Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha—an Excellent Question
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 2017-08-31

This series is classified Ajata-vāda | Jñāna-yoga | Turīya | Sahasrāra-cakra

Infinity Seeker wrote: “I couldn’t understand something. Does Brahman have desire or will? Vasiṣṭha said Brahman is all calm and tranquil, but later he also explains how this creation, although unreality, is the will of Brahman, e.g:

“How can the production or destruction of anything take place in the emptiness of spacious consciousness? How can any condition or change be attributed to the formless intellect at all? The great kalpa ages and all periods of time and parts of creation are mere attributes of consciousness. Consciousness is only an attribute of Brahman. They all merge into the great Brahman. Consciousness is a formless and purely transparent substance. Phenomena are subject to its will alone. One sees an object appear according to the will or wish that he has in his mind, like the fairylands of imagination.” — 6.2.61.19-21

Here is the complete context leading up to the passage in question:

“After the destruction, only the indefinable spirit of God remains, which the sages call ‘the great Brahman’ and ‘Supreme Consciousness’. This world remains in the heart of that being, from which it is altogether inseparable and nondifferent. He is the Lord, and all this that passes under the name of ‘the world’ is contained in the nature of this heart. By his pleasure he exhibits to us the idea that we have of the world, which is not his real form. Considering this well, we find nothing created or destroyed by him. The supreme cause of all is imperishable by his nature, so we know his heart is also indestructible and the great kalpa ages are only parts of himself.” — 6.2.61.5-8

“Only our limited knowledge shows us the differences and dualities of things. But upon examination, these are not to be found and vanish into nothing. Therefore there is never anything produced from Brahman, who is unborn and invisible and always rests in his tranquility; nor is anything ever destroyed to nothing. This world is truly the body of that great Consciousness. Then how can this mundane body come to be destroyed without destruction of the other also? As consciousness awakes in our hearts, even in our sleep and dreams, so the world is present in our minds at all times and presents to us its abstract or ideal form ever since its first creation. Creation is a component part of the empty intellect. Its rising and setting is only the abstract, ideal operations of the Intellect. There is no part of it that is ever created or destroyed at any time. ” — 6.2.61.9-13

“This spiritual substance of consciousness is never capable of being burnt or broken or torn at any time. It is not soiled or dried or weakened at all, nor is it knowable or capable to be seen by those who are ignorant of it. It becomes whatever it has in its mind and, as it never perishes, the idea of the world and of all things in its mind are neither created nor destroyed in any way. It falls and revives only because of its forgetfulness and memory at different times. The rising and setting of an idea gives rise to the ideas of the creation and destruction of the world. Whatever idea you have of the world, you become that yourself. Think it perishable, and you also perish with it. But know it as imperishable, and you become imperishable also. Know then that the creation and great destruction of the world are only recurrences of its idea and forgetfulness—two phases of consciousness.” — 6.2.61.14-18

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