Vedic Literature | Ekamsat | Vasista-Gita | Dispassion
1. Salutations to the Serene Effulgence infinite and all-pervasive, unlimited by space and time! Salutations to the Pure Consciousness that can be realized only in experience!
The Self is pure awareness. IT is pure consciousness. The Self is the source of all kinds of illumination. IT is self-luminous, without darkness and light and is the self-manifest reality. The Self is only being. IT is what IT is. IT is the infinite ‘I’. IT is eternal.
The Self Itself is the world; the Self Itself is ‘I’; the Self Itself is God; all is the Self. The Self alone exists. The Self alone is real.
The Self is Consciousness and, as Consciousness, is eternal.
Knowing the Self means being the Self. The knowing Self is Itself the known Self. IT can never become a known or unknown object. The realization of the Self is only in experience.
2. One who is totally ignorant or who knows the whole Truth is ineligible to study this book. The one who thinks ‘I am bound; I must become free’ is alone eligible to study it.
A seeker after Truth is to be fired with the urge in his inner- most self to know of the Self – the Brahman, with a view to realizing IT. He is aware of his ignorance – avidya that binds him to the phenomenal world. Aware of his ignorance, he seeks to be free. A clear understanding of the philosophy contained in this work will help the seeker after Truth to realize his ideal through sadhana.
3. Unless and until one is definitely blessed by the Supreme Lord, one will not find either a proper guru or the right scripture.
A guru is in the nature of an inner being sent to the seeker (disciple) by the Divine at the appropriate stage of his sadhana (spiritual practice) to attain realization. Age, caste, creed, gender, vocation, etc of the guru is of no relevance to the seeker. The seeker is to feel the guru in his soul and accept him as such. So is it with the right scripture to elevate the seeker to the realm beyond his mind.
4. Oh Rama! Just as a steady boat is obtained from a boat-man, the method of crossing the ocean of samsara is learnt by associating with great souls.
Samsara is a series of lives with birth and death with no enlightenment. If a seeker is intent to overcome the series of lives, he is to associate with realized souls to know the way to overcoming samsara. The enlightened persons, having realized themselves, will be of help to the seeker in his effort.
5. The great remedy for the long-lasting disease of samsara is the enquiry ‘who am I? To whom does the samsara belong?’, which entirely cures it.
6. Not a day should be spent in a place which does not possess the tree of a wise knower of Truth with its good fruit and cool shade.
The company of a knower of Truth works as a magnetic force to the seeker after Truth to be on the path of realization.
7. The sages are to be approached even if they do not teach. Whatever they say even in a lighter vein contains wisdom.
A true guru to a seeker after Truth is ordained by the Divine. Whether he teaches or not, his very presence will have an ennobling impact on the seeker. Whatever such guru says carries wisdom for the benefit of the seeker.
8. The company of sages converts emptiness into fullness, death into immortality, and adversity into prosperity.
A seeker develops faith by living in the company of holy men – sages. Once he has faith, he achieves anything. There is nothing greater than faith.
The realization of the Divine cannot be by means of mere scholarship. The seeker must have love and faith. If he has faith in his guru’s words, his faith leads him to the Divine. As one’s faith increases, so does one’s knowledge of God. Faith is not simple belief. It is the grasp on the Ultimate, an illumination. The company of a guru or the sages thus converts emptiness into fullness, death into immortality, and adversity into prosperity.
9. If sages were concerned only with their own happiness, with whom could those tormented by the sorrows of samsara seek refuge?
An illumined sage always looks to seekers after Truth to impart true wisdom.
10. Oh good soul! That which is imparted to a worthy disciple that has become dispassionate is the real wisdom. That is the real purpose of the sacred srutis and texts and it is comprehensive.
The disciple is to be worthy, following the four disciplines of realization known as sadhana-chatustayam, to receive instruction of the sacred srutis and other texts. He becomes dispassionate through spiritual practices. The instruction imparted to such a disciple by the realized guru is true wisdom and comprehensive, to enable him to attain his ideal of realization.
