The supreme yoga knowledge of Yoga Vasistha is the perfect text for any spiritual aspirant.
Who doesn’t love a little bit of spiritual gossip? Rumor has it that if you read the ancient text, Yoga Vasistha, seven times– you will become enlightened! Even if that were true, being more than 700 pages long, that’s going to take some time– especially given the unique style of the text.
Composed of interesting stories and fables that do not always make sense, it’s better to just read a page or two at a time. Nonetheless, this spiritual knowledge is considered to be supreme yoga knowledge that can have a profound effect on one's life.
Yoga Vasistha (va-sish-ta) tells the story of when Lord Rama, a king from ancient times in India, realizes the futility of existence and the misery it brings, and he is struck with profound sorrow. When he seeks refuge in the sage Vasistha, the enlightened rishi takes him to the pinnacle of truth through a dialogue between the two that later was captured in the scripture, Yoga Vasistha. The timeless dialogue is interspersed with deep stories that bring out astounding truths about this existence and destroys Lord Rama’s sorrow.
Yoga Vasistha consists of six books. “The first book speaks about Rama's frustration with the nature of life, human suffering, and disdain for the world. The second describes, through the character of Rama, the desire for liberation and the nature of those who seek such liberation. The third and fourth books assert that liberation comes through a spiritual life, one that requires self-effort, and presents cosmology and metaphysical theories of existence embedded in stories. These two books are known for emphasizing free will and human creative power. The fifth book discusses meditation and its powers in liberating the individual, while the last book describes the state of an enlightened and blissful Rama.”
Benefits of reading Yoga Vasistha on a regular basis
What is the importance of reading Yoga Vasistha on a regular basis? For one thing, it is considered the “supreme yoga knowledge,” and the definitive text for spiritual aspirants. What qualifies one to be a spiritual aspirant?
Early 18th-century French philosopher and Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, has stated, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Through this lens, anyone with a human body is a spiritual aspirant. It’s just that some are more awake than others.
Here are some of the benefits of reading Yoga Vasistha regularly:
- Helps you deal with practical daily life with a happier state of mind
- Provides an understanding of consciousness and our perception of the world
- Helps to channel energy and creative power for a better quality of life
- Increases faith and resiliency
Truths unveiled in this ancient scripture
Here are some of the most profound secrets from Yoga Vasistha:
The universe does not exist
According to the Yoga Vasistha, the world is as real as a mirage. In other words, it does not exist!
Modern physics seems to agree. A 2017 CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research) study observes a complete symmetry between matter and antimatter in the universe. So, all the antimatter in the universe should have canceled the matter in the universe, which further suggests that the universe does not exist in the first place.
So, how are you and I breathing and functioning in this world?
Maybe it is all a dream! If we look closely at the world in the past, it does not exist at this moment. And the world today will not exist in the future. Considering this, the world is nothing but a fleeting appearance. It is unreal to its core.
A 2004 American docudrama and pseudo-scientific film, What the Bleep Do We Know!?, posits a spiritual connection between quantum physics and consciousness. One idea discussed in the film is that the universe is best seen as constructed from thoughts and ideas rather than from matter.
What the Bleep Do We Know!? isn’t the only film connected to the divine knowledge of Yoga Vasistha. The Hollywood blockbuster movie, The Matrix, is based on the stories from Yoga Vasistha! And many people have connected the movie, Inception with some of the spiritual philosophy from Yoga Vasistha. How many other films and TV shows question the existence of reality as we think we know it? Hmmmm. Thought-provoking, isn’t it?
When Lord Rama asks where the world goes during dissolution (during sleep or without awareness), Rishi Vasistha explains how the universe doesn’t exist.
Vasistha shares,
“Water in the mirage does not come into being and go out of existence; even so, this world neither comes out of the absolute nor does it go anywhere. The creation of the world has no cause, and therefore it has no beginning. It does not exist even now; how can it reach destruction?”
The world is created by the mind
Our minds yield the power to create our world.
Yoga Vasistha reveals the power of the mind when he states,
“The mind alone is the creator of the world; the mind alone is the supreme person. What is done by the mind is an action and what is done by the body is not an action.”
In other words, hello karma! Karma (impression of action) is created through thoughts, not the actions of the body.
The text further propounds,
“Whatever appears in one’s consciousness, that seems to come into being, gets established and even bears fruits.”
Think of your life right now. Your work, relationships, and life events are a product of the thoughts that could have appeared in your mind five years ago or even five days ago. The direct connection between your life and mind would be apparent in some cases and less apparent in others. But the truth remains. You create your life. You have been doing this with thoughts for many lifetimes - one lifetime impacting the other.
