Part 2
On the Behaviour of the Seeker
The Story of Suka
Visvamitra said to the assembled sages:
The surest sign of a man of the highest wisdom is he is unattracted by the pleasures of the world, for in him even the subtle tendencies have ceased. When these tendencies are strong, there is bondage; when they have ceased, there is liberation. He is truly a liberated sage who by nature is not swayed by sense pleasure, without the motivation of fame or other incentives.
Self-Effort
Vasistha continued:
O Rama, even as, whether there are waves or no waves, water remains water, even so whatever be the external appearance of the liberated sage, his wisdom remains unchanged. The difference is only in the eyes of the ignorant spectator.
In this world what is gained is gained only by self-effort; where failure is encountered it is seen that there has been slackness in the effort. This is obvious; but what is called fate is fictitious and is not seen.
Self-effort, Rama, is that mental, verbal and physical action which is in accordance with the instructions of a holy person well versed in the scriptures.
Self-effort is of two categories: that of past births and that of this birth. The latter effectively counteracts the former. Fate is none other than self-effort of a past incarnation. There is constant conflict between the two in this incarnation; and that which is more powerful triumphs.
Self-effort which is not in accord with the scriptures is motivated by delusion.
There is no power greater than right action in the present.
The lazy man is worse than a donkey. One should never yield to laziness but strive to attain liberation, seeing that life is ebbing away at every moment.
One should never revel in the filth known as sense-pleasures as a worm revels in puss.
One who says “Fate is directing me to do this” is brainless, and the goddess of fortune abandons him. Hence by self-effort acquire the wisdom and realise that this self-effort is not without its own end, in the direct realisation of the truth.
If this dreadful source of evil named laziness is not found on earth, who will ever be illiterate and poor? It is because laziness is found on earth that people live the life of animals, miserable and poverty-stricken.
Vaistha began the second day’s discourse:
As is the effort so is the fruit, O Rama: this is the meaning of self-effort, and it is also known as fate (divine).
What is called fate or divine will is nothing other than the action or self-effort of the past. The present is infinitely more potent that the past. They indeed are fools who are satisfied with the fruits of their past effort (which they regard as divine will) and do not engage themselves in self-effort now.
If you see that the present self-effort is sometimes thwarted by fate (or divine will), you should understand that thee present self-effort is weak. A weak and dull-witted man sees the hand of providence when he is confronted by a strong and powerful adversary and succumbs to him.
One should free oneself from likes and dislikes and engage oneself in righteous self-effort and reach the supreme truth, knowing that self-effort alone is another name for divine will. We only ridicule the fatalist.
That alone is self-effort which springs from right understanding which manifests in one’s heart which has been exposed to the teachings of the scriptures and the conduct of holy ones.
Such self-effort has a threefold root and therefore threefold fruit – an inner awakening in the intelligence, a decision in the mind and physical action.
Self effort is based on these three – knowledge of scriptures, instructions of the preceptor and one’s own effort. Fate (or divine dispensation) does not enter here. Hence, he who desires salvation should divert the impure mind to pure endeavour by persistent effort this is the very essence of all scriptures.
The Holy ones emphasise: persistently tread the path that leads to the eternal good. And the wise seeker knows: the fruit of my endeavours will be commensurate with the intensity of my self-effort and neither fate no a God can ordain it otherwise.
No one has seen such a fate or a God, but everyone has experienced how an action (good or evil) leads to a result (good or evil). Hence, right from one’s childhood one should endevour to promote one’s true good (salvation) by a keen intelligent study of the scriptures, by having the company of the hold ones and by the right self-effort.
Fate or divine dispensation is merely a convention which has come to be regarded as truth by being repeatedly declared to be true. If this god or fate is truly the ordainer of everything in this world, of what meaning is any action (even like bathing, speaking or giving), and whom should one teach at all? No, in this world, except a corpse, everything is active and such activity yields its appropriate result. No one has ever realised the existence of a fate or divine dispensation.
For example, if an astrologer predicts a man would become a great scholar, does that young man become a scholar without study? No. Then why do we believe in divine dispensation? Hence renounce all fatalism and apply yourself to self-effort.
Rama asked:
Pray, tell me what do people really call God or daivam.
Vasistha replied:
The fruition of self-effort by which one experiences that good and evil results of past action is called fate or daivam by people. But I feel fate is nothing but the culmination of ones own action.
In the mind of man are numerous latent tendencies, and these tendencies give rise to various actions – physical, verbal and mental.
Rama asked again:
Holy sir, if the latent tendencies brought forward from the previous birth impel me to act in the present, where is the freedom of action?