11. The customary method of teaching will only help preserve the tradition. Pure awareness arises when the disciple is clear in his understanding.
12. The Supreme Brahman cannot be realized with the help of the sacred texts or the guru. The self realizes the Supreme Self with pure intellect, in supreme consciousness.
The self realizes the Supreme Self beyond the consciousness of the body and the mind, in the state of Supreme Consciousness. Either the guru or the sacred texts are of help only to guide the seeker on the path of realization. But the seeker attains realization in Supreme Consciousness endowed on him wholly by Divine grace.
13. All the arts acquired by men are lost by lack of practice. But the art of wisdom grows steadily once it rises.
Faculties of body and mind arise, strengthen and decay in space and time. But the faculties of soul or the self ever grow and never decay as they are beyond space and time and beyond the consciousness of body and mind. The self of the aspirant seeks to be in union with the Self that is eternal and infinite. As such the consciousness or the self of the seeker is ever expanding, adinfinitum.
14. An ornament worn round the neck is considered lost through forgetfulness. When the mistake is realized, it is considered gained. Similarly, the Self is attained with the instruction of the guru.
The Self is eternal, immutable and all-pervasive. IT is ever present everywhere. It is only ignorance – avidya that veils the Self from the knowledge of the seeker. The guru helps to remove ignorance of the seeker through instruction. When ignorance is removed, the Self shines in effulgence in the knowledge of the seeker. IT is his Knowledge itself.
15. He who, not knowing his own self, takes pleasure in sense objects, is indeed an unfortunate person. He is like one who realizes very late that the food earlier eaten by him was poisonous.
Taking pleasure in sense objects is being within the domain of the body and the mind, without realizing the sublimity of bliss of the Self. This is against the spirit of the ideal of human life which is to attain the Self for supreme bliss. It amounts to wasting precious spell of human life in vicarious activity unconnected to the ideal of life.
16. He who knows that worldly objects are deceptive and still hankers after them is a pervert and like an ass.
Unlike an animal, a human being is endowed with an active mind and intellect, and is capable of determining his ideal of life and charting a course for its realization. A seeker after Truth is aware that the objects of the world are only deceptive and keep him bound to ignorance. In spite of such awareness, if he still hankers after them, is he not but a perverted person? Is he anymore than an ass?
17. Even the slightest thought immerses a man in sorrow. When he is devoid of all thoughts, he enjoys imperishable bliss.
Mind is a stream of thoughts passing over consciousness. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts there is no such thing as mind. Thought, therefore, is the very nature of mind.
The very fact that a seeker is having a thought is indicative that he is in the realm of the mind. Unless the seeker transcends his mind, he cannot enter the state of supreme consciousness that attains realization of the Self. Only realization of the Self bestows imperishable bliss. Being devoid of any thought what so ever, being beyond the domain of the mind is a necessary condition to enjoy imperishable bliss.
18. We experience the delusion of hundreds of years in a dream lasting a short while. Similarly, we experience the sport of Maya in our waking state.
There are said to be four levels of being covering the world of action. They are the insignificant being, the apparent being, the pragmatic being and the Supreme Being. The objects of dreams unrelated to the world of action through causal laws are considered apparent beings. The objects of the real world have observability and perceivabilty. They are meant for action and meet the conditions of action. They are, therefore, called pragmatic beings. The pragmatic beings are the creation of Maya – Prakrti. We experience them in our waking state as we experience the apparent beings – the objects of our dreams in our dream state. Neither category of beings is real or permanent. While the apparent beings of the dreams disappear into the being of our mind when we awake from sleep, the pragmatic beings of the world of action disappear, get absorbed and assimilated into the Brahman – the Supreme Being.
19. He whose mind is inwardly calm and serene, and free from attachment and hatred, and who looks upon this world like a mere spectator is a happy man.
