Viel 28th DECEMBER 126
etavaneva samsara idamastviti yanmanah asya tipasamo moksa ityevam jnanasangrahah (85)
VASISTHA continued:
In the fourth state of yoga, the yogi behold the one in all with a mind that is free from division. Division has ceased and unity is steady, and therefore they behold the world as if it were a dream.
In the fifth state, only the undivided reality remains. Hence it is likened to deep sleep. He who has reached this state, though he is engaged in diverse external activities, rests in himse!f.
After thus proceeding from one state to another, he reaches the sixth which is the turiya. In this he realises, “I am neither real nor unreal, nor even egoless. I am beyond duality and unity. All doubts are at rest.” He remains like a painting of a lamp (hence, though he has not reached nirvana — lamp without fuel — he is like a lamp without fuel, as the lamp is only a painted figure). He is void within, void without, void like an empty vessel; at the same time he is full within and full with- out, like a full vessel immersed in the sea.
They who reach the seventh state are known as ‘the disembodied liberated beings’. Their state is not for words to describe. Yet, they have been described variously.
They who practise these seven states do not come to grief. But there is a terrible elephant roaming in a forest wreaking havoc. If that elephant is killed, then man attains success in all these seven states, not otherwise. Desire is that elephant. It roams in the forest known as the body. It is maddened by sensuousness. It is restless with conditioning and tendencies (vasana). This elephant destroys every- body in this world. It is known by different names: desire, vasana (tendency or mental conditioning). mind, thought, feeling, attachment, etc. It should be slain by the weapon known as courage or determination born of the realisation of oneness.
Only as long as one believes in objective existence does desire arise! This alone is samsara: the feeling ‘This is’. Its cessation is liberation (moksa). This is the essence of jnaina or wisdom. Recognition of ‘objects’ gives rise to desire. Non-recog- nition of objects ends desire. When desire ends, the jiva drops its self-limitation. The great man therefore abandons all thoughts concerning what has been experienced and what has not been experienced. | declare with uplifted arms that the thought- free, notionless state is the best. It is infinitely superior to the sovereignty of the world. Non-thinking is known as yoga. Remaining in that state, perform appro- priate actions or do nothing! As long as thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ persist, sorrow does not cease. When such thoughts cease, sorrow ceases. Knowing this, do as you please.
Note: For the words ‘thinking’ and ‘non-thinking’ in the last paragraph above, the text uses the words ‘samvedanam’ and ‘asamvedanam’ which imply much more than mere thinking. Cognition, comprehension, feeling, experience and knowledge are also implied by ‘samvedanam’.