Decoding the Yoga Vashishtha
Have you ever been so lost in reading a book, that you forget everything else?
Our Sanatan Dharma has one such mind-breaking philosophical scripture that will pull you into its deep stories & make you rethink your entire life.
I’m talking about the lesser-known, totally underrated Yoga Vashishtha, also known as the Maha-Ramayana or the philosophical Ramayana.
Here’s the tea.
First things first, many scholars think that the Yoga Vashishtha you get to read today is actually a heavily edited version of a Kashmirian text called “Mokshopaya” from the 10th century, and its abridged version called the “Laghu Mokshopaya,” which were later mixed together with Vedantic, Shaiva, Buddhist & Tantric ideas.
The setting of our story is that a young, teenage prince, Sri Ram of Ayodhya, has returned from his pilgrimage tour across India & has a BT (bad trip) after seeing all the suffering & sadness.
But Rishi Vishwamitra, in the presence of Ram’s father, King Dashratha, and the rest of the royal court, sees Ram’s depression not as laziness but as a positive sign of dispassion or detachment from the material world, preparing him to be worthy of spiritual advancement under Rishi Vashishtha’s guidance.
In a spell-binding pep talk of 30,000 verses, spread across six major sections or Prakaranas, Sage Vashishtha, gives us three ideas that will not just shake your mindset but also give you a practical road for growing personally.
1) Idea 1 is the theory of Ajata Vada - non-creation. In simple words, we have Advaita that says the universe is an illusion (maya) & while it may be apparently real for us at our smaller level, the Only True Reality is this Absolute Highest Self called the Brahman.
Ajata says, nah bro, actually it never existed, was never born, was never created - there’s always been Brahman, maybe we just forgot it. But we’ve been the ocean that rises & sets in waves all along. Since there’s nothing other than Absolute, none of us are bound & need to be liberated as such.
2) Idea No. 2 - Bringing Ajata into practice, Vashishtha admits that while the footprints from our past karmas do affect our lives, they’re not as powerful as the choices we make now, giving us four gatekeepers & ways in which we can come to the realisation of Ajata. They are:
I) Shanti or Sama (tranquility) - keeping a chill mind regardless of how chaotic life becomes
II) Vichara (inquiry) - being constantly curious about the question “Who am I?” in search of our true identities
III) Santosha (contentment) - being satisfied with whatever comes naturally, not having greed
IV) Satsanga (company of the wise) - meeting & hanging out with those who’ve realised the truth, accelerating our own growth
3) Idea No. 3 - To track our own progress over time, Vashishtha even gives a 7-checkpoints Progress Map called the Sapta Jnana Bhumikas.
It goes from Subbheccha, good intentions, realising that something’s off in this world, and hence longing for the reality, to finally Turya, a state of perpetual samadhi, beyond all states of waking, dreaming & sleeping. This is the final perfect state of happiness, consciousness & existence.
There are many more mind-boggling ideas in the text - that will keep you awake for long nights.