“Yoga Vasistha is a very big thing. Yoga Vasistha needs to be read again and again, reading it once won’t work. If you read it every two to three years, something altogether different will come up. Read and ponder on it. You will gain new understandings.” ~ Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Time is not absolute
According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time is relative to the observer. So, events that occur at a particular time for an observer could occur at a different time for another observer. For instance, to an observer on Earth, time might run more slowly on another planet.
Rishi Vasistha explained this astonishing theory through a story where a queen is led through her previous lifetimes by Goddess Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge.
When the goddess tells the queen that it has been just eight days since her husband in his previous life died, the queen is puzzled.
She asks how it is possible, considering she and her husband have lived for a long time.
Goddess Saraswati explains,
“Just as the world and its creation are mere appearances, a moment and an epoch are also imaginary, not real. Even as in a dream, there is birth, death, and relationship all happening in a very short time, and even as a lover feels that a single night without his beloved is an epoch, the jiva (soul) thinks experienced and non-experienced objects in the twinkling of an eye.”
There is life outside of Earth
While speculations around the existence of extraterrestrial life continue to baffle humankind, it seems Rishi Vasistha knew quite clearly that life outside our blue dot called Earth does exist.
Rishi Vasistha tells the uncanny truth while explaining the variety of existence. He says,
“Rama, just as in this universe there are countless beings of various species, in other universes, too, there are similar beings, with different bodies suited to those universes.”
We are affected by a dead entity
Rishi Vasistha calls the mind an entity that is forever dead. Yet, it is in this mind that the thoughts and emotions, which disturb us and give us sleepless nights, are created. So, he expresses his wonder at the amount of influence this unreal entity has on everyone. He says,
“The mind has no self, nobody, no support and no form; yet by this mind, everything is consumed in this world. This is indeed a great mystery. To say that one can be hurt by the mind which is inert, dumb, and blind is like saying that one is roasted by the heat of the full moon!”
Only due to the life force within, the mind can perceive the world and think. Yet its functions come to a stop when the life force is gone. With no form, no permanent and independent support for its existence, the mind is as good as dead!
Fear and the true nature of the mind
Our miseries and fears are the makings of our minds. Very few realize the mind’s shortcomings in perceiving this world as it truly is. Instead, we put our full trust in our mind’s short-sightedness. This inability to perceive the true nature of our reality results in unwarranted fears.
Rishi Vasistha explains the reason for our baseless fears,
“He who is unable to understand the true nature of mind is unfit for being instructed in the truth expounded in the scriptures. Such a mind is full of fear. It is afraid of the melodious sound of the veena [a stringed instrument] and is even afraid of a sleeping relative. It is frightened by hearing someone shout aloud and flees that spot. The ignorant man is completely overcome by his own deluded mind.”
Our minds are so strongly influenced by the unreal that they place zero trust in the divine reality.
There is no such thing as fate
Many of us attribute our life’s happenings to fate. Rishi Vasistha fiercely rejects the idea of fatalism.
He explains,
“Fate is merely a convention which has come to be regarded as truth by being repeatedly declared to be true. If God or fate is truly the ordainer of everything in the world, of what meaning is any action? In this world, except for a corpse, everything is active, and such activity yields its appropriate result.”
He goes on to declare the fatalist as brainless.
“The one who says, fate is directing me to do this, is brainless and the goddess of fortune abandons him.”
Lord Rama found Rishi Vasistha at a time when he was drowning in misery. And their dialogue resulted in a scripture that can help anyone struggling with profound questions like the reason for existence and the cause of suffering. While most of us have been tormented by such questions at some point in time, we have pushed them aside out of frustration and not knowing where to look for the answers. With Yoga Vasistha, you can find the answers, although the answers promise to pummel your mind with confusion and disprove whatever you thought was true.
Spiritual liberation through the breath
Another pathway to liberation, and an excellent companion to reading Yoga Vasistha, is to take up the spiritual practice called SKY Breath Meditation. Beyond relieving stress and increasing peace, a SKY practice gives you a taste of the unbounded truth, your true nature, that lies within.
“Rest content in your own self. Thus, be free from all distress. Remain in an expansive state in the self, like the full ocean. Rejoice in the self by the self, like the blissful rays of the moon.” ~Yoga Vasistha
Curious to know more about SKY? Attend one of our free breath and meditation introductory sessions by clicking the image below.
The quotes have been taken from the book, Yoga Vasistha, The Supreme Yoga by Swami Venkatesananda
