The Deepest Verse in all of Yoga Vasistha

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Note: This post addresses topics such as liberation, samadhi, free will and the gunas

Yoga Vasistha, is one of the deepest and most profound spiritual texts of all time. It is an elaborate piece of work consisting of over 32,000 verses and highly regarded by many sages of the past including Ramana Maharishi. The main theme of Yoga Vasistha is that the soul is undergoing a dream from which it must awake. This dream represents our association and identification with the world. The fact that it is described as being a dream means that whatever is in it has to be false. Nothing in a dream can be true. Waking up from that dream is the ultimate goal of life.

Yoga Vasistha is a dialogue between Sage Vasistha and God-incarnate Sri Rama.  It is not just a dialoge between a Sage and an Avatar, but is a form of a story within a story within a story. Our lives are also just that….a story within a story within a story, i.e. a physical body, within a subtle body, within a causal body. In this spiritual text, there are many deep verses, some too non-dual for most as it’s spoken from the paramarthika level. These verses do little help for the mind that is still shackled to the confines of the vyavaharika level  or the relative plane. For those reasons, I have chosen a special verse that is not only extremely deep but can also give the limited mind a taste of unlimited bliss. For those who have a deep curiosity as to how it’s like to live as a liberated being, this verse is for you.  

This Yoga Vasistha verse describes one who has kept savikalpa samadhi stable in continuous motion without the possibility of it ever reverting back due to the destruction of rajas (nature of projection) and tamas (nature of concealment). It is at this very point one gains the irreversible status of a jivanmukta (liberated while living) and is on the brink of forever losing the appearance of duality. I have been able to keep savikalpa stable and have received divine knowledge from upper lokas/realms as to how the experience is and how the process of liberation works.  I’ll provide some commentary after this verse explaining what exactly it means and how it’s like to have savikalpa samadhi stable for hours at a time while performing daily activities. I will also include pieces of the verse in quotations throughout the post to support the commentary. 

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Yoga Vasistha (VI.1:2):

“The state of mind of the liberated ones who are still living and who see both the supreme truth and the relative appearance, is known as sattva (transparency). It is improper to call it the mind: it is really sattva. These knowers of truth are mindless and are in a state of perfect equilibrium: they live their life here playfully. They behold the inner light all the time, even though they seem to be engaged in diverse actions. Concepts of duality, unity or such others do not arise in them, for there are no tendencies in their heart. The very seed of ignorance is burnt in the state of sattva and it does not again give rise to delusion.”

This verse explains the experience of a jivanmukti.  This is the nature of the mind when it’s completely drowned in pure sattva and never again gets diluted with rajas and tamas. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas are the three gunas that permeate all of creation. Everything in creation consists of these gunas in different permutations and combinations which gives creation all of its diversity down to the material substance and qualities. Rajas is the quality of projection while tamas is the quality of concealment. Sattva guna however is the quality of higher knowledge and purity. The more the mind is drowned in sattva, it increases in transparency allowing the truth and knowledge of Brahman to be reflected without being distorted by the other two gunas. It is the other two gunas that conceals the truth of Brahman and projects the attention of Brahman into a dream character it imagines up via its own power of maya.

It’s sort of like having blinds in your house for shade. In this case:

Blinds = Mind

Sun = Brahman

If the blinds are closed, you will not see the sun. Tamas conceals it. But sattva allows the blinds to open so that the sun can shine through. When the blinds are fully open, it’s just the sun in all of its glory. Then how can it be said that there is such thing as a mind? Having a mind that’s pure sattva = not having a mind at all. It has thus taken the complete form of Brahman. While it can be said that the self is beyond all three gunas, this only denotes Nirguna Brahman void of an appearance driven by sattva.  Pure sattva however is still Brahman but with an appearance, which is why we term it Turiya or witness consciousness. This is none other than Atman which also equals Brahman! It is here you rest in your complete presence as Brahman but still with the appearance of the mind that allows you to compare and acknowledge your true self. 

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So how is it like during this moment? 

Per Vasistha’s verse, one who is liberated “can see both the supreme truth and the relative appearance.”

This means one is completely absorbed as the witness principle, free from body-mind attachments and miseries, yet witnesses the body-mind act on its own accord. Even though the body-mind acts, you are not the doer at this point and there is total absence of body-mind consciousness. When the current of jnana (higher knowledge) pulls you in, you’re now on auto-pilot. It remains unbroken without any effort on your part since the experience of Brahman takes over.  Renouncing the ego along with doership is necessary before one can remain in this unbroken current.

This is when you become a silent witness secretly watching the play of maya unfold while all objects are unaware of you in the background watching them. But does this mean the witness is separate from the objects? No. When being absorbed as the witness you are one with everything, yet, you can watch them as if there is separation.  Similar to being a screen of a tv that can observe the appearance of its own reflection move like an animation, but remains non-separate from it the entire time.  “Concepts of duality, unity or such others do not arise in them.”

This is also what the verse means by: ”they behold the inner light all the time.” 

When identified with awareness, it doesn’t matter what the body-mind does because you’re stuck as the pure witness, this is the inner light. It is this inner presence that reveals the agent, action and external objects all at once. If samadhi is deep enough, you will be completely locked in to that inner light. Since you’re not confined to the limitations of the body-mind and only observe as the witness, it’s an innocent playful act because who is it that is the doer/enjoyer and the one receiving the good or bad results from the law of karma? It is like a child playing with a toy without having a single care in the world and just being completely absorbed in the present moment: "they live their life here playfully.”

This is similar to watching a movie. You can either watch and enjoy the movie as a witness or be completely identified with the character and with the role they are playing, so much so, that you become that very character and find yourself playing that role with agency and doership. The witness however watches the movie silently without getting involved in all of its drama. It is this drama that causes suffering because the character takes the movie to be real. From the witness point of view, it remains detached but can still witness the appearance as itself while watching the body-mind act on its own without having any volitional control. This is when one realizes that there never was any doership and that the jiva was never in control even though it felt that way when locked into body-mind identification. This recognition can only be made when one is in extremely deep samadhi through self-inquiry. The more keenly and vigilantly you become of witness alone (staying as witness itself), the more the appearance will subside, until eventually it merges and dissolves in its own source. This means if the witness principle (turiya) is held long enough on its own, the appearance it underlies will eventually vanish, causing it to become one with infinity.

When one is enlightened or in sahaj nirvikalpa samadhi, there is no longer any appearance as such. They have transcended all three karmas (sanchita, prarabdha and agami) and all three bodies (physical, subtle and causal). Though this doesn’t mean the body-mind doesn’t act. It still does but is being moved by the will of god. Given the formalities of questions and answers at the vyavaharika level, it is said that only prarabdha continues. However, this is false from the perspective of the jnani and only true from those who are still ignorant perceiving the jnani act in the world of appearance. The jnani is already one with Brahman because as soon as the doer goes, everything else goes with it. 

The movie playing on the big screen is already scripted. When you transcend the character and the movie, you eventually stop watching. But just because you stop watching, doesn’t mean the movie shuts off for everyone. It only shuts off for you because your perception is corrected.

These are some of the recognitions made when one is in deep samadhi while performing daily action. However, until then we must act with doership as we have no choice but to perform our duties in this world. No matter how qualified you are or what path you’re on, there is never a moment when one is not doing their karma yoga. There are many different levels of karma yoga and depending on how purified one’s mind is, karma yoga will be expressed differently. But the highest level is when you give up all actions back to God. Because when karma yoga is perfected and all actions are given up, you no longer need to do the acting, god does it for you. And when this happens, well…

…”The very seed of ignorance is burnt in the state of sattva and it does not again give rise to delusion.”