Yoga Vasistha 203: The Bee, the Mountain Cave and the Sage Beyond Fear · Study guide

This class brings the story of Sage Uddalaka to its end, in the Upasama Prakarana, Section 55, and opens Section 56. Swami Jyotirmayananda reminds the class why the story is told at all: it sketches the whole spiritual journey, from bondage to release, in one life. The verse he reads pictures the sage drawing the world back into the Self as a turtle draws its limbs into its shell. Swamiji unpacks it in stages. Withdrawal of the senses, pratyahara, begins at a kindergarten level by closing the eyes, matures when the mind is no longer tempted, and reaches its climax in Om upasana, where the world is drawn in through the letters A, U and M into turiya. None of it works without integral yoga, one yoga with four aspects. Then a warning. That deep understanding is not meant to interrupt practical life. A man who knows he is Brahman still has to watch every detail of the road when he drives. Uddalaka becomes fearless, lives out his prarabdha karma, and comes to a state from which he cannot slip back, where death is no longer a reality. With that intention the sage enters a mountain cave. The projections of the mind give way to their end, and the mind that has tasted the bliss of devotion and knowledge becomes like a bee after honey, singing for one drop and dissolving into satta samanya, existence alone. What follows is asamsakti, hands oiled in the kitchen so that nothing sticks, and sahaja samadhi, the spontaneous samadhi the Gita calls sthita prajna. The goddess Chamunda wears the sage’s bones as an ornament. Section 56 opens with reflection, dispassion, and the practice of samadhi, and closes on a promise: disciplines done with joy are no longer disciplines but a feast.

Where each passage begins

The sketch of a whole journey

“How did Uddālaka attain enlightenment?” “That was the topic, and we are coming towards the end of that topic.” The story has one purpose, to present the “whole sketch of spiritual journey from bondage to release.” The verse describes the sage “Ultimately attaining sattā-sāmānya during the sixth and seventh steps of wisdom, known as padārtha-bhāvanā and turīya.” Swamiji cautions: “This is in a very advanced level of description.” So he starts lower down.

Three stages of pratyahara

“ordinary description of pratyāhāra is withdrawing the senses.” “And again, pratyāhāra can be in different stages.” “First stage, very preliminary kindergarten stage.” If something distracts the mind, “Then close your eyes.” If sounds distract it, plug the ears. “Second stage of pratyāhāra Withdraw your mind.” “Sound goes on, but you are not attending to it.” “Objects are there, but you are not distracted by it.” “because your mind is well grounded.” Swamiji’s picture is a shop full of gulab jamuns and sweets. “But you are well convinced that you are diabetic and all this will hurt you.” “So nothing tempts you.” The third is “Advanced stage of pratyāhāra” “That’s highly climax state which Uddalaka was practicing.” From a practical point of view things are real when you touch, smell, and taste them. “So that concept, I am the body, is being drawn into mind.” “Physical world has no reality unless the mind creates it.”

One yoga, four aspects

Om upasana is the core of the practice, but it rests on a foundation. “Unless you are practicing integral yoga, you will not have real progress.” “Integral yoga doesn’t mean that you are constantly mathematically figuring out how much karma-yoga I should do, how much bhakti-yoga, how much rāja-yoga, how much jñāna-yoga.” “but have a deep understanding. The four aspects are interrelated.” “If you have more bhakti, your karma will be more karma yoga.” The epics teach it. “In Rāmāyaṇa, four brothers, they are the four yogas.” The five Pandavas are “Another expression of integral yoga.” “There are no four yogas, it’s one yoga. Four aspects.” When all four are kept in harmony in daily life, “You are qualified, you begin to succeed in advanced practice such as Om upāsanā.”

The turtle draws in the world

The first letter: “The A aspect which is waking state.” “First stage, stretch your understanding. If I am physical body, I’m the whole world of matter.” If the body is a wave, the “physical world is like the ocean.” “Ocean and wave you cannot separate.” “Identified with your physical body, you are called Viśva.” “And the universal aspect of macrocosmic aspect is Virāṭ.” “Now come to U aspect of Om.” “Without mind, nothing means anything.” “In brief, mind is the reality.” “So now we have become first stage turtle. We drew the world into the mind.” The soul identified with the individual mind is Taijasa, and “That Taijasa is the whole cosmic mind, Brahmā Hiraṇyagarbha.” The whole mental process is a cinema show projected from the unconscious. “identified with unconscious state. The soul is called Prājña.” The cosmic unconscious is Isvara: “Not a single flower blossoms without Īśvara behind.” “Next stage of the turtle.” “And that Īśvara is Brahman.” When the magical power of Maya goes, one enters the fourth, turiya. “Then you have completely withdrawn all your limbs.”

