Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha 2.1—Śukadeva's Doubt
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 2017-09-09

Download the source materials: https://bit.ly/Yoga-Vasistha-Book2
After Rāma delivered his speech before the assembly, sage Viṣvāmitra, who sat before Rāma, tenderly said, “Rāma, you are the best of the most intelligent, and you have nothing more to learn that you have not already come to know by your own observation. You have an understanding clear like a mirror, and your questions serve to polish and reflect your understanding to others. You have a mind like that of Śuka, the son of the great Vyāsa, who knowing the knowable by intuition, was yet in need of some teaching to confirm his belief.”
Rāma said, “How was it that Śuka, son of the great Vyāsa, did not at first rest assured of his knowledge of the knowable, but then came to be settled in his belief?” — 2.1.1-5

Śukadeva: “Now tell me truly, O long-armed prince, so that you may set my mind at rest from its wandering all about the world. What do you think this world to be?”
Janaka replied, “There is nothing more certain, O sage, than what you know by yourself and have heard from your father. There is but one undivided intelligent spirit known as the Universal Soul and nothing else. It becomes confined by its desires (vāsana) and becomes freed by its lack of them. You have truly come to the knowledge of the knowable, whereby your great soul has desisted from attachment to objects of enjoyment and vision. You must be a hero to have overcome your desires for the lengthening chain of attractive enjoyments while still in your early youth. What more do you want to hear?” — 2.1.34-38

Janaka continued: “You have obtained whatever is obtainable by the comprehension of your mind. You take no interest in the outer and visible world, so you are liberated from it and have nothing to doubt.” 
Being thus advised by the magnanimous Janaka, Śuka remained silent with his mind fixed in the purely supreme object. Being devoid of sorrow and fear, and released from all efforts, exertions and doubts, he went to a peaceful summit of Mount Meru to obtain his final absorption. There he passed ten thousand years in a state of unalterable meditation, until at last he broke his mortal coil, and was extinguished in the Supreme Soul like a lamp without oil. Thus purified from the stain of rebirth by abstention from earthly desires, the great soul Śuka sank into the holy state of the Supreme Spirit (nirvikalpa-samādhi), just like a drop of water merges into the depth of the ocean. — 2.1.40-45