An individual is considered a spectator or a witness if he makes a distinction in his mind between the witness and the witnessed consciousness. This is similar to one’s experience of trying to shake off the identity of the waking ‘I’ with the dream ‘I’ and absolve oneself from, and be unaffected by the actions of the dream ‘I’, when one comes out of the dream.
The witness consciousness has different levels. At the empirical level, it often disassociates itself easily from itself as experiencing the dream objects. Sometimes it has to make special efforts for such disassociation. Then forgetfulness helps in erasing the dream experiences. But at the deeper and the higher levels of the witness consciousness, the disassociation is more and more spontaneous and obvious to oneself. At these levels, the seeker is calm and serene, free from attachment or hatred and is ever happy.
20. The life of the person who has understood well how to abandon all ideas of acceptance and rejection and who has realized the Consciousness which is within the innermost heart is illustrious.
Renunciation is abandoning all ideas of acceptance and rejection. True renunciation is of three types – sacrifice, charity and penance. All the three are actions. They purify the soul. They are obligations to every man who has to perform them without any attachment to the fruits that may result. One who gives up actions through ignorance is under the influence of the Attribute of Darkness (tamas). One who gives them up because of the trouble they involve is under the influence of the Attribute of the Active (rajas). Neither is right. The one who performs them without desire for their fruit is under the influence of the Attribute of the Transparent (sattva). He is the true renouncer of action, the true knower and the truly wise (jnani). His life is illustrious.
Pure Consciousness is the true state of the Divine Ground or the Godhead and IT permeates the whole universe as pure activity of the Godhead. All conscious experiences are the states of consciousness altered or modified with respect to Pure Consciousness. As a corollary, Consciousness is presumed present in and permeating all beings – sentient and insentient in the universe. What permeates a being permeates everywhere in the being, every cell. IT is, therefore, innermost in the being. One who realizes the presence of Consciousness within one’s innermost heart is truly blessed.
21. On the death of the physical body the consciousness limited to the heart (hrdayam) alone exits the body. People lament unnecessarily that the Self is extinct.
Death is a reality and is part of life. As life principle (prana) enters the body, so does it exit. As it is the only reality for the physical body, one is wise not to worry about it.
When one “dies”, one does not die at all, but only shifts into awareness of the macrocosm where there is no “time” or “space”, now and then, before and after. From a macro perspective, all the particles of Everything merely look like the whole. This is to say, on “death” one returns in consciousness to the macro reality which is but a micro reality of an even larger macro reality – and so on, without end. The macro reality is the Self which is eternal, all-pervasive and existent. This leads to the realization that life including death is all a matter of perspective. It is only due to ignorance that people lament the death of a fellow being.
22. When pots are broken, the space within them becomes unlimited. Similarly, when bodies cease to exist the Self remains eternal and unattached.
As long as the pot is intact with water, it reflects the sky on the surface of water within and gives an illusion that it contains the sky. When the pot is broken, water spills away. The sky is no longer seen in illusion. It remains where it is, unlimited.
The human body is like a pot. The life principle within is like water. The Self is reflected as individual soul (atman) within, as akasa is reflected in the water of the pot. When the body perishes on death, the individual atman merges into the Self which is eternal and unattached.
23. Nothing whatever is born or dies anywhere at any time. It is the Brahman alone appearing illusorily in the form of the world.
The creative force is immanent in the Brahman. Creativity is negativity. There is no creativity unless there is a leap form one state to another. But this leap does not mean complete destruction or negation. The Being never becomes Non-being. There is continuity of Being, with change of form, one form succeeding another. It is the Brahman’s own power of negativity, of creative self-differentiation, of immanence and self-transcendence that result in creation. The Brahman is, thus, the ground of everything that exists, the Being of the world that is ever transient. As the world is ever transient it is considered apparent and, therefore, an illusion.
