Commentary on the text “Yoga Vasistha. Chapter 6. On Liberation”
“God continued:
“Then the sense of ego gives rise to the notions of time and space. Endowed with vital energy, it becomes individual consciousness or an individual being. This being then follows the dictates of concepts and sinks into gross ignorance. Thus the mind is born in connection with the sense of ego and various forms of psychological energy. All this is known as the subtle body, which can pass from projection to projection. After this, substances corresponding to the subtle energies of this body are imagined in consciousness, and various objects corresponding to them and connecting sensations arise.
Thus all these substances were created, but in reality nothing was created. All this is only apparent modifications of the one infinite consciousness. Just as the objects of a dream are within the dreamer, all this is not different from infinite consciousness. Just as when you dream something, it seems to become the object of your own perception, so everything around also appears to be objective reality.”
The illusion of diversity—maya-mala—makes us consider objects as separate, existing by themselves; their connection with the Absolute is not seen. This illusion of diversity arises when the mind is active and we are attached to the mind’s judgments. When we are able to investigate the nature of the Mind, gradually the mind’s judgments cease to dominate, the illusion of diversity departs—this is atma-vichara. Another way is brahma-vichara, when we are able to investigate the single supreme absolute Source, when we are able to direct the mind again and again toward God, toward the absolute object, and we develop the habit of reflecting on Him, the habit of concentrating, the habit of investigating divine reality—then this illusion of diversity gradually departs.
One way or another, samsara, the 14 worlds of the Vedic Universe, birth and death, bodily consciousness, the illusion “I am the body”—all this is the consequence of such an illusion, which disappears when we immerse ourselves in the investigation of the divine Source. Such immersion in the qualities of God, in the qualities of the Absolute, is liberation—it is immersion in infinite parameters, in infinite magnitudes.
Meditation on Infinity as the Path to Liberation
We live in infinity, but we ourselves are small, finite, yet we live in the infinite. When we try to solve infinite problems by methods focused on the finite, we become increasingly entangled in karma, in samsara.
The ability for self-liberation, for untangling the knots of karma, is concentration on the infinite God, on the infinite Absolute. Sixty million years is not so much for infinity, but our mind refuses even to reflect on such figures; yet precisely at the moment when we accustom ourselves to constantly reflect on such volumes, scales, and magnitudes, we will begin to understand the scale of God, His designs, the insignificant position of the ego in relation to Him, and thus self-surrender naturally arises.
When some insoluble problems arise, I usually say: “Don’t worry, in eighty years they will not exist.” This is indeed so, but the mind’s captivation does not allow it to understand this. Meditation on the infinite God makes our mind just as infinite; it deprives it of its shriveled state—what we meditate on, that we become. Our problem is that our mind is shriveled and limited, but the habit of meditating on the infinite God, on the absolute God, makes us just as infinite, just as absolute. This immediately tears out the root of the identification “I am the body,” “I am the mind,” “I am the ego,” the root of identification with the present, past, and future; it tears out many roots of identification.
The State of a Liberated Sage
When the mind has become infinite, absolute, it is always at the foot of God, it is always at the feet of God; then such a sage smiles happily when encountering problems and the illusions of the material world—he is either liberated or close to liberation. Brahma-vichara, worship, means always immersing oneself in thoughts of the infinite God, then always immersing oneself in awareness beyond thoughts of the infinite God, dedicating all one’s actions to the infinite God. Then, at the level of the body, at the level of thoughts, at the level of consciousness, such a soul is absorbed by infinity and becomes part of it.
Saints disappear as individuals, but their bodies remain. They remain not as human bodies, not as personalities, not as human minds, but as illusory bodies of the Absolute. This is difficult to understand; if you tell someone, “I am an illusory body of the Absolute,” but this is exactly how it happens, because saints disappear as humans, as personalities, as egos, and in place of their consciousness the Absolute reigns. But since prarabdha karma exists, the body still exists; yet now this body is guided by the Absolute, therefore this body is considered a conduit of the Absolute, its shakti, its power.
The True Nature of Reality
“When the truth about the surrounding world is understood, all of this becomes God. However, even this is not the truth, because all of this never became material objects in the first place. Because of your own notions of them as materiality, which you perceive, they seem to possess materiality. Thus, by evoking materiality, consciousness sees materiality. Limited by such notions, it appears to suffer. Limitation is suffering. But these self-limitations are based on thoughts and concepts, or sensory and psychological sensations. However, the truth is beyond these sensations, and the entire world is merely an appearance, like a mirage.”
Paths to the Comprehension of Truth
We enter the truth of the infinite God, the infinite Absolute, through jnana, or through bhakti, or through a combination of the two. If you are inclined toward inquiry, then jnana, atma-vichara, will lead you to this, or brahma-vichara will lead you to this, when you make the subtlest penetration through analysis, clarity, and contemplation. But if you have no capacity for jnana, then devotion, unconditional devotion, total devotion, total self-surrender, total worship will lead you to the same.
In the end, such devotion bestows jnana; jnana is the result, devotion is the cause. If, however, you begin with jnana, then, conversely, jnana gives wisdom and leads to devotion and self-surrender; then jnana is the cause, and bhakti is the result. But ultimately, whichever method you begin with, you receive both.
