Vasiha's Yoga (Special Paper; 27) Paperback – Illustrated, March 2, 1993

I don't know what genius might have originally written this book, or what towering genius might have been the synthesizer that lifted the pieces of the tradition to its current level, and I don't think anybody does, but I am reading it for I think the third time now and I find myself being stunned again and again by it brilliance. Depending on my mood, this is my favorite book, and it is not so easy saying that with my love for Jane Roberts, Emerson, Nisargadatta, the ancient Indian text--the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads--but this book is so rich in meaning. If it were poorly translated I might have a very different idea, but Swami Venkatesananda is so skilled in English, and apparently in Sanskrit. His vocabulary is wide ranging, but I have yet to see an artificial flourish in his choice of words. His writing is masterful and equal to the task of translating one of the world's greatest scriptures. The theme is of course part of the Advaita Vedanta tradition--the indivisibility of all reality and of the manifested and unmanifested realms (the physical and the spiritual). But one of the things that I find so refreshing in the book is its refusal to exclude either Hinduism or Buddhism from its worldview (the psychological insight of Buddhism--the non-identification with false, self-created notions ("Consciousness sees in itself its own self as if it were its own object.")--is retained without the nihilism or the tiresome, unhelpful negative use of the term "emptiness" and in its place the recurrent term the "infinite unconditioned consciousness," and its continual insistence on the individuals responsibility for his or her spiritual advancement and the importance of self-enquiry (in Sanskrit it is called "vicara") to that end (as Nisargadatta, Jane Roberts, Emerson, Ramana Maharshi also so eloquently state). Another concept repeated in the book and which endears it to me is the idea of the universe as idea creation, on both the cosmic and individual level, which parallels the thought of the American mystic Jane Roberts ("T[]he universe expands as an idea does."--Jane Roberts). When I am reading the book I often think of Blake's famous phrase, "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite." As Vasistha says, "What appears as the world to the conditioned mind is seen by the unconditioned as Brahman"(page 506). The book is a bottomless reservoir of spiritual insight and will reward you with many many hours of enjoyment. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is a great great great book. Don't be put off by the repetition; just enjoy the reiteration from different points of view. And the stories and metaphors employed as a vehicle for the idea of the unity of reality are a joy, particularly the story of Sikhidhvaja and Cudala at toward the end.Here is a summative passage as an example, from page 372."Action springs from thought, thought is the function of the mind, mind is conditioned consciousness, but consciousness is unconditioned! The universe is but a reflection in consciousness (like the scenery reflected in a crystal ball) but consciousness is not conditioned by such reflection. Jiva is the vehicle of consciousness, ego-sense is the vehicle of jiva, intelligence of egosense, mind of intelligence, prana of the mind, the senses of prana, the body of the senses and motion is the vehicle of the body. Such motion is karma. Because prana is the vehicle for the mind, where the prana takes it the mind goes. But when the mind is merged in the spiritual heart, prana does not move. And if the prana does not move, the mind attains a quiescent state. Where the prana goes the mind follows it, even as the rider goes where the vehicle goes."What this book is not.I love this book, as you see from the above. I love it for what it is, and what it is is a long discussion whose main theme is the fact that everything is not only an expression of "All That Is," as Jane Roberts would say, that is, the infinite consciousness, but IS that infinite consciousness; and that it is man's purpose on earth to realize this his or her personal life through renunciation of the ego. This follows a long tradition of Indiana thought beginning with the Vedas through the Upanishads, the Gita and so forth. So the focus is on the realization that everything is that consciousness and that the nature of physical reality is dreamlike. In this sense it follows the Buddhist line of thought; but as mentioned it goes farther and posits a deep spiritual reality beyond the physical and beyond the ego. What the book does not do, and what Indian thought fails to do generally so it really can't be held against, is discuss the spiritual nature of the physical world as an expression of that deeper, underpinning reality or consciousness. It is enough to realize it and then to live your life with detachment, spontaneously and naturally--love is rarely if ever mentioned. I do love this book, but it needs a companion volume written by a St. Francis, who would shift the emphasis from the realization of the infinite consciousness to the realization of the sanctity of all life. The "author" could have followed the lead of the Buddha here with his notion that our relationship with all of the creatures of the earth is to be thought of as the mother thinks of her child. The potential was certainly there for Vasistha. He did say "What appears as the world to the conditioned mind is seen by the unconditioned as Brahman." The person that has renounced his/her smaller self for the larger reality sees everything as ... the author says Brahman, not the divine as I wanted him to sometimes say. The focus is consistently on this realization of the infinite, not on the realization of the infinite in the expression of that infinite.For Vasistha, "[a]ll the moving and unmoving things are but pure consciousness. When an illusory notion of division arises in it, consciousness comes to be known as the world. . . The attitude or the nature of a tree which draws nourishment through its roots and exists is pure consciousness. . . That nature which exists in grass and creepers growing in their proper seasons without the feeling of mine-ness, is pure consciousness. The pure being of wood and rock which are as they were created, as also the mind of pure beings, is pure consciousness. That is pure consciousness (cidakasa) in which all things exist, from which they emerge, which is everything, and which is all in all." Page 601.Vasistha goes to pains to explain that Brahman cannot be characterized, but that did not stop the Christians or Jane Roberts from making an attempt, and you sometimes want Vasistha to try. For the Christian mystics, and for Jane Roberts, the quality of God or All That Is comes as close as possible to this characterization. Here is Jane Roberts from the Nature of the Psyche."The formation of events is initially an emotional, psychic, or psychological function. Events are physical interpretations, conventionalized versions of inner perceptive experiences that are then `coalesced' in space and time. Events are organized according to laws that involve love, belief, intent, and the intensities with which these are entertained. Events are attracted or repelled by you according to your loves, beliefs, intents, and purposes...Love, purpose, belief, and intent--these shape your physical body and work upon it and with it even as at other levels cellular consciousness forms it...Love is a biological as well as a spiritual characteristic. Basically, love and creativity are synonymous. Love exists without an object. It is the impetus by which all being becomes manifest. Desire, love, intent, belief and purpose--these form the experience of your body and all the events it perceives."This is one of the greatest works of Indian religious philosophy; it is not, to paraphrase Emerson, the voice of an Arab crying in the desert night. It is a work for the intellect, not the heart, for the masculine, not the feminine aspect of our psyche. But that is like criticizing an orange for being too orange. Reality always, by definition, exceeds our grasp of it, and my life will never be the same because of the precious jewel that is Vasistha.PS Read the longer version, not the condensed one. There is too much context lost in the shorter one.

