The Story of Vitahavya

Sage Vasishtha

There is another mode of enquiry which was adopted by the sage Vitahavya. This sage used to roam the forests in the mountain ranges known as Vindhya. At one stage, he became totally disenchanted with the affairs of the world which create delusion: and through the contemplation which is free from all perverse notions and thoughts, he abandoned the world as a worn-out illusion. He entered his hermitage, seated himself in the lotus posture and remained firm like a mountain peak. Having withdrawn the senses and having turned the attention of the mind upon itself, he began to contemplate as follows:

How fickle is my mind! Even if it is introverted, it does not remain steady but gets agitated in a moment like the surface of the ocean. Tied to the senses (like the sight) it bounces again and again like a ball. Having been nourished by the senses, the mind grasps the very objects it has given up; and like a demented person, it runs after the very things from which it has been restrained. It jumps from one object to the other like a monkey.

I shall now consider the character of the five senses through which the mind thus gets distracted. O senses, has the time not yet arrived for you all to attain self-knowledge? Do you not remember the sorrow that followed your pursuit of pleasure? Then, give up this vain excitement. Truly, you are inert and insentient: you are the avenue through which the mind flows out to reach objective experience. I am your Lord, I am consciousness and I alone do all these as the pure intelligence. You, O senses, are false. There is no connection whatsoever between you and the consciousness which is non-volitional, you function, even as people perform various actions in the light of the sun. But do not entertain the false notion, O senses, that 'I am intelligent', for you are not. Even the notion 'I am alive' that you entertain falsely is conducive only to sorrow.

There is nothing but consciousness which is beginningless and endless, O wicked mind, what then are you? The notions that arise in you, viz., 'I am the doer' and 'I am the enjoyer' which appear to be great rejenuvators, are in fact deadly poisons. Do not be so deluded, O mind; you are neither the doer of anything nor are you the experiencer in truth. You are inert and your intelligence is derived from some other source. How are pleasures related to you? You yourself do not exist; how do you have relations? If you realize that 'I am but pure consciousness', then you are indeed the self. Then how does sorrow arise in you when you are the unlimited and unconditioned consciousness?