RAMA AND VASISHTA
Vasishta spoke-
“Rama! Once invisible to all, I was moving in the sky towards the Divine Ganges to bathe in its nectar-like waters. On the way I decided to meet Daashoora and as I went near the top of the Kadamba tree, I heard some sound from the top most edge of the sprout like the humming noise of the bee. As I listened intently, I understood that Sage Daashoora was telling a story to his son. Listen! This is the story.”
THE RIDDLE STORY
“My child, have you heard of a great king who is very powerful and brave and who is famous in all the three worlds and who keeps on conquering every bit of land that is there?”
“No. who is he?”
The boy looked at his father in amazement. “What is his name?” he questioned.
The father paused for a moment and said,
“The powerful king’s name is ‘SVOTTHA’ –‘Self-born’.
He was not born of any parents.
He just appeared from nowhere and has been ruling all the three worlds for long.
Even the gods are under his control.
Nobody has the courage to question his commands.
What he says, everybody has to obey!”
“Oh!” said the boy.
His lotus like eyes bloomed in wonder.
“Where does he live then?” he again questioned his wonderful father.
The Sage smiled and said,
Ah! He lives everywhere.
He does not stay at one place. He keeps moving always.
He wants new new things, new new lands. He is never satisfied with whatever he has. He has no end of his wants.
He brings under control any one he meets.
He hurts everyone, yet all go to him alone for fulfilling their wants.
He imprisons all without mercy and keeps them chained in his innumerable prisons.”
“Does he have powerful weapons?” the son asked.
“No!” the Sage answered shaking his head forcefully.
“He has no weapons; no missiles; no army; yet he holds all the three worlds inside his fist as it were! Even Gods do not understand how he does all this.
However he has three bodies, one white and shiny, one red and dusty, and another dirty and black. These three bodies fill up the entire three worlds of heavens, earth and nether worlds! All these three bodies keep appearing and disappearing everywhere.
They come out of the empty sky and disappear there itself.”
The boy quickly swallowed the juicy fruit and asked with his honey like voice,
“But father, a king should have a city no matter who he is. So where is his city?”
The father patiently continued.
“Yes! Of course he has a huge city of his own! He constructed it himself.
The city has fourteen big high ways. It is divided into three sections.
Huge forests and wild jungles are there in that city.
Beautiful hillocks act as his sport-grounds. Creepers of pearls decorate the land everywhere. Seven wells act as water holes. Two big lights, one hot and one cold take care of the lighting system of the city.
Lots of houses fill the city; all built for his pleasure only.
Some float above; some are on the land; some are built down under the earth.
The roofs of these houses are covered by thatched roofs made of black grass.
There are nine doors in total.
Some windows are also there to allow air-circulation.
Five lamps always remain lighted up and keep the darkness away.
White wooden structures act as the support of the house and keep it up.
There are pathways to move about also.
The outside is made soft and mellow by applying clay paste all over.
Each house is guarded by a giant fierce-looking demigod.
The king moves quickly among all these houses and plays various games inside them with the demigods.
But nothing satisfies this greedy king.
He wants more and more sports. He wants more and more lands.
Not satisfied by anything of the present, he wants to visit even cities which will be there in the future.
He sometimes acts mad, and as if possessed by a ghost, runs and tries to see those future cities.
Sometimes he wants to just perish and immediately gets destroyed. But again he rises from the empty sky and starts his conquering activities once more.
Sometimes he worries about his life, his sufferings and wanders helplessly.
Sometime he is happy and increases in size and looks ugly and fat.
Like a violent ocean stuck by storms, he runs, falls, jumps, roars, does anything and everything that you can think of.
A great king indeed, don’t you think so, my son?”
The Sage paused and looked at his son with a twinkle in the eye.
The boy was surprised that the story was over so soon.
Being intelligent he understood that his father was not telling a meaningless story, but had explained some abstract truth through that story.
The boy looked directly at the smiling eyes of his father and asked,
“Father! Please tell me who that king is.
And moreover how can he visit a city to be built in the future?
It is not possible by any one!”
Daashoora smiled!
The boy had enough intelligence to understand the illogical statements. That much intelligence is enough to grasp the ‘Higher Truths’, he thought.
