The Story of Vitahavya - 8

Sage Vasishtha

Vasishtha continued:

With all the desires in the mind utterly silenced and having well grounded himself in the plane of non-dual consciousness, sage Vitahavya uttered the holy word OM. Contemplating the esoteric significance of the OM, he perceived the error of confusing the reality with the appearance. By the total abandonment of all concepts and percepts, he renounced the three worlds. He became utterly quiescent, as when the potter's wheel comes to rest. By the utterance of the OM he dispelled the webs of sense-organs and their objects, even as the wind disperses scent. After this, he pierced the darkness of ignorance. He beheld the inner light for just a split second, but renounced that too immediately. He transcended both light and darkness. There remained just a trace of thought-form; this, too, the sage cut asunder in the twinkling of an eye, through the mind. Now the sage remained in the pure infinite consciousness, not modified in the least; it was like the state of consciousness of a just-born infant. He abandoned all objectivity of consciousness and even the slightest movement of consciousness. He crossed the state known as 'pasyanti' and reached the deep sleep consciousness. He continued beyond that, too, and reached the transcendental or turiya consciousness. It is a state of bliss that is not its description, which is both 'is' and the 'is not', both something and not-something, light and darkness. It is full of non-consciousness and (objectless) consciousness, it can only be indicated by negation (not this, not this). He became That which is beyond description. 

That state is the void, Brahman, consciousness, the Purusha of the Sankhya, Ishwara of the yogi, Shiva, time, Atman or Self, non-Self, the middle, etc., of the mystics holding different views. It is that state which is established as Truth by all these scriptural viewpoints, that which is all - in that the sage remained firmly established.

When the sage had thus become one with the infinite consciousness, the body decomposed and the elements returned to the respective source. 

Thus have I told, O Rama, the auspicious story of the sage Vitahavya. Reflect over it. Whatever I have said to you and whatever I shall say to you now is born of direct perception, direct experience and deep contemplation.

Meditate upon this, O Rama, and attain wisdom. Liberation is attained only by wisdom or self-knowledge. Only through such wisdom does one go beyond sorrow, destroy ignorance and attain perfection.

What has been described as Vitahavya is only a notion in our mind; so am I and so are you. All these senses and the whole world are nothing but the mind. What else can the worlds be, O Rama?