The Brahman is the Supreme Being. Everything in the world has its being in the Brahman. Permeating and pervading everything in the world IT is the Supreme Consciousness. As such IT is considered the Supreme Spirit or the Atman. By its very nature of all-encompassing and all-pervading phenomenon, the Supreme Spirit or Atman is considered the innermost attribute or constituent of all the individual spirits or atmans. When the Brahman is eternal, all-pervading, imperishable, immutable and indivisible, how can anything be born or die ontologically anywhere and at anytime?
24. The Self is more extensive than space; IT is pure, subtle, undecaying and auspicious. As such, how could IT be born and how can IT die?
Space is four-fold. First is the physical space, infinite as we know of it. Second is the dream space as infinite for one as the physical space. Third is the psychological space in which the objects of one’s imagination exist, as infinite as the dream space. Fourth is the logical and mathematical space in which logical and mathematical realities exist. The Upanisads speak of different levels of space.
Space may be defined, like time, as the correlating of many events to the I-am as eternally present. The correlation of one event among others involves both time and space. One-point event may not produce the idea of space, even though it is involved in locating it. The idea of space is brought to the surface of consciousness when the locating of one event by the side of another is involved. Primarily, locating is a function of spacing, placing.
On the other hand, the Self is pure awareness. IT is pure consciousness. IT is the infinite ‘I’. The Self is Consciousness and, as Consciousness, is eternal and all-pervading. Being infinite and eternal, IT has neither beginning nor end. If the Self (the Brahman) is to be regarded as space (akasa) for the reason that all things are located in it, then it has to be beyond time.
Time and space are not necessarily out there. They are the functions of apperception. The objective space and time are the spontaneous functioning of one’s apperception in its transcendental aspect. They are necessary for one in that they belong to one’s transcendental depths. Time and space, thus, are the meeting points of the I-am and the I-know. They dissolve into the I-am when the I-know enters it. Space in its manifold form, thus, dissolves into the Self.
25. All this (the Self) is tranquil, One without beginning, middle or end. IT cannot be said to be existent or non-existent. Know this and be happy.
Monism (Advaita, Non-dualism) considers the Brahman as one. The Brahman is pure ontological ‘Being’ or Existence (satta). Being and Existence are one and the same. Being cannot be many. If It is more than one, it becomes a class, and the word becomes the name of the class. The question whether It is one or more does not arise for the ontological Being. ‘To be one’ may be said to be one among many. But ontologically, ‘to be’ is the act of being or existing. There is no duality both within and without Being. The Being, being one, eternal and all-pervasive, can neither have beginning, middle nor end.
The Brahman is considered the Supreme Deity. Everything in the cosmos has its being in the Brahman. IT is concrete in the sense that IT IS. IT cannot be a person, as the word is generally understood. IT IS, and yet indeterminate, beyond concept and speech.
26. Oh, Rama! It is indeed nobler to wander begging about the streets of the outcastes (chandalas) with an earthen bowl in hand than to live a life of ignorance.
In ignorance, man binds himself to family and friends, to wealth and possessions and to pleasures associated with body. He gets involved in the cycle of samsara with no effort at redemption. He makes no effort to realize the ultimate Truth or the Reality. He lives the life of a beast, caring for satisfaction of the physical senses and appetites.
The animal, it is said, is a living laboratory in which Nature has worked out man. Man himself may well be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious cooperation Nature wills to work out the superman to manifest God, to disclose the soul as a divine being, to evolve a divine nature. If it is true that Spirit is involved in Matter and apparent Nature is secret God, then the manifestation of the divine in him and the realization of God within and without are the highest and the most legitimate ideal possible to man on earth.
The ideal of human life cannot simply be the animal repeated in a higher scale of mentality. The animal is satisfied with a modicum of necessity. But man cannot rest permanently until he reaches some highest good. He is the greatest of living beings, as he is the most discontented and feels most the pressures of limitations. He becomes, therefore, capable of being seized by the divine frenzy for the supreme ideal. So seized by the divine frenzy for the supreme ideal, the seeker is to attain knowledge of the Self for realization.
27. Disease, poison, adversity or any other thing in the world causes less suffering to men than such stupidity (ignorance) engendered in their bodies.