If you love reading the Upanishads or the Bhagavad Gita, then this book Yoga Vasishta is like those two former books, but on CRACK.Sage Vasishta makes it clear, in no uncertain terms, in over 700 pages, that the only thing that exists is God/Brahman/the Self, which we are, but our worldly, low vibrational behaviors causes us to identify with the creation and not the Creator, which is beyond all forms of dualistic conceptions and physical existence.Yes, you may already know this, but if you want that truth of the self to sink even deeper into your being, then this is the text you need to read.10 out of 10- Very down to earth, straight to the point book that will Enlighten you and slaughter all your illusions.

Vasistha's Yoga. By Swami Venkatesananda. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993. Paperback, 768 pages. ISBN 0791413640I was led to the Yoga Vasistha after becoming interested in a very pure and early Advaita text called The Ashtavakra Gita, a beautiful short work of just 300 couplets (for details see my Listmania list). The particular school of Advaita Vedanta represented by the Ashtavakra Gita is called Ajatavada. It propounds the fascinating notion that the universe was never created.The Yoga Vasistha is a later and much more extensive elaboration, in 32000 couplets, of the Ajatavada theory that nothing has ever emerged and that the world of names-and-forms is merely an illusion. The complete Sanskrit/English edition of the Yoga Vasistha, which may be thought of as the main 'Scripture' of the Ajatavada school, runs to over 2400 pages in 4 large volumes. It is from this massive 64000-line text that Swami Venkatesananda has distilled the brilliant summary he has presented us with here and which is about one third the length of the complete text.The words 'Scripture', 'Doctrine', 'Philosophy', have an ominous ring for most of us. They suggest something dull, heavy, dreary, tedious, and quite the opposite of fun! Also, most of us would probably tend to agree with old Greek saying - Mega biblion mega kakon - A big book is a big evil!Given this, the Yoga Vasistha comes as a very pleasant surprise. It's certainly 'Scripture', and it's said to be the third biggest book ever composed, but despite what some would think of as its disadvantages it turns out - with its huge cast of Gods and Goddesses, Angels, Kings, Queens, Ministers, Priests, Sages, Warriors, Laymen, Students, Mendicants, Yogis, Demons and Goblins, etc., all of them, for our edification, pursuing their various fates on a universal stage - to be one of the most fascinating and fun things ever written and those of us who are lucky enough to have discovered it should count ourselves very lucky indeed.The traditional Indian view is that the ideas we find expounded in the sacred texts of Hinduism should not be considered mere 'theories' that have been arrived at through the use of reason. The knowledge these texts hold is the product of insights achieved by a spiritual elite whose whole lives and entire energies were devoted to the search for truth. After heroic efforts they succeeded in their search and texts such as the Yoga Vasistha hold as much of the truth as could be embodied in words. But besides the truths it holds, what I also find fascinating is its scientific content.I get the feeling that its author - after taking us on an amazing voyage through a cosmos pulsing with vibratory energies and holding an infinity of universes strewn with galaxies with their suns and planets and black holes and clouds of cosmic dust and with space vehicles darting about and an incredible variety of both material and immaterial life-forms teeming and swarming and pullulating through uncountable alternate dimensions - would have enjoyed himself hugely if he had been able to sit down and have a good chat with some of our modern physicists since, as John Lowry Dobson makes clear in his Beyond Space and Time, they certainly seem to have a great deal in common.As I've already mentioned, the particular school of Advaita Vedanta represented by the Yoga Vasistha is called Ajatavada. It propounds the theory that the universe was never created, that nothing has ever emerged, that the world of names-and-forms is merely an illusion.As for John Lowry Dobson, he is a Western scientist who, basing his theory on a careful examination of Einstein's equations, has arrived at the same conclusion: Neither the universe, nor you, nor I were ever created. In fact, we do not exist. So science and traditional Indian thought have finally met up, as indeed they inevitably had to since there can only be One Truth.