Aham brahmasmi at the wheel

“Studying this, you should not be confused in your practical world.” Mind and unconscious go on operating, “but deep understanding as if withdraws you from all these.” “So deep rooted state, I am Brahman. In practical world, I’m driving a car.” “I have to be alert to every detail.” “The moment you start, ahaṃ brahmāsmi of the car, comes big trouble.” “So figure it out. Deeper understanding is not meant to interrupt.” It brings spontaneity and skill. “More, if you are joyous and doing things, you do it more skillfully.” “If internally settled, you do things, your performance is perfect.” Then one becomes a source “creating an aroma of harmony and peace.”

No room for fear

Uddalaka has attained the supreme state “which is the destroyer of all fears.” “There is no room for fear.” Identified with the body alone, one is always afraid. “But even at the body level, if you realize you are a Virat.” Fear looks at you with amazement. “Soon it turns back on you and then vanishes.” The sage goes on abiding in the body, the puryashtaka. “Your body is a city.” “But you have been here in the body as a prisoner.” “But with the enlightenment, you are the ruler.”

The length of a sage’s life

How long an enlightened sage lives depends on his prarabdha karma. “Sages like Śaṅkarācārya, having attained, didn’t live long.” “Vivekānanda and many others died early.” “That is not anything negative.” “So it is not the stretch of time that qualifies a sage. It’s the wisdom.” “And the effect of wisdom is not dependent upon duration of time.”

Death is not a reality

Uddalaka resolves to give up the body, but “Any description is always figurative.” “From his own point of view, there is death doesn’t exist.” “So this is spontaneity.” “Because this is the greatest challenge.” “Even greatest of people at the death, movement of death, they become shaken.” “But they become shaken, but they correct the being shaken very quickly.” “Simple way to understand, death is not a reality.” “Grief is not a reality, pain is not a reality.” “But that goal is a progressive movement.” “You come to a state from where you cannot go back, that state itself is called jīvanmukti.” “But now you are so settled that you cannot just slip back.” “Otherwise you are constantly going up a little then you slip back.”

Icchamrityu and the will to sleep

“Icchāmṛtyu literally means you die according to when you will to die.” “and people take it literally.” Willing death because the world can no longer be faced is something else. “Because you are doing that, death is your reality, you have not attained liberation.” Sleep is the simple picture. No one knows the moment of falling asleep. “It has to come spontaneously.” Yet a person who drops off quickly says the next day, “I sleep according to my will.”

The mountain cave

“With this intention, he entered a mountain cave.” “In lotus pose and with closed eyes, this is all allegorical, you see.” “As he passes during the passing movement, he becomes completely withdrawn.” “He meditated upon the Self as the reality behind all sense perceptions.” Prana, body, mind, and senses controlled, he was free of agitation. “And the sage became like a painted picture.”

Bhava pratyaya and pratyaya bhava

Here come two terms: “Bhava-pratyaya and pratyaya-bhava” “First stage you are involved with mental projections.” “Projections must exist. Bhāvapratyaya means existence of projection.” Gain, loss, birth, death, they “are all in the realm of vrittis of the mind.” “Enlightenment has turned all vṛttis into brahmākāravṛtti.” “Brahman alone exists.” “Projections move away, the screen alone is, which has been ever untarnished by all projections.” “It’s called Pratyayabhāva. The entire pratyaya process terminates.”

