YOGA

VAASISHTA

A PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISE

COMPOSED BY

VAALMIKI MAHARSHI

q~ 9*


*
ESSENCE OF YOGAVAASISHTA
Compiled by
1
Tejasvini


91

~9

*
91

FIRST HALF OF SECTION SIX

FINAL EMANCIPATION

PART TEN


[QUEEN CHUDAALAA AND KING SHIKHIDHVAJA]


INTRODUCTION

Herein is presented the story of Queen Chudaalaa, the Supreme gem among women.
After realizing the Self and also mastering the eight Siddhis of Animaa etc, she stayed
back on the earth to enlighten her ignorant husband ShikhiDhvaja.
(Eight Siddhis -, , 9, 9+ , , c , c , )

Through this story of the noble couple, Sage Vasishta hints to Rama that kingdom, royal
pleasures or a beloved wife are the natural pleasures he has to accept in life, as a part of
his earthly existence. Realization need not hinder the natural actions of a JeevanMukta.
Sage Vasishta also mentions that Siddhis need not be sought for by a JeevanMukta.
Self-realization is not synonymous with the acquisition of Siddhis.
But Self-realization is a must for the acquisition of Siddhis.
Every Self-realized man may not want to float in the sky or acquire powers.
Why should he, and what for? For a realized Yogi, powers are also part of the illusory
world.

But there are Siddhas who acquire powers by raising the dormant coiled power within
them, through the technique of Praanaayaama, practiced under a proper Guru.
They have no identities; no physical bodies; no desires.
They stay in their own realm, absorbed in the Self, away from Gods and humans alike.
They can be seen only by a Yogi, through his Knowledge-eyes.
They never enter the world of ignorant.

OM TAT SAT

91

FIRST HALF OF SECTION SIX

FINAL EMANCIPATION


{QUEEN CHUDAALAA AND KING SHIKHIDHVAJA}

CHAPTER ONE

*
Vasishta spoke

c7 Hc

7c * c

First of all, renounce all this completely.
Cuddle up the mind-bird to the heart.
Remain quietly in the Self, stable like ShikhiDhvaja!


Rama spoke

Who is this ShikhiDhvaja? How did he attain the Supreme state?
Please tell me everything Brahman, for the expansion of my knowledge.

*
Vasishta spoke

The husband and wife couple (ShikhiDhvaja and Chudaalaa), who excessively loved each
other, was there in the Dvaapara Yuga of the previous Kalpa!
Again they will be there again in the coming Dvaapara Yuga of this twenty eighth
four-fold Yuga unit.

Rama spoke

Hey Best of the eloquent!
Why should the same thing which occurred before, happen again? Tell me!

*
Vasishta spoke

{ANYTHING CAN REPEAT! THERE IS NO BAR!}

This is the Niyati (order of things) that belongs to the perceiving nature of Lord Brahma
and others. This cannot be avoided.

(Some trees give out abundant fruits in a similar way many times.
Some trees give fruits once only and do not repeat it again.)

Whatever has happened many times, will again happen many times.
Sometimes it may happen differently. Sometimes it will not happen at all again.
Sometimes events will be exactly similar.
Similar and different waves rise in the ocean.
It is the nature of this worldly existence!

Therefore the same king of great luster will become the hero of the story that occurred in
the past also.
Listen to my words.

{KING SHIKHIDHVAJA}

This king named ShikhiDhvaja (one who has the flag with the symbol of the peacock)
was born previously in the seventh Manus era, in the fourth four-fold Yuga unit, in this
Creation, in the dynasty of Kurus, in the city of Maalva, which was close to the Vindhya
Mountain situated in the JambooDveepa.

ShikhiDhvaja was courageous, generous, endowed with the qualities of forbearance and
self-control.
He was very brave.
He engaged himself in auspicious enterprises.
He was a man of few words and a mine of virtues.
He performed all types of Sacrifices.
He conquered all the enemies.
He constructed many lakes and wells for his people.
He conversed in a pleasing manner.
He was adept in the administration science.
He was an ocean of love. He was handsome. He was righteous.
He was endowed with auspicious markings.
He taught politeness to others.
He gave his wealth in charity.
He enjoyed the company of the noble. He listened attentively to the discourses on
scriptures.
He knew Vedas; but was not proud.
He ignored women like worthless grass. (was not interested in immoral pleasures)

When his father departed to the heaven, he was just sixteen years of age. Yet even in that
tender age he conquered the lands all around and became an emperor acclaimed by all.
He ruled the kingdom in a righteous way and kept his people happy.

In course of time, he was ready for marriage and wished for a suitable life-partner. His
ministers in no time arranged his marriage with the beautiful daughter of Suraashtra king,
named Chudaalaa.
(Chudaalaa- crest ornament)

ShikhiDhvaja and Chudaalaa both were extremely affectionate towards each other. They
enjoyed their love-life. They lived in each others heart and were like one soul in two
bodies. They both became experts in all arts and learning.

Many years passed as they remained absorbed in enjoying youthful pleasures.

Youth seeped away slowly, like water from the cracked pot.

They both thought-

The affairs of the world are as fleeting as the waves of the ocean.
Death is as inevitable as the falling of the ripe fruit.
Old age attacks one, like the snow falling on the lotus.
Life ebbs away like the water from the hand.
Only the thirst for pleasures keeps growing, like the Tumbi creeper in
monsoon.
The youth rolls away like the speedy river.
Life is unreal like an illusion created by a magician.
Joys get away like arrows from a bow.
Miseries pounce on the mind like vultures after meat.
Like the bubbles of the rainy water, life is momentary.
Like the plantain trunk, the world-actions are essenceless.
Youth leaves one like an offended lover.
Like a tree drying up, everything becomes tasteless.
What is that auspicious thing which is stable always, and which gives
permanent happiness; by attaining which one is not troubled by any of the
world occurrences?

They both decided to search for the medicine which cures the illness of worldly
existence. They studied many scriptures for long and found out that the knowledge of the
Self alone offers such a cure.

They both from then onwards were engaged in that; thought about that; lived for that;
concentrated on that; sought the knowers of that; worshipped that; desired that; practiced
that; taught each other about that; loved that; and were only doing all things for that!

CHAPTER TWO


{CHUDAALAA ENQUIRES THE TRUE NATURE OF SELF}

Chudaalaa attentively listened to the discourses on the Self taught by many realized
Sages.
She analyzed all the statements of the Scriptures, within her mind by herself.
With a purified mind she enquired about her own nature as Who am I?

Who am I?
I will find out myself the answer for this question.
How did I get deluded? What is this delusion? From where did the delusion
arise?

This body is inert. It cannot act by itself.
I cannot be this body for sure. It is only experienced by the mind from when
one is a child.

Organs of action are limbs not different from the body.
The object and its parts cant be different. So they are also inert like the
body.

Even the organs of knowledge appear to be inert only.
They are goaded by the mind like the stone by the stick.

Mind is also inert. It is just the conceiving organ.
It is controlled by the decisions of the intellect like the stone by the sling.

Even the decision-making intellect is inert.
It is directed by the ego like the river by digging.

Even the ego is essenceless. It is inert like a corpse.
It is imagined by the Jeeva like a ghost by a child.

Jeeva is conscious-space, is of the nature of the wind (Praana) and is in the
heart (-lotus).
It is fragile (short-lived) and lives because of some other thing.




Aha! It is understood!

This Jeeva lives because of the eternal Chit (pure consciousness) tainted by
the projected perception; and that is the Self.
The Jeeva deluded by the perceptions lives only because of the Chit, like the
fragrance by the wind and the river by the dug ground.

By identifying with the unreal, inert, perceived object, Chit discards its
nature and becomes inert-like, like the fire inside the ocean.

Through conception, Chit herself instantly shines as that object, be it real or
unreal, discarding her own pure nature.

Though conscious by nature, Chit turns towards the perceived phenomenon;
and cognizes the unreal, inert, emptiness as herself.






















CHAPTER THREE


{CHUDAALAA REALIZES THE TRUE NATURE OF SELF}

Having reasoned out like this, Chudaalaa started analyzing as to how this Chit could be
made to remember her true nature.
After a long time she became enlightened.
She thought-
Aha! After a long time I have known that which is to be known.
After knowing that, one does not swerve from that state again.

These mind, intellect, and senses alone, divide the Chit into many.
All of them are unreal like the two-moons seen by the infected eye.

Only the Great Chit exists here; that alone is the great principle of existence
by which all things exist.
She (Chit) is taintless; equal; pure and ego-less.
She is of the nature of pure awareness.
She is the auspicious state.
She is existence alone.
She never swerves from her state.
She shines only once (not again and again).
She is faultless and always shines as herself.
She alone is sung by the names of Brahman, Paramaatman etc.
The perceived world, perceiving consciousness and the mind are not
different from her. She shines as the witness unaffected by them.
Because of her alone, this perceived world shines forth.
She is the beginning of all.
She is known as Chit.
This principle of Chit cannot be perceived.
All perceptions are her shine.
She alone shines as the mind, intellect, senses and the objects of senses.
I am of the nature of Chit alone, and not the limited ego.
I do not have birth and death.
I do not experience good or bad worlds, as the results of my actions.
I will not perish ever.
I am the Chit-space. I cannot be cut. I cannot be burnt.
I am the Chit-sun. I am completely taintless.

Aha! After a long time, I have attained the quiescent state.
I have reached the Supreme state.
I am freed of all delusions, like the ocean without the Mandara Mountain.
The reality of the Chit alone is the reality of the perceived and the perceiver.

One-ness, two-ness, I am not
What are all these confusions? How? For whom, and where?

I am established in the quiet state of the Self, which is endless, and natural.
I am in the final state of liberation.
I am free of the world-fever.
Whether conscious or not-conscious, she alone shines as all this and
perceives them also.
All the appearances are of the nature of Chit only.
Everything is just empty space established in the Supreme Chit-space.
This is not there. I am not there. Nothing else is there.
Only the Supreme Self is.

Having pondered in this manner, Chudaalaa attained the supreme enlightenment, and
understood the principle of the Supreme Self, as it was.
All her attachments, fears, and delusions vanished completely.
She remained quiet and taintless, like the autumn sky.


CHAPTER FOUR


{CHUDAALAA IS ESTABLISHED IN THE STATE OF SELF}


Day by day, Chudaalaa remained more absorbed in the Self-state.
She was like a full ocean with all her doubts quietened.
She had no attachments. She was freed of duality.
She attained fulfillment within, by the greatest gain ever, namely the state of the Supreme
Self. She had gone to the unparalleled state beyond definitions.

In this manner, that beautiful lady of fair hue attained the only knowledge that is to be
known.
This quivering delusion of the world, which appears randomly, only in the ignorant,
vanishes also instantly, when true knowledge is attained.

For Chudaalaa also, all the duality disappeared. She rested in the Supreme state.
She shone like the taintless autumn sky with all the anxiety-clouds dissolved in no time.


CHAPTER FIVE


{HOW COULD CHUDAALAA REALIZE THE SELF SO EASILY?}

(The huge mountain is there which even young cows find it difficult to climb.
Whereas, one old cow just grazing slowly the mountain grass here and there, suddenly
finds herself on the peak of the mountain, where water and grass are found in abundance.

The place is neither too cold nor too hot, as both sunlight and moonlight are equally
present there. (Praana and Apaana are in equal state).
The old cow is very happy and stays there without any more apprehensions.

Chudaalaa also had no idea that Self-realization could be so easy.
She just kept analyzing the nature of the ego, mind, world etc continuously and suddenly
found herself in the state of the Self.
Whereas even men of great penance take many births to reach that highest state,
Chudaalaa had got it within a few days, just through the process of Vichaara.

She suddenly knew herself as the Chit-state.
She no more could be deluded.
Duality had no meaning for her.
There were no more apprehensions or anxieties connected to the world.
She was a JeevanMuktaa, liberated while living.
She knew the Self as the witness of the three states of Jaagrat, Svapna and Sushupta, yet
was unaffected by those states.)

7cc
q 0

9 1

Having no more apprehensions,
equally witnessing all the three states as the Self,
yet unaffected by any of them,
she remained happy like the old cow,
which suddenly finds herself
on the mountain peak with abundant supply of grass and water.








CHAPTER SIX


{CHUDAALAA BECOMES CHARMING AND BEAUTIFUL}

Self-realization rose in Chudaalaa, by the intense practice of discrimination.
She now shone forth with a unique beauty like a creeper born afresh.

One day ShikhiDhvaja visited the harem and saw his queen shining with a unique beauty
hitherto unseen.
He smiled at her and said-

Pretty queen! You shine much now, as if adorned by youth once more, like
the full moon bathing the entire world with its luster.
Beloved!
You shine excessively as if you have consumed nectar, as if you have
attained the highest state, as if you are overflowing with the flood of bliss.
Having a beautiful form surpassing even the moon, you look attractive and
appeasing with some enrichment beyond my understanding.
Beloved! I observe that your mind is disinterested in pleasures of the senses;
is peaceful; rational; is in the state of equanimity; quiescent and profound
by nature.
Beloved! I observe your mind to be in a state of quietness par excellence, as
if the whole world has become worthless like a straw-piece; as if it has
drunk all the tasty waters of the world.
Hey noble woman! Your mind cannot be compared to any object of pleasure
of this world; it is beautiful like a desert (all desires dried up) and the milk
ocean (overflowing bliss).
You still look the same with your limbs delicate like the sprouts of the tender
plantain and lotus roots; yet you look more beautiful than before!
Though everything looks the same in you, you seem to have become different
like an enlivened creeper after the winter has passed away.
Which nectar have you drunk?
Or have you acquired a kingdom?
Or have you conquered death by consuming some magical potion or through
some magical chants or through some mysterious Yoga practice?
Hey beautiful lady with the eyes blooming like blue lotuses!
What have you acquired that is worthier than the kingdom, or wish-fulfilling
ChintaaMani gem, or the three worlds?

CHAPTER SEVEN

{CHUDAALAA TALKS IN RIDDLES}

Chudaalaa spoke

c c4c
c 1 1

( c4c
1 1 )

I have renounced this form
which is not not-something ,
but something ;
and attained that form ,
which is not something
yet something.
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

(I left this something which is not nothing (but Some Thing)
and attained Some Thing which is not just something.)

( means something sometimes also used as a derogatory term to denote the worthlessness of an
object.
Chudaalaa has renounced what? - this nature of the limited body, mind etc.
What is it? something not worth a mite.
And also it is not not-something it is not emptiness or worthless; but it is something really
worthwhile Chit in essence!

So renouncing this appearance of the world and body, which is worthless yet worthy being chit in essence,
she got what?
She attained the nature of some thing which really exists as something, but it is not the worthless
something that has to be discarded.

Having renounced this something (worthless identity of the limited form),
which is actually not not-something but something (Chit in essence);
she had attained the identity with something (that reality), which is not something (object
perceived by senses and mind ).
c7 77
cccc 1 1

I have renounced all this (differentiations) completely
and taken shelter in some other thing which is all (but undifferentiated);
which is real (as Chit) and unreal (as the world).
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

c q7 7 1
1 1

I know that which is something (as Chit), and not something (as this world),
as to how it stays, how it rises and how it vanishes.
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

41*

4

(*

1 1

I am happy by not enjoying the pleasures which are at a distance,
as if I enjoy them.
I do not feel happy or irritated.
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

(I do not feel attracted towards the sense objects, because I am always experiencing the bliss of the Self,
which alone is experienced as sense-pleasures by the Jeeva through the contact of sense objects. I do not
feel any difference in my state of bliss, when enjoying or not enjoying the pleasures.)


(
|

1 1

I am happy, being alone in the heart (Brahman) which is like one undivided sky.
I do not enjoy the royal pleasures.
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

c7 * [q

1 1

I stay only in the Self even if the body stays in the seats, gardens and mansions;
and I do not experience the sense pleasures, or the embarrassments of not getting them.
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

9 1

7F
cc7 *

1 1

I am the lord of the world itself! I am not just some worthless shape with a name.
With such knowledge, I am happy in the Self.
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

c
1 1 1

I am this and I am not this also.
I am real; and not that also. I am all; yet nothing at all.
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

(I am this perceived phenomenon; yet I am not that also because I am division-less.
I am real. But I am beyond the concepts of real and unreal. So I am not real also.
I am everything that is perceived at all times. Yet I am empty of all and taintless.)

9 1
9 (* 1 1

I do not pray for happiness, or good thing or bad thing or not any other thing.
I am happy in whatever I get.
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

q 97 1T*
11 1

I enjoy the company of my friends
whose desires and aversions have reduced
through proper understanding of the truth; and
who enjoy the true visions of the scriptural statements.
That is why I am charming and beautiful.

(Chudaalaa has her own group of friends who are also following the path of knowledge under her
guidance.)




77g
c q
q

7
+ 1

My dear husband!
When I see with the rays of my eyes, or through senses or through the mind,
there is nothing at all.
When I see without them, I see within, that, which is not anything.
I see that only which is not affected by anything outside or inside.
I am always in the same state of splendor.

(I see the perceived world as emptiness only.
I withdraw my senses and mind from the perceived world and remain absorbed in the Self.
When I see within, there is no object that needs to be perceived as another thing.
It is not anything which can be described at all. There is no outside or inside in that state.)






















CHAPTER EIGHT

{SHIKHIDHVAJA FAILS TO COMPREHEND THE WORDS OF CHUDAALAA}

When Chudaalaa with the lustrous face spoke like this from the Self-state, the king was
unable to comprehend the meaning of her words.
He laughed aloud and said-

Fair-hued beauty! You are so immature! You talk such meaningless words!
Princess! You want to amuse yourself in such royal sports! Enjoy yourself.

If something is discarded and something which is in front 9cH
becomes nothing , then if it goes out of sight 9cH, what is there to
be happy about it?

If one says that he enjoys pleasures without enjoying them, and discards the
pleasures like seats and beds in anger, what is there to be happy about it?

If one completely renounces pleasures and all those things connected to
them; but enjoys the empty sky and stays alone in solitude, renouncing
everything, how can one be happy?

If one courageously throws away clothing, food, bed etc and remains alone
with himself, how can he be happy?

I am not this body or any other thing; I am not anything and I am all-
If one goes on blabbering like this, how can he be happy?

What I see, I do not see; I see something else-
If one does not stop this prattle, how can he be happy?

Therefore my dearest, you are still immature; innocent; restless and playful.
You want to talk nonsense with me and amuse yourself!
Play on, my beloved!

ShikhiDhvaja laughed uproariously and went away to finish his noon-time bathing.
Chudaalaa felt a little disappointed that the king had not attained the knowledge of the
Self and could not understand her words properly.
She got busy in her own works.


CHAPTER NINE

*
Vasishta spoke

Dear Rama! In this manner, the days passed for them both; with Chudaalaa in the realized
state and the king in his ignorant state.
Though Chudaalaa had no desires actually, though she was in the completely satisfied
state of the Self, once a desire arose in her mind to achieve the Siddhi of Moving in the
sky, just to amuse herself.

q 7

Tc +
7 11q
9

In order to accomplish the Siddhi of flying in the sky,
that princess renounced all the pleasures;
went to a solitary place; stayed alone;
sat in the proper (yogic) posture;
and practiced the upward movement of Praana for a long time.



Rama spoke

Master!
The whole world of moving and non-moving beings is under the flow of action.
Then what is this thing called Kriyaa (rites prescribed by certain scriptures), by the
practice of which something gets attained?

What is the power behind the Kriyaas like sky-travel etc which get accomplished by
hard and sincere practices of certain rites by an ignorant man or a knower for amusement
or for serious reasons?

(The entire world is anyhow bound by action and its results.
Yet, what is the power behind certain prescribed rites, which bestow powers on a man?
How does that particular action or object produce the special result of power-acquirement?
Is it attached to the Kriyaa, or does it rise from the Supreme?
If the power is connected to the Kriyaa, it leads to the flaw of endless series of dependence.
If it is from the power of the Supreme, then the statement is inconsistent and the end-result is unstable; as
every one can achieve the end-result without any means of Kriyaa etc.)

INTRODUCTION

The terms Siddha and Siddhi are the most misunderstood words among the common
populace. In the modern world, Siddhi is a synonym for magic. And a man capable of
magic or trickery is considered as a Siddha and a representative of a God-head or God
himself.
Does Self-realization come with a package of Siddhis as a free gift?
Ramas question amounts to this.

Can anybody and everybody whether ignorant or realized, be capable of acquiring
Siddhis?

Sage Vasishta clears the doubt by explaining the power of Kundalinee which makes
Siddhi-acquirement possible.

Siddhas are not magicians or miracle-makers but realized Sages who have mastered many
Siddhis (eight or more) and exist in another realm. They usually fly in the sky invisible to
all, in their own paths. They cannot be seen by ordinary ignorant people. Only a realized
Yogi can see them through the power of Yoga.
These Siddhas are a higher category of beings, who have no identities, no bodies, or
minds. They are in the highest state of realization. They are realized Sages who have
mastered the Siddhis through some Kriyaas or penances.
All realized men need not be Siddhas.
Sage Vasishta discourages Rama from such practices.
A realized man does not require any Siddhis. He is a fulfilled being.
Whatever joy could be had by the acquirement of a Siddhi is nothing compared to the
bliss of the Self he is established in.
But some realized people acquire Siddhis as an amusement, or to live in a transcendental
realm, or to be above the control of all gods and other beings.
Siddhas have no desire for the wealth and prosperity of the three worlds even.
They never take on the identity of a human also. They do not have any particular shape as
a body also. They exist in the highest state of Chit and take on any form as the need
arises. They are beyond the classifications of names and forms. They retain some vague
individuality which is beyond the realm of humans and Gods.
They do not use their powers to attract any one or gain any name or fame.
They are realized Yogis.
Only a realized man is capable of acquiring Siddhis.
Any ignorant man who tries to accomplish these Siddhis will mostly fail in his ventures
or end up in contradictory results. He will be doomed forever.
Siddhis help a realized man to keep away from all the beings with names and forms.
He is free and independent of the created worlds and their narratives. He never appears in
front of ordinary people.
For a Siddha, the perceived phenomenon does not exist at all. He is beyond the
limitations of time and space. He has no limitations of body and mind. He can be
anywhere, at any time-mode, in whatever shape he wants.
He is the freest of all.

*
Vasishta spoke

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9c
c7 7c +
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71 c
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Rama! Three types of achievements are there in this world.

The achievement which gives happiness is to be sought for.
It is known as Upaadeya .

The second type is something that should be rejected, for it may have harmful effects on
oneself or others. It is called Heya .

The third one belongs to wasteful enterprises which come in the middle of these two.
It is called Upekshya + and gets overlooked by the wise.

A learned man, who has realized the Self, sees the Self alone everywhere.
He has no use for any of these practices or the results connected to them. He ignores all
three of them. He may achieve some powers through these practices just for some
purpose of his own or for amusing himself or not bother also.

Realization has nothing to do with powers. Anyone who practices sincerely can achieve
them.

Mostly, the ignorant fools go after those practices which are wasteful and which get
ignored by the wise.

*
Vasishta spoke


As to how such powers are achieved, listen to me.

All Siddhis are accomplished through the means of some particular place, time, rites, and
objects. They help only in giving some delightful pleasure to the Jeevas. There are
particular texts which describe the rites and methods leading to countless Siddhis.
They require detailed instructions and cannot be briefed up in a short time.
And also, it cannot be publicly discoursed because then the fault of teaching undeserving
students will arise. Those who are on the path of Self-knowledge will swerve from their
paths and will develop desires for attaining theses Siddhis. And also, the topic of these
Siddhis is not relevant to our present discussion.

