One Reality, No Boundaries: The Message of Yoga Vasistha’s First Three Verses
These three verses pack enough wisdom to dismantle all kinds
of divisions that humans create in the name of God, religion, nation, color,
gender, creed, and whatnot.
This is pure Vedanta at its zenith. It meanders into realms
that modern science is only now beginning to awaken to.
This verse dislodges the God sitting in heaven with a remote
control.
It is a wake-up call to all those who suffer because of
their limited ego. This verse ushers in a light that enables us to realize that
we ourselves are that light.
The Three Opening Verses of Yoga Vasistha
OM, salutation to the self-same Reality, from whom all
beings proceed, by whom they are manifest, upon whom they depend, and in whom
they become extinct in the end.
That is the knower, the knowledge and all that is to be
known. That is the seer, the act of seeing, and all that is to be seen. That is
the actor, the cause and the effect. Therefore salutation to That, who is all
knowledge himself.
Salutation to That who is supreme bliss itself, from whom
flow the dews of delight, both in heaven and earth, and who is the life of all.
What These Verses Are Saying
Yoga Vasishtha is the teaching of Sage Vasishta to young
Prince Rama, who was sad and confused about the world. Before the teaching even
starts, the very first salutation tells us what the whole book is about: there
is only one Reality.
Look at the first verse carefully. All beings come from
That, they are shown by That, they stand on That, and at the end they go back
into That. Nothing is left outside. If something is not outside, then who is
the “other”? This is the question the verses quietly put in front of us.
The Second Verse: Knower, Knowing and Known
The second verse breaks one of our biggest habits. Normally
we think I am here, the world is there, and knowledge is something in between.
Vedanta says this division is only for daily use. The seer, the seeing and the
seen are one consciousness playing three roles.
Even the actor, the action and the result are not separate.
So when somebody says “I did this,” Vedanta smiles politely and asks, “Who is
this I?”
The Third Verse: Bliss as the Nature of Reality
The third verse says that all joy, in heaven or on earth,
flows from That. Joy is not something outside which we must go and collect. The
Taittiriya Upanishad (Chapter 3, Anuvaka 6) says Brahman is Ananda, bliss. Same
Upanishad (2.7) says “Raso vai sah”, that is, He is the essence of delight.
So when we feel happy after a good meal or good news, the
happiness did not come from the meal. The mind became quiet for a few minutes,
and our own nature showed itself. Then we run again to the next meal. Very
clever, no?
The Point from Other Scriptures
The first verse is almost a copy of the Taittiriya Upanishad
(3.1): that from which these beings are born, by which they live, and into
which they enter again, know That as Brahman. Vasishtha is not inventing
something new. He is repeating the oldest truth we have.
Bhagavan Krishna also says in the Bhagavad Gita (7.7) that
all this is strung on Him like pearls on a thread. And in Gita 10.8 He says He
is the source of everything and everything moves from Him. The pearls are many,
the thread is one.
The God With a Remote Control
Many people imagine God as a big person sitting in heaven,
holding a remote control, pressing buttons: this one gets rain, that one gets
exam failure. This verse does not support such a picture at all.
If God is the knower, the known, the actor and the action,
then there is no separate heaven from where somebody is watching. He is the
screen, the film and the audience also. A remote control is not needed when you
are the whole system. This does not make God smaller. It makes God bigger than
any religious building or wall, any country border or any religious label.
Symbolism
OM at the start is not decoration. It stands for the whole
of existence, the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states, and the silence
beyond them. When Vasishtha begins with OM, he is telling the student to keep
the mind ready for something that words will not fully hold.
The words “dews of delight” show that bliss is not a heavy,
rare thing. It is like water coming from a spring, continuous and natural.
Life Lessons
First, the ego is a small tenant who thinks he is the owner
of the building. He says “my success, my insult, my religion, my country.”
Vedanta gently shows him the real ownership papers.
Second, if everything comes from one Reality, then hating
someone is a kind of self-injury. The Isha Upanishad (verse 6) says the one who
sees all beings in the Self, and the Self in all beings, does not hate anyone.
This is very practical. Try it in office politics.
Third, stop begging for happiness from outside things. Do
your duty, enjoy life, but know where joy really comes from.
Modern Day Relevance
Today we are more connected than ever by phones and
internet, yet more divided by religion, nation, colour, gender and political
party. Everyone is shouting that his group is the real one. These three verses
say that the division is made by the mind, not by Reality.
Even modern science is now looking at the universe as one
connected field, where observer and observed cannot be fully separated. Our
rishis said it thousands of years ago without any expensive instrument, only
deep inquiry.
Stress, anxiety and loneliness also come from the same root: the feeling “I am a small separate person fighting alone.” When this feeling loosens, life becomes lighter.
These three verses are not for just reading and keeping on the shelf. They are an invitation to look inside and ask who is the one who knows, sees and acts. When this question is asked honestly, small ego starts to shrink, and the light that we always were becomes visible. Salutations to That.