He explained to his son the meaning of the story.
THE MEANING OF THE STORY
The Sage explained his story in this manner.
“My dear son!
What you see all around you- myself, yourself, your mother, this tree, its inhabitants and all the worlds of Gods, demons and humans, everything you perceive are just names and forms.
Your own mind draws their pictures and gives them names.
They are not at all real. All that is there is sheer emptiness.
Nothing is there actually but the pictures projected from your mind.
To explain this truth alone, I narrated the story of the king ‘Self-born’.
The king is the ‘Conceptional power’ of the mind.
It is itself unreal yet creates a whole universe of names and forms which are unreal.
Look into your own mind.
Thoughts keep rising one after another unceasingly. Every thought is the expression of the ‘Conceptional power’ of the mind. Each thought makes you believe that there is a world out there with countless beings living their lives. Every thought keeps on proving to you the reality of your body and others’ also.
This body itself is a projection of the mind, which by projecting senses creates this wonderful world like an expert magician.
This ‘Conceptional power’ rises out of the ‘Supreme state of Brahman’ which is like a huge ocean with waves. Perceptions of various sorts rise out of this ‘CHIT OCEAN
This king keeps increasing his territories greedily.
This ‘Conceptional power’ first conceives itself as a Creator and through that ‘unreal conception of Brahma’ brings forth all the ever-increasing conceptions of the world.
Even gods are just the forms conceived by the ‘totality of the mind process’ called Brahma.
These gods help the ‘Conceptional power’ to keep its worlds safe.
If this king wishes all dead, a Shiva destroys them all.
If this king wants all safe, a Vishnu maintains them all.
If the king wants them all created anew, Brahma creates them all.
He rules even the Gods and they obey him because the king alone created them through his ‘Conceptional power’.
The fourteen Highways are the fourteen worlds.
The three divisions are the higher, lower and middle worlds.
Gods live above; humans live in the middle; and demons live down below the earth.
The gardens he plays around are the forests.
The hillocks he sports are the huge mountains like Meru and Mandara.
Cold and hot lamps are the moon and the sun respectively.
The moving garlands of pearls are the rivers shining in the sunlight.
The three bodies of the king are the Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the qualities which the mind imbibes. Because of them, sometimes a person acts unselfish, sometimes selfish, and sometimes dull.
The houses built by him are the bodies.
Bodies are made of mud, namely flesh.
The nine doors are the ear, nose, eyes etc.
White wooden logs are the bones.
The sweaty skin is the paint which covers this ugly house from outside.
Hairs cover the top of the house.
Winds move through the holes or windows in the body and keep it alive.
Shoulders and legs are the pathways because by their movement they create the space around them.
The ego is the demigod guarding the house. You cannot ever kill this ego and it keeps the identity of the body ascertained and firm.
Every instant the mind keeps creating thoughts of the world and thus makes the world look real.
Where is the Kadamba tree except in your mind, child?
Where are the three-worlds except in your mind, child?
Where is your mother except in your mind, child?
Where is all the past, present and future except in your mind, child?
The moment the thought of any object arises, that object appears in front of you as if it is real and existed all along even without your conception.
Everyone is an unreal conception keeping the conception of the other alive through thoughts.
All these thoughts are just waves rising out of the ‘Chit’ by its conceiving power.
Actually there is no world out there. All is in your mind only.
When you see, it appears satisfying your wish for its reality.
You want it to be there and it is there obeying your orders as it were.
So the conception in your own mind is the king which creates you, me and all.
The ‘Conceptional power’ in my mind creates me, you and others.
All of us are caught in this mind-game and we keep creating worlds every moment.
But in truth, the names and forms are all just names and forms imagined by the mind.
We believe in our own limited reality and the reality of the worlds too.
Not satisfied with the life at present we wish for a future where more desires could be satisfied and thus create future houses too.
We think we die, so we go through a death scene.
We think we are born, so we go through a birth scene.
We think sense pleasures give us joy but end up in diseases and illnesses.
We think this, we think that; we think gods rule us; or we think we are gods; we can think anything and it will be there. Such is the power of the thought.
Think and lo! Magically things appear before you.
If you think and you do not get it, then you start thinking that it was there and that you did not get it because of fate and suffer immensely.