You are a Krtaartha (one who has attained the fulfillment of his life), Rama! You have no
use for these Siddhis!

Anyhow, as it was mentioned that Chudaalaa attained Siddhis through the control of
Praana, let me describe the Siddhis which can be attained by the practice of Praana
control.

A person who desires Siddhis practices-
giving up of all the other Vaasanaas other than the one for which one is making effort;
gets seated firmly in the correct Yogic posture as mentioned in the YogaShaastra; is strict
in eating only pure food and staying in a pure place; understands well the meanings of the
statements of the scriptures; is endowed with proper behavior; keeps the company of the
good at all times; is happy by the renunciation of everything; sincerely practices
Praanaayaama regularly; completely casts away anger, greed etc; renounces all the sense
pleasures.

Through the practice of Tyaaga, Aadaana and Nirodha (renunciation, withdrawal from
the world of senses and controlling the mind of all thoughts; OR, Rechaka, Pooraka and
Kumbhaka), all the Praanas become obedient like slaves of that man who is realized, as
he is the Master of all Praanas.

All types of wealth from the ownership of a kingdom to the state of liberation are
possible by the practice of controlling the Praanas within the body.









*
Vasishta spoke

There is this Sushumna Naadi also known as AantraVeshtikaa from which all (seventy
two thousand) Naadis (Channels of energy flow) spread out.

Sushumna starts from the Moolaadhaaraa up to Brahma-Randhra, through the seven
Chakras. It remains as a coiled form of three and a half coils. It is the store-house of all
energies. It is like the curled up string form at the front portion of the Veenaa; or the
circular pattern of the water; or like the half of the Omkaara when written; it remains as a
coiled curvature.

It rises in all the men, Asuras and Devas, in the terrestrial animals, aquatic animals, birds,
and the worms, up to the level of Brahma.

It remains coiled like the hood of a serpent which is sleeping curved up to keep itself
warm. It is white. It is coiled up like the moon melting in the dissolution fire. (It can also
mean -Chandra of YogaShaastra which melts by the belly-fire (Kalpa), spreads to the Moolaadhaaraa, is
in the dense state and remains coiled).

From the place in between the back of the thighs to the center place between the eye-
brows, she moves through all the holes; is restless inside by the mind vibrations and also
keeps vibrating by the touch of Praanas outside.

Inside that Moolaadhaaraa, in that hollow of the tender plantain; in that source of strings
of Veenaa, that Supreme power moves rhythmically among the strings. She is known by
the name of Kundalee and holds the coiled shape. She is the Supreme power of all beings
who empowers all other powers.

She always keeps sighing heavily like an angry serpent with her face turned upward, and
she causes the vibration of the Praana throwing it upwards and again pulling it towards
herself.

She alone is the power behind the intellect, senses, and the contact of the objects.
All the Naadis are bound to her in the place of the heart.
They rise up and dissolve like the rivers in the ocean.
As the Praana, she rises upwards and as the Apaana moves downwards.
She is the seed of all perceptions.
She is one; and is the common essence of everything.





Rama spoke

From the beginning of the creation, Chit alone is the entire conscious phenomenon,
undivided by space or time. Why is she said to rise from the Kundalinee alone?

*
Vasishta spoke

Of course, Chit exists as the entire conscious phenomenon. But, being bound by the
subtle elements, she is particularized, though everywhere.
The sun light is everywhere, yet is seen as getting reflected on surfaces.

This seed of the assemblage of elements manifests as the Praana winds inside the
Kundalinee.
Because of manifesting as all this, she is known as the perceived world of divisions.
Being conscious, she is called Chit.
By living, she becomes the Jeeva.
By vibrating as thoughts, she becomes the mind.
By conceiving, she becomes the conception.
By understanding, she becomes the intellect.
She becomes the ego-field and is known as the eight-fold city.
She remains inside the body as the Kundalinee, the power of the Jeeva.
As Apaana she flows downwards.
She is Samaanaa in the middle of the navel.
She is Udaanaa and stays above.
Yet she remains in her own nature.

When the Praana flows downward with all the force and cannot be held back, then a man
dies as she moves away by force.

If the man remains without letting the Praana move upwards or downwards, then the
disease disappears by the Praana Control.
When the Naadis get affected, a man gets diseases depending on whether the Naadi is
prominent or ordinary.

(Why an ignorant man cannot attain any Siddhis?
An ordinary man of the world who desires wealth or ruler ship or fame is always in the agitated state of the
mind. He never can have the concentration ability required for the practice of a Kriyaa.
Such a man, through ignorance ends up in injuring his mind and body both.
Even to maintain an ordinary healthy state of the body free of afflictions, a man has to practice the control
of the mind and senses.
Any mental agitation leads to the imbalance of the Praana-forces and injures the body.
A person who is not realized and who is not a knower cannot be an adept practitioner of Yoga; for he lacks
the mental structure (quiescent state) which is a must for attaining any Siddhi or Yogic bliss.
A person who claims to be a Siddha and still covets name, fame and wealth is a Mithyaachaara a
hypocrite, who fools others and also himself.)

Rama spoke

How do the physical and mental afflictions rise and how do they get destroyed?

*
Vasishta spoke

Both physical (Vyaadhi) and mental afflictions (Aadhi) cause misery.
Freedom from them is happiness.
When they are completely destroyed, it is called liberation.

Sometimes they are the cause for each other; sometimes they rise together; sometimes
they rise alternately.

The affliction in the body is known as Vyaadhi. Aadhi is of the nature of Vaasanaas.
They both rise because of foolishness (ignorance).
They get destroyed by the knowledge of the Truth.

Because of ignorance of the Self, because of the lack of control over the senses, because
of the dense agitations of attachment and hatred, because of being always worried about
what is gained and what is lost, the mental afflictions manifest like the mist of the
monsoon.
When the mind is not under control, when desires overtake reason, through consuming
improper food, staying in improper places, acting at improper times, doing improper
actions, by keeping the company of the wicked, due to paranoid apprehensions, by the
overly thinning out of Naadis (by the essence of food not entering them) or overly
fattened Naadis (by the absorption of Vaata, etc), when the Praana is affected by Kapha,
etc, and the body is injured, the body loses its natural state and the disease spreads in the
body.
The desires of the past lives which are prominent; good or bad in nature, prompt one
towards a particular action. They alone cause the mental and physical afflictions in the
Jeeva bound by five elements.

There are two types of diseases ordinary and dense. (Saamaanya and Saara)
That which is seen in the normal day to day affairs is Saamaanya. (hunger, thirst,
woman, son, etc)
Saara leads to successive births.
The ordinary day to day illnesses vanish by getting what one wants.
If the mental afflictions cease, the physical afflictions also cease to be.
Without Self-knowledge, the mental affliction, the Saara does not perish, Raaghava!
Only by the knowledge of the rope can the rope-serpent die!
The destruction of the Saara- mental affliction destroys all the mental and physical
diseases like the monsoon floods destroying the trees on the bank.
Ordinary diseases which are not caused by the mental affliction get treated through
proper medicines.


Rama spoke

How does the mental affliction turn into physical affliction? How does it get treated?
Is there any medicine or chants or meritorious acts that help?

*
Vasishta spoke

If the mind is agitated, then the body naturally becomes ill.
For example, an angry animal does not see anything that is in its front. Without observing
properly, he just runs forward in a wrong path, leaving out the correct path, like a deer hit
by an arrow.
Because of the agitated state, the Praana winds lose their balanced state in the body, like
the elephant entering the serene water-lake.
Then the Naadis also get disturbed. Some become thin, some become fat.
The food that is eaten will have ill effects, or not get digested, or excessively get
digested, when the Praana winds are affected.
The undigested food leads to the rise of various diseases.
That is how Aadhi ends up as Vyaadhi. When Aadhi is absent, the disease ceases to
be.
By serving the noble and doing good actions, the mind gets purified and the mind
becomes pleasant. Then the Praana winds flow in balance. The food gets digested
properly and diseases perish.

*
Vasishta spoke


(Sage Vasishta briefly describes various practices of Praanaayaama which are used in attaining Siddhis.)

[Through some particular types of Praana-control practices, the Yogis make their bodies
light and float in the sky. They also get the power to enter other bodies. They can make
their bodies to the size of an atom or expand it to a large size. They can make the body
very heavy or make it very light. They can access any place. They can fulfill any desire
they have. They can rule over others. They can control others.

These Siddhas cannot be seen with ordinary physical eyes. They can be seen only by one
who has the eyes of knowledge.]





CHAPTER TEN

That queen was now endowed with the wealth of Siddhis like Anima etc. through the
intense practices prescribed for their attainment.

Like the cool taintless waters of Gangaa, Chudaalaa of quiescent cool mind, flowed in the
skies, entered the ocean, and wandered all over the earth.

Like the Goddess of prosperity, she never left the bosom and mind of her husband even
for a second; yet was present in all the kingdoms and the worlds.

Like the garland of clouds, she of dark hue floated in the sky, adorned by ornaments
flashing like lightning, and wandered all over the garland of mountains on the earth.

Like the string passing through the pearl, she entered all the objects without any
blockage, be it a stick, or grass, or stone, or the elements like sky, air, fire or water.

She wandered freely on the peaks of Meru Mountain, the cities of Lokapaalas (guardians
of the world like Varuna etc), all the holes in the directions and the skies.

She made friends with lowly spirits, flesh-eating devils, Naagas, Amaras, Asuras,
Vidyaadharas, Apsaraas, and Siddhas.

She tried her level best to instruct her husband about Self-knowledge; but he did not heed
to her, thinking that his wife was just an expert of all arts, yet naive and immature at
heart. He never could grasp her depth of knowledge.

Even after a long time the king never could comprehend the great virtues of Chudaalaa,
like a child uncomprehending Vedas.

As the king had not attained the knowledge of the Self, Chudaalaa also did not disclose
her wealth of Siddhis to him, like a low caste is kept ignorant of the sacrificial rites.










CHAPTER ELEVEN


Rama spoke

Prabhu (Lord)! Even when Chudaalaa was such a great Siddha-Yoginee, her husband
ShikhiDhvaja did not try and attain knowledge from her!
What about others who have to get knowledge from ordinary Gurus without Siddhis?

*
Vasishta spoke

H 1
71

*97

7 7c
ccc

The method of teaching is there just for maintaining a convenient arrangement.
But the real cause of knowledge
depends on the purity and understanding power of the disciple.
The knowledge of the Self is not attained by
listening to discourses of scriptures or by merits of good actions.
Only the Self knows the Self like a serpent understands the steps of the serpent.


Rama spoke

1

7c1
H F E

1c71

If that is so,
then why has this method of a Guru giving instruction to the disciple
come into vogue in this world,
as leading towards Self-knowledge?



*
Vasishta spoke

In the outskirts of Vindhya forest, there lived a very miserly merchant who
was very rich and prosperous; yet always anxious and worried like a
Brahmin with a huge family.

Once when he was journeying through the forest of the Vindhya Mountain,
one cowrie of his (brightly colored shell used as money) fell inside the
overly grown grass field. The worried stingy merchant spent three days
there, searching for that cowrie inside those entangled growth of
jungle-weeds and grass.

That wretched one could not at all fall sleep at nights, as he kept on
calculating-
That one cowrie would have become many cowries if it was invested in my
business! One would have become four, and then eight and then a hundred
and then even a thousand some day!

He did not bother about all the passersby laughing at him.
After the thorough search for three days, he did not get his cowrie but
suddenly came across the great ChintaaMani gem which was shining like a
full moon. He felt very happy and took it home. He lived happy and content
possessing all the wealth of the world.

In this manner, the merchant obtained a gem equaling the world, when he
searched for a cowrie day and night tirelessly.

Similarly, Self-knowledge gets attained by listening to instructions.
When something gets searched for, something else gets attained, through the method of
approaching a Guru for knowledge.
Brahman is beyond the grasp of all senses; yet is the perceiver through all the senses.
That is why, Self-knowledge cannot be attained by just hearing about it, O Anagha!
Without Gurus instructions also, Self-knowledge cannot be attained!

How can you get the ChintaaMani gem unless you search for the cowrie?
Like the cowrie is the cause of obtaining a gem, yet not the exact cause; the great
realization of the Supreme principle cannot happen without the instruction of the Guru.

Raaghava! Observe that this Maayaa deludes even the great!
When one makes an effort to search for something, he gets some other thing!


CHAPTER TWELVE

*
Vasishta spoke


King ShikhiDhvaja was not able to attain Self-knowledge; and he was drowned in
complete delusion like men who are blinded by distress when there is no progeny.

His mind was burning in the fire of misery. He could not enjoy any pleasures of his liking
and avoided them like fire-flames.

He started favoring places of solitude in far away places, river banks, and caves, like a
deer which misses the hit of the hunter and runs madly here and there.

Raaghava! As you did before, he performed his daily actions with disinterest, only when
begged and requested by his servants

Endowed with extreme dispassion, he remained like a wandering recluse (Parivraat),
and felt miserable by the pleasures and wealth.

Hey Maanada! He gave abundant wealth in charity in the form of cows, lands and gold to
the Gods (temples), Brahmins and his people.

He journeyed to holy centers, forests and temples to perform severe penances like
Chaandraayana etc. Even then, he was not freed of his misery in the least, like a person
who digs the ground in a place where no treasure is hidden, and gets no treasure after the
effort!

Night and day he worried about obtaining the medicine for the Samsaara-illness and
became emaciated.

Feeling wretched and overly worried, and being extremely miserable in the mind, he did
not care for his great kingdom as if it was some poison.









CHAPTER THIRTEEN

One day ShikhiDhvaja was in the company of his wife Chudaalaa.
He spoke to her tenderly.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

I have enjoyed the kingdom and the royal pleasures for a long time.
I am now feeling dispassion towards everything.
I will go to the forest.
Pretty lady!
Joys and sorrows, calamities and prosperities, do not embrace a Sage
residing in the forest.
Those who live in the forest do not worry about losing the kingdom; nor do
they get people killed in the battle-field. The life in the forest gives more joy
than the kingdom.
I find the forest- paths as attractive as your beauty, my dearest!
The mind will rest in the Supreme state only in a solitary place; not in the
moon-discs or mansions of Brahma and Indra!
Please my dear, do not create any objection to this decision of mine!
The devoted wives never go against the wishes of their husband even in
dreams!

Chudaalaa spoke

Lord! Only those works shine, which are done at proper times; and not
otherwise.
Flowers bloom in the spring and fruits appear in the autumn.
The forest-life is for very old people and not for people still young like you.
So I do not appreciate it.
O Great King! As long as we both are not cast away by the youth like the
trees by the clusters of flowers, let us stay here at our home only.
Adorned by the white flowers of old age, let us both leave the house for the
forest-life, like swans flying away from the lake.
If the king discards the kingdom at an improper time, the kingdom will be
ruined and great sin will be incurred by the king.
The people will not allow you to do such a thing.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Enough, hey lotus-eyed beauty! Enough of creating obstacle to my wish!
Understand that I have already gone to the forest!
You are still immature!
You are of a delicate disposition. You should not accompany me to the
forest.
Hey you of tender limbs! The forest-life is difficult even for men.
Even if women have stronger bodies, they still will not be able to bear the
hardship of the forest-life. The flower-creepers though growing in the forest,
still cannot bear the hit of a sword!
Hey excellent lady! Be here only, taking care of the kingdom.
Wives must take over the responsibility of the family, if the husband goes
away to practice asceticism.






















CHAPTER FOURTEEN

*
Vasishta spoke

{SHIKHIDHVAJA LEAVES FOR THE FOREST}

Having informed his wife of his decision, the king got up and left the harem for taking
bath. He finished all his morning jobs as usual.

The Sun left for the West Mountain like ShikhiDhvaja wanted to leave for the forest
which would be unapproachable for any one.
The light withdrew itself from all directions and followed her Lord (Sun) as Chudaalaa
would have followed her husband if he ever left the palace.

Night came throwing stars all over the floor of the sky.

The king finished his evening rites and slept along with his wife on the soft bed.
Chudaalaa had spread her own upper garment for him on the side and had made it even
softer. She embraced her husband and fell asleep.

ShikhiDhvaja waited till the middle of the night. He saw Chudaalaa fast asleep on the
bed. He slowly removed her hand from him and got out of the bed.

There was absolute silence everywhere. Everyone in the palace was deep asleep.
The king ordered the soldiers at the gate to go off for patrolling the city.

ShikhiDhvajas mind was filled with dispassion.
He looked back and saluted his kingdom saying-
Hey Goddess of the kingdom! Salutation to you!

He walked away from his kingdom and soon entered a terrible forest, like a river entering
the ocean.
He spent the night in that dreadful forest filled with huge trees spreading dense darkness
and wild animals making horrifying noises.

He left that wilderness in the morning and by sunset reached another forest ground.
He finished bath etc; ate some fruits and spent the night there.
In the morning, he got up; traversed many kingdoms, cities, hills and rivers making haste;
and after twelve days reached an inaccessible forest situated at the base of Mandara
Mountain.
It was very far from the populated areas.


The forest had been the abode of many Brahmins and Sages in the past. The trees were
continuously watered by the bamboo canals dug for them. There was no fear of wild
animals as Siddhas had made it their residing place. The trees were filled with abundant
edible fruits.

The king constructed a hut with leaves and sticks in a clean place where there were many
water pools, where the ground was covered by green grass, where there were abundant
fruit-trees and which was cool and pleasant.

The king soon collected the objects necessary for his forest-life like a smooth bamboo
stick, a bowl for eating fruits etc, a vessel for collecting water to be used for offering
Arghya (ArghaPaatram), a basket for collecting flowers, a Rudraaksha garland
(AkshaMaalaa), and a water-pot (Kamandalu), a seat made of twisted grass to prevent the
coldness of the ground from hurting him, and a deer skin.

Like a Brahma creating order in his world by creating many objects, he also made his
forest-home neat and proper by slowly collecting things that would help in his ascetic
life.

He designated each hour for some particular discipline and followed his routine without
fail.

In the early morning before sunrise he did his recitation of chants.
Next hour he spent in collecting flowers.
Then he had a bath and offered worship to the deities.
Then he ate some fruits, edible roots, lotus stalks etc and did his recitation of chants again
till night-fall and slept all through the night.

In this manner he passed many days in that hut constructed in the Mandara forest. He did
not remember his royal life of the past.

Which goddess of kingdom can attract a man with discrimination in the heart?

(Though ShikhiDhvaja had enough dispassion to discard his kingdom and royal comforts, he did not know
the actual meaning of penance. He thought that living in a forest itself is a sign of dispassion. So he lived
there, day in and day out, following the regular schedule of religious disciplines.
He never bothered to analyze or reason out the statements of the scriptures.
He lived like a brainless machine just fulfilling the one Vaasanaa of living in the forest.
He was proud also of his dispassion.
His ego was still alive proclaiming always that I am great! I have renounced everything. I have
dispassion. I am suffering the hardships of a forest life. and so on.
He had not renounced the I.
He made himself as comfortable as possible in the forest.
Instead of owning a kingdom, he owned now a hut, Kamandalu, mat, gourd etc.
The idea of possession (Mamataa) had not died in him at all.
He had renounced something and got attached to another thing; but had not renounced Attachment.
He wasted eighteen precious years of life in a forest never progressing in the spiritual path. Only his body
became emaciated and skeleton-like because of the hardships he experienced in the forest.)


CHAPTER FIFTEEN

*
Vasishta spoke

In this manner, ShikhiDhvaja lived in the forest in a hut filled with all comforts.
Rama, now listen as to what Chudaalaa did in the palace.

After ShikhiDhvaja had left the palace and gone off in the middle of the night, suddenly
Chudaalaa woke up in fear, like a deer sleeping in the village jumps up with fright.
The bed where her husband slept was empty.
Her face became pale with distress. She lost her cheer. Her heart felt heavy. She felt
apprehensive about the king.
She sat on the bed itself, and thought for some time.
Ah the misery! My Lord has renounced the kingdom!
He has left this home of his and gone off to live in a forest.
What is there for me here now? Let me also go and live with him.
The Scriptures talk of the husband alone as the shelter for women.

So thinking, Chudaalaa, the great Yoginee got up and got ready to follow her husband
wherever he was. She flew up from her bed and reached the sky through the ventilation
window. She floated in the sky through the air currents. Her lustrous face shone like
another moon in the sky. Within minutes she was in the sky-region above the ground
where her husband was. She saw him walking alone in the forest-road with a sword in
hand in that dark night, where spirits remain awake.

She stayed in the sky itself and observed in her mind the entire future of her husband as
to how, when, by what, he will attain the fulfillment of his life. She understood that in
such a state of mind in which her husband was, the future events could not be changed in
any manner. What had to happen had to happen!

She wanted time to think about it all and decided to return home.
Let me not visit him now. Soon I will meet him.
It is a fixed incident in his life.

So thinking, she entered the harem and slept off on the bed like the crescent moon on
Shivas head.

In the morning, she told the people that their king had gone out of the kingdom for some
important reason and consoled them. She took care of the kingdom like her husband did,
by treating all equally.

Thus time passed for that couple who could not see each others face.
One took care of the kingdom; and the other took care of the forest!

Days passed; then fortnights; then months; then seasons; then years, as ShikhiDhvaja
continued his forest-life and Chudaalaa her palace-life.

What to say more!
For eighteen years ShikhiDhvaja lived in the forest filled with trees and Chudaalaa at her
home.


CHAPTER SIXTEEN

*
Vasishta spoke


{CHUDAALAA GETS READY TO MEET HER HUSBAND IN THE FOREST}


ShikhiDhvaja had become old after the eighteen years of forest-life.

Chudaalaa understood that her husband was ready for her instructions now, as he had
purified his mind with such a prolonged practice of unbroken asceticism. She decided
that it was time for her to approach him and instruct him about Self-knowledge.
She got ready to go to that Mandara forest.


(A realized person does not become a rigid machine without feelings or emotions.
Chudaalaas love for her husband had not lessened because of her state of realization; nor did she disregard
her husband for living in the forest pining for liberation.
If ShikhiDhvaja had lived a life of hardship in the forest, she also lived a life of hardship in the palace.
Without her husband, the palace was equal to a forest for her.
She also kept away from all the pleasures and comforts and waited for her husband to purify his mind.
Eighteen years were like eighteen Yugas for her.
The moment she understood through her Yogic power that her husband had a reached a certain level of
purity, she got ready to meet him without delaying even for a second.
Her heart was melting in love for him.
She wanted to rush towards him and lose herself in his strong arms.
As she moves in the sky in the path taken by Siddhas, her mind sees only love blossoming everywhere, be
it a cloud with the lightning or a creeper entwining a tree.
Thrilled to the bottom of the heart and eager to see her husband, she moves in the sky dreaming about the
blissful union with her husband.
It is not wrong to have the natural emotions towards the family when one realizes the Self.
Knowledge does not make you an emotionless stone; but rather polishes the mind and makes it shine forth
with finer emotions.)






One night she rose up and traveled in the sky along the air-currents.

She saw the Siddhaa women like Abhisaarikaas (women who go to meet their lovers)
speeding fast in the Nandana gardens of the heaven, very much eager to meet their lovers.
They were adorned by clusters of gem-flowers like the Kalpa tree.
The soft winds carrying the mixed fragrance of the worship materials used by the
Siddhas, tenderly touched her limbs.
She saw the continuously rising of waves in the ocean of nectar, in the moon-disc.
She saw the taintless shine of the moon when she reached the skies.

As she passed through the clouds, she again and again saw the lightning flashes
continuously clinging to their husbands namely the clouds, without ever getting
separated.

