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THE YOGA OF SHIVA

 

Lord Shiva said: This world is composed of reality and unreality

and bears throughout the stamp of its origin; it is composed of unity

and duality, yet is free from both.

The intellect disfigured by dark ignorance views an outer world

distinct from an inner. To the clear-sighted there is no separate

outer world, but only unity.

The perverted intellect, considering itself the body, is confined

therein, but the intellect considering itself a particle of and

identical with the divine is liberated from its confinement.

The intellect loses its integrity by dwelling on the duality of

its form and sense. Combining with pleasure and pain, it no longer

retains its real essence.

Its true nature is free of all denotations and connotations

predicated of it. Words pure, undivided, real or unreal, bear no

relation to what is an all-pervasive voidness.

Brahmâ, the unbounded and inexhaustible, the perfect

tranquillity, without second, equal or comparison, expands by its own

power like the infinite and empty air, the divine mind stretching in

each of the three directions of the three triplicities.

The mind of the Mahatma being untrammelled by its sense and

organs, there appears before it a dazzling light. The false world

flies away like the shade of night before the sunlight.

The imaginary world falls away like a withered leaf. The living

soul remains with its powers of invention and reproduction stilled,

like roasted grain.

The intellect, cleared of the cloud of illusion that overhangs

the deluded mind, shines like the vault of the autumnal sky. It is

termed pashyanti from its transcendent vision, and utsrijanti from

its renunciation of worldy impressions.

The intellect settled in its original, pure repose, gone beyond

the commotion of worldy thought, viewing all things in an equal and

indifferent light, is said to have crossed over the ocean of the

world.

The intellect strong in knowledge of perfect sushupti has

obtained rest in supreme felicity and is free from the doom of future

transmigration.

I have now told you, O Great Vipra, of the curbing and

controlling of the mind, the first step in the perfection of the soul

by Yoga. Attend to me again concerning the second aspect of the

edification and strengthening of the intellect.

This is the unrestricted power of the intellect, perfect in peace

and tranquillity, full of light, untinctured by the darkness of

ignorance, and broad as the clear vault of heaven.

It is deep as consciousness in profound sleep and hidden as a

mark in the heart of a stone. It is delectable as the savour of salt

or the scent of wind after a storm.

When the living principle ends its stay in space and time, the

intellect flies like an invisible force in the open air, mixing with

the transcendent void.

Freed from all thoughts and conceptions, like the calm sea, it

becomes as still as the windless air and as imperceptible as the

flower in its fragrance.

Liberated from all bondage and ideas of time and space, it is

freed from all conception of relation or commonality with the world.

Neither subtle nor gross, it becomes a nameless essence.

Unlimited by time and space, it is of the boundless essence of

the divine. It is a form and fragment of the quadruple Brahmâ Virat,

stainless, pure and undecaying. The far-seeing witness of all things,

it is the all in all throughout space and time, self-luminous and far

sweeter than any worldly delight.

Such is the second stage of Yoga meditation. Attend now, O Sage,

true to your vows and understanding the process of Yoga, to the third

stage.

The vision of Intellect is nameless because, being divine, it

comprehends all conceptions within its ample sphere, as the great

ocean embraces all continents within its expanse. It surpasses the

conception of Brahmatma in its extent.

By vast and enduring Kshanti the soul attains, in the course of

time, this steady and unsullied purushartha state. It is after passing

this and the fourth stage that the soul reaches to its supreme and

ultimate felicity.

After passing the successive grades, and until the final stage is

reached, one must practise Yoga in the manner of Shiva, the

Mahayogin. Only then will the unremitting holy composure of the third

stage be obtained.

Long continuance in this course will lead the pilgrim far, to a

state transcending all description, but felt by the holy devotee

advancing in his course.

I have already spoken of the stage beyond these three, O Divine

Sage, ever remain in that state, if you would attain to the eternal

and divine.

This world which seems material will appear infused with Divine

Spirit when viewed in its spiritual light, but right observation

reveals it to be neither the one nor the other. It is what neither

springs into being nor ceases to exist, but is ever calm and quiet,

uniform in lustre, swelling and extending like the embryo in the

womb.

The non-duality of the divine, and the stillness and solidarity

of its intelligence, together with its unchanging nature, prove the

eternality of the universe, though it appears instantaneous and

evanescent.

The solidity of intellect produces worlds, as the condensation of

water produces hailstones, but there is no difference between

existence and non-existence, since all things are ever existent in

Divine Mind.

All is SHIVA - supreme felicity - quiescence and perfection

beyond all description. The syllable OM is the symbol of the whole,

and its components comprise the four states of Yoga.

 

Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana