LAGHU YOGA VASHISTHA

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Divine Ananda

 

Appreciate your response to my request re Yoga Vashistha. I am reading this scripture of 700 pages, transl. by Swami Venkatesananda. Lieberman's suggestion! It has had a wonderful effect on me.

 

Blessing to you and Ashram family

 

 

 

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Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani

Sunday, January 23, 2005 12:19 AM

LAGHU YOGA VASHISTHA

 

THE ORIGIN AND DESTRUCTION OF

MENTAL AND BODILY DISEASE

 

(LAGHU YOGA VASHISTHA (VI.) Nirvana Prakarana)

 

Rama said: Please enlighten me as to the origin and destruction of mental and bodily disease.

In answer to this Vashistha continued:

The pains that afflict the body are called the Secondary Diseases, whilst the Vasanas that affect the mind are termed mental or Primary Diseases. We have reached our present state through the absence of the transcendental Jnana, want of mastery over our sense organs and the perpetual growth of desire and egoism in the mind. And our delusion becomes intensified in us by forgetting the degradation of our state through such causes. With the growth of such delusion, the mental disease also congeals in us like the snows of winter. When the intense desires of a person begin to manifest themselves externally and the Ajnana in him preponderates, he performs fearful Karmans and these in their turn breed bodily diseases.

The body is further subject to diseases through such actions as the eating of unwholesome food, living in unhealthy countries, doing things at unseasonable hours, injuries inflicted, association with the wicked, longing after improper things, evil desires, bad thoughts, the distention and contraction of the orifices of the Nadis in the joints, etc. and the interrupted flow of the beneficial Pranas throughout the body---these cause the body to wither. These flourish in the form of diseases in the body, waxing and waning like the floods in a river during the different seasons. The body attracts effects to itself according to the nature of its countless affinities, good or bad, whether in previous births or in the present one. Thus we see diseases, primary and secondary, arise through the five fold Bhutas (elements).

Now listen, Oh Rama, to the manner in which the two forms of disease, primary and secondary, are destroyed in two ways. The wise say that primary disease has two sub-divisions: SAMANYA (ordinary) and SARA (essential). The former includes the diseases incidental to the body, while the latter the rebirths to which men are subject. If the diseases that afflict this body return to their primal source, then they are destroyed. Their primary causes being (bad) thoughts, if these thoughts are destroyed, all bodily diseases will vanish. But the disease of rebirth, coming under the head of SARA, will never end except through Atma-Jnana. Is it possible to suppose that the misapprehension of a serpent in a rope can be removed except through the discovery of the real rope? But those grievous diseases of the body which do not arise through the original cause can be extirpated my Mantras, medicine and the many means used by men well versed in medical lore. I need not expatiate upon this subject any further here.

Here Rama asked Vashistha how mental diseases arise and how they are destroyed.

Vashistha proceeded: When the Manas is agitated, then this body also follows in its wake. And when the body is agitated, then there is not proper perception of the things that are in one’s way are Prana flies from its even path on to a bad road, staggering like an animal wounded by an arrow. Through such agitation, Prana, instead of pervading the whole body steadily and equally, vibrates everywhere at an unequal rate. Therefore the Nadis do not maintain a steady position, but quiver. Then to the body that is the receptacle of food digested partially or completely, the Nadis are simply death, because of the fluctuation of the Prana-s. The food that settles down in this body amidst such commotion is transformed into incurable diseases. Thus through the primary cause (of the mind) the disease of the body is generated. If this primary cause were annihilated at its root then all diseases will be destroyed.

Now hear of the path by which diseases may be removed by the uttering of Mantas. Like base gold which, then placed in the crucible, is transmuted through alchemical processes into pure gold, the mind is rendered unfailingly pure through true, virtuous and pure actions and by serving the wise. In the mind purified thus there is unalloyed bliss. Is not the whole world exhilarated with joy when the soft and delicious moon begins to shed its silvery light? If the mind becomes purified with true Sattvaguna, then Prana-Vayu will begin to circulate freely throughout the body, the food taken will be digested properly and hence no disease will arise. I have thus described to you the path by which the two kinds of diseases can be destroyed.-- _________Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.comhttp://www.mail.com/?sr=signup"Health and Happiness are your birthright, claim them through Rishiculture Ashtanga Yoga" -Yogamaharishi Dr Swami Gitananda Giri