She said to herself-

As long as life is there in the body, ones own nature never dies.
My mind also is pining for my lover!
My mind is also pining as to when I will see again my beloved Lord with his
shoulders equaling a lions!

I see the flower-filled creepers embracing the trees, namely their husbands
and they do not separate from them even for a second.
My mind also yearns for my lover.

This Siddhaa Abhisaarikaa (a woman who goes to meet her lover) who is my
senior being born in a divine womb, is moving fast eager to meet her lover.
My mind is anxious to meet my lover too!

Ah! These slow winds, these moon rays and these beautiful forests increase
my love for my Lord!

Hey ignorant mind! Why are you simply dancing frantically?
Hey good one! Where have you lost the pure discrimination power of yours?
Or my friend, are you also pining for your Lord?
Enough of this overflowing eagerness for meeting my lover!
What is the use!
Hey female body ( )! Why do you pine for him?
Your lord will be very old now!


He would be engaged in performing penance and would be emaciated.
He would be freed of all Vaasanaas now.
I believe that he should have fully lost interest in the kingdom, and all the
pleasures connected with it.
The Vaasanaa creeper would have vanished like the monsoon-stream
entering a huge river.

I am of the opinion that my husband will be now like a dried up tree,
favoring solitude, living alone, without any desire (), and would have
subdued all Vaasanaas.
Even then my mind, why are you eager to embrace him?

Through the power of Yoga, I will enlighten him; make his mind again filled
with passion and join you with your husband!

I will level up my husbands mind purified by penance.

I will again make him rule the kingdom and we will both live happily
together.

Aha! From a long time I have been cherishing this desire in my heart!
I will see to it that my husband becomes equal-minded and reaches the
highest level of bliss.

Only when both think alike, can one enjoy the company of the other!

So thinking, Chudaalaa descended down from the sky.












CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

*
Vasishta spoke


{CHUDAALAA SEES HER EMACIATED HUSBAND IN THE FOREST}


She crossed over mountains, countries, clouds, and huge distances, and reached the
Mandara Mountain.

Invisible to all, she entered the forest through the sky itself, like the wind whose
movements can be surmised, only by the movement of trees and creepers.

She saw some unidentifiable person living inside a leaf-hut in some remote corner of the
forest. She could not believe that it was her husband!
He had so changed!

Through the power of Yoga, she knew that it was the same ShikhiDhvaja who once shone
like the Meru Mountain, being adorned by all ornaments and royal costumes.

He was now highly emaciated in body; had turned dark in hue; and was like a dried up
leaf!

He appeared like Bhringeesha (door-keeper of Shiva who is black in hue), who had
bathed in the collirium-filled water.

He did not seem to have any desire for anything. He was wearing some tattered bark
garment. His hair-locks were matted and had turned brown.

He was peaceful and alone!
He was sitting on the ground and weaving a garland of flowers!












CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

*
Vasishta spoke


{CHUDAALAA IS SHOCKED BY THE SIGHT OF HER HUSBAND}


Beautiful Chudaalaa saw him in that horrible condition and felt distressed.
She said to herself-

Alas! Ignorance which is actually the absence of Self-knowledge is indeed
terrible!

By the grace of this foolishness, such miserable conditions rise for an
ignorant man!

This king, whom I love more than anything in the world, has attained this
(pitiable) state, his heart being filled with dense delusion!

Hence, I will make him know the truth of the Self today itself for sure; and
without any doubt, make him attain both the enjoyment of this world and
liberation.

I will discard this form; take another form and approach him so that I can
give instructions about Self-knowledge to him.

If I go in my original form and talk to him, he will not heed to my words, and
will call me immature and playful.
He will never do what I say, because I am his wife!

I will take over the form of a great person of penance and teach him the
knowledge of the Self.

My husband is now in a ripened state of dispassion because of his life of
renunciation. Today the Self will reflect in his taintless mind for sure!



So thinking, Chudaalaa meditated for a second with closed eyes and instantly changed
her form to that of a Brahmin lad, like a wave changing into another wave.

She descended down into that forest in the form of a young son of a Brahmin.
With a smiling face, she stood in front of her husband.

(Chudaalaa had to take on the form of a person younger than her husband or she would have to be in the
embarrassing state of accepting salutations from her own husband.)



CHAPTER NINETEEN

*
Vasishta spoke


{CHUDAALAA APPEARS AS A BRAHMIN-BOY IN FRONT OF HER HUSBAND}

(ShikhiDhvaja was quietly sitting and weaving a garland. He had got used to his solitude and silent life.
When all of a sudden a divine being shining with luster stood in front of him, he was amazed and felt
extremely happy, as if his penance had finally borne fruit.)

ShikhiDhvaja saw the Brahmin boy standing in front of him, who seemed to have arrived
from another part of the forest and who appeared like the personification of penance.
His body shone like molten gold.
A pearl garland adorned his neck.
He wore a white Yajnopaveeta (sacred thread of Brahmins).
A pair of white cloth covered his body.
He held a Kamandalu in his hand.
He looked very attractive.

The Brahmin lad seemed to fill the double space of the courtyard. But, as his body did
not touch the ground, he seemed to occupy very little space.
He held a beautiful Rudraaksha garland in his hand.
Curved locks of hair covered his fore-head like the array of bees on the lotus and made
him look very attractive.
The whole place was filled with the luster coming out of his body.
He wore Kundalas (ear ornaments) in his ears and looked like the freshly risen Sun.
A Mandaara flower adorned the top of his hair like a moon on the peak of the mountain.
He looked very pleasing and calm.
His senses were in complete control.
He wore a Tilak mark of ashes on the fore-head which appeared cool like the snow.
He was an ornament for the eyes of all.
His youthful form appeared restless like the reflection of the moon in the Heavenly River
Gangaa flowing in the Meru Mountain.


CHAPTER TWENTY

*
Vasishta spoke

ShikhiDhvaja got up the very next second he saw the Brahmin youth.
He guessed that the shining being must be the son of some divinity.

In order to welcome him, he removed off his foot-wear and took him inside saying-
Son of a divine being! Salutations!

He pointed out a seat made of leaves and said-
Please sit here!

He offered a handful of flowers in his open hands.

The Brahmins son said-
Hey Raajarshi! Salutations!

He took the flowers and sat on the leafy-seat.



ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Hey DevaPutra! Noble one! How did you happen to be here?
I think today is a fortunate day for me, because you have graced me by your visit.
Hey Maanada!
Accept this Arghya, this Paadya and these flowers.
Accept this woven garland.
May good things be there for you!


*
Vasishta spoke

So saying, ShikhiDhvaja offered Paadya, Arghya, and the flower-garland as
prescribed in the scriptures, to his dear wife in the form of the Brahmin youth.

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke

Hey Anagha!
I have visited many places on this earth.
I have not received such a polite and tender worship as from you, anywhere else.
I believe that you will indeed, live for a long time.
Hey good one!
Are you engaged in performing penance, with a subdued mind, for attaining liberation, by
casting away all desires?
Hey Soumya (calm person)!
Your peaceful asceticism is like walking on a sharp sword; for you have left the kingdom
and are living in a forest!


(How can you cheat a lovers heart? ShikhiDhvajas heart sensed his dear wife inside that form of the
Brahmin boy. His heart overflowed with affection. But his physical eyes were telling a different story. The
person standing in front of him was a young lad.
Unable to control his emotions, ShikhiDhvaja offers flowers to cover the delicate limbs of the Brahmin boy
who reminded him of his wife.)


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Bhagavan!
You know everything already!
What is to be surprised about that, for you are a God!
You have the power to know everything. It is your nature!
Your limbs appear as if made of moonlight; for nectar oozes out of your eyes when you
look at me!
I have a wife who is very dear to me. She takes care of the kingdom now.
O handsome one! Your look and limbs remind me of her.
Your body, from top to toe looks attractive and delicate.
Like the cloud covering the peak, cover yourself with these flowers.
You limbs look fragile like the petals of flowers. They shine like the taintless moon and
will fade if sunlight touches them.

I have collected all these flowers for worshipping the deities.
Dear one! Let them get their fulfillment by your touch.
My life will become fruitful, by worshipping the guest who has graced my hut.
A guest deserves worship more than the deity.

Now tell me, whose son are you? How you have come here to grace me?
Clear my doubt, hey you with the taintless face of the moon!

[
Brahmin spoke

Raajan! Listen! I will answer all your questions.
Who can ignore a person who is so politely placing his enquiries!

There is Sage Naarada in this hollow of the world, like a Tilak mark made of fragrant
camphor on the face of the Merit-Goddess!

Once he was sitting inside a cave on the bank of River Gangaa and absorbed in
meditating. He was disturbed by some sounds coming from outside.
He peeped out and saw that a group of Apsaraas equaling Rambhaa and Tilottamaa in
beauty, were sporting in the waters of the river outside the cave.
As they believed the area to be unpopulated by men, they were playing in the waters with
much abandon, without even covering their youthful bodies.

Naaradas mind lost its discrimination at the sight of such beautiful girls and his mind
overflowed with joy.
His Praanas stopped vibrating.
A drop of virile semen (Veerya) fell down, without his control.





















CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

{HOW CAN SAGE NAARADA SWERVE FROM THE SELF-STATE?}


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Brahman! Naarada is not an ordinary person! He is an all-knower and a JeevanMukta.
He has no desires. He has no attachments. He is incomparable.
He is in the state of Brahman filling all the space outside and inside.
He is eternal.
He is Naarada!
How can he slip in passion?

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke

Raajarshi!
For all the beings in all the three worlds, bodies are of two kinds, even if they are Gods.

Whether one is ignorant or a knower, as long one possesses a body, he has to experience
happiness and sorrow from the outside world.

By getting an object which satisfies, happiness increases like the ocean by the moon.
Misery is also experienced by hunger etc, like darkness by clouds.
It is the nature of the body.

If one forgets the true nature of the taintless Self even for a second, the perceived world
takes over like the cloud pouring in monsoon.

When contemplating without a break, if one forgets the Self even just for the winking
time of the eye, this devil of perceived phenomenon starts dancing wildly.

Like the darkness and light are connected to day and night, joy and misery are connected
to the body.

In this manner, happiness and sorrow are deeply absorbed by the ignorant, like the red
dye by a cloth; and they go through many births because of that.

Whereas a knower does not absorb the good or bad of events, like the gem does not
absorb colors.

May be the crystal reflects the color of the object which is in front of it. But the knower
does not even reflect the perceived objects, as he is a JeevanMukta and has the
knowledge of the Self.

Only by the attachment to objects, the mind gets deeply colored by that object. Even
when the object is gone, the mind thinks about the object and suffers.

The cloth which is dyed red, does not discard its color if the dye is removed.
So also a fool does not discard the color (attachment) of objects absorbed by his mind.

That is how the concepts of bondage and liberation get explained.

Reduction of thoughts (ideas) is liberation; firmness of thoughts is bondage.


CHAPTER TWENTY TWO


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Tell me Lord!
How does one feel pain or pleasure within oneself, from objects which are distant also?

Your words are so profound, clear and meaningful.
I do not feel enough of them, like a peacock by the oncoming clouds.

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke

The immature and the ignorant, feel the sense of joy by themselves, feeling the happiness
produced in the heart, by getting the perception through the body, eyes, hands etc.

The experience of joy and misery alone binds the Jeeva.
When it is absent, it is said to be the state of liberation.

As long as the wicked senses do not bring about the experience of joy and misery, the
Jeeva remains peaceful and quiet.

Feeling sad or happy by the perceptions, this Jeeva which is beyond the reach of senses,
feels excited like the ocean in the presence of the moon.

The Jeeva gets agitated by the perceived objects and feels happy or sad like the cat by the
meat piece. Ignorance alone is the cause of all this.

By the true understanding and the knowledge of the Self, he understands that there is no
happiness or misery in truth. Then he attains a quiet state.

When he knows that the joy etc does not belong to him and that he was deluded all this
time, he attains the state of Brahman and becomes peaceful.

This great world arises by the very nature of the Self. It remains bound by the right and
wrong of things because of the Vaasanaas. When the Vaasanaas get destroyed through
the practice of knowledge, then it is not caught by the right or wrong of things. Then it
does not take birth again.
This is our experience, O Sage!



CHAPTER TWENTY THREE


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Hey, Best of the eloquent!
You speak excellent and meaningful words. They are profound and describe the Supreme
Reality, as it is the knowledge obtained from direct experience.
After listening to your eloquent speech, I feel so cool within as if I have drunk nectar.
Now tell me briefly how you were born.
Later I will listen to your words of knowledge and try to comprehend their meanings.
What did Brahmas son Naarada do with the Veerya (semen virile)?
Tell me exactly what happened.

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke

Naarada then tied up the intoxicated elephant namely his mind, to the huge stake of
Viveka (Discrimination), with the rope of Intellect.

That Veerya (semen virile), was like the drop of the moon which had melted in the
Kalpa fires of dissolution.

Naarada placed it in the crystal pot (Kumbha) which was by his side.

The pot on the Meru Mountain was huge, unbreakable and had a deep hollow.
Naarada filled the pot with milk by his power of conception.
Later the Sage was engaged in his own rites.

A month passed and the fetus grew like the reflection of the moon.
The pot delivered a child like the moon at the end of the month.

The child came out of the pot with all limbs in perfect condition. Within a few days itself,
he grew up like the moon in the bright fortnight. He was unparalleled in beauty.

Sage Naarada taught him everything he knew.
Within a few days, the boy was like Naaradas reflection absorbing all that Naarada
knew.

Later Naarada took his son to BrahmaLoka and offered salutations to Brahma.
Naaradas son also saluted Brahma with respect.
Brahma affectionately embraced his grandson and made him sit on his lap.
By a mere blessing, he made his grandson an all-knower whose knowledge knew no
bounds.
Lotus-born named him as Kumbha. (because he was born out of a pot and also because he was
filled with knowledge like a pot filled with milk.)

O Good man!
I am that Kumbha, the grandson of Brahma and the son of Naarada; and I was born out of
a Kumbha.
I live in BrahmaLoka with my father happily.

The four Vedas are my play-partners.
Gaayatri is my mothers sister.
My mother is Sarasvati.
My abode is BrahmaLoka.
It is my grandfathers home.

I wander anywhere in the world as I like.
I have no duties to perform and I just amuse myself in whatever way I like.
My feet do not touch the ground when I walk on the earth.
The dust does not taint me; nor does my body ever feel tired or ill.

Today, as I was floating in the sky, I saw you here in this hut.
So, I came to visit you.
Dear Sage! I have told you everything you wanted to know.








~
Vaalmiki spoke

c4c

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H

As the Sage was speaking words profound with knowledge, the day ended;
the people in the court saluted the Sage
and left to attend to their evening duties of bath etc;
they returned again with the Suns rays.


*

EIGHTEENTH DAY




CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR


*
Vasishta spoke

(Sage Vasishta continues the story.)


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

You were sent here by my merits of many lives!
Today I stand as the foremost among the blessed, for you have arrived here speaking
nectar-like words.
Even the attainment of a kingdom does not please me as much as the company of a noble
person, for, this alone bestows incessant bliss.


*
Vasishta spoke

Interrupting the words of the king, Chudaalaa in the form of Naaradas son, spoke again.

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke

Let it remain!
I told you all about myself.
Now you tell me who you are and what you are doing in this mountain?
When will your forest-life end?
Tell me the truth. Those who do penance never hide anything.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

You are the son of a divine being. You know everything already.
You know all that happens in the world!
What more is there that I have to tell you newly!

Frightened of the Samsaara, I am living in this forest.
Though you know everything, I will anyhow tell you everything in brief.

I am ShikhiDhvaja, the king. I have renounced the kingdom and staying here.

Hey, you knower! I am very much frightened of taking birth again, experiencing
happiness again, pain again, again dying and getting born again.
That is why I feel distressed and do penance.

Though wandering in the forest paths, though going in all directions, I have not attained
that Supreme restful state, like a poor man destined to have no wealth.

I have given up all efforts. I have failed to get any results.
I am all alone and have not attained any fulfillment.
I have lost all friends. I am drying in this forest like a tree eaten by termites.

Though I have performed all actions of an ascetic without any flaw, I am only moving
from sorrow to a more sorrowful state.
The prescribed action-path which should end up in the nectar of bliss has become like
poison by not giving proper result.

(ShikhiDhvaja is worried that his flawless performance of actions was not bearing fruit. He confides his
anxiety to the young Sage.)


CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE


*
Vasishta spoke

(Sage Vasishta continues the story.)

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke


(Instead of directly answering his questions, Chudaalaa teaches him knowledge as if speaking out the
words of Brahma, the Creator.
May be she is apprehensive that Kumbhas words also may be disregarded as immature and playful!)

Once I had asked the very same question to my grandfather.
Lord! Tell me which one is the better of the two-
H action (rites prescribed in the scriptures) or 7 Knowledge (of the Self)?

[
Brahma spoke


{KRIYAA- PERFORMANCE OF ORDAINED RITES}

7 ~ cc
H

Knowledge alone is the Supreme Good.
The Supreme state is experienced only through that.

Action( Karma prescribed by the scriptures)
is just for passing the time (to avoid wrong actions) and
for amusing oneself (later in heavens).

(Kriyaa is just a method of passing the life-time in a good way. These prescribed rites which are to be
performed regularly by a man, keeps the mind controlled, like a cow tied by a rope to the stake.
And the rites properly performed will bestow the result of some heaven experience for some prescribed
time.
Kriyaa cannot lead towards liberation.)



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1 1c+ + cc

For those without the vision of knowledge,
action is just for begetting progeny.

How can one give up a blanket,
when he does not even own a fine cloth to cover himself?

(Kriyaa helps in fulfilling the ordinary desires of the world like good progeny, prosperity for many
generations etc.
Since all the people do not have the desire for liberation, since everyone does not have the capacity to
follow the path of knowledge, these Kriyaas are ordained by the scriptures.
These ignorant people are interested in only fulfilling the short-time desires. How can they be made to
aspire for liberation?
Teaching knowledge to them will be equal to asking them to renounce an expensive blanket, when they
dont even own a proper fine garment!)




{VAASANAAS}

c71 H
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Because the ignorant man is just the essence of Vaasanaas,
the actions are fruitful
(as Vaasanaa fulfillments).

For a knower, everything is fruitless,
as the Vaasanaas remain destroyed.


(The mind of an ignorant man is only a channel for fulfilling the Vaasanaas which keep rising one after the
other. He has to take many births to keep on fulfilling them. How can he ever pause a second, to think of
liberation?
So many wants and so many Kriyaas fill the life of the ignorant and he has to fulfill them all!
An ignorant man is drowned in the ocean of Karma!

A knower has no Vaasanaas. He does not have to bother about fulfilling the Vaasanaas.
Even if he performs any Kriyaa in the normal course of life, he has no desire for the fruits.
He has no Vaasanaa of doer-ship or the enjoyer-ship.)




Lord Brahma continued:

All actions including those actions which have begun to give results, become fruit-less
because of the absence of Vaasanaas, like creepers without the sprinkling of water.

(Actions of the present bear no fruit for the knower. Actions of the past also do not bear fruit as they also
get burnt in the fire of knowledge. When trees themselves burn off, what to say of grass shoots?)



When seasons change, the previous season dissolves off.
Similarly, if the Vaasanaas are destroyed, the fruits of the actions also get destroyed.

A Vaasanaa-less action bears no fruit like the sword-grass.
(It is the nature of the sword-grass not to give out fruits.)

Only a child with the Vaasanaa for a ghost will see a ghost, not otherwise. A fool with a
Vaasanaa for suffering only, suffers, not otherwise.

Even a grandly performed action bears no good or bad fruit for the knower, like the
sword-grass in full bloom.

1c F
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Actually there is no Vaasanaa at all (even for the ignorant)!
It is just what appears as ego etc.
It rises falsely through ignorance, like waters in the desert.

(Actually there is no Vaasanaa at all.
Vaasanaa is a term coined out for the ignorant, like the words ghost or mirage-waters which have no
true existence.
When the misunderstanding is there that one is a limited structure of a body, then Vaasanaa also rises as a
river in the desert. It is not really there.
A knower is not identified with his body. So where is the question of Vaasanaa for him?
A person, who understands that the waters seen in the desert are just the play of the excessive heat, does not
see the waters at all. For him, the mirage is not there at all. )


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Vaasanaa does not rise for him,
whose ignorance is removed by the realization that everything is Brahman,
like the waters in the mirage (do not rise) for a wise man.


c7
7

7

The Supreme state
which is free of old age and death,
which does not lead to repeated births again,
rises in the Jeeva,
by the mere renunciation of Vaasanaas.


(Chudaalaa is intimating here that the king had renounced the kingdom, but not the Vaasanaas.
He was seeing the mirage waters (of penance and hardship) as real and chasing them to satiate his thirst of
liberation. No wonder he was still thirsty. He was expecting freedom from actions through the performance
of actions. Since actions were performed because of Vaasanaas, he could never get freedom from the
actions. If instead he had killed the Vaasanaas in the palace itself, he would have been freed of the actions.
Though doing actions he would be free of the doer-ship and enjoyer-ship.)




7 7
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Mind is that which is with Vaasanaas.
Knowledge to be known is the mind without Vaasanaas.
Through knowledge, when that which is to be known is attained,
the Jeeva does not get born again.


(Mind is a synonym word for Vaasanaa. A mind without Vaasanaas is dead actually. A dead mind does not
sprout leading to successive births.
Vaasanaas get destroyed through the knowledge of the Self.)

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke

(So, this is how Brahma answered my question!)





CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke


{CHUDAALAA CHIDES THE KING}

Even those Great Gods like Brahma proclaim that knowledge alone leads to the highest
good.
Hey Raajarshi! Why are you still in the state of ignorance?

(Why have you ignored knowledge and clinging on to penance for the attainment of liberation?)



You seem to be wastefully entertaining yourself with the ideas-
here the Kamandalu, here the wooden stick (Danda), here the mat of meditation
(Brsee) and so on, O king!

(Your mind is still turned outwards, away from the Self.
You are holding on to these small objects of the forest also, with the idea of possession!
What have you renounced?)



You are not reasoning out the truth as
Who am I? How has this come about? How will this subside? and so on!
You are continuing in the state of ignorance itself!

(This sort of enquiry alone leads to Self-realization; not the penance!)



Hey King! Why are you not holding on to the feet of those knowers, who know the
Supreme state, and ask questions like
How does one get bound? How does one get liberated? and so on?

(If you did not know how to do such an enquiry yourself, you should have sought the knowers or great
Sages and asked them these questions. They would have guided you!
Instead, you are living here all alone like a worm in a hole, all by yourself; not enquiring by yourself; nor
questioning the knowers!)


Wasting your life doing routine mechanical actions of ascetic disciplines and
experiencing a miserable life of loneliness and sufferings, in this mountain hole,
why are you just doing the act of surviving, equaling a lowly rock-worm?

(What have you done after all these years here stuck in this forest-hole? Just surviving!
Eating, sleeping and doing some actions with your senses! What else?
Even a worm hiding in the hole under the ground does the same act of surviving!
What have you achieved as an evolved human being with an intellect at your service?)


By serving the knowers, who have attained the equal vision of the Self and asking them
suitable questions; and keeping constant company with them, one understands the path
leading towards liberation and thereby gets liberated.

Live in this hole of the forest like an earth-worm, stopping all these stupid activities, and
stay with the knower, eating food along with him (serving and learning from him)!

(This is what you should do, now at least!
Be a worm in this forest as per your liking; but live with a knower and seek knowledge from him!)