Mostly everyone cries for things that are not there at all. Yet they believe in the existence of wealth, lands, gold and what not and waste their whole life trying to acquire them. When there is nothing actually but emptiness, what is there to acquire? Emptiness…?
Does the gold exist inside the box when you close the lid, or does the gold inside the box exist only in your mind? What you see is only the picture of the box projected by the mind. Open it and instantly the gold picture is projected by your mind proving that the gold was always there even when you did not see it.
Do we struggle all our lives only to create pictures in the canvas of emptiness?!
A ghost exists only in the mind of a fool. It can beat him, crush him and torture him. The fool can cry and beg you to save him. But how will you save him from a ghost which is not there at all? He has to just not think about the ghost and it will not be there.
The world is there only when you think of it, when you conceive it as real.
All the lands stretching out in all the directions are just thoughts in the mind. Of course move the hands and legs; you create a road to traverse them.
In the empty sky endless space gets created just by thinking about the objects that are conceived as existing in space.
Desires, anxieties, greed, envy, hatred, likes, dislikes are all the products of conception.
So do not fall for the trap of delusion my son.
If any name and form appears in front of you, act in the suitable manner and finish off the conceived scene like a perfect actor without any attachment.
Here you are a son conceived by my mind. I am the father conceived by your mind.
But both forms are pictures drawn by the collective mind process of Brahma.
Kill all the conceptions and remain silent.
Killing the conception does not mean that you conceive the destruction of the conception.
It is just another conception and does not help you.
You cannot remain thoughtless by thinking about ‘thoughtlessness’.
You cannot realize the Self by thinking that you will realize the Self.
As long as any thought is there, know that the king is alive and thriving.
Just do not bring any thought to the mind.
Even to crush a small jasmine flower you may have to move your fingers.
But to know yourself, you just have to do nothing.
Just be.
Do not act.
Do not worship, pray, chant, do not even think of yourself.
Just be.
That is enough.
The king will perish once for all.
He will no more create worlds to entrap you.
Let us be sportive and play the game of father and son, and enjoy each other’s company. But let us always keep in the mind the unreality of everything that exists.
Like we enjoy the magician’s show knowing whatever he creates does not exist, let us play this game of life knowingly. Some day the body will succumb to the rule of the Creator and perish.
But in the Supreme state of consciousness, there is no death or birth.
Be always in the Self state and you will never ever die, my son!”
THE PLAY OF ‘CHIT’
The Sage smiled.
The boy’s eyes shone with understanding.
Without any penance, without performing sacrifices, without worshipping the innumerable gods, he had attained the ‘State of the Self’ by just listening to a simple story.
He hugged his father tightly and placed a kiss on his cheeks with extreme love. And he ran out to play with the countless citizens of the Kadamba tree.
What need was there anymore for any Sacrifice, or worship or even contemplation!
He was the CHIT now playing the game of life as a Sage’s son.
He was the father also in the state of the Self.
He was everywhere; he was everything as the Self.
But nothing was there actually except the Self. All names and forms were drawn by him every moment, again and again for his own sport.
He could sit and contemplate like the father or play with his bird-friends of the tree.
He chose to play!
Who can tell the CHIT what to do? CHIT was second-less!
When any picture is just a picture drawn on the canvas of emptiness, what does it matter what picture is perceived as a world?
CHIT was both the silence and the noise of the world. There was noting else.
CHIT in the Daashoora form remained absorbed in the silent unmanifest state.
CHIT in the form of the boy played all over the Kadamba tree in the manifest state.
Daashoora could hear the joyous shouts of the boy even in his silent state.
It did not affect him in the least.
Was not that joy, the expression of his blissful Self!
‘Chit is both manifest and unmanifest!’
RAMA AND VASISHTA
Vasishta spoke-
“Rama! After the story was finished, I entered the sprout where Daashoora was staying. Daashoora was very excited by my sight. He worshipped me in the due manner. All three of us spent the night discussing various matters together.
In the morning I took leave of them both and went off to bathe in the River Ganges in the heavens.
I told you the story of Daashoora to understand the unreal nature of the world.
Look at the world as advised by Daashoora and remain in the state of the Self which alone is real.”
END
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