Abandon All Points Of View

Sage Vasishtha

In the Himalaya mountain range there lived a hill tribe known as Hemajata (yellow-haired0. Suraghu was their king. He was strong, powerful and wise; he was endowed with self-knowledge and he was highly accomplished in poesy and literary art. Fatigue was unknown to him. He was just in his rule, blessing and punishing those who deserved to be thus blessed and punished. In all this activity, however, his spiritual vision became obscured.

He began to reflect within himself:

"People undergo a lot of suffering on my account. Their suffering is truly my suffering. I should bestow riches upon them: they will rejoice, even as I would rejoice if I became wealthy. Their joy is my joy. Alas, by alternately blessing and punishing the people, I am myself alternately enjoying and suffering." Thinking thus, the king was greatly distressed.

One day, the sage Mandavya came to visit the king. Suraghu welcomed the sage, bowed to him, worshipped him and asked, "Lord, I am tormented by the anxieties that the blessing and the punishment that I inflict upon my subjects will return to me. Please help me gain equal vision and save me from prejudice and partiality."

Mandavya said:

All mental weaknesses come to an end by self-effort based on the wisdom which arises in one who is firmly rooted in self-knowledge. The distress of the mind is got rid of by enquiry into the nature of the self. One should enquire in one's own mind, "What are these moods and modes and feelings that arise within me?" By such enquiry, you are not disturbed by exultation and depression.  The mind abandons the past and the future, and thus its fragmented functioning. Then you experience supreme peace. When you are in the state of tranquility, you take pity on all those who revel in great wealth and secular power. When you have gained self-knowledge and when your consciousness has infinitely expanded, your mind no longer falls into the cesspool of this world, even as an elephant does not enter a puddle. It is only the little mind that seeks little pleasure and power.

The mind abandons everything when the vision of the supreme is gained. Hence, one should resolutely renounce everything till the supreme vision is gained. Not till one renounces everything is self-knowledge gained: when all points of view are abandoned, what remains is the self. This is true even of life in this world: one does not get what one desires unless the obstacle to it is removed. It is even more so in self-knowledge.