ShikhiDhvaja spoke


{SHIKHIDHVAJA UNDERSTANDS HIS MISTAKE}

Aha! After a long time, I have been enlightened by you, hey Son of a god!
Foolishly, I have avoided the company of the noble ones and am living here alone in the
forest.

Aha! I believe that today I am at last free of all sins, for a great person like you have
visited me by your own will and have been advising me!

Hey you with lustrous face!
You are my Guru! You are my father! You are my friend!
I salute your feet as a disciple. Be compassionate towards me!

Instruct me about that, Brahman, that which you know well, by knowing which one does
not suffer anymore, by which I will become liberated.



(What is knowledge? What knowledge should one seek?)

There are so many divisions in knowledge like Ghata-jnaana (pot-knowledge) etc.
Which is the Supreme knowledge which will take one across this worldly existence?




(Chudaalaa wants to make sure that the king does not disregard Kumbhas words because he is young.
So she takes a promise from the king that he will accept the knowledge given to him by Kumbha without
questioning.)

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke


I will teach you, only that which you feel acceptable, Raajarshi!
I cannot talk about any knowledge wastefully like a crow croaking before a pillar.

If the questioning person does not have conviction and accept what is told, then my
teaching will go waste like the sight in darkness.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Whatever you say, I will accept them as if they are Vedic dictums, without thinking
twice! This is my promise to you!

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke


Like a child accepting his fathers words without question, you must accept my words
with conviction.

When I speak, be certain that it will be only for your good.
Listen to it as if it is a soothing song; and do not raise silly objections and argue.

I will relate to you now some interesting stories, which resemble your own life-story.
By listening to these stories, enlightenment occurs after a long time of thinking (for the
dull intellects also), and men of wisdom get rid of the fear of this worldly existence
instantly!











CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke


{THE MAN WHO LOST THE CHINTAAMANI GEM}

There was a noble man, who was endowed with all virtues and also riches,
thus becoming a venue for both those contradictory things, like the
combination of Vadava fire and waters.

(Virtues and riches never stay together. But this man (ShikhiDhvaja) had both.
He was endowed with all good characters, learning and was also the emperor of a huge
kingdom!)


He was a master of all arts. He knew the science of weaponry. He was
charming in behavior. However, he did not know of that state (of the Self)
which is the final point of all desires.

(ShikhiDhvaja was ignorant of the Self.)


He was engaged in attaining the ChintaaMani which could be got only
with much difficulty and hardship, like Vaadava fire trying to dry up the
ocean.

(He was after SarvaTyaaga Complete Renunciation.)


Anyhow, very soon his goal was accomplished, and ChintaaMani-
Attainment became a reality because of his steadfastness and determination.
What is not possible for those who make sincere effort!

(The king had true dispassion and was indeed fit for the attainment of Self-state).


Even an ordinary person, who is sincere in his efforts and undergoes any
amount of hardship, using efficiently all possible methods, will achieve his
goal without any obstacle!

This man who was trying hard to possess the ChintaaMani gem suddenly
saw it near his hand, like a Sage sitting on the peak of the Udaya Mountain
(where Sun rises), sees the moon rising there; and (though just near his hand) sees (believes
that) the moon as if, it is very far and is rising in the distant Meru Mountain.

(The Sage is where the Sun rises!
The king could have attained Self-knowledge through such a dispassion and
discrimination.
But he wanted the moon.
And the moon rose also.
But he saw it as if it was distant; as if it was in a far away mountain and disbelieved his
own experience.
The king did not strive for knowledge through dispassion also, thinking that knowledge
was some far away attainment, impossible to gain for ordinary mortals like him.)


He could not believe that the thing near his hand was the king of all gems -
the ChintaaMani, like an ordinary man on the streets cannot believe that he
owns the kingdom!

He was surprised, confused and pained at the same time.
Disregarding the reality of the gem near his hand, he thought-

This gem is not that gem!
If it is a gem, then it is not that gem!
Shall I touch it (and test its reality)?
No, I will not touch it!
If I touch, maybe it will vanish off! (I am a very unlucky person)
The best of the gems cannot be attained within such a short time.
After trying hard, it can only be attained at the end of ones life; so it is
believed by all!
I am a wretched person!
Maybe my eyes are contracted and see the shine of the gem like imagining a
moving creeper or two moons through delusion!
How can I ever be a receptacle of such a great fortune, that I have near my
hand today, the best of gems which fulfills all desires?
Only very few great men are there in this world, who can acquire wealth in
a very short span of time.
I am after all an ordinary wretched unlucky man of very little penance!
How can Siddhis come to me who am an abode of misfortunes only?

For long, that deluded fool was deliberating on the reality and unreality of
the gem and did not take the gem in hand.

c9c
7

When, by whom, what is not to be obtained,
will not be obtained by him, at that time!
Even when the ChintaaMani gem was obtained,
he foolishly disregarded it and rejected it.

When he was in that state, the Gem flew away and vanished off on the sky,
like an arrow rejecting the bow from which it is shot, and goes off.
Siddhis reject him who disregards them.

(Was he not mentioned before, as a worldly-wise person who knew how to act in the
world? Then why did he act foolish and lose the gem?

Siddhis always bestow wisdom upon a man. If some one ignores them or disrespects
them, they take away whatever wisdom one already has.

It is said-
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@

1 7 q 1

Gods do not punish a man by beating him with a stick.
They take away his wisdom. He punishes himself because of that.)


Siddhis kill the wisdom of a man and go away.
When they arrive, they bestow everything on the man.
If ignored, they take away everything.

That fool again continued his disciplines for obtaining the Best of gems.
Those who are determined never give up their effort.

Then he saw a shining piece of glass shaped like an unbroken gem, which
some invisible Siddhas placed in front of him, just to fool him and to amuse
themselves.

That idiot believed that the glass piece was the real ChintaaMani gem.

(The king believed that the penance-life in the forest was the true attainment.)


[7

A deluded idiot sees even mud as gold!

* * q 7

1
7g q

The delusion in the mind makes-
eight into six (while counting); enemy into friend; rope into a snake;
ground into lake; and one moon into two moons.


That fool took that worthless shining piece of glass and regarded it as the
precious ChintaaMani gem. He even discarded the wealth which was his
already.

When anything and everything is made available by the power of
ChintaaMani, why bother about money or wealth?
This country of mine is not a deserving place for me. Nobody has any regard
for me. Only sinners abound here.
And why should I live in this old house? It is old already!
Why do I need these relatives?
I will go far and live happily with the wealth produced by this miraculous
gem.

Thinking like this, that fool went off to a deserted forest.
There he attained such a terrible state (death), which equals the inert state of
foolishness, and his body hue turned into the color of the Collirium
Mountain; all because of that worthless glass piece.


{THE GREATEST CALAMITY FOR ANY ONE IS IGNORANCE ALONE}

(Any misery a man meets in his life is because of his own faulty thinking.
Wise men never suffer even when faced with thousands of difficulties, for they are
always blissful. But a foolish man will suffer much, even when reclining on a golden
cot.)

E 7

* E
*

Those miseries which arise because of foolishness
do not come because of calamities or old age or death.
Foolishness alone sits on the top of
all the sorrowful experiences,
like the black hair on a mans head!




















CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke


{THE ELEPHANT WHICH GOT TRAPPED BY THE ELEPHANT-CATCHER}


King! Listen to another interesting story. It also resembles your story and
will awaken your intellect.

There was an elephant in the Vindhya forest. He was the leader of a huge
herd of elephants.

He appeared tall and majestic as if manifested out of Vindhya Mountain by
the pleased mind of Agastya.

His tusks were sharp like the flames of thunder-bolt; were like the flames of
Kalpa fires; were capable of uprooting even the Meru Mountain.

He once was trapped in an iron net by an elephant-keeper, like the Vindhya
Mountain by the Great Sage (Agastya), or Bali by Upendra.

Caught in the net, he was pierced on the head by sharp weapons and was
under the control of the elephant-catcher. He suffered like the Tripura cities
(of demons) burnt again by the newly shot fire from the eyes of Shiva.

The elephant-catcher was keeping watch over him from a tall Taala tree. The
elephant could not see his enemy from his trapped position.

Three days passed.

The elephant went on struggling to break the net, continuously making the
chains clatter and tinkle. And at last, after a few hours, he could make a hole
in the net by poking with his tusks, like demon Bali unlocking the door of
Amaraavati.

The elephant-catcher saw from the top of the tree that the elephant had made
a hole in the net.

As the elephant started to break out of the net, the elephant-catcher jumped
on his head from the top of the tree. But his feet missed the elephant and he
fell on the ground, like a ripe fruit by winds.

(The elephant could have crushed him with his foot; but-)
The elephant felt compassionate towards the man fallen on the ground.
Pious men always express their good qualities even towards the lowly.

What is the value of my valor, if I crush a man who has fallen down
helpless and defenseless!

Thinking thus, the elephant did not kill his enemy.
He just tore open the net and went away.
After the elephant left, the elephant-keeper stood up. He was unhurt in the
body and mind, though he had fallen from the top of the Taala tree.
He had not broken his body.
Maybe the bodies of the wicked are unbreakable.
Strength increases in the evil-doers like the clouds in monsoon.
He started walking immediately after the fall.

The elephant-catcher was very much disappointed by losing the elephant by
missing the jump. He was like a man who got a treasure, only to see it
vanish.

He started to search for the elephant all over the forest, like Raahu
searching for the moon hidden by clouds.

After a long search, he found the elephant in some forest. He saw him
resting under a tree, as if just out from the battle-field.

The elephant-catcher brought more men and equipments. He dug a hole all
around the forest where the elephant was staying. That deceitful man
covered the hole with tender creepers, like the fragile empty clouds covering
the autumn sky.

Within a few days itself, the elephant wandering carelessly, fell inside that
hole like the mountain falling inside the empty ocean-bed.

In that terrible hollow of the nether-world, inside that circular hole, staying
at the bottom of the fully dug ocean-bed as it were, that elephant stays there
suffering immensely, even today!

If the elephant had killed his enemy fallen in front of him, on that day itself,
he would not have fallen inside that deep hole and suffer like this today!


E HH
7

7

A man foolishly does not take into account
the future events which will be affected by todays actions,
and suffers like the Vindhya elephant!

41

1 *

1 @

E 4

The elephant was very happy thinking that it was freed of the piercing net.
Though he had gone off far, he was again trapped.
Who does not suffer from foolishness!

E 7 c
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c c 1
E 11

The foolishness where
one thinks in the mind that one is bound, though not bound,
is the real bondage, O great man!

To remove that foolishness,
understand that everything is the essence of Self only.

The three worlds which bind the Self, rise from the Self only.

For one who is established in the foolishness,
he himself becomes the fertile field for all the seeds of suffering.


CHAPTER TWENTY NINE


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Hey son of the immortal God!
Please explain to me, what is the true meaning of the stories of ChintaaMani-attainment
and the imprisonment of the Vindhya elephant.

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke


{THE EXPLANATION OF THE STORIES}

4 T* *cc (q

cc

1 7

Through explaining the inner meaning of the story,
I will reveal the complete picture which was only drawn as lines,
on the walls of the mind,
in the house of the Heart.
Listen to your own story hidden there.


{YOU ARE THE FOOL WHO CHASED THE CHINTAAMANI INSTEAD OF SELF-STATE}

He who was well-versed in scriptures, but ignorant of the Self-knowledge; and who tried
to obtain the ChintaaMani gem, is actually you, O king!

You are well versed in all the scriptures, like the Sun who knows all the worlds at the
base of Meru Mountain. But you did not rest in the knowledge of the Self, like the stone
(placed) inside the waters.

{CHINTAAMANI FOR YOU WAS SARVA-TYAAGA}

ChintaaMani here means un-faked renunciation of every thing. That alone ends all
sufferings. So you with your purified mind tried to achieve that.

(It is not easy to renounce the kingdom etc. But you the noble one, desired liberation and with extreme
dispassion, you were able to discard the wealth of this created world.)



{OF COURSE, SARVA TYAAGA LEADS TOWARDS LIBERATION}

By the complete renunciation of everything (SarvaTyaaga), everything gets attained.
Complete renunciation alone brings about the Supremacy (Self-state), like the attainment
of the Supremacy over the entire world is possible through the attainment of
ChintaaMani.


{YOU HAD THE DISPASSION; YOU SHOULD HAVE REALIZED THE SELF!}

You wanted to renounce everything and you did it also.
When one disregards all the wealth of the Creation, the Knowledge of the Self has to
arise by itself.


{YOU RENOUNCED EVERYTHING BUT THE IDEA OF MINE}

You renounced the kingdom along with the wife, wealth and relatives.
You have come far from your country to your hermitage!


{YOU DID NOT RENOUNCE THE MIND}

After renouncing everything, you are still left with the I idea, like the wind gets left
back after the clouds of the autumn are blown away.
Only if the mind is renounced, can the renunciation of the world become complete.


{YOU ARE PROUD THAT YOU RENOUNCED EVERYTHING}

After renouncing, you are still plagued by the idea of renunciation, like the sky by the
clouds. This is not the Supreme state of bliss.

Complete renunciation means the state of the Supreme!
(Even the idea of renunciation has to be renounced!)


{YOUR CHINTAAMANI FLEW OFF, BECAUSE YOU DID NOT SEEK KNOWLEDGE}

That state is something high above somewhere to be achieved after a long time; as such
thinking increased, your renunciation went flying off. (It got wasted.)


{YOU WERE OBSESSED WITH YOU DAILY RITES AND DISCIPLINES}

Where is renunciation for one, who is troubled by even the least of the worries?!
How can a tree caught in the wind, remain still?


{AS LONG AS THOUGHTS FLOOD THE MIND, IT NEVER CEASES TO BE!}

Thought alone is the mind. It is also known as conception.
When the mind is always thinking, how can it be renounced?
If the mind falls into the thoughts of the tri-world net within the span of a second, how
can the taintless renunciation get achieved?
(The entire tri-world is contained within the mind. What is SarvaTyaaga if the mind is not renounced?)



{YOUR RENUNCIATION WAS FRUITLESS}

Because of the conception within, your renunciation went flying off, like village-bird
flies off at the least of the noise.



{AND YOU LOST YOUR PEACE OF MIND ALSO!}

The very peace that should have been there by Complete Renunciation was also taken
away by that.

You invite a person and disrespect him! Wont he feel bad?

(You renounced the family and wealth through true dispassion. And you should have pursued the
knowledge of the Self along with it through proper enquiry.
But since you did not take the fruit of SarvaTyaaga, which is cessation of thoughts and Knowledge
pursuit; the very renunciation turned into a wasteful venture.
All the trouble taken to reach a forest and live there, became just equal to the action of an ordinary beggar
who travels from one place to another and lives in poor circumstances, suffering hardships.)


{FOREST-LIFE BECAME YOUR FULFILMENT OF LIFE}

Hey Lotus eyed king! When the gem of Complete Renunciation was gone, your
conceiving eyes saw the glass-gem of penance.

You were attached only to that suffering of the penance, which was seen by your
deluded eye, like seeing a rabbit in the reflection of the moon.

(Moon was gone: only the reflection was there; and even in that the king could see only the rabbit!
Renunciation was wasted; forest-life alone was left back; and even there in that lonely forest, the king was
happy to just go on suffering the hardships accompanying such a life.)







{MENTAL PURITY WAS NOT MAINTAINED THROUGHOUT}

Having no Vaasanaas and no interest in pleasures in the beginning; and then having
countless Vaasanaas in performing the penance, all the efforts from the beginning to end
have gone waste.

(When the king left the palace, he had true dispassion. But in the forest he developed attachment to the
forest-life itself.)


{YOU ARE A BLOCKHEAD INDEED}

He who rejects the limitless bliss, which is easily attainable and engages in the attainment
of a limited object, which is difficult to achieve, is a self-killer and an idiot.

You wanted to renounce everything and you did not accomplish it at all; for- you have
escaped from the bondage of kingdom etc; but are bound by the pain of ignorance, living
here in the forest-home.

Now you are bound by the bondage of perceptions namely the forest-life.
Your worries have doubled now, thinking about the cold and heat of the outside.
For the inexperienced, forest-life gives more suffering than bondage.

You are under the false belief that you have got the ChintaaMani.
Hey good man! You have not attained even a tiny piece of a crystal!

This is the meaning of the story of the Gem. Understand the essence of the story and lead
your mind towards its fulfillment.















CHAPTER THIRTY

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke


Hey King! Now listen to the amazing explanation of the story of the elephant of the
Vindhya Mountain, so that you will attain the Supreme state by understanding it.

The elephant which lived in the Vindhya Mountain is only You.
Vairaagya and Viveka are the two tusks of the elephant.

The elephant-catcher who wanted to imprison the elephant is ignorance which wanted
to overpower you and hurt you.

Though all-powerful, you act powerless and go from pain to pain, fear to fear, chased by
that foolishness like the elephant by the elephant catcher.

The unbreakable iron-net in which the elephant was caught, is the net of attachments and
desires binding you all over.

Attachment is stronger, wider and more painful than an iron rope.
In course of time, iron may wear out; not the thirst for pleasures!

That enemy, who stays far and out of sight, watching the bound elephant with
amusement, is the ignorance keeping watch over you.

When the elephant broke the iron-net and escaped, you also renounced the bondage of the
kingdom, the stage of sense pleasures.

It is easy to tear open the piercing iron net; but not the removal of the desires for
pleasures from the mind.

The elephant-catcher fell down from the tree when the elephant tore open the net.
When you renounced the kingdom, ignorance fell.

When a dispassionate man decides to renounce the desires for pleasures, then ignorance
starts to tremble, like the ghost in the tree when the tree gets cut.
When a discriminating person renounces all the pleasures, then the ignorance runs away,
like the ghost from the cut tree.

If the hosts of pleasures are discarded, the ignorance-state falls off, like the nest falling
off when the tree gets cut by an axe.

When you came to the forest, your ignorance fell in front of you.
You did not kill it by the sword of mind-renunciation (Mana-Tyaaga).
So it again got up and feeling vengeful, pushed you into this deep hole of the
Penance-world (Tapa-Prapancha).

If you had killed that ignorance then and there itself, when it had fallen at the time of
renouncing the kingdom, it would have died and not taken revenge on you like this.

The circular trench dug by the elephant-catcher for that elephant, is the endless misery of
penance offered by the ignorance to you.

The equipments he got from his master the king who is Disregard for the enquiry of the
Self- are the anxieties and apprehensions of the mind, namely the wealth that belong to
the king.

You are that chief of the elephants.
Though you are not an elephant, the enemy called ignorance has quickly thrown you into
the deep hole of the trench. The hole covered by heaps of tender creepers is the misery of
penance concealed by the few pious acts.

Hey king!
You are still stuck in the terrible miserable hole of penance, inside the nether-world,
imprisoned like Bali.

You are the elephant.
The desires are the chains.
The enemy is delusion.
The hole that has been dug is the complete imprisonment that has befallen again, in the
form of fierce penance.
The earth is the Vindhya mountain forest.


This is the meaning of the story I told you.
Now do what you have to do.
(Get out of the hole and kill the enemy once for all.)









CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke



In the past, why did not you trust in Chudaalaas words of wisdom?
She was talking sense and she knew what she was talking about.
She was a knower!
She is one of the great Knowers of Self.
When she says something, she acts it out too.
Whatever she said was exactly the truth!
You should have acted according to her instructions.

If her words were not to be followed (as she is only a woman and her words
are to be ignored as a brainless chatter), then why your choice of Complete
Renunciation of All was not perfected?

(If her words were just senseless prattle, then you should have attained Self-knowledge
through your path of penance in the forest! But you have achieved nothing!
Does this not prove that your so-called SarvaTyaaga was imperfect and did not yield
any result?)



ShikhiDhvaja spoke

(ShikhiDhvaja was slightly annoyed. He had enough of getting proved as an idiot and a
blockhead. And how could his wife be right? What did she know?
He had taken a great step in the path of spirituality. It could not be denied in any way.
He had renounced everything; renounced all that was his! What more could he do?)

I renounced the kingdom!
I renounced the palace-home!
I also renounced the country in the same way!
I even renounced my wife!
Then how do you say that I have not renounced everything completely?

Chudaalaa (in the form of Kumbha) spoke


Wealth, wife, house, kingdom, land, royal umbrella, and relatives-
all these are not the everything of yours Raajan!
How could you have renounced everything?
Still you are left with one more excellent thing that belongs to you.
If you renounce it, you will be left with nothing of yours and will attain the
painless state for sure.


(ShikhiDhvaja thought for a few minutes.
What else could he renounce?
He looked all-around.
The beautiful forest with its fruit trees and flower-creepers; the forest which had sheltered
him like a mother for eighteen years!
Well! What was difficult for him who had renounced the post of the emperor and walked
out!? He would renounce this forest too and may be move away elsewhere.
Or he can keep on wandering all over the earth and not get attached to any place!)


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

If the kingdom is not all of mine, then this forest along with the mountain,
trees and bushes, is what I can call as mine!
I will renounce this too!


*
Vasishta spoke

The very instant these words came out of his mouth Hey Rama, the brave
ShikhiDhvaja, who had all his senses under control and who was flared up
by the words of Kumbha; within a minute wiped off that forest from his
mind, with full determination, like the monsoon floods dissolving off the
sands on the river bank.




ShikhiDhvaja spoke

I have renounced the Vaasanaa for all the things of the forest along with the
tree, mountain, caves, etc.
I have indeed renounced everything for sure!

+

Kumbha spoke

The mountain bank, forest, cave, water, land filled with trees all these are
not your everything. How could you have renounced everything?
Still you are left with one more excellent thing that belongs to you.
If you renounce it, you will be left with nothing of yours and will attain the
painless state for sure.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

If these are not all of mine, then what is left is this hermitage, with the inner
room, hut, and water-place, which is my everything!
I will immediately renounce it.

*
Vasishta spoke


The very instant these words came out of his mouth Hey Rama, the brave
ShikhiDhvaja, who had all his senses under control, enlightened by the
words of Kumbha; by meditating for a minute, wiped off that hermitage
from the heart, through the purified mind, like removing one projection by
another projection, like the wind dissolving off the sands on the river bank.




ShikhiDhvaja spoke

I have renounced the Vaasanaa of all things of the hermitage along with the
tree, hut and the forest.
I have indeed renounced everything for sure!

+

Kumbha spoke

The tree, water-pool, land, bushes, hut and the ascetic life all these are not
your everything. How could you have renounced everything?
Still you are left with one more excellent thing that belongs to you.
If you renounce it, you will be left with nothing of yours and will attain the
painless state.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

If these are not all of mine, then what is left is the collections of vessels,
deer-skin, wall and the small hut, which is my everything!
I will immediately renounce it.

*
Vasishta spoke

So saying, that pious man of the pure mind got up from his seat with an
un-agitated mind, like the autumn cloud from the peak.

Kumbha kept on watching his actions, with a smile on his face, like the sun
watching the actions of the world from his seat.
Let him do whatever he wants! For him it is a sacred task!
So thinking, Kumbha silently kept on watching ShikhiDhvaja.




ShikhiDhvaja collected all the objects like vessels etc and heaped them all
outside the hut in one place.
After keeping them all together, he brought some dry sticks and made a fire
in one empty corner. He dropped all the vessels etc inside the fire and sat on
the grass mat.
_

All these days you were rotated by me, hey devoted wife!
I was unaware that I am using you for my selfish purposes.
You need not trouble yourself to serve me anymore!
I roamed in the forests of chants along with you and in delusion was
performing rites leading to valueless results.
The delusion of penance etc is gone and you are of no use to me now.
I have seen many holy places; now let me rest, my dear friend!