The strength to detach

“As long as this citta has not tasted the bliss of the Self.” “So long it is unable to endure the disciplines of withdrawal from the objects.” “When you face challenging situations, your mind is drawing clouds of despair.” “If you don’t detach from the problem, you will not know how to handle the problem.” “Detaching from the problem requires strength.” At first it is ordinary strength, from good virtues and good karmas. Bhakti and jnana bring a strength the ego cannot comprehend: “letting your mind relax with the idea of śaraṇāgati, surrender to God.” “And there is a meaning behind everything.” “So it is you are not the you, you are not the one enduring it. It is God’s strength.” “Bhakti opens the door, jñāna culminates.” “Reflected sun is always in problem.” “But all its problems vanish when it fully understands I am the sun.”

Like a bee after honey

“When the mind begins to taste that, It becomes like a bee after honey.” “Look at the bee, how it becomes a big yogi.” There are so many things in the forest, but the bee goes on buzzing, “Singing songs of joy for a drop of honey.” “So the mind sings songs of joy with a drop of divine love.” “It becomes so immersed in the experience of bliss that it allows itself to be dissolved.” It dissolves in the homogeneity of absolute existence, satta samanya. “Existence alone exists.” “All diversities have nothing but Brahman as the reality.”

Touch your pillow

In a dream, countless things happen, tragic and joyous. “But all the time, the entire dream world is just your own awareness.” That awareness is “the underlying existence ever untouched, unaffected by your dream experience.” “How do you know it? You wake up and you are on your bed. Touch your pillow. Good.” “When you come to that type of internal conviction and you are rooted in it called Sattāsāmānya.”

Oiled hands in the kitchen

“Things will go on and you go on handling them.” “If your hands are oiled, you can handle gluey things like banana skins etcetera” and nothing clings. “That’s called asaṃsakti.” Without it, whatever you touch has to be washed off before you touch anything else, and after cutting onions the smell is still there. When bhakti enters through satsanga, kirtana, and good deeds, “The world and events etcetera, they don’t touch you.” “You handle them well, and if you are not touched, you handle them more precisely, skillfully.” That is work done with inspiration. “Otherwise you handle things with great perspiration.” “So that asaṃsakti detachment becomes so thorough that the question of what are we detaching from doesn’t arise.” That is padartha bhavana. “As if from dream you have gone to deep sleep.”

Progress is not a display

“But all this is a description. Nothing changes externally.” Internally one becomes settled, joyous, expansive, “But person around you doesn’t know.” “This is not something demonstrative.” “It’s subjective.” “Your spiritual progress is not a matter of display.” Swamiji mimics the meditator who comes to show off: “That kuṇḍalinī has risen in me or not.” “Are you seeing a light flashing from my eyes?” “We’ll spend a lot of time in this type of display.”

Sahaja samadhi

“Śrī Uddālaka thus passed into the state of disembodied liberation.” The early stage is “Practice of Samadhi, not Sahaj. Practice Samadhi and then get in and get out.” In the mature state, “Samadhi becomes spontaneous” “You don’t have to sit, withdraw, and experience samadhi.” “Even while you are operating, doing all your activities in all detail.” “That experience of Samadhi continues.” “It’s spontaneous samadhi.” “It becomes a source of inspiration for your activity.” “You become more dynamic in your action, more radiant in your performance of duties.”

The sthita prajna

“That is described in the Gītā as sthita-prajña” “Kṛṣṇa doesn’t say that having attained liberation, one goes on staying in seated condition for days and months and years together.” “He says, on the other hand, though he is sitting, standing, talking, doing all things, he’s rooted in Brahman.” “That’s the state. That’s the goal.”

Chamunda’s ornament

“He became one with the Absolute. He became the Self of all.” His body remained in the same spot for six months, dried by the rays of the sun. “This is a totally allegorical description of glorifying enlightenment.” “Look how people are busy exploring the bones of Moses, bones of Jesus, bones of great sages.” Why? “The touch of enlightenment.” “Every action the sage has done becomes sacred to the masses.” “His adversity, his prosperity, his struggle, his crucifixion.” “All become sacred.” “Nature put together in one personality is Cāmuṇḍā.” The three syllables relate to Durga, Lakshmi, and Sarasvati: “Navel, heart, and Ājñā chakra.” “kriyā-śakti, icchā-śakti, jñāna-śakti.” The goddess places the sage’s body on her crown as an adornment. “Not only his body but everything he has touched.” “All become glorified.” “But ultimately, when you attain the highest goal, the entire world is Brahman.” Until then, the journey follows “Saintly steps, saintly footsteps.” “Blessed indeed is the state of mokṣa.”

