow never intended the
palm fruit to fall; nor did the palm fruit fall because
the crow sat on the tree. The intellect mistakes the
two events as causally related, though in reality they
are not.
Structure
Yoga Vasistha is divided into six parts: dis-passion,
qualifications of the seeker, creation, existence,
dissolution and liberation. It sums up the spiritual
process in the seven Bhoomikas:
Subheccha (longing for the Truth): The yogi (or
sadhaka) rightly distinguishes between
permanent and impermanent; cultivates dislike
for worldly pleasures; acquires mastery over his
physical and mental organism; and feels a deep
yearning to be free from Sa_sara.
1.
Vicara_a (right inquiry): The yogi has pondered
over what he or she has read and heard, and has
realized it in his or her life.
2.
Tanumanasa (attenuation – or thinning out – of
mental activities): The mind abandons the many,
and remains fixed on the One.
3.
Sattvapatti (attainment of sattva, "reality"): The
Yogi, at this stage, is called Brahmavid ("knower
of Brahman"). In the previous four stages, the
yogi is subject to sañcita, Prarabdha and Agami
forms of karma. He or she has been practicing
Samprajñata Samadhi (contemplation), in which
the consciousness of duality still exists.
4.
Asa_sakti (unaffected by anything): The yogi
(now called Brahmavidvara) performs his or her
necessary duties, without a sense of
involvement.
5.
Pararthabhavani (sees Brahman everywhere):
External things do not appear to exist to the yogi
(now called Brahmavidvariyas), and tasks are
performed only at the prompting of others.
Sañcita and Agami karma are now destroyed;
only a small amount of Prarabdha karma
remains.
6.
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Turiya (perpetual samadhi): The yogi is known as
Brahmavidvari__ha and does not perform
activities, either by his will or the promptings of
others. The body drops off approximately three
days after entering this stage.
7.
Influence
Yoga Vasistha is considered one of the most
important scriptures of the Vedantic philosophy.[12]
Commentaries
The following traditional Sanskrit commentaries on
the Yoga Vasistha are extent
Vasi__ha-ramaya_a-candrika by Advayara_ya
(son of Narahari)
Tatparya prakasa by ananda Bodhendra
Sarasvati
Bha_ya by Ga_gadharendra
Pada candrika by Madhava Sarasvati
Translations
Originally written in Sanskrit, the Yoga Vasistha has
been translated into most Indian languages, and the
stories are told to children in various forms.[10]
During the Moghul Dynasty the text was translated
into Persian several times, as ordered by Akbar,
Jahangir and Darah Shikuh.[1] One of these
translations was undertaken by Nizam al-Din Panipati
in the late sixteenth century AD. The translation,
known as the Jug-Basisht, has since became popular
in Persia among intellectuals interested in
Indo-Persian culture.[13][14]
Yoga Vasistha was translated into English by Swami
Jyotirmayananda, Swami Venkatesananda, Vidvan
Bulusu Venkateswaraulu and Vihari Lal Mitra. K.
Naryanaswami Aiyer translated the well-known
abridged version, Laghu-Yoga-Vasistha. In 2009,
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5 of 11 6/29/2012 1:33 AM
Swami Tejomayananda's Yoga Vasistha Sara Sangrah
was published by the Central Chinmaya Mission Trust.
In this version the Laghu-Yoga-Vasistha has been
condensed to 86 verses, arranged into seven
chapters.
  











Om Tat Sat
     
                                                   


(End of The

Yoga Vasishtha

Maharamayana
of Valmiki) 






( My humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the collection)