Monday, September 12, 2011
Yoga Vasistha
The Yoga Vasistha is one of the oldest and most venerated texts of ancient India, dating from somewhere around the 12th to the 14 centuries. It is closely related to Vedanta philosophy. I have never studied it, but somehow have long been fascinated by the name itself. When I looked it up on Wikipedia, here is what I found:
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:
Śubhecchā (longing for the Truth): The yogi (or sādhaka) 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 Saṃsāra.
Vicāraṇa (right inquiry): The yogi has pondered over what he or she has read and heard, and has realized it in his or her life.
Tanumānasa (attenuation – or thinning out – of mental activities): The mind abandons the many, and remains fixed on the One.
Sattvāpatti (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, Prābrabdha and Āgamī forms of karma. He or she has been practicing Samprajñāta Samādhi (contemplation), in which the consciousness of duality still exists.
Asaṃsakti (unaffected by anything): The yogi (now called Brahmavidvara) performs his or her necessary duties, without a sense of involvement.
Parārthabhāvanī (sees Brahman everywhere): External things do not appear to exist to the yogi (now called Brahmavidvarīyas), and tasks are performed only at the prompting of others. Sañcita and Āgamī karma are now destroyed; only a small amount of Prārabdha karma remains.
Turīya (perpetual samādhi): The yogi is known as Brahmavidvariṣṭha 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.
Note: Although not many of us will reach the later stages of this journey, we can all pursue the initial steps: we can long for truth, and seek to know it in our own psyches. The stage of "thinning out of mental activities" reminds me of the pronouncement of Baghwan Shree Rashneesh (the rascal guru of years past): "The mind must drop before enlightenment can occur." Many of us are so caught up in the world of thinking that we fail to enter the stage of "wordless knowing." I think this adherence to a strictly mental path is an obstacle to many academics and intellectuals who are, in effect, "domed against heaven" and thus miss the most important aspect of the journey. (However, I am not at all anti-intellectual--I just feel the mental should be balanced with the intuitive or feeling state, which is a different way of "knowing.")
(image found on Wikipedia)