Reflection, dispassion and samadhi

Section 56 begins. “Sage Vasiṣṭha gives insight into samādhi of a sage.” “Reflections, practice of vicāra, allowing your mind to figure out who am I.” “In order to succeed in vicāra, you need to have dispassion.” “So dispassion and reflection, they go, they help each other.” “The more you reflect, greater is your dispassion.” “Greater is your dispassion, greater is your clarity of inquiring who am I.” Samadhi practice moves the mind away from the world, “Just like you are moving away from the world when you go to sleep.” “But early samādhi, you drowse a little, but then Advanced samādhi, you don’t drowse at all.” “Climax of Samadhi, it doesn’t depend upon your drowsing, not drowsing, walking, waking. It is spontaneous.”

Jnana yajna

“The scriptures remain like closed books, but when you begin to practice, You read a few words of the scripture and they open a bigger door into your mind.” Listening and reflection “also includes jñāna-yajña” “If you share how you are thinking to help others.” “Now your thinking becomes more interesting to you.” The one who will not share says, “What have I to do with others? I have to create a life.” “It is not mature jñāna. You end up with some narrow-minded concept.” “And ego becomes so swollen, you don’t know how it is.”

A feast, not fast

“All the disciplines must go on in a spontaneous way, no matter how advanced you are. But they are not called disciplines.” “When you do something in a profound way and you’re enjoying it, it is not a discipline.” “It’s a festivity. It’s a feast, not fast.” “You should continue to inquire into the nature of the self.” “And with this, we will conclude.”

Terms

upasama prakarana — the book of the Yoga Vasistha on the quieting of the mind, where the story of Sage Uddalaka is told
pratyahara — withdrawal of the senses, from closing the eyes to drawing the whole world into the Self
om upasana — meditation on Om, drawing the world through A, U and M into turiya
integral yoga — one yoga with four interrelated aspects: karma, bhakti, raja, and jnana
visva — the soul identified with the physical body in the waking state; its cosmic aspect is virat
taijasa — the soul identified with the individual mind; its cosmic aspect is hiranyagarbha
prajna — the soul identified with the unconscious in deep sleep; its cosmic aspect is isvara
turiya — the fourth, the transcendental state in which all the limbs are withdrawn
aham brahmasmi — I am Brahman; the deepest understanding, which still keeps its eyes on the road
puryashtaka — the body as a city, where the enlightened one is the ruler, not the prisoner
prarabdha karma — the karma that determines how long the body lasts, even for a sage
jivanmukti — liberation while living; the settled state from which one cannot slip back
videhamukti — disembodied liberation
icchamrityu — death at will; not willing death, but a passing in perfect harmony with the sage
bhava pratyaya — the existence of projection; the world of the mind’s vrittis
pratyaya bhava — the end of projection, where Brahman alone exists
brahmakara vritti — the mind’s movement turned toward Brahman
saranagati — surrender to God
satta samanya — existence alone; the homogeneity of absolute existence
asamsakti — non-attachment; oiled hands in the kitchen that nothing sticks to
padartha bhavana — the stage where the question of what to detach from does not arise
sahaja samadhi — spontaneous samadhi, continuing through all activity
sthita prajna — the one of steady wisdom in the Gita, rooted in Brahman while sitting, standing, and talking
Chamunda — nature in one personality: Durga, Lakshmi, and Sarasvati
vicara — reflection; inquiry into who am I
jnana yajna — the offering of knowledge, sharing one’s understanding to help others

For reflection

Where did you take your eyes off the road this week because you were holding a high thought, and where did inner settledness make you more careful instead?
What sticks to your hands every day, the way the onion smell does, and what is the oil that would let you handle it without being touched?
Where are you still keeping score of your spiritual progress for others to see?

About this lecture

Yoga Vasistha, Upasama Prakarana, Section 55, the close of the story of Sage Uddalaka, and the opening of Section 56. Lecture 203 by Swami Jyotirmayananda, Yoga Research Foundation, recorded January 7, 2020. The complete archive of Swamiji’s lectures is free to all.

This study guide is drawn from the archived teachings of Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda.