The Play of Infinite Consciousness

 

An Index

 to the Yoga Vasistha

revised & expanded!

 

Prayers

 

An Introduction

for first time readers

 

The Crow and the Cocoanut

 

Finding Books

 

Songs of Vasistha

 

 

P to Y

POLEMICS

Greek ~ polemikos ~ warlike, hostile   Argumentation, refutation  (Webster's)

They who are caught in the net of polemics, which are only productive of sorrow and confusion, forfeit their own highest good. Even in the case of the path shown by the scriptures, only one’s direct experience leads one along the safest way to the supreme goal. Page 170

PRANA (life force)

. . . by the control of the life-force the mind is also restrained: even as the shadow ceases when the substance is removed, the mind ceases when the life-force is restrained. It is because of the movement of the life-force that one remembers the experiences one had elsewhere; it is known as mind because it thus experiences movements of life-force. The life-force is restrained by the following means: by dispassion, by the practice of pranayama (breath control) or by the practice of inquiry into the cause of the movement of the life-force, by the ending of sorrow through intelligent means and by the direct knowledge or experience of the supreme truth. Page 214

Movement belongs to the life-force which is inert . . . the power of consciousness belongs to the Self which is pure and eternally omnipresent. It is the mind that fancies a relationship between these two factors  ~ but such a fancy is false and hence all knowledge that arises from this false relationship is also false. Page 214

PURYASTAKA  (See Ativahika)

REALITY

Because the substratum (Infinite Consciousness) is real, all that is based on it acquires reality, though the reality is of the substratum alone. The universe and all beings in it are but a long dream. To me you are real, and to you I am real; even so the others are real to you or to me. And, this relative reality is like the reality of the dream-objects. Page 71

Whatever there is here which exists and functions here is real to the self and not to another who does not perceive it and is unaware of it. Therefore, all these creations and creatures that exist within the field of the energy of consciousness are true to the perceiving self and are unreal to the non-perceiver. All the notions and the dreams that exist in the present, past or the future are all real, because the self which is the self of all is real. Page 574

One can say that this world-appearance is real only so far as it is the manifestation of consciousness and because of direct experience; and it is unreal when it is grasped with the mind and the sense-organs. Wind is perceived as real in its motion, and it appears to be non-existent when there is no motion: even so this world-appearance can be regarded both as real and unreal. Page 88

REFLECTION

All this is the indivisible, illimitable, nameless and formless infinite consciousness. It is the self-reflection of Brahman which is of infinite forms that appears to be the universe . . . Page 455

REINCARNATION

Until we attain self-knowledge, we shall return again to this plain of birth and death to undergo childhood, youth, manhood, old age and death again and again, we shall engage ourselves in the same essenseless actions and experiences. Page 287

Even as the Jiva perceives and experiences dreams here, even so it fancies and experiences, as if real, a previous existence and karma in accordance with its own mental conditioning. Page 634

RELATIONSHIP

All beings are your relatives, for in this universe there does not exist absolute unrelatedness. The wise know that “There is nowhere where I am not” and “That is not which is not mine” ~ thus they overcome limitation or conditioning. Page 222

All relationship is therefore the realization of the already existing unity: it is regarded as relationship only because of the previously false and deluded assumption of a division into subject and object. Page 140 

SAMADHI

That is Samadhi (contemplation or meditation) in which one realizes that the objects of the senses are not-self and thus enjoys inner calmness and tranquility at all times. Page 278

The enlightened ones are forever in Samadhi even tho they engage themselves in the affairs of the world. On the other hand, one whose mind is not at peace does not enjoy Samadhi by merely sitting in the lotus posture. Page 284-285

SAMSARA

Birth/death cycle  Page 14

 “O sage, your story of Rama shall be the raft with which men will cross the ocean of samsara (repetitive history). Page 4

