A collection of teachings from Yoga Vasistha on Self.
If you separate yourself from the body and abide at ease in
Consciousness you will become one – the sole reality – everything else will be
insignificant.
After rejecting, through reasoning, all that can be known as
non-truth what remains as pure consciousness – regard that as your self.
A child superimposes a real elephant on a clay elephant and
plays with it; even so, an ignorant man superimposes the body, etc., on the
Self and carries on his activities.
The picture of a snake does not cause fear of a snake when
it is realized to be only a picture.
Similarly when the jiva is clearly understood there is neither misery nor the cause of misery.
Similarly when the jiva is clearly understood there is neither misery nor the cause of misery.
Just as the sky appears to be stained by dust, smoke and
clouds, so also the pure Self in contact with the qualities of Maya appears to
be soiled by them.
Just as fire thrown into a large sheet of water loses its
quality, so also Consciousness in contact with the unreal and the inert seems
to lose its real nature and becomes inert.
The Self is realized in the body only with effort, like
sugar from the sugarcane, oil from sesame seeds, fire from wood, butter from a
cow and iron from ore.
Just as the air in the universe pervades everything, so also
the Self, the Lord, abides bodiless in everything.
Yoga Vasistha
Yoga Vasistha