From Yoga Vashista
VASISTHA continued:
There is the abode of Lord Siva known as Kailasa. I lived there for some time, worshipping Lord Siva and practicing austerities. I was surrounded by the perfected sages in whose company I used to discuss the truths of the scriptures.
One evening I was engaged in the worship of Lord Siva. The entire atmosphere was filled with peace and silence. In that forest the darkness was so dense that it appeared to be solid enough to be cut with a sword.
At that time I saw a great light in the forest. With the external sight I saw that light and with my insight I enquired into its nature. I saw that it was Lord Siva himself who was walking along holding his consort Parvati with one hand. In front of him walked his vehicle Nandi, making way for the Lord. I made the divine presence known to the disciples assembled around me and moved to where the lord was.
I saluted the lord and offered him due worship. I remained for a considerable time feasting my eyes on the divine vision. Lord Siva then said to me: “Is your austerity proceeding satisfactorily, without any obstacles? Have you attained that which is worthy of attainment and have your internal fears ceased?”
In response, I said to the Lord: “Supreme Lord, they who are fortunate to be devoted to thee, finds nothing difficult of attainment and they do not experience fear at all. Everyone in the world salutes and prostrates to those who are devoted to you and who constantly remember you. Only they are the cities, they are directions and mountains, where people who are solely and wholeheartedly devoted to you dwell. Your remembrance is the fruit of merits acquired in the past births it is also the guarantee of still more blessedness in the future. Your constant remembrance, O Lord, is like the pot of nectar and is the ever-open door to liberation. Lord, wearing the precious and radiant jewel of your remembrance I have trampled under foot all the calamities that might otherwise torment me in the future.
“Lord, though by your grace I have reached the state of self-fulfillment, I am eager to know more about one thing. Pray enlighten me. What is the method of worshipping the Lord which destroys all sins and promotes all auspiciousness?”
THE LORD said: God is not Vishnu, Siva or Brahma; not the wind, the sun or the moon; not the brahmana, nor the king; nor I nor you; nor Laksmi nor the mind (intellect). God is without form and undivided; that splendor (devanmn) which is not made and which has neither beginning nor end is known as god (deva) or Lord Siva which is pure consciousness. That alone is fit to be worshipped; and that alone is all.
If one is unable to worship this Siva then he is encouraged to worship the form. The latter yields finite results but the former bestows infinite bliss. He who ignores the infinite and is devoted to the finite abandons a pleasure garden for a thorny bush. However, sages sometimes worship a form playfully.
The articles used in the worship: wisdom, self-control and the perception of thyself in all beings, are the foremost among those articles. The self alone is lord Siva, fit to be worshipped at all times with the flowers of wisdom.
I asked the Lord: “Pray tell me how this world is transmuted into pure consciousness and also how that pure consciousness appears as the jiva and other things.”
The LORD continued:
Indeed only that cid akasa (the infinite consciousness) which alone exists even after the cosmic dissolution exists even now, utterly devoid of objectivity. The concept and notions that are illumined by the consciousness within it shine as this creation on account of the movement of energy within consciousness, precisely as dreams arise during sleep. Otherwise, it is totally impossible for an object of perception to exist outside of the omnipresent infinite consciousness.
The whole world, the firmament, the self, the jiva (individuality) and all the elements of which this world is constituted are naught but pure consciousness. Before so-called creation when only this pure consciousness existed, where were all these? Space, supreme or infinite space (paramakasam), absolute space (brahmakasam), creation, etc. are mere words. Even as the duality experienced in dream is illusory, the duality implied in the creation of the world is illusory. Even as the objects seem to exist and function in the inner world of consciousness in a dream, objects seem to exist and function in the outer world of consciousness during the wakeful state. Nothing really happens in both these states. Even as consciousness alone is the reality in the dream state, consciousness alone is the substance in the wakeful state too. That is the Lord, that is the supreme truth; you are that and that am I and that is all.
The LORD continued: The worship of that Lord is true worship and by that worship one attains everything. He is undivided and indivisible, non-dual and not fashioned nor created by activity; he is not attained by external efforts. His adoration is the fountain-source of joy. The external worship of a form is prescribed only for those whose intelligence has not been awakened and who are immature. When one does not have self-control, etc., he uses flowers in worship; such worship is futile even as adoring the self in an external form is futile. However, these immature devotees derive satisfaction by worshipping an object created by them; they may even earn worthless reward from such worship.
I shall now describe to you the mode of worship appropriate to enlightened people like you. The Lord fit to be worshipped is indeed the one who upholds the entire creation, who is beyond thought and description, who is beyond the concepts of even the ‘all’ and the ‘collective totality’. He alone is referred to as ‘God’ who is undivided and indivisible by space and time, whose light illumines all the objects, who is pure and absolute consciousness. He is that intelligence which is beyond all its parts, which is hidden in all that is, which is the being in all that is and which robs all that is of their being (i.e., which veils the truth). This Brahman is in the middle of being and non-being, it is God, and the truth that is indicated as ‘OM’. It exists everywhere like the essence in a plant. That pure consciousness which is in you, me, in all the gods and goddesses, that alone is God. Holy one, even the other gods endowed with form are indeed nothing but that pure consciousness. The entire universe is pure consciousness. That is God, that ‘all’ I am, and everything is attained from and through him.
Contd.
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