YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC II | VERSE 6 | WORLDLY BONDAGE ||

Bondage consists in our belief of the reality of the visible world .

So our release depends on the negation of phenomenals .

Now hear me tell you how to get rid of the visible .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC III | VERSE 17-18 | PHASES OF THE SPIRIT ||

As the word golden bracelet signifies no other thing than a bracelet made of gold , so the meaning of the word world is not different from its source — the Divine Will .

Again , as the word gold bears the idea of the substance of which the bracelet is made , so the word Brahman conveys the meaning of immensity which contains the world in it ; but the word world contains no idea of Brahman , nor bracelet that of gold .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC III | VERSE 19-20 | PHASES OF THE SPIRIT ||

The unreality of the world appears as a reality , just as the heat of the sun presents the unreal mirage in the moving sands of the desert as real waves of the sea .

It is this phantasy , which the learned in all things , designate as ignorance ( avidya ) , nature ( sansriti ) , bondage ( bandha ) , illusion ( maya ) , error ( moha ) , and darkness ( tamas ) .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 22 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

The intimate relation of the spectator with the spectacle is called one's bondage to the same , because the looker's mind is fast bound to the object of one's sight .

It is the absence of the visible objects , therefore , from the mirror of the mind , which is the only means of liberation .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 26 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

It is difficult to avoid the sight of the phenomenal world , and to repress one's ardour for the same .

But it is certain that , the visibles can not lead us to the Reality , nor the Real mislead us to unreality .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 27 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

Wherever the invisible , inconceivable and intelligent Spirit is existent , there the beholder views the visible beauty of God shining even in the midst of atoms .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 29 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

Although this visible world is apparent to sight , yet it is but a shadow of that Being , who resides alike in the smallest atom as in the mirror of the mind , that receives the image of the largest as well as minutest things .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 30 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

The Spirit is reflected in everything , like a figure in the mirror , and it shines equally in rocks and seas , in the land and water , as it does in the mirror of the mind .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 33 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

It is difficult to have a fixed ( nirudha ) and unalterable ( nirvikalpa ) meditation ( samadhi ) , when the sight of the visible world is present before bodily and mental vision .

Even the fourth stage of insensible samadhi called the turiya , in the state of sound sleep ( susupti ) , is soon succeeded by one's self-consciousness and external intelligence .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 34-35 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

On rising from this state of deep meditation , one finds oneself as roused from one's sound sleep , in order to view the world full of all its woes and imperfections opening wide before one .

What then , is the good of this transient bliss which one attains by one's temporary abstraction ( Dhyana ) , when one has to fall again to one's sense of the sufferings to which the world is subject as a vale of tears .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 36 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

But if one can attain to a state of unalterable abstraction of one's thoughts from all worldly objects , as one has in one's state of sound sleep ( susupti ) , one is then said to have reached the highest pitch of one's holiness

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 37 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

Nobody has ever earned aught of reality in the scene of unreal vanities ; for whenever one's thoughts come in contact with any outward thing , one finds it inseparable from the blemishes of existence .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 38-40 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

Should anybody fix one's sight for a while on a stone , by forcibly withdrawing it from visible objects , one is sure to be carried away afterwards by the visibles pressing upon one's sight .

It is well known to all that an unflinching meditation , having even the firmness of a rock , can have no durability , in the practice of the Yogi owing to one's worldly propensities .

Even the nirudha or steadfast meditation which has attained the fixedness of a rock , cannot advance one step towards the attainment of that tranquillity which has no bounds to it .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 45 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

As dreams and desires rise and subside of themselves under the province of the intellect , so the notions of things always recur to the mind from the original ideas of them impressed in the seat of the visibles — the mind .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 46 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

The mental apparition of the visible world , deludes its beholder in the same manner , as the visual appearance of a spectre or hobgoblin , misleads a child .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP I

|| SEC IV | VERSE 47-48 | NATURE OF BONDAGE ||

The notion of the visible world gradually expands itself , as the germ of the seed shoots forth in time , and spreads itself afterwards in the form of a plant .

As the minute germs and animalcules , which are contained within the bosoms of fruits and embryos of animals , expand themselves to wonderfully beauteous forms afterwards , so the seed of this world , lying hidden in the Divine Mind , unfolds itself in wonderful forms of the visible phenomena in nature .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP IV

|| SECTION III | VERSE 68 | KAIVALYA OR MENTAL ABSTRACTION ||

Whatever is seen apparent before us , is no other but the Supreme Brahman Itself , and Its undecaying and imperishable essence .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP IV

|| SECTION III | VERSE 69 | KAIVALYA OR MENTAL ABSTRACTION ||

The plenitude of creation is an expansion of Its plenum , and the quiet of the Universe rests in Its quietude .

It is Its beom ( Am ) which is the substance of vacuum , and it is Its immensity that is the substratum of the immense Cosmos .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP IV

|| SECTION III | VERSE 70 | KAIVALYA OR MENTAL ABSTRACTION ||

Nothing visible is real , and there is neither any spectator nor spectacle here .

There is nothing as vacuity or solidity in nature , but all this is but extended Intelligence .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP V

|| SECTION III | VERSE 11 | ON THE ORIGINAL CAUSE ||

It is present alike everywhere , abiding equally in all bodies whether of the mineral , vegetable or animal creation .

It resides alike in each particle of dust as in the high and huge mountain ranges ; and rides as swift on the wings of winds , as It sleeps in the depths of the main .

YOGA VASISHTHA | MITRA | VOL 1 | BOOK III | CHAP VI

|| SECTION III | VERSE 09-10 | ADMONITION FOR ATTEMPT TO LIBERATION ||

It is to be known by means of your forceful exertions ( in knowledge and faith ) , and by the aid of a clear understanding and right reasoning , and never by the practice of austerities and ablutions , nor by acts attended with bodily pain of any kind . ( Hence the mistake of Hatha Yoga ) .

Know , all your austerities and charities , your painstaking and mortification are of no efficacy , unless you wholly renounce your passions and enmity , your anger and pride , your selfishness and your envy and jealousy .