The indwelling consciousness seems to come in contact with (notions of the desirable and the undesirable in relation to the body, mind and senses) even as travelers meet in an inn or logs of wood meet and part in a stream: meeting and parting do not cause happiness or unhappiness to the indwelling consciousness. Why then do people exult or grieve in these circumstances? Page 294

SAMSKARA

Mental impression Page 676

SANYASI

Become a true sanyasi (renunciate) by firmly abandoning all thoughts and notions . . .  Page 399

Renunciation is renunciation of hopes and aspirations.  Page 399

SATVA

The liberated sages live with the help of the mind which is free from conditioning and which does not cause rebirth. It is not mind at all but pure light (Satva). Page 458

The state of mind of the liberated ones who are still living and who see both the supreme truth and the relative appearance is known as satva (transparency). Page 327

SELF-AWARENESS (See Awareness)

SELF-KNOWLEDGE

. . .the realization of the unreality of the ego-sense. Page 491

SENTIENT/INSENTIENT

There is no distinction between the sentient and the insentient, between the inert and the intelligent: there is no difference at all in the essence of substances, for the infinite consciousness is present everywhere equally. Page 81

SORROW

The awareness of 'I' and 'Mine' is the root of sorrow; its cessation is emancipation. Page 487

Man foolishly ascribes to the self the sorrow and sufferings that do not touch it in the least and becomes miserable. Page 287

By the vision of the Self is sorrow beheaded. Page 299

“O sorrow, salutations to you; you have spurred me on my quest for Self-Knowledge . . .” Page 311

THOUGHTS

Notions and ideas gradually cease to arise and to expand in one who resolutely refrains from associating words with meanings in his own mind ~ whether these words are uttered by others or they arise in his own mind. Page 517

Time as changing seasons is able indirectly to bring about changes in the trees and plants; even so, the mind makes one thing appear to be another by its powers of thought and ideation. Therefore, even time and space and all things are under the control of the mind. Page  124

When there is movement in the infinite consciousness, the notions of ‘I’ and ‘the world’ arise. These in themselves are harmless if one realizes that in fact they are non-different from the self or the infinite consciousness. But, when they are considered real in themselves and the world is perceived as real then there is great misfortune. Page 516

TRUTH

That is the only truth, that the self and the self alone is. But, just as the dream-experiences of two people sleeping side by side are not the same and one does not know what the other is dreaming about, one’s understanding and inner experience are personal and unique. Page 518

TURIYA

However, that consciousness which is awake even in deep sleep and which is also the light that shines in waking and dreaming is the transcendental consciousness, turiya. Page 161

You (Self) dwell in ‘me’ in a state of equilibrium, as pure witness consciousness without form and without the divisions of space and time. Page 248

It is the state of the liberated sage. It is the unbroken witness consciousness. Page 477

The realization  . . . that 'It is Brahman alone that shines as this world' is Turiya. Page 627

VASANAS (see Conditioning)

VIBRATION (See also Movement)

A periodic motion of particles. . .in alternately opposite directions from the position of equilibrium when that equilibrium has been disturbed.  Webster

Vibration and consciousness are inseparably one like the whiteness of snow, the oil in the sesame seed, the fragrance of the flower and the heat of fire.  Page 301

VISION

        An experience of the mind and the senses. Page 392

VOLITION (See Doership)

. . .it is the will to do or not to do that binds, and its absence is liberation. Page 487

WHY?

In the absence of a cause for any of this, do not inquire into the cause (‘why’). Then you will easily rest in the supreme, indescribable reality. Page 698

WITNESS CONSCIOUSNESS (see Turiya)

WORLD

There is no world in Brahman but Brahman sees or experiences a world. This perception is not a fact or reality but just a notion. Page 578 

The transcendental reality is eternal; the world is not unreal (only the limiting adjunct, the mind, is false). Therefore all this is the indivisible, illimitable, nameless and formless infinite consciousness.  Page 455

The infinite consciousness plus the appearance is known as the world; the world minus its form (appearance) is the infinite consciousness (appearance is illusory and illusion does not exist). Page 599

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