Vasistha said:
Rama, the tendencies brought forward from past incarnations are of two kinds – pure and impure. The pure ones lead you towards liberation, and the impure ones invite trouble. You are indeed consciousness itself not inert physical matter. You are not impelled to action by anything other than yourself. Hence you are free to strengthen the pure latent tendencies in preference to the impure ones.
The impure ones have to be abandoned gradually and the mind turned away from them little by little, lest there should be violent reaction. By encouraging the good tendencies to act repeatedly strengthen them. The impure ones will weaken by disuse.
When thus you have overcome the force of the evil tendencies then you will have to abandon even the good ones.
You will then experience the supreme truth with the intelligence that rises from the good tendencies.
Vasistha continued:
The cosmic order that people refer to as fate, daivam or niyati and which ensures that every effort is blessed with appropriate fruition is based on omnipresent an omnipotent omniscience (known as Brahman).
This narrative deals with liberation; listening to it with other wise seekers who are assembled here, you will realise that supreme being where there is no sorrow nor destruction.
Rama, the omnipresent omniscience or the cosmic being shines eternally in all beings.
When a vibration arises in that cosmic being, lord Visnu is born, even as a wave arises when the surface of the ocean is agitated. From that Visnu, Brahma the creator was born. Brahma began to create the countless varieties of animate and inanimate, sentient an insentient beings in the universe. And the universe was as it was before the cosmic dissolution.
II:11 Vasistha continued:
Even so in every age the Creator wills into being several sages and myself for the spiritual enlightenment of all. And, in order to ensure the due performances of the secular duties by all, Brahma also creates kings who rule justly and wisely over parts of the earth. These kings, However, are soon corrupted b lust for power and pleasure; conflict of interests leads to wars among them which in turn give rise to remorse. To remove their ignorance, the sages used to impart spiritual wisdom to them. In days of yore, O Rama, kings used to receive this wisdom and cherish it; hence it is known as Raja-Vidya, Kingly Science.
The highest form of dispassion born of pure discrimination has arisen in your heart, O Rama, and it is superior to dispassion born of a circumstantial cause or an utter disgust. Such dispassion is surely due to the grace of God. This grace meets the maturity of discrimination at the exact moment when dispassion is generated in the heart.
As long as the highest wisdom does not dawn in the heart, the person revolves in this wheel of birth and death. Pray, listen to my exposition of this wisdom with a concentrated mind.
The fool asks irrelevant questions irreverently; and the greater fool is he who spurns the sage’s wisdom. He is surely not a sage who responds to the vain questions of a foolish questioner.
O Rama, you are indeed the best among all seekers, for you have duly reflected over the truth and you are inspired by the best form of discrimination.
Rama, there are four gate-keepers at the entrance to the Realm of Moksha. They are self-control, spirit of enquiry, contentment and good company. The wise seeker should diligently cultivate the friendship of these, or at least one of them.
NOTE:
Moksha (NO THING Shunyata) means freedom from Vasanas or permanent release from the influence of Karma.
II: 12, 13 Vasistha continued:
With a pure heart and receptive mind, and without the veil of doubt and the restlessness of the mind, listen to the exposition of the nature and means of liberation, O Rama. For, not until the supreme being is realised will the dreadful miseries of birth and death come to an end.
If the deadly serpant known as ignorant life is not overcome here and now, it gives rise to interminable suffering not only in this but in countless lifetimes to come. One cannot ignore this suffering, but one should overcome it by means of the wisdom that I shall impart to you.
O Rama, if you thus overcome this sorrow of repetitive history and running around in circles(Samsara), you will live here on earth itself like a god, like Brahma or Vishnu! For when delusion is gone and the truth is realised by means of enquiry into self-nature, when the mind is at peace and the heart leaps onto the supreme truth, when all the disturbing thought waves in the mind-stuff have subsided and there is unbroken flow of peace and the heart is filled with the bliss of the absolute, when thus the truth has been seen in the heart, then this very world becomes an abode of bliss.
Such a person has nothing to acquire, nothing to shun. He is untainted by the defects of life, untouched by its sorrow.
Even religious duties are found to be unnecessary. He is not affected by the past tendencies which have lost their momentum; 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.
He who disregards holy scriptures and holy men and does not attain self-knowledge. Such foolishness if more harmful than all the illness that one is subject to in this world.
Hence one should devoutly listen to this scripture which leads one to self-knowledge.
He who obtains this scripture does not again fall into the blind well of ignorance. O Rama, if you want to free yourself from the sorrow of Samsara (repetitive circle of history) receive the wholesome instruction from sages like me and be free.
In order to cross this formidable ocean of Samsara (repetitive circle of history), one should resort the that which is eternal and unchanging.
He who gains the wisdom of the eternal here is freed from Samasara and he is not born again in ignorance.
One may doubt whether such whether such unchanging truth exists! If it does not, one comes to no harm by enquiring into the nature of life; seeking the eternal will soften the pain caused by the changes in life. But, if it exists, then by knowing it one is freed.
