The Supreme Yoga: Yoga Vāsiṣṭha

Front Cover
Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2003 - Health & Fitness - 382 pages
The Yoga Vasistha has been a favourite book of spiritual seekers in India these several centuries. Its special appeal lies in its thoroughly rational approach, and in its presentation of Vedanta as a philosophy to bridge the gulf between the secular and the sacred, action and contemplation, in human life, through a comprehensive and lofty spirituality. This monumental scripture is the greatest help to the spiritual awakening and the direct experience of the Truth. This is certain. If this is what you want, you are welcome to the Yoga Vasistha. An oft-recurring expression in this scripture is kakataliya'-a crow alights on the coconut palm tree and at that very moment a ripe coconut falls. The two unrelated events thus seem to be related in time and space, though there is no causal relationship. Such is life. Such is 'creation'. But the mind caught up in its own trap of logic questions why, invents a 'why' and a 'wherefore' to satisfy itself, conveniently ignoring the inconvenient questions that still haunt an intelligent mind. Vasistha demands direct observation of the mind, its motion, its notions, its reasoning, the assumed cause and the projected result, and even the observer, the observed and the observation-and the realisation of their indivisible unity as the infinite consciousness.
 

Contents

VAIRĀGYA PRAKARANAṀ
1
The Story of Uddālaka 184192
2
MUMUKṢU VYAVAHĀRA PRAKARAṆAṀ
21
The Story of Ākāśaja The holy man 367
61
The Story of the Sons of Indu Ten Young Men 7778
77
The Story of the Great Forest 8586
85
STHITI PRAKARANAM
104
The Story of Dāma Vyāla and Kata 118120
118
The Story of the Hundred Rudrā 275279
275
The Story of the Vampire
285
The Story of Sikhidhvaja and Cūḍālā 288334
288
The Story of the Philosophers Stone
300
The Story of the Cintamani 307309
307
The Story of the Foolish Elephant 308310
308
The Story of Kaca 334336
334
The Story of the Deluded Man
336

The Story of Dāśūra 130134
130
Kacas Song
136
Discourse on Brahman 231236
139
The Story of King Janaka 142148
142
The Story of Punya and Pāvana
155
The Story of Bhuśunda 237247
156
The Story of Prahlada 163175
163
Description of the Lord 250254
175
Deva Pūjā Worship of God 255259
255
The Story of the Woodapple
264
The Story of the Rock The Nature of Consciousness 265266
265
The Story of Arjuna
272
The Story of Vipaścit 337339
337
The Story of the Hunter and the Sage 340348
340
The Story of Kālāratri
348
The world Within the Rock 351354
351
The Story of the Sage from Outer Space
356
The Story of Bhṛngisa
357
The Story of Ikṣvāku 358359
358
The Story of the Hunter and the Deer
360
The Seven States of Yoga
361
Thus Spake Vasistha
367
Index
376
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