So saying, he threw the Rudraaksha garland into the blazing fire, like the
wind throwing the array of stars into the dissolution fire.
_

I, the human-animal snatched you from a forest-animal!
I was ignorant and spread you on the grass-seat.
Now go back to your source, the Maayaa! May your path be auspicious!
Through the fire attain the nature of the sky.
You (with spots) and the sky with the stars, are both equal in character!

He removed the spotted deer-skin from the grass-seat with his hands and put
it also into the fire.
_

You are of a perfectly round shape (of a good character).
I carried the water through you.
You were a good friend; understood me well; and were very affectionate!
O Good one! Kamandalu! I have not acted grateful towards you.
You are the abode of all goodness.
You purified your body in the fire and came to me.
Go the way you came. May your path be auspicious.

So saying he left it near the river for some other Sage to pick it up.
It is always good to offer an object to some great person or the fire.
_

The concealed mind of the fool always falls downward.
You also are a fool and deserve such a fall.
So burn to ashes!

So saying, he threw the soft grass-seat into the blazing fire.
_

He thus renounced everything and threw the objects into the fire, for
purifying his mind and to rest in the Supreme peace.

If one wants to renounce anything, it should be done immediately!
Always the mind gets attached to objects which are of use.
I will renounce all these objects quickly into the fire.

If all things get burnt simultaneously, I will feel satisfied that I have
renounced everything.

I am going to remain without actions.
So I am renouncing all the objects that are useful for any action.
Hey Good Brahmin! You need not worry!
Who will ever want these objects which have become useless!

So saying, he immediately burnt all the objects like food-bowl etc used by
him in the forest-life, like Kaala burns all the worlds at the time of
dissolution.













CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

*
Vasishta spoke

ShikhiDhvaja then got up and set fire to his grass-hut, which was wastefully conceived
by his ignorant mind. He searched for each and every object like a bowl, or his garment,
or even the food kept in the store; and burnt them, or threw them away, or renounced, or
broke them, without agitations and with a calm intellect; and was satisfied.

That hermitage which was once a living place was now in ruins, like the Yajna-hall of
Daksha destroyed by VeeraBhadra.
The deer, which were peacefully grazing near the hermitage, saw the fire and ran away,
like people running away from the city which was on fire.

As all the objects of his use were getting burnt once for all (including the bark garment
which covered his body till then), inside the fire made of dry sticks, the king who was left
only with the body, felt detached towards everything and said-


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

I have renounced all the Vaasanaas and am standing here as the renouncer
of everything (SarvaTyaagi).
Aha! After a long time, I have been enlightened by you O DevaPutra!
I have become pure now. I have easily been enlightened.
What are all these things after all! All get produced by just the sense of
possession.
Whenever these objects causing bondage perish, then and all, the mind
experiences a great freedom.
I have made the mind quiet.
I am free of everything. I am happy. I am victorious.
All bondages have been annihilated.
I have renounced everything. (I have completely accomplished
SarvaTyaaga).
I have now, only the directions as my covering. (Digambara)
The directions are my abode now. (Diksadana)
I am equal to directions now. (Diksama)
DevaPutra! After this great renunciation (Mana-Tyaaga), what can be left
over?

+

Kumbha spoke

Hey King ShikhiDhvaja!
You have not renounced all things that belong to you.
Do not act overjoyed wastefully as if you have got the bliss of complete
renunciation!
Still you are left with one more excellent thing that belongs to you.
If you renounce it, you will be left with nothing of yours and will attain the
painless state.

*
Vasishta spoke

The king heard what Kumbha said. He thought for some time and he spoke like this, Hey
Lotus-eyed Rama!


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Hey Son of the God!
After renouncing everything, only this body which is an aggregate of senses,
and made of blood and flesh, is left back.
I will take this body and throw it down the chasm without delay.
After destroying this body, I will become SarvaTyaagi (All-Renouncer)!











*
Vasishta spoke

Having said this, he immediately got ready to throw his body down the chasm.
Then Kumbha spoke to him.

+

Kumbha spoke

Raajan! Why are you punishing the poor body by throwing it down the
chasm, like the bull killing the calf?
Poor body is inert, worthless, and dumb.
Do not superimpose, your mistake on it.
Do not destroy the body, for no reason.
The poor dumb thing is always absorbed in itself!

It moves only with the help of others, like the stick by the waves.

Another person alone makes it suffer, like a mad elephant attacking a
blameless person who is standing alone by himself.

That other person alone deserves to be controlled forcefully.

The body is not the cause for happiness and sorrow. He is not the culprit.
The fruit falls because of the wind; the tree cannot be accused for that!

Even if you renounce the body like this, you still will not accomplish the
renunciation of all. It is not so easy.

If you throw this poor body into the chasm and try to renounce it, it does not
become true renunciation.

Like the intoxicated elephant tossing about the tree, some thing else
harasses the body. If you can renounce that sinful thing, then you can be
stated as a great renouncer (MahaaTyaagi)!

If that gets renounced, everything including the body gets renounced.
Otherwise, even if it is drowned in the ocean, it will sprout again and again
(in many births).


CHAPTER THIRTY THREE


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

By what does this body gets moved?
What is the seed of actions leading to repeated births?
Sundara (handsome one)!
By renouncing what does everything gets renounced?

+

Kumbha spoke


{MIND-RENUNCIATION}


O Good man! By renouncing the body or kingdom or by burning up the hut, SarvaTyaaga
does not get accomplished.


c 17
17c4 c

If everything gets renounced in that,
which is everything (as the abode of Vaasanaas);
which is everywhere (by spreading out as all this);
and which is the single cause of everything (through conceptions);
then the renunciation of everything gets accomplished.


(That thing which you have to renounce actually contains all within it.
Everything is a projection of that.
It is everywhere as the perceived.
That alone is the cause of all this.
So renounce that and everything gets renounced.)







ShikhiDhvaja spoke

(If it is indeed a thing to be renounced, it must be some lowly object worth discarding!
What is it actually?)

c7

cc

Hey Best of all Knowers of the Truth!
Always one should renounce that which is all, everywhere, and which is of no value.
What is that which is known as all?

+

Kumbha spoke


{RENOUNCE THE MIND}

9
H7 c 1

O Good man!
Mind-
which has become all the shapes that you see;
which is called by the names of Jeeva, Praana etc,
which is neither inert, nor non-inert,
which is deluded,
-that alone is known as Everything.

c H @ @

c @ 7 c 1

Understand that the mind alone is the delusion.
Understand that the mind alone to be the man.
Understand that the mind alone is the world-phenomenon.
Mind alone is known as Everything.




{DESTROY THE SEED FROM WHICH EVERYTHING SPROUTS}

7 |
1

Hey Lord of the Earth!
Mind alone is the seed of
the kingdom etc, body etc, hermitage etc, and all that is there,
like the seed of a tree is for the tree.

1 c4 c4 c
{

c

If the seed of all objects gets renounced, everything indeed gets renounced!
Hey King!
If that is renounced, renunciation of everything becomes possible.
If that is not renounced, renunciation of everything is not possible.



{MIND IS THE OTHER NAME FOR MISERY}

q 7
c1

c1


Righteous or non righteous, kingdom or the forest,
a man with the mind suffers extremely and a man without the mind is extremely happy.



{MIND IS THE WORLD}

c c
q H

Whatever is seen as changing here,
is the mind alone appearing as this world,
as the network of bodies etc,
like the seed appearing as the tree.


{MIND MOVES THE BODY}

c ~

Like the tree by the wind, the body is moved by the mind.


{MIND CONTAINS EVERYTHING}

c @ q


Mind alone is the strong casket of all enjoyments, repeated births and deaths,
and also the qualities of Shama (Quiescence) etc of the great Sages.


{RENOUNCE THE MIND; RENOUNCE ALL}

c 9117c4

|
7 c

Mind alone is said to be Everything.
If that is renounced, hey King,
SarvaTyaaga gets accomplished,
which is the culminating point of all physical and mental afflictions.

cc

c c
17@ c



The Renunciation of the mind is the Renunciation of everything,
Hey best of Renouncers!
If that is accomplished, will not the Truth be realized?

c c4 q 4
* 7

If the mind is renounced,
all the dualities and one-ness get dissolved off, from everywhere.
Only the pure, quiescent, supreme state without afflictions remains left over.


{RENOUNCE YOUR DIVIDED SELF AND REMAIN AS THE UNDIVIDED SELF}


(Hey king! You have renounced everything; so you say!
But you see the world as divided; and you yourself are a part of that division.
You want to renounce things which are separate from you. But you yourself are a separated thing for some
other person and have to be renounced!
You are identifying with a thing that needs to be renounced!
How can you renounce anything then?)

(The idea of renunciation will be there when on sees oneself as a limited identity divided from all other
objects. If all other objects are divided and have to be renounced, then ones limited identity is also a
divided object and has to be renounced!
Instead of renouncing that, hey king, you are identifying with that itself!
Why dont you renounce yourself too?)

c1 71
c71 cq[

Hey Tyaagin (Renouncer)!
The object that has to be renounced in your SarvaTyaaga accomplishment is
different from you!
Similarly, you are also an object to be renounced by some one else!
Do you comprehend it, Hey king?




11*

c*
c

T7*

When all things are thrown out, you alone are left back.
So also, when everything gets renounced (properly),
only knowledge is left back.

(When you renounced the kingdom etc, and even the hermitage etc, you were left back.
You identified with the limited I and it was left back.
But you are not this limited ego.
You are the essence of Knowledge.
When you renounce everything, you as the principle of knowledge alone get left back.




11

c q

After burning all the objects, you did not become another, King!
Even after renouncing everything, you are the same; not different.
That is known as the state of liberation.


(When you burnt off all objects, you did not change. You were the same ShikhiDhvaja.
But you are not this name and form labeled as ShikhiDhvaja.
When you renounce everything, you, the changeless Self is left back.
That alone is known as liberation.)


_






























CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

*
Vasishta spoke

When Kumbha explained SarvaTyaaga like this in so many words, the king pondered
for some time and said-


ShikhiDhvaja spoke


{HOW TO RENOUNCE THE MIND?}


Lord!
This bird which is flying in the heart-space, this monkey sporting in the tree of the
heart, this mind- though I renounce it, it again and again rises up!
I know how to have it! But I do not know to get rid of it!
What is the nature of this mind?
How does one renounce the mind?

+

Kumbha spoke

{STOP THE HANKERING}


Hey emperor!
Vaasanaa is the nature of the mind.
(Hankering after something or other, is its nature.)

The term Vaasanaa is the synonym for the word mind.

Renunciation of that (Vaasanaa) is easy, effortless, and easier than even movement.
(You have to just ignore it and not even make the effort to think.)

The bliss attained by that (renunciation) is more than what you get out of the ownership
of a kingdom. It is more beautiful (pleasing) than a flower.
(Silence of the mind is the best happiness ever possible.)

For the fool, renunciation of the mind is very difficult, like a grass-piece becoming a
mountain; or a man on the street owning a kingdom.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{HOW TO RENOUNCE THE MIND?}

I understand that the nature of the mind is Vaasanaa and agitation.
But the renunciation of the mind is harder than swallowing a diamond.

Mind is the flower for the fragrance of the world-phenomenon.
Mind is the fire producing the flame of misery.
Mind is the stalk of the world-lotus.
Mind is the sky, where blows the wind of delusion.
Mind is the mover of the body-machine.
Mind is the bee hovering in the heart-lotus.

How can it be renounced without much effort? Tell me!

+

Kumbha spoke

{DESTROY THE MIND}

Complete destruction of the mind alone, is the Destruction of the worldly-existence.
That is known as Mind-renunciation (ChittaSantyaaga) by the far-seers.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{HOW TO ERADICATE THIS DISEASE CALLED MIND?}

I believe that the Destruction of the mind is better than the Renunciation of the mind,
when striving for the Higher state.

How can the Mind-disease which spreads out in hundred ways be cured, and its absence
experienced?










+

Kumbha spoke

{EGO IS THE SEED AND THE MIND IS THE TREE}

cg

~
7

(

(Ignorant) ego is the seed.
Mind is the tree spreading out as branches, leaves and fruits.
Uproot it fully.

Be the heart which is empty like the sky
(cleared of the poisonous tree).



ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{DESCRIBE THE TREE!}

1
17 7~



What is the root of the mind?
What is the sprout?
What is its field?
What are the branches?
What are the trunks?
How does it get uprooted?










CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

{MIND TREE}

+

Kumbha spoke

{SEED}

| c c
cg11

Hey intelligent one!

The ignorance of the true nature of the Self
is the seed of the Mind-tree.

That (ignorance of Self) alone gives rise to the idea of I!

The mind is identified with the I!
-

{FIELD}


(This Mind-tree grows in the field of the Supreme Self.
Supreme Self is the field for everything.
Supreme Self has the power of delusion, namely Maayaa.
Through delusion, one has the ascertained idea that he is different from the Supreme.
It is a common experience of all.)

c H H 1

The state of the Supreme Self is the field for its growth.

All the fields (other than the mind also) are the field of the Supreme Self,
which is of the nature of deluding power.


(The Supreme is the ground where this seed of Mind-tree remains dormant. Through the waters of
delusion, the sprout arises as a distinct phenomenon of ascertainment thatI am different. This decided
idea is called the intellect. And as the tree grows, different names get attached to it.)


{SPROUT}

1c9{7q

The sprout appears
as separated from this main source.
The sprout is of the nature of experience
(of being distinct from all the other appearances).

c @c

It is of the nature of decision (ascertainments based on the idea of separateness).
It is formless; and is known as Buddhi (Intellect)!

1 q

1 q1

9
~F 1c

The sprout called Buddhi when it grows forth
with the nature of conceptions,
is called Chitta and gets the name of the Mind.



(The sprout which is the Buddhi with the ascertained idea of separateness grows.
How?
Through the successive conceptions of the world!
As the conceptions increase, the world of perceptions also increases.
Each being from a worm to Brahma has a world around him or her, based on the power of conceptions.
An ants world is different from a cats; cats world is different from a birds; and so on.
Each being grows his own mind-tree which differs from person to person in form and nature.
Trees are different; so are the minds.
Brahma is a forest of all trees; a collective principle of all these minds, and has control over them.
Basically the idea of separateness forms the sprout which appears as the perceiver/perceived phenomena.
The perceiver and the perceived both together expand through the power of conceptions called the Mind.)

(The idea of separateness is Buddhi.
That which conceives the form, and identifies with it, is Chitta.
When thoughts keep arising as connected to the conceived form, it is called the mind.)






{JEEVA}

+c 7c

Jeeva is the one who gets falsely conceived experiences.
He is of the nature of emptiness.
He is like a rock.


(Jeeva is the witnessing consciousness as connected to the perceived world.
Jeeva is the witness, who cognizes through the Chitta (mental faculty).
In reality, he is of the nature of emptiness (empty of all changes) and is unaffected like a rock.)



{TRUNK}

1+ 1 11
7 q

171

The trunk is the body made of sinews, bones and blood.
Here the Vaasanaa from the state of the sprout is
to attain the next levels at different times.

(The sprout of the I am different idea has grown into a huge tree. The trunk of the tree is this body made
of flesh, bones and sinews.
How did the tree grow so big?
Because of the Vaasanaa!
What Vaasanaa?
To reach different levels of expression, at suitable times!)

(The idea of individuality gradually expands through conceptions.
Along with the conceptions, the individual starts getting attachments and hatred.
He likes some things; dislikes some things.
He starts experiencing pains and pleasures.

Like a tree growing in varied ways, this mind tree also grows forth in different directions as per the
individuals decisions.

The tree gets filled with leaves, flowers, and fruits, at different times.
It is the Vaasanaa of the seed to grow forth and yield leaves etc at different seasons.

So also, the mind-tree grows, because of the Vaasanaa of wanting to have varied experiences at those
particular times of, youth, adult-state etc, based on the growth of the body.)



{BRANCHES}

cH1

1
7g~ c
71



The branches of this Chitta-tree are very long; and they spread out far and wide.

They are the senses, momentary pleasures, wombs causing countless births and deaths.
They are countless and grow like huge clusters of trees,
bearing out the fruits of good and bad experiences.


(As the mind keeps over-flowing with conceptions, thoughts, emotions, experiences etc. the branches
spread out far and wide in different directions.
Space and time get created anew with every new conception; and the mind moves forward there and yields
fruits of joy and misery. Again a new conception arises through that experience, and the branch gives out
more branches in different directions yielding more fruits of joy and misery.
The process continues endlessly producing more trunks, more branches, and more fruits. Those fruits again
yield more seeds. Those seeds again grow up as trees.
The process continues on and on forever in time and space.
The whole perceived world now appears as a huge solid mass of objects with absolute time and space, and
completely blocks the Self which is without divisions.)



{CUT OFF THE ROOT OF THIS ENORMOUS GIGANTIC MIND-TREE}

T11 c1 H1

9H
7

Such is this evil tree of Chitta!
Every moment keep on cutting the branches and
cut off the roots also with utmost effort.


(How to destroy this tree which has grown so tall and wide? Where to start?

As the branches are on the increase every second, you should start cutting the branches with extreme speed
and see that the tree does not grow further. At the same time, you should start striking at the root of the tree
with an axe till it falls dead.)




CHAPTER THIRTY SIX


ShikhiDhvaja spoke


{HOW DO I DO THAT?}

cg1

As I keep cutting off the branches one by one,
how do I completely destroy the roots, O Sage?

(This is not a real tree standing on the ground in front of you. It is an invisible mind-tree! How do I cut off
its branches; and how do I cut off the root?)


{THE METHOD OF DESTROYING THE MIND-TREE}

+

Kumbha spoke

177
7c7

q

Vaasanaas are the various branches, which express as fruits etc.
By the power of your own contemplation,
when they are not conceived at all,
they dissolve inside.

4 7
9| 7

c

He,
who is unattached in the mind,
who is silent (in the mind),
who has freed himself of all doubts and debates,
who does whatever work that belongs to him,
he has indeed cut off the Chitta-creeper within.


cg

1* 1

He who remains
chopping off the network of the Chitta tree creeper,
using all the effort he can muster,
he is fit enough to hack off the roots.

(Unless you stop producing more Vaasanaas, the tree cannot be cut at its roots.)


E

cH1

The chopping of the branches is only a secondary act.
The main thing to do is cutting off the root once for all.
Therefore you focus only on hitting at the root of the Chitta-tree.


(Of course, the cutting off the root is the primary purpose.
Keeping the Vaasanaas under control, seeing that they dont branch out further, one should muster all
strength and strike at the roots.)


{BURN OFF THE ROOTS}

Ec

c1 c c

Hey intelligent one!
You focus on burning away once for all, the root of the thorny forest of Chitta.
Thus the Chitta will cease to be.







ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{HOW DO I DO THAT?}

ccg1

E 17

Hey Sage! Which fire will prove useful in the so-called burning
of the seed of the Chitta-tree which is of the nature of ego?

+

Kumbha spoke

{SELF-ENQUIRY IS THE FIRE WHICH BURNS OFF THE SEED OF THE MIND-TREE}

71c 1 F

cg 1

1

Raajan! The enquiry of the nature of ones own Self,
which is practiced by questioning oneself as Who am I?
- is alone known as the fire,
which can burn off the seed of the Chitta-tree.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{SHIKHIDHVAJA PRACTICES SELF-ENQUIRY}

1 q

9
7 7|
g 1 17
c7 +1

7g @7g

q
c + c c
cg

71

Sage! I have analyzed for long with my intellect.
I have found out that,
I am not the world; or the earth adorned by forests and lands;
or the banks of the mountain; or the jungle; or the leaves and other yields.
I am not the body with its limbs made of flesh, bones and blood, because it is inert.
I am not the organs of action, or the organs of knowledge.
I am not the mind, not the intellect or the ego because, they are all inert.
The I ness is in the Chit-Self like the bracelet seen in the gold.
Hey sage!
Inertness is unreal (like the mirage or the silver seen in the conch).
So I am not that!

c
q 77c7 g

(Even Cosmic eggs are unreal, as they support of the unreal inert things.)

Chit-Self is the support of all the cosmic eggs
which contain the inert phenomena of fourteen worlds.
It is the cause of all the experiences of senses.

Cosmic eggs cannot be in the Chit-state
as they are all different from each other,
yet undivided because of the common essence of the (undivided) Chit in them
like the huge tree seen in the sky.
(Sky is not divided by the illusion of the tree seen in it.)

7

Though I understand all this (intellectually),
I do not know it (as real experience.)
Hence, I have been suffering for long, Hey Sage!








+

Kumbha spoke

7 7

c |
ccc7@

q

If all the above mentioned collections of perceptions are not you, Hey king,
because of their inert nature,
then, tell me, Hey intelligent king, what you are actually,
Hey Anagha!


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{I AM PURE AWARENESS; BUT THE TAINT HAS STUCK TO ME}

7c

17 |7
F1

c
c 9*

4


Hey Best of Knowers!
I am the Pure Consciousness alone.
I am the pure awareness of the Self,
in which blissful principle,
the inert sense experiences are enjoyed
and their likeable and unlikable natures are determined.

The taint (of identity with the inert body)
has attached to me who am of such pure nature.

I do not know whether there is a cause for it or not.
I do not even know that state.

Hey Sage!
I am not able to remove the taint which is unreal and non-Self.
That is I suffer so much!
+

Kumbha spoke

{IS THE TAINT REAL OR UNREAL?}

7
1 |

Hey Mighty armed king!
Tell me, what great taint has stuck to you?
Are you stuck to this worldly existence,
by real or unreal taint?


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{WHEN I RENOUNCE THE I, I STILL REMAINS!}

cg1

q
c4

c4 c4

(I do not know whether it is real or unreal.)
That seed of the Chitta-tree which is in the form of ego;
that (ego) is the taint. (This much I know!)

I do not know how to remove it.
When it is renounced, it again attaches to the one who renounces!


(What is ego or I ness? What is the I?
Everyone has a self-image of their own. It may not be exact in the real sense; but it is what one thinks of
oneself.
One may be the worst of the idiots; yet can think of himself as the most intelligent!
One may be the most talented; but he may have an inferior picture of himself!
From the moment a child starts its mind activities, this I gets constructed brick by brick, slowly.
From the moment a child sees a mirror and is made to believe that it is the image seen in the mirror, it starts
building up its idea of I.
Every thinking man has a self image of his beauty, intelligence, likes, dislikes, beliefs, religions etc etc and
acts always with that I data as the center.
This self-image is the ego which is caused by the perceiving of the world and the interaction with it.
That is what ShikhiDhvaja means, when he says that the ego is caused by the perceptions outside.
When you renounce the I idea, that itself becomes a part of the self-image as I am a renouncer!

But in truth, I is a sheer imagination of a picture of oneself created by the mind.
It is baseless, ghost-like and unreal.)

+

Kumbha spoke

{WHAT CAUSES THE EGO?}


(Let us find out the cause of this taint!
Every effect has a cause. It is a common experience!

But there are some experiences which have no causes.
For example, the two moons seen in the sky do not have a cause. It is just that your eyes are not seeing
properly. If you have proper vision, you do not see the two-moon phenomenon!

This worldly existence sprouts from the I idea or ego.
I idea is the cause and the perceived phenomenon is the effect.

Now tell me, what is the cause of this I idea.)

7 cc
7ccqq7g T*7 q

7 {q

7* 1

The effect is there always because of the cause.
It is a common experience everywhere.

Another thing also is there, like the illusion of two moons.
(has no cause)
When properly observed the illusion ceases.

The effect is produced by the cause.
The sprout of this worldly existence rises out of the I idea.

Now analyze like this and search for the cause (of the ego);
and tell me now what you found out.






ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{PERCEPTIONS PRODUCE THE EGO}

(I know the cause of ego!
Mind is always moving outwards perceiving the world of senses. Hence the identity with the body arises.
The perceptions produce the ego which perceives and suffers!)

1
q 7

c c7c

Hey Sage! I know the cause of this faulty feeling of I.
Hey Lord of Sages! Tell me how it can be destroyed.

Because the mind is always moving towards perceptions,
this I arises,
leading towards untold misery.

Tell me how to destroy the perceptions, O Sage!

+

Kumbha spoke

{WHAT CAUSES PERCEPTIONS?}


(You seem to know the cause of everything!
Tell me now what causes these perceptions?
Then I will disprove the cause! )

7 1

1c * H

You seem to know the cause of everything!
Tell me the cause of this perception.
Later I will explain how the cause becomes no-cause.


{WHY PERCEPTIONS PRODUCE EGO?}

(Perceptions are illusory. Yet you say that they become the cause for the ego to arise.
Tell me, how you came to that conclusion.)

qF1 c 1
q q

Tell me as to how the that which cannot become the cause became a cause for you,
as the cognized of the cognition, or the perception of the perceived.



ShikhiDhvaja spoke


{PERCEIVED OBJECTS ARE REAL}

(ShikhiDhvaja tries to prove the reality of the perceived objects.)

c F1 q

Hey Sage!
The cause is
the reality of the objects like body etc
which are conscious perceptions and get cognized through the process of cognition.


{BODY IS REAL}

| 1c

c 17

Though just an illusory appearance,
the perception rises as the reality of objects
like vibration by the streak of the wind.

(Wind may be invisible; but the movement is really experienced.)




{HOW CAN I SEE THE UNREAL NATURE OF THESE REAL OBJECTS?}

c 1c

+
c c +

I do not have the understanding of the unreal nature of the objects
so that the Chitta-seed of the nature of ego subsides!

(For me, the world appears real though it is said to be just an appearance.
Since the world is real for me, identity with the body (ego) is also real!
How do I understand the perceived world as unreal? Tell me.)


{I EXPERIENCE THE OBJECTS ALL AROUND ME AS SOLID AND REAL, AT ALL TIMES!}


(What do you mean by saying that the body etc is unreal?
Here is this body solid and firm, experiencing the pains and pleasures through various actions.
All around me and you, is the world which we experience every moment.
The objects do not change off if I close my eyes!
The world is there as a flow of real conscious experience!
How can you say that the body etc is not there at all?
You are trying prove that light is just darkness!)


1+ c1F c
g

c1c9 1c
14

When there are shapes getting perceived in various ways,
how can that (perceived world) be not there at all?

How can light be darkness?

Hey Sage!
How can you say that this body,
which has limbs like hands and feet,
which is enjoying the fruits of its actions,
and which is experienced always,
is not there at all?


+

Kumbha spoke

(Already I gave you the example of the two-moon vision in the sky. The vision is there because of the
defect in seeing. It is an illusion. It does not exist really as an effect of some cause.
That which has no cause cannot be real!)


{THESE PERCEIVED OBJECTS HAVE NO CAUSE!}

1 1

q
q c cc1

H

Hey king!
If there is no cause for the effect, then that effect cannot exist.
Whatever seen is just an illusion.




(Even this body, which you perceive through the senses, does not have a cause.)

|
q 1 qg 4

As there is no cause, the effect namely the body cannot exist.
If there is no seed, how can the tree rise out of it?





(Just because you see something in front of you, it does not become real!
You see waters in the desert also! Does it become real because you see it?)

c 0


qg* Hq@ *



That effect
which has not risen out of any cause,
and which is experienced in front of you,
is there,
because of the deluded state of the perceiver, like the waters of the mirage.

q c @ H
c7*+



Understand that (body etc) to be non-existing only,
and rising out of misconception!
However much you try, you cannot drink the waters of the mirage.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{YES! I AGREE TO WHAT YOU SAY!}

(What you say sounds reasonable!
So many things which we perceive with our eyes and believe, turn out to be otherwise; like the two-moon
vision, the mirage waters, the rope in the snake etc.
They all are there without a cause; but seen because of improper vision.
I think I have been acting a fool in believing in the reality of the world.
If the body etc exists like the son of a barren woman, then I do not want to be fooled by them any more.
Guide me further in the path of reasoning.)

q7+

H
7q 1

Two moons etc are not real.
They also do not have any cause and yet are seen.
Who would like to be adorned by the limbs of a barren womans son?

+

Kumbha spoke

{PHYSICAL BODY HAS NO CAUSE}

(Understand that, just as it is impossible for waters to flow in the desert, this body also is impossibility.
It cannot be there at all!)
|q1
q q

The bone-cage of the body is an effect without a cause.
Understand that it is not there, O King,
because it is an impossibility that it could be there.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{PHYSICAL BODY IS PRODUCED BY ITS FATHER}

(A father produces this body; so he is the cause!)

141

|1

c+1 17

Hey Best of Sages!
How is it that a father is not the cause of this body,
which is endowed with hands and feet,
and which is always there as a matter of direct experience?

+

Kumbha spoke


{FATHER ALSO HAS NO CAUSE}


(Your father is again a physical shape according to you. He is produced by his father; he by another father;
and so on! But the same argument stands for all the bodies. The body is not an effect of some cause.
So it is not real.)

7 q
c

Raajan! As there is no cause,
father (his body) also is not there.
What is produced by unreal also is unreal.

+cq q

The seed is said to be the cause of all objects and actions.
A sprout cannot rise in the world without a seed, my dear king!


17 1 1 q
71 cc1

H

Therefore, that effect which has no cause cannot be there.
It cannot be there, as there is no seed.
It is seen because of delusion.

71 | 7H
qc++7


That which has no seed can never be there definitely.
It is there because of the delusion of the mind,
like the two-moons, waters of the desert, and the son of a barren woman.



ShikhiDhvaja spoke


{LORD BRAHMA IS THE FINAL CAUSE!}

(Lord Brahma is the Creator of all the beings of the three worlds! He is also known by the name of
Pitaamaha (Grandfather); so he is the cause of all the sons, their fathers, their grandfathers and so on!)

c
q 1c|c

c

Brahma alone is the first of
all the grandfathers, sons and fathers in the three worlds.
So how is he not the cause of everything?








+

Kumbha spoke


{LORD BRAHMA ALSO HAS NO CAUSE}


(Lord Brahma also is not there! He also has no cause; so he is also unreal!)

q 1c 1c

c 1

King!
Even that Grandfather Brahma, who is the first one who came before all,
is not there at all.
When the cause is always absent, there cannot be an object rising out of it!

1 11 cc
7 T H7 q

Even the Grandfather has no seed as his cause ever.
Though he is seen as another person,
he is not different from any other delusory perception.

*+qH7F


c 1 Hc

He shines forth only as an illusion like the waters of the mirage.
Though he shines as the great Brahma, the grandfather of all,
he is also of the nature of illusion.

1 9c 1
c

*+

The dense belief in the state of the world inside the belly of the Grandfather
has been removed.

Whatever appearances are there still,
I will remove them too.


{CHIT ALONE SHINES AS BRAHMA AND HIS CREATED WORLDS}

1cc c
c 1

1cc
94 1F 7 1

Hey King!
The Lord of Lords (Brahman)
shines forth by himself, at all times,
as the nature of consciousness only,
through the mind.

He alone, who is the Self,
is known as the Lotus-born by himself (by his own will).

All the dualities remain subsided!
(There is nothing other than the Chit!)
























CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{WHY THEN THIS MISERY?}

(Hey Kumbha! You have proved that the whole world from the inert pillar to the Creator is there without
any cause and hence is just the delusory appearance.
Then why is there suffering in the world? Why do we keep fulfilling some purposes and act in the world?
If nothing is real, then what is the meaning of all theses life-dramas?)

[1+c 7 q H
H c


If this delusion shines forth from Brahma to a pillar,
how can it be the cause of misery,
as it is capable of purposeful fulfillments of action?

+

Kumbha spoke

{THE BELIEF IN THE REALITY OF THE OBJECTS MAKES THEM PURPOSEFUL!}

(The conception of reality in the objects is the cause of suffering also.
Dont the illusory weapons created by the Gods or demons produce pain, though they are unreal?
They are made real by the conception of reality (SatyaSamkalpa) in them, by their own power.
Then what to say of the power of conception of reality of the Para Brahman?
Does not the water which has crystallized get used as seats etc?)

qH11
|1

1 FH

This wide spread belief in the reality of this delusory perception is
like the hardness of the water which is frozen solid.

7 |

*


1



Ignorance has solidified as this world.
The removal of this stabilized perception cannot arise
without the destruction of ignorance;
so state the wise.

c

1 c
|+c 97

By the rise of the knowledge, the Supreme state gets realized;
and because of that, the entire perceived phenomenon loses its reality.

H c

H @ *+c1


Understand in the same way,
that your body and your existence as the man have risen
because of the delusion,
like the existence of mirage waters.

c@ @

Even the Grandfather does not exist as real;
hence the entire hosts of beings cannot be there also.

That which is not proved, cannot be proved by another argument.

+

*+


q 4

The perception of the beings rises like the mirage waters.
By rational analysis, it dissolves like the silver-idea in the conch.

c

7T 1 Fq

The effect is not there because there is no cause for it.
It is there as real!
Such a belief is there, only because of false understanding and nothing else.



T*9 H

q
*+

What is seen with incorrect understanding never has existence.
How can you fill the pots with mirage waters?


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{IS BRAHMAN THE CAUSE OF ALL?}

P*q1

[ 17
74+ 7


Why then is not
the Supreme Brahman -
who is endless, changeless, unmanifest, pure like the sky, quiescent and
not deteriorating,
who is the source of the Creator also,
- the cause?

+

Kumbha spoke

{THERE IS NO CAUSE; NO EFFECT!}


(What cause? What effect?
Nothing but the non-dual Brahman is there!)

c

[ c1
q7c

Because of the absence of the cause, the effect is also absent.
Brahman is non-dual and transcends everything that is seen.
It is neither the cause, nor the effect.

94 7 [

Brahman is a non-doer!
(as there is no purpose involved)

He is not the action, not the tool, not the cause, not the seed.
He cannot be reasoned out, cannot be perceived.
How can he be a doer?
(How can he cause something?)


{BRAHMAN IS PERCEIVED AS THE WORLD!}

(When Brahman is not the cause of anything, how can there be any effect?
Your idea that this world is the effect of some cause is completely baseless.
There is only the Supreme Chit, which is undivided by duality and space time boundaries.)

cc c 7{
q47 q+


Because there is no cause, the world will not exist as the effect.
The Supreme alone,
which is neither two nor one and which is beyond perception,
is perceived as the world.

94 7 7
c 1

That (Brahman) which cannot be reasoned out,
that which cannot be understood by the intellect,
that which is auspicious, quiet, and un-diminishing,
how, whose, by what and when can it become the doer, or enjoyer?

7 q
4 7

Therefore,
this world is not at all made (by any cause).
The world etc does not exist at all.
You are not the doer. You are not the enjoyer.
You are all; quiescent; unborn; and the auspicious state (of the Self).

1
cc c Hq@ c

Because of the absence of cause, this world is not at all an effect.
As there is no cause, there is no effect.
This world is seen because of delusion.

c 1c c c q
1c 1 c

As it is not the effect, the creation does not exist like this (as an effect).
The world is not the effect of any cause.

{THAT ALONE IS}

(You were arguing that the ego is caused by perceptions.
I have proved through proper reasoning that the perceived world is completely non-existent like the mirage
waters.
Since the world is not there at all, how can the ego be there?
You are not the ego at all.
You are the Supreme without divisions!
You are not bound by anything; nor do you need to get liberated.)

@1c@ 1

1c c1
@

4 7H

When the Absence of objects of perception is a proven fact,
what is there to perceive?

If nothing is perceived, then there is no cause for the I idea.

Therefore, (understand that) you are pure.
You are completely free.

What meanings do bondage and liberation have (for you, the Supreme)?

(When the perceived world is proved to be just a false picture created by the mind, then the ego or the self-
image which arises based on those perceived objects also falls flat.)




ShikhiDhvaja spoke

{SHIKHIDHVAJA CONTEMPLATES ON THE SELF}

@1 7444 cc

[

771 1 T
c q +
1 1 @1 1


[ c
q7 7 1

Bhagavan! I am enlightened.
You have excellently proved the point.
Because of the absence of the cause, this Brahman does not create anything;
so I have understood.
Because of the absence of the creator, the world is not there.
So there is no perception of the objects.
Therefore Chitta etc is not the seed.
There is no I ness etc.

As it is like this-
I am very pure. I am fully enlightened.
I am auspicious.
Salutation to me, the Supreme!
I have been taught that there is no perception at all.
I am the beginning and end.
I will remain quiet, as if inside my own shell.

+ 11 1
* * 11c H 1

I will remain quiet. I will remain withdrawn.
I am all around myself as my own shine.
I do not move. I do not rise. I do not set.
I remain just as myself.
You also remain as the Self as you are.
I am the auspicious, pure, sacred silence!

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

*
Vasishta spoke

In this manner, ShikhiDhvaja rested in the Supreme state of Brahman.
He stayed for some time quiet in the mind, like a lamp in the windless place.
When he was ready to enter the state of Nirvikalpa Samaadhi, he was instantly awakened
by Kumbha in a casual manner.

(Since the king was getting absorbed into the bliss of the Nirvikalpa Samaadhi, Chudaalaa in the form of
Kumbha woke him up instantly. Her purpose was not to send him into Samaadhi-state.
The king had to live in the world as a JeevanMukta and take over the duties of the ruler ship.
He had to reach a state where contemplation or no-contemplation made no difference in his Self-state.)

+

Kumbha spoke

77g 9@

1
1 1

c **c
4

74q

+9

Raajan!
You have awakened from the sleep of ignorance.
You are staying as the auspicious state.
Withdrawing or not-withdrawing yourself into the Self, has no meaning for you.
Dear King!
Shining as the same forever,
with the state of ignorance destroyed,
freed of all faults of divisions,
you are now a JeevanMukta.








CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

INTRODUCTION

The next dialogue is the discussion about the non-existence of the world.
Kumbha here argues and proves that the world is not a real existing factor; but a
phenomenon proving the conceptive power of Chitta. In the end he denies even the
existence of something called Chitta.
Of course it is not an easy idea to digest for any normal human of the world! It is like
cutting at the very root of the tree one is sitting comfortably.
Maybe the following explanation may help in understanding Kumbhas argument.

It is a proven fact even in modern times that this world is a three dimensional audio video
presentation produced by the brain-mechanism.

For a few minutes, keep the mind free of all terminologies referring to colors, sounds,
relations, narratives etc etc.
Just look at everything from a void state. What do you observe?
In modern vocabulary we can explain that - out there is just an ocean of electromagnetic
waves or energy collisions.
On the one side, there are these energy pop ups and on the other side is the brain which
interacts with them.
Varied neuron configurations continuously keep forming in the brain from birth till the
death of the brain or the so-called person.
What happens when neuron-configurations form in the brain?
Every configuration affects the senses (of knowledge) and creates a data of the world;
and based on that very data, once again some other neuron-configuration occurs!
The senses themselves form the first of the projected world; and they in turn create a
world based on their efficiency and functioning capacity.
Eye starts forming shapes and colors.
Ear starts coding something called sound.
And so on.
(Even the so-called brain becomes a projected picture, including the countless neuron-
configurations that keep happening without a break.)
When the neuron-patterns appear, all the five senses immediately code the (projected)
outside and the (projected) atom assemblages into a world of colors and sounds of
solid shapes.
The survival-mechanism called the brain starts working.
The brain starts configuring an image based on the collected data-store and forms a
self-image, which we call the ego.

Fear, attachment, hatred etc etc get configured by the brain for the sake of survival, in the
form of more neural-networks. Memory arises as a recorded molecular-pattern to assist in
survival.


Language helps in creating multifarious imagined narratives.
We see a smile in the bloom of the flower; love in the brainless birds; god in the burning
ball of the sky and so on.
We see a world full of people, colors, sounds, religions, philosophies, narratives and what
not!
Actually there is nothing out there but a random vibration of electromagnetic frequencies
or atoms or molecules or some unknown energy packets.
All these nameless, formless miniscule energy-packets keep appearing and disappearing.
Some assemblage of subtle configurations (Vaasanaas or brain signals) project a
physical brain; that in turn projects the senses; they in turn project a world.
There appears a picture of a beautiful world of three dimensions outside us.

Actually even we as human-forms are also part of these moving atom-networks.
We ourselves are pictures painted by the brain.
We are ourselves just void-structures looking at the void universe, making stories and
acting them out, one after the other.
This concept is again explained by Sage Vasishta in another story called
MithyaaPurusha- the Void-man.

So what is wrong in Kumbha saying that there is no world at all outside?
Even the term mind is an invention of the brain.
Nothing like a cloudy structure called mind exists anywhere inside the physical heart or
brain! All that exist are just some changing neural patterns (inert) and their coding of the
atom assemblages in a projected outside!
What actually exist are just successive changes of neuron patterns; coding system of the
senses and a picture of a world.

Even Vaasanaas or purposeful brain signals are just myths created by the brain.
Cut off all these narratives created by the brain and you have only void outside and
inside.

When you, who are some conscious thinking, knowing principle, remain outside of the
brain and its activities (mind and its conceptions), you instantly are out of the game called
the world.
Instead of a player caught in the virtual world-game created by the brain, you find
yourself as an observer who knows the entire mechanism of the world. The knowledge
makes you want to laugh aloud, but you cannot because you do not have a projected
mouth or body to laugh.
You are then just a point of bliss which can produce countless gardens of flowers and
laugh through them.
You are then just a point of existence which can create countless worlds and experience
all of them simultaneously.
You are then just a point of knowledge which contains all the knowledge ever possible in
any mode of space or time.


You remain as the source of all.
You know that you are all.
You never again can be fooled into seeing worlds in the voidness.
You are all; yet not all. You transcend everything. You remain in your true nature,
without the mind and the self-image created by it.

When you are established in that observation point, looking at each and everything as
void, your mind is freed of the bondages created by the brain.
You are now the Master of this void world.
You can paint the picture of a world you choose, not as an individual ego but as the
Master who can produce any possible state of the narrative in whatever way.
You remain liberated.
Or the word liberation and bondage have no meaning in that state as you are out of the
prison of the limited brain structure which kept you imprisoned in an unreal world
created by it!

What is mind?
An idea of some object pops up in the brain as some neuron-pattern in the brain and some
ascertainment-thought follows it, proving the existence of the object.

The moment the idea is gone, the object also is gone; for it was not there at all, before the
mind thought of it!

Sitting in your room, how do you create a room full of objects?
Ideas rise in the mind randomly; and senses create those objects instantly proving their
existence!
For example- suddenly as you are sitting in the room, a table-idea pops up! All the five
senses prove to you instantly the existence of a table.
The road outside? Yes it is there! Move the hands and feet; you end up in a road.
From the far off country to the ant crawling next to you, depend on your mind for their
existence!
You think; they are there!
So you have to keep thinking of all the objects so fast to keep the world-structure alive
and real.
Mind has no rest! At the most, it can remain quite for some time, only in the deep sleep
state, holding on tightly to all the objects in subtle thought-forms.
The moment you wake up, the mind starts working again, producing the thoughts of the
objects and the interacting ego. The world is there for you huge, solid and real!








How to get rid of the world which is not there?
Stop thinking!
The objects will still be there as the conceptions of Brahma!
You can stop interacting with the imagined world of the mind.
You can start acting and produce the world if you want to!
You will understand by practice, that objects get produced by the mind, only if the want
is there. (Not your want exactly! The world is a network of so many wants in so many
minds with so many egos!)
The collective mind-structure containing all thinking mechanisms is called Brahma. He is
the Super-ego created by his mind interacting with the created world!
He is also as unreal as any other created being of the world!
When he stops conceiving, he is liberated.
When we stop conceiving, we get liberated.
























*
Vasishta spoke

Instructed by Kumbha like this, ShikhiDhvaja became enlightened.
Having got out of the hollow of the great delusion, he shone with splendor.
His mind rested in the Self.
He saw the unreality of the world instantly.
Being liberated, he spoke with amusement.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

(If Brahman is unchanging, then how does the perceiver arise perceiving this perceived world?)

Hey you giver of respect! (Maanada)
Hey you giver of joy! (Modada)
Though I know this, I ask you again. Please enlighten me.

You are saying that the auspicious Self-state of the Self is quiet, and completely bereft of
all appearances.
How does the three-fold phenomenon of perceiver, perceived and perception rise in that
state?

+

Kumbha spoke

Wind and its movement do not differ, O king!
Sky and emptiness also do not differ!
Similarly Chit-state and the world are not different from each other.

Water is the cause of the waves rising in the ocean, because the ocean exists within the
boundary of time and space.
But Chit is not divided by space and time. So it is not the cause of the world.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

True! Waves have a cause in the water.
But I do not think that the world is not caused by Brahman.


+

Kumbha spoke

World and the ego are not there at all!
World is seen because of incorrect understanding like the snake in the rope!
Where is the snake? Where is the world you are talking of?
You can question about something which is there; not about something which is not
there!
Brahman alone shines forth as this splendorous world! It is not the cause of anything as it
is second less!
That alone exists as itself!
It is just of the nature of experience only. (@

)


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Yes I know that the world does not exist in the Supreme.
But then, how does the perceived appear like this?

+

Kumbha spoke

All that exists is the shine of the conscious principle.
The perceived objects are not there at all; the ego also is not there.
Hence there is no Chitta (perceiving mental faculty) also, which perceives anything.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

How will I understand that the Chitta is not there?

+

Kumbha spoke

Chitta is not there at all my dear King!
Whatever shines as Chitta is known by the name of Brahman!
The world is seen because of ignorance.
The ego mind etc are further imaginations arising out of ignorance.
The world is not there at all.
Brahman alone is.
What is there as a second thing to perceive anything?



ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Ah! Now I understand everything!
The three worlds and the ego do not exist at all.
That which is seen like this by the ignorant fool is Brahman!
This much I understand!

+

Kumbha spoke

When the world is not there at all, why talk of ego etc?
What, where, how can anything exist?
All that is there is just the shine of Chit.
Gold alone shines as the varied shapes.
Liberation and bondage are names given to the state of the knowledge of oneself and the
absence of such knowledge.

The conception of I leads to bondage.
The conception of I am not is said to be the state of liberation.

Not identifying with the ego is Siddhi.
Identifying with the ego is calamity.

I am That, I am not this ego; remain established in the Self with such an understanding.

When knowledge rises, the conception of the unreal nature vanishes by itself.
Self which is beyond reason is not the cause of anything.
Since there is no cause, effect also is not there as the object.
Since objects are not there, there is no perception.
Since there is no cause at all, the ego does not rise.
When ego is not there, how can the worldly existence rise up? For whom?
Since there is no worldly existence, only the Supreme remains as all!

Water can exist without the terminology of wave.
Brahman also exists without the terminology of World.

World is Para Brahman.
Para Brahman is the perceived world.

All the names and their meanings are known by the one single name of Brahman.
The Supreme is beyond the reach of language and definitions.




ShikhiDhvaja spoke

If that is so, then this world as an effect is the same as the cause which is Brahman!
So I understand!

+

Kumbha spoke

Effect is there, only when the cause is there.
When there is no cause at all, how can the effect be there?
There is no cause; no effect!
Whatever exists is just the quiescent state of World.
If effect is produced by the cause, then similarity of the cause and effect can be proved.
How can be there similarity in that which is not produced at all?