The eternal is not attained by rites and rituals, by pilgrimages nor by wealth, it is to be attained only by the conquest of one’s mind, by the cultivation of wisdom.
Hence everyone – Gods, demons, demi-gods or men should constantly seek(whether one is walking, falling or sitting), the conquest of the mind and self-control (Samathvam) which are the fruits of wisdom.
When the mind is at peace, pure, tranquil, free from delusion or hallucination, untangled and free from cravings, it does not long for anything nor does it reject anything. This is self-control or conquest of the mind – one of the four gatekeepers to liberation which I mentioned earlier.
All that is good and auspicious flows from self-control (Samathvam). All evil is dispelled by self-control. No gain, no pleasure in this world or in heaven or in heaven is comparable to the delight of self-control. The delight one experiences in the presence of the self-controlled is incomparable. Everyone spontaneously trusts him. None (not even demons and goblins) hates him.
Self-control (Samathvam), O Rama, is the best remedy for all physical and mental ills. He who wears the armour of self-control is not harmed by sorrow.
He who is even while hearing, touching, seeing, smelling and tasting what is regarded as pleasant and unpleasant, is neither elated nor depressed- he is self-controlled. He who looks upon all beings with equal vision, having brought under control the sensations of pleasure and pain, is self-controlled (Samathvam). He who, though living amongst all is unaffected by them, neither feels elated nor hates, even as one is during sleep- he is self controlled (Samathvam).
Enquiry (the second gate-keeper to liberation) should be undertaken by an intelligence that has been purified by a close study of the scripture, and this enquiry should be unbroken.
By such enquiry the intelligence becomes keen and is able to realise the supreme; hence enquiry alone is the best remedy for the long-lasting illness known as Samsara.
The wise man regards strength, intellect, efficiency and timely action as the fruits of enquiry.
Indeed kingdom, prosperity, enjoyment, as well as final liberation, are all the fruits of enquiry.
The spirit of enquiry protects one from the calamities that befall the unthinking fool.
O Rama, in the light of enquiry there is the realisation of the eternal and unchanging reality; this is the supreme. With it one does not long for any other gain nor does one spurn anything. He is free from delusion, attachment; he is not inactive nor does he get drowned in action; he lives and functions in this world and at the end of natural life-span he reaches the blissful state of total freedom.
What is enquiry? To enquire thus: “Who am I? How has this evil of Samsara (repetitive circle of history) come into being?” is true enquiry.
Vicara or enquiry is not reasoning or analysis: it is directly looking into oneself.
Contentment is another gate-keeper to liberation.
What is contentment?
To renounce all craving for what is not obtained unsought and to be satisfied with what comes unsought, without being elated or depressed even by them- this is contentment.
With the rise of contentment the purity of one’s heart blooms. The contented man who posses nothing owns the world.
Satsanga (company of the wise, holy and enlightened persons) is yet another gate-keeper to liberation.
Satsanga enlarges one’s intelligence, destroys one’s ignorance and one’s psychological distress.
For Satsanga alone is one’s light on the path of life. Satsanga is indeed superior to all other forms of religious practice like charity, austerity, pilgrimage and performance of religious rites.
These four – Contentment, Satsanga, Spirit of Enquiry and Self-control (Samathvam) – are the four surest means by which they who are drowning in the ocean of Samsara can be saved.
Contentment is the supreme gain. Satsanga is the best companion to the destination. The Spirit of Enquiry itself is the greatest wisdom. And, Self-control (Samathvam) is the supreme happiness.
One who sows the seed of knowledge of this scripture soon obtains the fruit of the realisation of truth.
He who listens to and reflects upon the exposition of this scripture enjoys unfathomable wisdom, firm conviction and unperturbable coolness of spirit. Soon he becomes a liberated sage whose glory is indescribable.
The sage of infinite vision sees in the one undivided intelligence countless universes, for he has realised the magic of Maya or cosmic illusion. He sees the infinity in every atom, and therefore he is unattached to the rise and fall of the ideas of creation. Hence, he is ever contented with what comes unsought (which he does not reject) and he does not run away after what has been taken away from him for which he does not grieve.
One who studies this scripture and contemplates its meaning has no need to undertake austerities, meditation or repetition of a mantra; for what is greater than liberation which is granted by a study of this scripture?
One who studies this scripture and comprehends its teaching is no longer deluded by word-appearance. When world-appearance is seen as an appearance it does not produce either elation or sorrow. It is indeed a great pity that even when such a scripture exists, people seek sense-pleasures which lead to great sorrow.
Parables have only one purpose; to enable the listerner to arrive at the truth.
Wisdom and emulation of the noble behaviour of holy ones thrive on each other.