From Yoga Vasishta

[Guest guest]

Vasishta said: Rama, the boy who is afraid of the presence of a

ghost, which is false, sees the form of the ghost in imagination. In

the same way, the jiva, having no form at all, shines in the Self

first. The idea of a jiva shines in the Self by means of the

samskaras (tendencies) of the jiva previously repeated. Thus, the

jiva is imagined in the Supreme Self as if one with vasanas

(tendencies), though he is very pure, as if true, though he is

utterly false, and as if one who is different from the Supreme Self,

from which he is not different at all. The Supreme Self, imagining an

individual self in itself, becomes the jiva. In the same way, by

constantly thinking, the jiva becomes the mind. The mind thinking of

the tanmatras (subtle elements) becomes the tanmatras…

 

Just as the composite kingdom of the mind is false in the Supreme

Self, so the kingdom of the mind, which is the world, is false in the

individual self, which is in the space of Consciousness. Really,

nothing is born in the world, and nothing is dead. Only Brahman

shines as the form of the world, as the forms of the town of the

Gandharvas and such. Correct understanding tells us that the power of

all the jivas from the Creator down to the average creature, is true

as well as false. By ignorance, it appears to be true. By Knowledge,

we know that it is false…

 

With the dawn of Knowledge, all differences will vanish. The ideas of

the knower, the knowing, and the knowable are not different from

Brahman. Thus, the differences of dualism and " nondualism " are as

senseless as the sky-flower or the horn of a hare and such. The

spider is bound by itself by the threads with which it encircles

itself. In a similar manner, the very personification of joy feels

the bondage of duality by his own ignorance…

 

Seeing the greatness of this divinely ordained natural order

(niyati), one should not commit the blunder of thinking that the

creation is true. Creation, growth, and destruction are only of the

mind. Thus, they are false and never true. It is due entirely to

ignorance that the pure, all-expansive, only One, the endless

Brahman, appears as if impure, false, limited, and as many. Ignorant

people think that the water and the waves are different and mistake

the rope to be a snake. They experience the differences, which, in

Reality, are nonexistent. Just as, in the same person, one observes

enmity as well as friendliness, due to difference in relationship, so

in the solitary Brahman, one sees different powers and difference and

non-difference as opposed to one another. If water is seen as divided

into water and waves, and if gold is seen as divided into gold and

ornaments, one sees them differently due to ignorance. Likewise is it

with the attribution of a world with Brahman, which alone is.

 

-----

Not two,

Richard