*
Vasishta spoke

ShikhiDhvaja contemplated on the Self as instructed by Kumbha and was absorbed in the
Self.
Kumbha understood that the king had attained the knowledge of the Self.
The king asked him as to why he could not attain such knowledge earlier.
Kumbha explained to him that the knowledge had to be attained only when there was no
residue of the mind and its conceptions. Since the king was ready for the knowledge by
the ripening of his dispassion, Kumbha had chosen it as the right time for enlightening
him.













ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Bhagavan!
Only the ignorant have the mind-phenomenon; not the knower!
Then how do the Jeevan-Muktas act in the world without the mind?

+

Kumbha spoke

What you say is right!
There is no mind-phenomenon in the liberated ones.
The dense state of Vaasanaa is known by the name of Chitta or mental faculty. That is
absent in the knower.
Ignorant mind is Chitta. Enlightened mind is Sattva.
Chitta causes successive births. Sattva does not get born again.

You are now endowed with the Sattva level of the mind.
You are a Great Renouncer!
I know that you have renounced the mind completely today.
You are free of all Vaasanaas.
Your mind is now as extensive as the sky.
You have attained the Supreme level of Quiescence.
This alone is termed MahaaTyaaga, where everything gets renounced.
Mere performance of penance cannot lead towards the destruction of the suffering rising
out of ignorance.
For a person who cannot aspire for Self-knowledge, the path of rites (Kriyaa) is advised.
A man who cannot acquire gold has to be satisfied with brass.

If you had listened to Chudaalaa, you would have easily attained Self-knowledge.
Why did you have to drown in this painful state of penance?

Hey Knower of the truth! Equalize the vibration (spanda) and non-vibration and remain
in that eternal state of unification.











ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Lord!
How do vibration and non-vibration get equalized?

+

Kumbha spoke

Only one principle of consciousness vibrates as the understanding intellect, like the water
appearing as waves.

The perceived world is just the vibration of the Chit. With proper understanding, it
dissolves. It rises as a snake in the rope for the ignorant.

With vibration, the Chit is known as the world.
Without vibration, it is beyond the state of Turyaa.
It can not be described through words.

Through the company of the knowers and study of scriptures; through intense practice;
the mind gets purified in course of time, and Chit shines forth as the moon in the mind.

It remains only as the experience of ones true nature.

You have attained the essence which is in the center of mind etc.
Remain established in your own nature.
You will no more experience any misery.












CHAPTER FORTY

+

Kumbha spoke

I have taught you everything, King, about how all this appears, and how it dissolves.
Understand this, absorb this, and remain as you like, resting in the supreme state.
I have to leave now.
My father Naarada would have left BrahmaLoka and will be in the court of Gods.
If he does not see me there, he will get angry.
The elders should never be annoyed by the young.
You remain in the sacred state always, without any desire or want.

*
Vasishta spoke

ShikhiDhvaja got ready to offer flowers at his feet and salute him.
Even before he thought of that, Kumbha vanished from sight, like the object in the dream
vanishing away.
(How can Chudaalaa, the devoted wife accept salutations from her husband?)

The king was surprised by all that had happened; he remained like a painted picture for
some time, thinking about that only.
Where, the son of Naarada, and where, this ordinary ShikhiDhvaja!
It is Time that has brought about this wonder in my life!
I have been correctly instructed by the son of divinity!
I have awakened from the sleep of delusion now.
How I was lost in the mire of actions, thinking that this should be done and this should
not and so on!
Now I am in the cool nectar-like state.
I will just remain blissful.
I will not want even a blade of grass.
I will remain as I am.
So thinking, the king who was freed of all Vaasanaas, remained silent like a carved
statute, absorbed in the bliss of the Self.

17 ~
9* 9 1 q

He remained stable like the peak of the mountain,
established in the all pervading silent state of Samaadhi,
where there were no conceptions,
and which needed no support from a second thing.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

*
Vasishta spoke

ShikhiDhvaja had attained the state of a wooden log absorbed in the Nirvikalpa
Samaadhi.
Listen now as to what Chudaalaa did afterwards.

Chudaalaa, in the form of Kumbha, after enlightening King ShikhiDhvaja, vanished from
that place.
She discarded the form of DevaPutra and became her own charming form.
She, in a second reached her country and entered the harem. She was seen by everyone as
their queen. She quickly attended to the affairs of the kingdom.
After three days, she again ascended the sky; changed her form to that of Kumbha and
went to the forest where the king stayed.
She saw her husband sitting there absorbed in Nirvikalpa Samaadhi, looking like a carved
wooden statue.

Aha! It is good that he is absorbed in the Self now.
He is now in the state of the Supreme and is equal and quiescent in nature.

She repeated these words again and again and felt happy.
Then she thought-
Let me wake him up from his Samaadhi state.
If he is left like this, he will discard the body.
But why should he discard the body now?
Let him continue to live in the forest or kingdom, whatever he chooses.
I will be with him wherever he stays. Let us both discard the body together.
The instructions given to him will go waste if he leaves the body now.
He has yet to finish his life here and attain the many levels of realization and enjoy them.
So let me wake him up from his contemplation.

So thinking, Chudaalaa made a sound like the roar of a lion.
The king did not wake up.
She made more terrifying noises of the wild animal and moved in front of him.
The king remained like a rock fixed on the mountain!

Then she shook him, pushed him and tried to wake him up. Though the body fell down
on the ground, the king remained absorbed in the Self-state.




Chudaalaa thought-
Aha! This great man is now a Supremacy absorbed in itself.
So how shall I wake him up now?
Or why should I disturb him at all?
Let him attain the bodiless liberation and be in the blissful state!
I will also discard this female body and go off along with him to the Supreme state where
I will not be born again.

So thinking, she got ready to give up her body.


CHAPTER FORTY TWO

INTRODUCTION

Though a realized man has no Karma-residues, he goes through the life that began in that
particular body to the end, as a JeevanMukta. His present life would be like an arrow that
started to move and has to reach its end necessarily. He lives all through the life in the
Self-state, unattached and free of Vaasanaas, like Krishna, Rama, Janaka, Vyaasa and
others.

cc SATTVA-SHESHA-
Sattva: Vaasanaa-less mind
Shesha: left over impressions (SamskaaraShesha)
SATTVA-SHESHA: Vague left over impressions of the thoughts of life connected to the
present body.

Each person is a unique mind. Those impressions which dominate the mind alone create
the future events of the person, even if he is a JeevanMukta.
Janaka ruled the kingdom even after realization; Bhushunda remained as a crow watching
the creation-stories; Krishna made his cowherd clan into one of the richest and
prosperous communities; Rama lived in a forest as a recluse; The trinities keep love for
their spouses as their essence; and so on.
It is a very rare case like that of Shuka, where one is completely free of any impressions
and flies out of the world as a free bird.
ShikhiDhvaja was in some particular level of realization and could remain absorbed in
Nirvikalpa Samaadhi. But had he yet some lingering impressions lurking in the mind like
the love for his wife, love for his people, etc?
If such lingering impressions were there in his mind which has attained the Sattva state,
then he will necessarily break out of the Samaadhi state by himself, in course of time.
However he can be woken up by another knower earlier itself, like Prahlaada getting
woken up from his Samaadhi-state by Naaraayana.
Chudaalaa also decides to wake up ShikhiDhvaja earlier itself. She does not like to waste
her youthful stage of life, waiting for the king to wake up when he becomes very old.
No harm gets done, because, for a realized person, Samaadhi state or no-Samaadhi state
makes no difference.

*
Vasishta spoke

Then that lady of great wisdom, started thinking like this- (after observing the
PraarabdhaKarmaShesha -left over residue of results of past actions))

Let me find out, if the seed of enlightenment () is still left with any subtle
impressions (cc ) in the heart-space (Brahman) ((+ )!

If so, he will again wake up from his Samaadhi-state by himself in course of time; like the
essence of flower clusters hidden in the roots of the tree, express themselves as blossoms
in course of time (as in spring).

He will wander in this world as a JeevanMukta itself, in this world (like I do).

When he is fully liberated (and is free of all impressions), then I will also leave this world
along with him (and attain Videha-Mukti)

So thinking, Chudaalaa examined him by touch through proper methods to find out
whether the life-principle was still manifest in the body.

There is Sattva-Shesha left back in the heart-space. He will wake up for sure.

She disturbed the Sattva-Shesha which will make him wake up from his Samaadhi-state,
and woke him up.
















CHAPTER FORTY THREE


Rama spoke

7c1 ** 1
cc : [ 7

Brahman!
The person in contemplation has no vibration of the mind
and he is equal to a log of wood or a clump of clay.
How can one understand his Sattva Shesha?


*
Vasishta spoke


(A JeevanMukta who has attained the Sattva state of the mind, yet has the subtle mind-vibration, will wake
up from the Samaadhi state in course of time, like a dormant seed sprouting into flowers and fruits.
His mind will yet hold on to the projection of the body and will wake up and perceive the world through
that body.)

9 1 +(


q cc 7| *

Invisible and atom-like Sattva Shesha,
which causes the awakening from the Samaadhi-state
remains in the heart,
like the flowers and fruits in the seed.


_










(A JeevanMukta who has attained the Sattva state of the mind, and has no mind-vibration is one with the
Supreme and has no idea of the body at all. His body will just fall off in course of time. That Yogi will not
know of the existence of the body at all.)

c174

1 117c
qcc|1 11
(*
1 *

For a person who is bereft of the mind-vibration;
who has no vibrations at all in the Sattva state of mind;
who has no ideas of divisions of duality and one-ness;
who is equal;
and whose body remains unmoving like a hill;
the body remains equal at all circumstances,
and does not feel miserable or joyous;
does not rise or set.
It remains equal always.





(A JeevanMukta who has attained the Sattva state of the mind and yet has mind-vibration, will know the
body as a separate existence from him. He may not identify with the body; but he will be conscious of the
body and its actions; not so the Yogi with no mind-vibration.)

qcc41

1 917
1 7 171

If one still have ideas of duality and one-ness,
his mind is alive and vibrates.
His body remains separated from him.
It is not so with the person whose mind does not vibrate.


_








(Mind-vibration is the cause of the successive births of an ignorant Jeeva.)

c17 1

Rama!
The vibration of the mind alone is the cause of all the varied ideas of
the world-perception for every one,
like the spring for the flowers.

1791



q

That is why, Rama,
joy, anger, or delusions do not get controlled
even after repeated efforts,
for the mind which moves from one body to the other
(because the mind-vibration is alive).


(A JeevanMukta has subdued his mind fully. His Sattva state of the mind has discarded the body-idea. He
is not affected by the body or its activities in any way. For him, his body is non-existent. He acts as if he is
the space moving about.)

c 9 cc
+1 1

If the mind has been completely subdued,
the body is discarded by the Sattva-state of the mind.
The changes connected to the body
does not affect one in that state,
like the empty space.


T cc

When the ocean is quiet, waves do not rise.
So also, the faults of the body are not perceived by the mind
which is in the state of Sattva.



(A JeevanMukta who has not fully got rid of the mind-vibration has to wait for it to dissolve in course of
time. He cannot attain Videha Mukti through Nirvikalpa Samaadhi like Shuka. He will naturally wake up
some time from his Samaadhi state and remain perceiving the world till the body falls by itself, in course of
time.)

cc1+1

1T
{ cc +

Sattva-state attainment will not be there
till the residue of the past actions is completely subdued;
till the Self-principle shines equal in all that is perceived.
This happens in course of time (for the JeevanMukta).


(For the ignorant, the mind discards the body and takes over new bodies. Then death occurs for the body.
For the knower, even the Sattva state of the mind dissolves away, and the body dies.)

171

c cc q
g c |

The body which has no mind or the Sattva,
mixes off into the five elements like the snow in the hot sun.

(ShikhiDhvajas mind had died and was in the Sattva state. The life-principle was still vibrating because of
the Sattva-Shesha, some residue of mind-vibration.
So his body will not die in Samaadhi. He will wake up sooner or later and perceive the world in the state of
a JeevanMukta. His body will die only when the mind-vibration completely dissolves off in course of his
life as a JeevanMukta.)

1 c1
cc 41

ShikhiDhvajas body which was without the mind;
warm by the presence of life-principle;
and having the essence of Sattva state of mind,
will not deteriorate.







CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

*
Vasishta spoke

The wise queen saw ShikhiDhvaja in that state of Samaadhi with the lingering Sattva
Shesha and did not discard her body; but thought like this.

I will enter the pure principle of Chit, which is in everything; and remaining in that
state, I will wake up my lover who will wake up only after a long time.
If I do not wake him up, and he wakes up only after a long time, I will have to be alone
without him; so I will wake him up.

(Anyhow he was going to wake up from his Samaadhi state some time in the future because of Sattva-
Shesha. If he wakes up after a long time, Chudaalaa has to spend her entire life-time alone.
If she wakes him up now, both of them can enjoy the pleasures of the earth also, as Jeevan-Muktas blissful
in the love for each other.)

So thinking, Chudaalaa discarded her tool-cage () of the body and attained the
principle of Chit which was without beginning or end (in the heart-space of the king).
(For a realized person, the body is just an instrument for perceiving the world.)

There she created a quiver in the consciousness of her Lord who was with the Sattva.
Again she re-entered her body in the form of Kumbha, like a bird entering its nest.
She then got up in the Kumbha-form, entered a bower filled with flowers and started
singing Saama, like the humming of bees.

Hearing the sound of Saama, the Chit principle with Sattva, in the kings body, woke
up, like the lotus blossoming in spring.
King ShikhiDhvaja opened his eyes which were closed in contemplation, like the lotus by
the Sun, with mind enriched by Sattva.
He saw Kumbha in front of him, engaged in singing Saama, endowed with a divine
body like another SaamaVeda.

Aha! We are indeed blessed! The Sage has again come here
So exclaiming, the king offered flowers to Kumbha.
(By the power of his penance, the flowers he had collected previously, were still fresh.)

The king said-

Bhagavan! We have risen in your mind as a thought by our good fortune!
It is a wonder that such great persons are standing here to bless us!
You must have arrived here to purify us only!
Or, if otherwise, then tell me what would be the second reason?

+

Kumbha spoke

From when I left you, O Blameless one, my mind has been with you only, here itself!
I will not stay in the beautiful heaven; but be here with you only!
My dear friend! Among all the pleasant things, that which pleases the mind alone
becomes the most pleasant thing.
There is no one for me in this world like you, who are a relative, who is intimate to
oneself, who is a well-wisher, who is a friend, who is a companion, who is trustworthy
and who is a disciple.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Aha! The trees of my merits have yielded fruits in this Mountain today; because though
you are unattached to all, yet you desire my company.
This forest, these trees, and this servant are all at your service.
If the heaven does not please you my lord, then stay off here itself.
I am now resting in my own true nature, because of the instructions given by you.
I also wonder at present, what happiness could be there in the heaven?
You too remain in that pure state which reveals everything, and wander on this earth as if
it is heaven!

+

Kumbha spoke

Are you resting in the supreme state of bliss?
Have you completely renounced the misery produced by the conceiving of divisions?
Raajan!
Have you completely destroyed the attraction towards the pleasures which are
momentary?
Do you feel the sense pleasures tasteless?
Is your mind quietly established in the quiescent state of equal-ness beyond the levels of
acceptance and rejection; and only engaged in the normal duties that belong to you,
without feeling anxious?







ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Bhagavan!
By your grace, I have had the vision beyond the perceived phenomenon.
I have reached the end of this worldly existence.
I have gained that which has to be gained for sure.
I have remained absorbed in that state for long, very soon without any affliction.
I need no more instructions.
I am very much satisfied wherever I am.
I remain now without the fever of Bhava.
I have known that which is to be known.
I have renounced that which has to be renounced.
I have taken shelter in the supreme principle of Reality.
I do not own anything but myself.
I am free of this worldly existence.
I have no more fear or delusion.
I am not attracted by anything.
I am always shining as the Self.
I am equal-minded.
I am in all as their essence.
I am equally in all.


















CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

*
Vasishta spoke

In this manner, those two Knowers of the Self remained for a triad of Muhurtas
conversing about various instances connected to spirituality.
Then they both got up and wandered on the summit of the mountain which abounded in
forest-lands and lakes filled Saarasa birds and lotuses, as if it was the Nandana garden of
Indra.
Eight days passed in this manner, wandering in the forest paths.
Kumbha told ShikhiDhvaja that they should go to some other forest in the mountain.
The king agreed. They both wandered in many forests, hills, river banks, villages, cities,
temples, and so on everywhere they liked.
They both were equal in character, equal in enthusiasm, equal in friendship, and together
they remained discussing various experiences.
The husband and wife in this manner spent time together like good friends.
They never got attached to any place.
Sometimes they were covered by dust; sometimes by sandal paste; sometimes by ashes;
sometimes by divine garments; sometimes by colored garments with various design
patterns; sometimes by leaves; sometimes adorned by flowers.
Within a few days, the king became completely freed of all Vaasanaa residues and
developed equanimity of mind; and he became like Kumbha in his spiritual level.

Chudaalaa observed that the king was now shining forth with luster like a divine being.
She thought-
My husband is now in the excellent state of mind. The forest lands are beautiful.
This situation is so conducive for love-making.
For those who are in the state of JeevanMukti, anything that naturally belongs to them
should be enjoyed. If one concentrates only on avoiding enjoyments, it is sheer stupidity.
My husband is affectionate at heart. He has no ailments and he is quite young.
All around us, there are blossoms of flowers in all the creepers.
A woman indeed wastes her life, if she does not desire the company of her lover!
That love-smitten girl who does not enjoy the company of her husband with abandon, in
the bowers of forests filled with flowers, indeed has wasted her life.
Fie on that woman who does not enjoy the company of her husband, when alone in the
forest which has no people around.
By discarding the natural enjoyment that belongs to oneself, what more fulfillment will a
knower gain?
I will therefore narrate some imagined story in this forest, so that my husband will enjoy
my company as a female.

So thinking Chudaalaa in the form of Kumbha spoke to her husband like a female cuckoo
bird in the forest bushes, calls out to her mate.

+

Kumbha spoke

Today is the first day of the bright lunar fortnight and very sacred. Today the assembly of
Gods will meet in Indras court in heaven.
I have to be present in front of my father.
The rules cannot be broken.
You please wait for me in this forest, sporting among the flower bowers. Do not feel
apprehensive about me.
By the end of the day, I will definitely descend down from the sky and be with you.
Your company is the best I like!

*
Vasishta spoke

Having said this, Kumbha gave his friend, a fragrant beautiful cluster of flowers of Kalpa
tree, as a mark of affection.
Even as the king kept on calling out loudly - Come back soon!, Kumbha floated up
from the forest towards the sky like the autumn cloud.
He showered flowers, which floated down all over the forest by the forest winds, like the
snow from the cloud.
ShikhiDhvaja kept watching as far as he could see, like the peacock watches the
disappearing cloud.
The affection towards the wise is hard to renounce! (c9 1c

)

As soon as she was out of sight of ShikhiDhvaja, Chudaalaa discarded her Kumbha-form
and returned to her own charming form. She reached her city. She entered her private
chambers, unseen by her maids. She quickly completed all the affairs of the kingdom,
and fell in front of ShikhiDhvaja like a fruit from the tree.
That young woman, whose mind was never distressed by anything, now appeared pale in
the face, like a lotus hit by mist.
Seeing Kumbha in such a state, ShikhiDhvaja got up immediately with concern.
Feeling anxious, he said-
DevaPutra! Salutations! You look disturbed in the mind! Hold yourself!
Be seated here on this seat!
The knowers never feel distressed or happy, like the lotuses never getting wet by water.






CHAPTER FORTY SIX

*
Vasishta spoke

Consoled by the king like this, Kumbha sat on the leaf-mat. He spoke in a choking voice
like the sound emanating from a broken flute.

(Chudaalaa has to make the king understand that a knower, who has his Knowledge-organs under control,
need not bother about the actions done by the organs of action.
As long as the body is there, one has to accept the states of the body and live accordingly.
A person who keeps his body still, and lets loose the organs of the knowledge, is a hypocrite.
But a person, who has his mind and knowledge-organs under control, need not bother to keep the body
motionless in the state of Samaadhi at all times.
Whatever the life has ordained for him, he can enjoy them without transgressing the rules of righteousness.)


1

c
7g *7 cc

As long as the body exists,
those who do not remain with equanimity in all situations
and not act with just the organs of action;
are not the knowers of the Self;
but are cheats (hypocrites)!

[cc

1 7 |

1

Raajan!
Those who are not the knowers of the Self are immature fools
forcefully controlling their (physical) organs.
They run away from the states of the body that are natural to them.

c
7cc+

As long as the sesame seed is there, it will contain the oil.
As long as the body is there, the states the body goes through, have to be experienced.
He who does not accept the state of the body
cuts the sky with the sword!
(He is a fool!)


c

[c

c+ 7

7g1

The renunciation of the pains connected to the body-states
through contemplation or absorption in the Self is the excellent method.
The equanimity of the mind is achieved by the path of Yoga,
where one is identified with the changeless Self;
not by the forced control of the organs of action.

1q
7g 1

@7g

4

Dear Friend! (Anga)
As long as one has the body,
the knower has to remain acting only through the organs of action
and not through the organs of knowledge.

*9

*7

Brahma and others are also in the Supreme state of Brahman;
yet they act with bodies; so is the order of the Creation.

7c

T
c c+

+


All those who are ignorant of the Self and all those things that get perceived,
move towards the order of the creation,
like water running towards the ocean.















(Knowers have control over the mind and so are not affected by the actions of the physical body.
They are always in the state of the Self and are already liberated. They are free from births and deaths.

Ignorant have no control over their minds and so, when they act with their bodies, being identified with the
limited ego, they fall into the trap of successive births.)

77 q+

7

The Knowers have equanimity of mind and
follow the order of things using the hands and etc,
without a break,
till the body exists.

71

H


7cq H

The ignorant have all sorts of miseries; and
struck by the states of happiness and sorrows,
follow the order of things,
using lakhs of bodies which are different.


{NIYATI OF THE CREATION CANNOT BE TRASGRESSED BY ANYONE}

c

c
1c q
77

11

Dear Friend!
In this manner,
It has been ordained that the Jeevas should be like this,
not only in happy occasions, but also in sad occasions,
(as per the results of their actions).

Whether they are ignorant or knowers,
all beings are ordained
to act in a particular manner by the Niyati.
It cannot be transgressed!
This is how the Niyati acts!


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

If that is so, Hey great one, why have you become so apprehensive, even when you are of
a divine origin? Tell me hey Best of Knowers!

+

Kumbha spoke


(Chudaalaa, the great Yoginee again takes the name of a great Sage to present an imagined narrative.
Her purpose is to enlighten her husband and unite with him.
Sage Durvaasa was the most perfect of Sages who was usually impatient with the stupid and ignorant, be
they Gods or humans! He was the most compassionate also. Here Chudaalaa mentally seeks permission
from the Sage to use his name in her story. Here also she proves herself as the wrong-doer and gets cursed
by the Sage. In no way she derogates the greatness of the Sage.
Unfortunately the great Sage is understood falsely in the modern world as an angry person without control;
because of another imagined story of a mortal-poet, who saved the hero-ness of the arrogant hero of his
story by making Durvaasa a ready to curse Sage!)


Hey Lord of the earth!

Pay attention to my words.
I will tell you in detail what happened to me today.

The sorrow indeed becomes less when shared with a friend, like even a dense dark cloud
feels light after the down pour.

When a friend enquires, O Good one, the mind feels soothed and clear, like the water
getting cleansed by the contact of Kataka-fruit.

