The Story of Vitahavya - 2

Sage Vasishtha

Sage Vitahavya continued to contemplate:

O mind, I shall gently bring home to you the truth that you are indeed neither the doer nor the experiencer. You are indeed inert; how can a statue made of stone dance? If your intelligence is entirely dependent upon the infinite consciousness, then may you live long in that realization. However, what is done with the intelligence or the energy of another, is considered to be done by the latter. The sickle harvests with the energy of the farmer; and hence the farmer is said to be the harvester. Similarly, though it is the sword that cuts, the man who weilds the sword is the killer. You are inert, O mind; your intelligence is derived from the infinite consciousness. That self or the infinite consciousness knows itself by itself, experiences itself in itself by itself. The Lord endeavors to enlighten you continuously, for the wise should thus instruct the ignorant in a hundred ways. The light of the self alone exists as consciousness or intelligence; that itself has come to be known as the mind. If you realize this truth, you will instantly be dissolved.

O fool, when you are in truth the infinite consciousness, why do you grieve? That is omnipresent, that is the all: when you realize it, you become the all. You are not, the body is not: the one infinite consciousness alone exists and in that homogeneous being the diverse concepts of "I" and "you" appear to exist. If you are the self, then the self alone exists, not you! For the self or the infinite consciousness alone is all, there is naught else. There is no possibility for the existence of a third thing, apart from the consciousness and the inert substance.

Hence, O mind, you are neither the doer nor the experiencer. You have been used as a channel of instruction by the wise ones in their communication with the ignorant. But, in fact, that channel is unreal and inert; the self alone is the reality. If the farmer does not use the sickle, can it harvest? The sword has no power to kill either. O mind, you are neither the doer nor the experiencer: hence grieve not. The Lord (consciousness) is not like you; hence do not grieve for him! He does not gain anything by either doing or not-doing. He alone pervades all; there is naught else. Then, what shall he do and what shall he desire?

You have no relationship to the self, except as the fragrance to a flower. Relationship exists only between two independent beings of similar nature when they strive to become one. You, O mind, are ever agitated; and the self is ever at peace. There can be thus be no relationship between you two. If, however, you enter into the state of samadhi or utter equanimity, you will remain firmly established in consciousness, without the distraction of diversity, without the notions of either many or one, and realize that there is but one self, the infinite consciousness, which shines as these countless beings.