Gaia: Gaia Books - The Concise Yoga Vasistha

Liberated or Free while living

http://Meenakshi.gaia.com — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:19:13 GMT

The following four types of feelings arise in the heart of man:
1. I am the body born of my parents
2. I am the subtle atomic principle, different from the body.
3. I am the eternal principle in all the diverse perishable objects in the world
4. the”I” and the “word” are pure void like space.

Of these the first is conducive to bondage and the others to freedom.
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From ~The Concise Yoga Vasistha ed. Swami Venkatesananda, P. 177

Dying

http://Meenakshi.gaia.com — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:17:22 GMT

When life-breath does not flow freely, the person ceases to live. But all this is imaginary. How can infinite consciousness cease to be? The person is nothing but infinite consciousness. Who dies and when, to whom does this infinite consciousness belong and how? even when millions of bodies die, this consciousness exists undiminished.

When there is cessation of the flow of life-breath, the consciousness of the individual becomes utterly passive. ….The body is said to be ‘dead’ or ‘inert’. The life-breath returns to its source—air—and consciousness freed from memory and tendencies remains as the self.

That atomic ethereal particle which is possessed of these memories and tendencies is known as the jiva: and it remains there itself, in the space where the dead body is. And they refer to it as departed soul. That jiva now abandons its ideas and what it had been seeing till then, and perceives other things as in dreaing or day-draming.

After a momentary lapse of consciousness, the jiva begins to fancy that it sees another body, another world and another life-span.

Whatever the jiva sees, it experiences.

P. 67

Saraswati and Lila

http://Meenakshi.gaia.com — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:15:50 GMT

“O Lila, give up this form of yours and attain the pure spiritual insight. For only Brahman can really see or realize Brahman. My body is made of pure light, pure consciousness. Your body is not. With this body of yours you cannot even visit the places of your own imagination. Then how can you enter the field of another’s imagination?

But if you attain the body of light, you will immediately see the holy man’s house[what you are seeking to see].

Affirm to yourself :”I shall leave my body here and take a body of light. With that body, like the scent of incense I shall go to the house of the holy man.”

Even as water mixes with water, you will become one with the field of consciousness.

By the persistent practice of such meditation, even your body will become one of pure consciousness and subtle. For, I see even my body as consciousness. You do not, for you see the world of matter.

Such ignorance arises out of its own accord, but is dispelled by wisdom and inquiry.
In fact such ignorance does not even exist! There is neither unwisdom nor ignorance; neither bondage, nor liberation.

There is but one pure consciousness.

P. 56

Re: Excerpts

http://Meenakshi.gaia.com — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:51:57 GMT

There are four gate-keepers at the entrace to the Realm of Freedom [moksha].

Self control
Spirit of Inquiry
Contentment
Good Company

With a pure heart and a receptive mind, and without the veil of doubt and restlessness of the mind, listen to the exposition of the nature and means of liberation.

Page: 29

Excerpts

http://Meenakshi.gaia.com — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:50:09 GMT

Such a person has nothing to acquire, nor anything to shun. He is untainted by the defects of life, untouched by its sorrow.

He does not come into being nor go out, though he appears to come and go in the eyes of the beholder.

Even religious duties are found to be unnecessary. …His mind has given up its restlessness, and he rests in the bliss that is his essential nature. Such bliss is possible only by self-knowledge, not by any other means. Hence, one should apply oneself constantly to self-knowledge–this alone is one's duty.

Page: 32