(This is what happened!)
I gave you the cluster of flowers and went away from here. I crossed the sky and entered
the heaven.
I stayed at the court of Indra.
After the assembly was over, my father permitted me to leave.
I left the heaven and was on my way to meet you here.

I traveled along with the horses of the Sun, along the path taken by the wind.

Half-way through the journey, Sun moved in the other direction and I came floating in
the ocean.




At that time, I saw Sage Durvaasa coming hurriedly amidst the water-bearing clouds; his
body was shining yellow like the sandal, being drenched by the downpour.
He was a Digambara, a person who was covered by space.
Now as he moved through the clouds, it appeared as though the cloud was covering his
body like a garment.

Flashes of lightning were appearing without a break and it was as if his body was
adorned by shining ornaments.
River Ganges was his beloved, shining like the goddess of penance.
Like a lover she was waiting for him under the shade of the trees growing on her banks.
The Sage was rushing towards the River to perform his evening rites.

The whole scene was as if an Abhisaarikaa (a woman who meets her lover secretly)
golden in hue and wearing shining ornaments, was stealthily moving on a cloudy day, to
meet her lover; getting drenched by the downpour on her way and hurrying so as not to
get delayed!

I saluted him as the Sage passed me.
As I ascended the sky, I commented jovially
Hey Sage! Covered by the dark clouds, you are equal to an Abhisaarikaa covered by
black garment!

My comments angered the Sage and he cursed me-
Your ill-timed comment will turn you every night into a woman with breasts and long
hair, endowed with all the feminine charms attached to the form!

Hearing the inauspicious words from the old Sage, I was shocked. By the time I could
muster enough courage to apologize to him, he had vanished!

Apprehensive and distressed, I have come here my friend!
I have told you all my problems.
I will become a woman every night. How will I bear to have a female body at
nights?What will I tell my father?
Ah, the miseries that are undergone by those who stay in this world!
I have now attained the state of a meat-piece for the vultures namely the young!
Ah the misery!

Now there will be a fight to own me among the young passionate gods in the heaven!

I will be so embarrassed to move in front of the elderly Sages, Gods and Brahmins; and
how will I ever live amongst them?




*
Vasishta spoke

Then Kumbha remained silent for some time. Again he mustered up some courage and
said-
Why should I lament like an ignorant man? In what way the Self is injured by this?
This body has appeared due to the result of my action!
Some one else will enjoy it! I am in no way attached to it!



ShikhiDhvaja spoke

What is the purpose of lamenting like this my friend? Whatever has come; let it come.
What harm is there? Body does not taint the Self.
All the pains and pleasures destined for the body belong only to the body; not to the
embodied Self.
You are adorned by Vedas! You are never a person to feel perturbed by anything of the
world. If even a great Sage like you act distressed like this, then what will others do?
You always say that when one is distressed, soothing words should be uttered.
But I know for sure that you are not a person to get distressed by such matters concerning
the body; for you are always established in the Self.

*
Vasishta spoke

Both the friends consoled each other with such affectionate words; yet were feeling sad.
Soon, the light of the world (Sun) set, like the light of the lamp going off because of lack
of oil. All activities in the world thinned out. Lotuses closed their petals. Roads became
deserted. The travelers on the road rested half-way in their journey and their wives at
home felt emptiness in their hearts.
The world collected all the birds together in its nests like a bird-catcher and instead filled
the sky with star-gems.
The sky filled with stars laughed scornfully at the grooves of blossomed white lotuses.

The two friends got up, worshipped Sandhyaa and remained within the bushes reciting
chants.

Then Kumbha, who was slowly turning into a female-form, walked with slow hesitating
steps and stood in front of the king.
(His body was changing into that of a female along with the necessary garments,
ornaments, and decorations.)



He spoke in a choking voice-
My body feels as if falling; as if expanding; as if melting off!
Raajan!
I feel so embarrassed by the fact that I am turning into a woman!
Look! My hair is growing profuse and long like the dark night adorned by the garland of
stars!
Look at the breasts getting formed on my chest!
Look at the clothes hanging from my body upto the ankles, like what the women wear!
Look at the ornaments, jewels, different varieties of garlands which are all growing out
of my limbs like flowers from a tree.
Look! The head is adorned by a silken garment shining like the moon, all by itself, like
the mist covering the peak of the mountain!
Look! My limbs have become so attractive!
Ha! Alas! I feel so sorrowful! What shall I do? I have turned into a female!
Ha! Alas! Oh! I have become a woman!
I can feel the well-shaped hips now!

Kumbha remained silent and sad after speaking like this.

The king also looked at the female Kumbha and remained sad and silent.
After a few minutes of that heavy silence, ShikhiDhvaja spoke-
Alas! What a sorrowful situation!
The great Sage has turned into a beautiful woman!
Hey Good one! You are a knower of the Self! You know the ways of Niyati!
You should not worry about things that cannot be prevented!
For the wise, only the body gets into various states; not the mind!
For the ignorant, they reach the mind and linger as Vaasanaas!

+

Kumbha spoke

Let it be so! I will undergo this state of woman-hood patiently.
I will not worry anymore.
Who can cross over the Niyati?








*
Vasishta spoke

Having consoled each other like this, both of them stopped worrying and slept on the
same bed together at night.
In the morning, Kumbha discarded his youthful female form and became Kumbha-form
again, shining like the young ascetic he was!

In this manner, that queen Chudaalaa of golden hue, remained as Kumbha near her
husband; and attained womanhood again.

At nights she wandered in the forest as a young woman and stayed in the form of
Kumbha with her husband as a close friend.

That great Yoginee who could move at her will among mountains like Kailaasa,
Mandara, Mahendra, Meru, Sahya and others, stayed with her lover in the form of a
friend at day-times and also as a woman adorned by all ornaments, at night-time.

*
Vasishta spoke

After a few days Chudaalaa in the form of Kumbha spoke to her husband like this-
Handsome King! Listen to my words!
Every night I turn into a woman anyhow!
I want to fulfill the purpose of this female body! I will marry some one and offer myself to
that husband. And surely you alone are fit be my husband in all the three worlds; for I
like you so much!
Accept me as your wife in marriage, at nights.
This female form is something I got unasked for!
Now I want to enjoy the pleasures of being a woman in your company who are my friend
and husband. Do not place any objection.
This union of a man and a woman has been there from the beginning of the creation.
It is pleasing, easily available and makes one happy.
If one does what is natural, then what fault can arise?
Without entertaining desire or no-desire, let us do what we want to do, renouncing the
fruits of the action and without any attachment.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Friend! I do not see this action as either auspicious or non-auspicious.
Wise one! Do whatever you want to do.
I have attained the equal vision. I see the three worlds as the Self alone!
Whatever you intend to do, I have no objection.

+

Kumbha spoke

If that is so, king, then let the marriage be performed today itself.
Today is the auspicious full moon day of the Shraavana month. I have already calculated
the day as the perfect day for our marriage.
When the night rises, and the moon shines with all digits, let us get married.

*
Vasishta spoke

Chudaalaa, with her Yogic power filled the place with flowers, gems and precious stones.
They both got married in the grandest way ever possible, like Gods on earth.
Chudaalaa married her own husband as another female form with the name of
Madanikaa.
The husband and wife couple spent the nights happily in the blissful company of each
other.
In the mornings they remained as close friends with Chudaalaa taking again the
Kumbha-form. They both were always together and never separated from each other.

Once in every three days, when the king was deep asleep, Chudaalaa flew to her
kingdom, attended to the affairs of the country and returned before the king woke up.
Many months passed in this manner.

Then Chudaalaa in the form of Kumbha thought like this-
I will present the best of pleasures to him and test his desireless state of mind.
I will see that he never ever desires any pleasures again.

By her Yogic power she made the real Indra appear in that forest along with his retinue of
Gods and all Apsaraas.

ShikhiDhvaja saw Indra standing in front of him and worshipped him with respect.



ShikhiDhvaja spoke

What meritorious act have I done that you have taken the trouble to visit me here?
Please be kind to tell the reason for you arrival, O King of Gods!




7g
Indra spoke

We have arrived here having come to know of your great virtues.
Get up. Come to the heaven.
The beautiful girls of the heaven are eager to offer their services to you, after hearing
about your greatness.
Accept these magical objects like the foot-wear, sword etc and move through the paths
taken by Siddhas. Accept the offering of the heaven itself.
You are a JeevanMukta now. Enjoy all the pleasures of the heaven.
Knowers like you never reject what has come to them without asking for.
The heaven has come to you by itself because of your great qualities.
Sanctify the heaven by arriving there.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Hey Lord of Gods! I know all about the heaven you speak of.
But I find heaven wherever I see. It is not something which exists as a divided world.
I am happy everywhere. I enjoy everywhere.
As the mind does not desire anything, I am happy everywhere.
Indra! I do not want to go to any heaven which exists separately like what you say!
I cannot obey your orders.

7g
Indra spoke

Hey Good man! For the knowers who are in the fulfilled state of the intellect, enjoyment
of pleasures is equal to non-enjoyment.

*
Vasishta spoke

The king remained silent without saying anything.
Indra said with disappointment- If you are unwilling, how can I take you with me?

ShikhiDhvaja interrupted apologetically- Not today; but I will come when you need me
(in battles)!

Indra looked at Kumbha (Chudaalaa) and said-
Kumbha! May all that you wish happen.

Immediately he vanished from sight along with his retinue and people.


CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN

*
Vasishta spoke

After the magical scene was over, Chudaalaa thought like this-
This king is no more attracted towards pleasures.
He was not excited by the arrival of Indra and did not show any interest in the heavenly
pleasures.
Now I will create another magical situation and try to provoke him to attachment or
anger.

At night she took the form of Madanikaa.
ShikhiDhvaja was doing his Sandhyaa rites on the river bank.
Madanikaa got herself intoxicated and entered a bower filled with flowers.
She created a flower bed by her Yogic power. She also created a paramour on the bed and
lay down with him enjoying his company.

ShikhiDhvaja finished his evening rites and came searching for Madanikaa. He saw her
in the arms of another man inside the bower.
His mind remained undisturbed and quiet. Rather he was happy that they both were
enjoying each others company so much.
Without wanting to interrupt their amorous sports, he walked away silently without
making any noise.

Madanikaa instantly dissolved her magical scene; came out of the bower with all her
clothes crumpled and her body flushed by passionate acts.
She found the king on the bank of Meru Mountain absorbed in contemplation.
She stood in front of him, embarrassed and guilty.
ShikhiDhvaja knew of her presence and opened his eyes.
He spoke tenderly-
Beautiful girl!
Why have you come here so soon stopping your enjoyments half-way?
All beings want to be happy, somehow or other.
Go and enjoy the company of your lover.
It is difficult to find a couple who dearly love each other in the three worlds.
I am not annoyed with this act of yours, Good lady! You are only doing that which gives
you much joy! I know that!
Pretty Girl! I and Kumbha have no desires. You are Kumbha in another form.
You are an innocent girl produced by the curse of Durvaasa.
You can do whatever you want. Go and enjoy yourself.





Madanikaa spoke

Yes Dear one! Restlessness is the nature of a woman.
Passion leads any one astray. Do not feel angry.
I am after all, a weak and helpless person. You were engaged in Sandhyaa worship. I felt
lonely in this forest this night. What can I do?
Whether under the control of a husband or a young unmarried girl, a woman cannot
control her passion.
Woman own beauty only to attract men. The scriptures or rules of the society cannot stop
her from enjoying a desiring partner.
I am helpless. I am immature. I am foolish. I have committed a fault.
Lord! Forgive me.
Pious men always forgive the mistakes of others.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Like a tree in the sky, the anger is not there at all in my mind, immature girl!
I do not want any one to blame you either.
Let us wander together again in the forest and enjoy each others company, without
entertaining any attachment for the pleasures.

*
Vasishta spoke

Seeing her husband with such equanimity, Chudaalaa thought again-
Aha! My lord has attained supreme quiescence in the mind.
He has no attractions towards anything. He does not have anger also by any annoying
situation. He stays now as a JeevanMukta.
Pleasures interest him no more.
He does not even hanker after Siddhis.
Happiness or sorrow, prosperity or calamity- all are treated by him as equal.
Whatever qualities I expected him to have as a JeevanMukta, are now in him.
I will tell him all that I did these days.
I will discard the form of Kumbha and become Chudaalaa again.









CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

*
Vasishta spoke

Chudaalaa immediately discarded her form of Madanikaa and stood in front of
ShikhiDhvaja, in the form of his wife Chudaalaa.
Seeing his wife come out of Madanikaas form, the king was surprised.
He spoke in amazement-
Who are you pretty woman? From where have you come?
Why are you here? For how long? What for?
By the movement of your limbs, your smile and politeness, you look like the image of my
wife.

Chudaalaa spoke

It is true my lord! I am Chudaalaa for sure.
There is no doubt about it.
I am your wife standing in front of you.
I took on the magical forms of Kumbha and others, only to enlighten you.
When you left for the forest, renouncing the kingdom, I decided to enlighten you.
I myself took the form of Kumbha and instructed you.
Kumbha is not a real character, O King!
All those bodies of Kumbha, Madanikaa are all illusory forms created by me.
You are a knower of the Self.
Meditate and find out for yourself all that has happened.

*
Vasishta spoke

The king meditated as she had said and understood all that had happened in a second,
from when he left the kingdom to Chudaalaa standing there in front of him at present.
His eyes blossomed with happiness.
His body was filled with horripilation.
His eyes were wet with tears of joy.
He embraced his wife with love.
The joy oozing out of that embrace of those two lovers cannot be worded even by
Vaasuki of thousand heads.
For a long time they remained in each others embrace like carved statues, like two clay
dolls attached together.


Then looking affectionately at his beloved wife, ShikhiDhvaja said-
My dear wife! How much trouble you have gone through for your husbands sake!
What can you be compared with; for you have lifted me out of this deep hole of
Samsaara!
Arundhati, Shaci, Gauri, Gaayatri, Shree, Sarasvati, all look pale in front of your
greatness.
All the daughters of Daksha (Dhee, Shree, Kaanti etc) might be beautiful in form; but you
stand foremost amongst them all by your character.
You have taken extreme effort to enlighten me. What can I give you in return?
Devoted wives lift a man out of the deepest delusion, even if the delusion is extremely
dense.
Scriptures, Guru, chants do not help a man like the devoted wives who love their
husbands like their lives!
The devoted wife is a friend, brother, well-wisher, servant, Guru, companion, wealth,
happiness, scripture, home, slave- all this to her husband!
These wives are to be worshipped in all ways.
One with a devoted wife attains the happiness of both worlds.
How can I repay your act of kindness?
In my opinion, among all the devoted wives of great virtues, you alone stand as the one
who has to be praised by all women.
Arundhati and others would be angry that they were not made of the chemical that made
you.

You are a Satee!
(The term Satee refers to a woman endowed with extreme devotion and love for her husband like
Daakshaayini who burnt herself in the Sacrificial fire of Daksha, to prove her love for her husband and
Lord, Shiva).

You are a casket full of the gems of beauty, virtues and charm.
Come embrace me again.

*
Vasishta spoke

After praising her like this, again the king embraced her tightly with love.

Chudaalaa spoke

Deva! As you were caught in the net of dry action and were struggling through it, I felt
very much worried for your sake.
By enlightening you, I have fulfilled my selfish need only.
Why do you shower compliments on me like this?



ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Let us see if all the ladies born in esteemed families fulfill their selfish purposes like you
in such an auspicious manner, my beautiful wife!

Chudaalaa spoke

My love! Have you understood everything, as you rest outside the net of the perceived
phenomenon of the world?
Do you have any of the past delusions left back?
Do you laugh at the weak state of the intellect of those days where you thought-I will do
this, I will not do this, I will attain this state etc?
Those worthless mechanical disciplines and misconceived goals are not seen in you Lord,
like mountains in the sky!
Dear one! Are you in the state of fulfillment?
What are your thoughts now? What do you want to do?
How do you observe the past actions connected to the body?


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

Dear wife! Your glances are like a garland of fully blossomed blue lotuses!
What state you are in, in that alone I am established too!
I am free of all desires.
I am without divisions.
I am pure like the space.
I have no wants.
I am quiet in the mind.
I am in the true state of the Supreme.
For ever I remain as myself.
I have attained such a state of the mind, which cannot be upset by even Trinities!
I am absorbed in the Chit-state which is not something that can be perceived.
I am in my own state.
I am freed of the world-delusion completely.

Hey you with the eyes like bees!
I am not happy; not sad.
I am not this; nor any other.
I am not gross or subtle.
I am the truth, O pretty lady!



I am like the light which shines forth from the Sun and spreads everywhere revealing all.
I am peaceful.
With all the perturbations of the world subsided, I have become equal.
I have no desires.
I am in my own nature.

Hey devoted wife! I am completely free of all coverings (sheaths); and equal to you.
Whatever I am, that alone I am!
I cannot explain any better.

O You with delicate limbs! You are my Guru!! Salutations to you!
By the grace of this beautiful woman with large eyes, I have crossed over the worldly
existence.
I will never again be tainted like the gold purified in the fire hundreds of times.
I am quiet; and in my own state.
I am absorbed only in the Self and feel soft and light at heart.
I have no more attractions for the world objects.
I am beyond everything. I am everywhere.
I stay now like the empty sky.

Chudaalaa spoke

Hey great one, hey lord of my life, hey my love!
Tell me what you want to do now.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

I do not want to stop doing anything; nor do I want to do anything.
Whatever you do, I will follow it likewise.
Whatever you feel like doing, let it be done, my beloved.
I am beautiful as the sky.
I do not have the inclination to think anything particularly.
Whatever you think is the best; do that alone, O pretty woman!
I will reflect that only, like a gem.
I have no likes or dislikes in the mind.
Whatever is to be done according to you, I will not praise or blame; but do as you say.
Do whatever you like.

Chudaalaa spoke

q 7
74c1



If that is so, O mighty king!
Listen to my opinion.
Hey JeevanMukta!
You listen to what I say and see whether you can act accordingly.

4 E H7

1 1

We both now stay as the expansive sky free of desires
by the knowledge of the oneness of everything
and with our ignorance completely destroyed.

T 1 T
c9 7

Whatever we desire (loving each other, caring for the people as the rulers etc)
is equal to non-desire.
The senses powered by Praana reach their objects!
In what way can one enjoy the pleasures,
being established in the Chit-state (the source of all bliss)?



(Let us be what we are (Self); and be the same in the beginning, middle and end of pleasures; get rid of the
residue of past actions through the experience of pleasures; and live on the earth as long as the body exists.)

1q7

c7 1

Therefore, let us be what we are at the beginning, end and middle (as the Self).
Hey Best of all men!
Let us renounce what is left over and stay.



7 +9 c H
91 9

We will rule the kingdom at present and pass away our lives here.
O Lord!
Then, after the fall of the body at some point of time,
we will attain the Videha-Mukti.



ShikhiDhvaja spoke

q7

|T1
c7 *

How are we in the beginning, end and the middle?
How will we renounce the remaining thing and stay, hey pretty woman?

Chudaalaa spoke

q7

c
c7

1 c 1 1

7 +

Hey best of Kings!
We are the rulers in the beginning, end and middle.
(We will have all the due experiences befitting our royal status.)

Let us just discard the delusion and stay.
(But we will not be acting with the delusion as the non-self).

Be the ruler of your own kingdom seated on the throne.
I will be your queen prominent, among all other harem women.





*
Vasishta spoke

ShikhiDhvaja laughed at her words and spoke tenderly.

If you are interested in a life of enjoyment in my company, my beloved, then why go for
these mortal pleasures? Let us enjoy the pleasures of the heaven which are already
bestowed on us by Indra!

Chudaalaa spoke

7

11 9 1

1| 7 H
1H * 11 *

H
7 *


Raajan!
I am not interested in pleasures or powers.
Whatever has been my life so far by own birth;
that alone is enough for me.

The heaven, or kingdom or any action cannot give me any happiness.

I will just continue as I am (as your beloved wife),
established in my own nature (of the Self),
unperturbed by anything.

Since the dual ideas of this is happiness this is not both are gone,
I stay in the state of equal-ness,
blissful in the Self.


ShikhiDhvaja spoke

You have said the right thing my dear wife! You are in the state of equal-vision.
What difference is there whether we renounce the kingdom or not?
Let us stop worrying about pleasures and pains; and be without any malicious thoughts.
Let us remain as we are; established in the Self-state.

CHAPTER FORTY NINE

*
Vasishta spoke

The day was spent for those eternal lovers, in various talks connected to their lives.
Those two knowers, perfect in all actions did all the duties connected to the day longing
for each others company; yet not longing for each other as they were in the same state of
Self.
They did not bother about the pleasures and powers of the heaven.
Those two Jeevan-Muktas spent the night on the same bed, engaged in love-sports.
They conversed for long about their experiences of pleasures and liberation; yet the night
passed away like minutes for that noble couple who enjoyed each others company with
extreme love.

*
Vasishta spoke

Next morning, they got up from their leaf-beds and finished all the necessary morning
rites. Chudaalaa conceived a golden pot studded with precious stones. It was filled with
the waters of seven oceans. The king stood facing the east. The devoted wife consecrated
him as the emperor by pouring that sacred water on his head.
She made him seated on a golden throne conceived by her.
Chudaalaa of the divine form spoke-
Lord! Keep away the luster belonging to the Sage and accept the luster which belongs
to the eight Lokapaalas (guardians of the world- Indra, Yama and others).

The king accepted her words and became an emperor.
Then he addressed his wife who was standing near him as a maid and said that he will
consecrate her as the great Queen. He also sprinkled the sacred water on her head and
made her his queen.
Then as per his request, she produced a huge army through her conceptional power.

The emperor and his queen sat on the excellent scent-elephant, and surrounded by all
kings, left that forest grounds.
They crossed over many countries, hills, rivers and jungles.
The king talked to her about all those places which he had visited when he had renounced
the kingdom.
Very soon, they both reached their beautiful city. The citizens and other kings welcomed
them with all the grandeur and excellence.
Festivities went on for seven days celebrating the return of their beloved king.
ShikhiDhvaja ruled the kingdom for ten thousand years along with his wise queen and
later attained the supreme state of Nirvaana.
The king attained the Supreme state of Nirvaana, even after enjoying fully the company
of his realized wife on the earth, all through his life.

CHAPTER FIFTY

4c

7+

|c

1c |

97cc
c 97


*c* 1 97H+

Having enjoyed many pleasures of the earth;
remaining as the crest jewel of all the kings for long;
he (ShikhiDhvaja) attained the supreme state of immortality
with only Existence as the left over state.

In this manner, Rama,
you also follow the actions that come to you
enjoying fully the riches of earthly pleasures and the state of liberation;
and remain without distress,
established always in the wakeful state of the Self.

c E
7 q
T** q
c q

**c
7 T

=7 H

This is the complete story of ShikhiDhvaja.
Walking in the path taken by him, you will never again feel sorrowful.

Established in this vision of the Self,
which destroys attachment and hatred;
endowed with an intellect without attachments,
remain always resting in that Supreme state.

Rama!
Remain as the ruler of the kingdom and enjoy both the earth-pleasures and liberation,
similar in the manner to how ShikhiDhvaja ruled his kingdom.


E

PART TEN OF
SECTION SIX - NIRVAANA PRAKARANAM
COMPLETE






About the Author:

Maa Tejasvini

The author spent many years doing research on ancient Sanskrit texts in the Himalayan
region. She was exposed to many unique spiritual experiences which are beyond human
comprehension.
Her mission in life was to translate all renowned spiritual texts and literature of Sanskrit
and bring them to the light of the public.