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Yoga Vasistha 10

OM TAT SAT
Om Namaha Sivanandaya
Om Namo Narayanaya
Om Namo Venkatesaya

Yatah Sarvani bhutani pratibanti sthitani ca
Yatrai ‘vo ‘pasamam yanti tasmai satyatmane namaha.
Jnata jnanam tatha jneyam drasta darssana drsyabhuh
Karta hetu kriya yasmat tasmai jnaptyatmane namaha.
Sphuranti sikara yasmad anandasysa ‘mbare ‘vanau
Sarvesam jivanam tasmai brahmanandatmane namaha.

Salutations to that reality (Sat), in which all the elements and all the animate and inanimate beings shine as if they have an independent existence, and in which they exist for a time and into which they merge.
Salutations to that consciousness (Chit), which is the source of the apparently distinct threefold divisions of knower, knowledge, and known; seer, sight, and seen; doer, doing and deed.
Salutations to that bliss absolute (the ocean of bliss) (Ananda), which is the life of all beings whose happiness and unfolding are derived from the shower of spray from that ocean of bliss.

Most of us go about seeking pleasant experiences – who looks for joy? Everyone understands pleasure – who believes that joy can be within?

Don’t you find it strange that even though mystics throughout the ages have proclaimed certain things, and then science comes along and supports their views, we still seem to struggle to get the message and enjoy the benefits. Who wouldn’t want peace, contentment, joy and immortality? Us, I guess, judging by the way we carry on. And for what? To remain mentally disconnected from the way things truly are?

Science will confirm that all is one. It started at a point called The Big Bang and it has been expanding ever since. That means that you, I, and everything, are one continuously transforming thing. Further, science confirms that nothing is ever destroyed and rather it’s just the appearance of the thing that keeps changing. It’s called The Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy. The oneness never diminishes. The substance, the stuff of the oneness, remains unknowable (it is not matter) and yet, its appearance keeps on changing.

That which makes it possible for this ever-existing oneness to know itself does not depend on information; it’s a direct knowing from the inside. Why then do we not have this experience? Why then do we experience our lives to be so far removed from that which we know to be true both scientifically and even by the declaration of the mystics?

There has to be some hidden cause of this ignorance, this great apparent dichotomy, and it’s unanimously declared to be mental activity!

You think, and in that instant you “fall apart”, you fall apart from the whole. Every mother knows this. As soon as three months have gone by, a baby is no longer “a baby”, it is a seperate person who feels seperate more and more of the time. These periods of seperatedness become longer as we grow older, to the point where we need therapy to “reintegrate ourselves”. How were we split up in the first place? There is only one reason, one cause, one fact for its existence – mental activity!

Because of this incessant mental activity and the perpetual change and transformationof our lives, we think that the oneness is lost, thus missing the point that it is always there, as the substance and the knower of all change. We are never “out” of oneness. We just pretend, by thinking, it is so.

Behind all mental activity, all emotions and all change, is pure unlimited being and calm transparent knowing. “You are that, I am that, that it is”, repeats Vasistha over and over, and others too, like Ramana, Sivananda, Venkatesananda…

What would happen if your attention were to move from awareness of the outer world to awareness of your inner turmoil and mental descriptions, and then to the beyond?

It is quite thrilling to find the same message, the same direct clarity, in different sources. Here is Ramana Maharshi’s definition of self-realisation: “The state we call realisation is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything… That which is, is peace. All that we need do is to keep quiet.”

“Peace is our real nature. We spoil it. What is required is that we cease to spoil it!” Ramana says. Come on now, how do we spoil it? What activities, attitudes, thoughts and emotions spoil it for you? What ambitions for knowledge, or stuff, or relationships spoil it for you?

Let’s say that you have a conversation with Vasistha, in the ancient Vedic way; the way of Rama, of Krishna and Arjuna or the Socratic way; the way of two close friends on a beautiful day having come together to find out what the experience of this statement is: “Peace is our real nature. We spoil it. What is required is that we cease to spoil it!”

You see, if you just understand this state­ment logically, you might miss what it stands for. It’s how it feels that matters, even if you don’t understand it. It’s the experience that matters, not what we comprehend. Comprehension is limited experience, is it not? But we are not used to the direct approach, and so our thinking gets in the way. Let’s see if we can get around this somehow.

Vasistha would say, “Remember to switch on the one thing that is required for this, remember to switch on your inward attention, Vichara.” Vichara, the ability to notice continuously, is a quality of attention that is free and vigilant and an attention that can move smoothly as experience changes, without being stuck on mental descriptions. Vichara is the type of attention that reveals the inner “luminous-knowing-spaciousness” in which all our experiences arise and transform. Then it is easy to notice that, as each thought and feeling arises, it “spoils” the peace within. It’s a fact. Just notice. It’s obvious.

All our experiences as they arise, cloud the ever-existing peace of being: inner voices insisting, suggesting, whispering; feelings and emotions, pushing and pulling; even the sense of “I” as it arises, spoils the ever-present translucent inner peace. A good yoga practice will gradually attenuate all these, like parting the clouds of phenomena, to reveal the pure awareness in which they arise. For the average person though, this is not at all desirable. In fact it is outright scary.

An old blues song puts it like this:
“…and now the boss man cut my chains and he set me free… …now I don’t know what will become
of me… …my father was a slave like me… …you learn to keep your head down, don’t look to see…”

For most of us, freedom is too much.

To imagine that a person can sit alone, in silence, without any external stimulation and progressively feel better and better is just unthinkable. The realization of that mysterious, indescribable something, the awareness which knows all the above, does not depend on external props. In fact, it has happened that individuals have had this transmutation under the most adverse conditions. In some cases, this awakening took place after a Zen smack on the head, suddenly. Mostly, what stands in the way of this are our ideas.

Still, sitting there next to Vasistha himself, feeling his presence, a new courage arises, a new hope. A new power wells up from the deepest level of life, which makes this clarity easy. The arising of need subsides for a while, long enough to know that existence and consciousness do not change even when the body and personality fade. Then, in his presence, it is possible to consider that to die is to find life. To let the grip of mind, emotions, and sense of “I”, fade, is to discover the awareness in which they sprang up in the first place. “Die to live”, “Stop spoiling it”, as Ramana said! In his presence it’s as easy as dropping a hot coal from your hand.

Right there, sitting next to Vasistha, imagine the feeling of having all your questions satisfied, just like Rama. What then remains is pure being and awareness that dissolves like a cloud, so that the sky realises itself to be what it is – vastness. It’s not the cloud that gets to be vast; it’s not you or I who become enlightened. The “you” and the “I” drop, and what was there all along is revealed. It is so important to know this, to stop the struggle and know what surrender means. Now it’s easy.

And then, like Rama, who was reactivated into individuality after he dissolved into silence, to step out into life with this knowing…first hand.

Panos Lazanas, originally from Athens, found his spiritual home when he met Swami Venkatesananda in 1976, at the Sivananda School of Yoga (SSY) where he is one of the oldest members. He started teaching yoga at SSY in 1978. He later joined Swami Shankarananda to become one of the founding members of the Shivananda Yoga Vedanta Society. He also studied with Swamis Krishnananda and Nisreyashananda. The Yoga Vasistha has been the cornerstone of his inspiration since 1978. Panos is also an International NLP Trainer and Executive Coach to groups and individuals and works for the University of Johannesburg. Email plazanas@uj.ac.za