Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha 1.10—Rāma's Depression
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 2017-08-19

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

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Thus sent by the king, the chamberlain went to the inner apartment. After some moments, he returned and informed the king, “O sire! Rāma, whose arms have crushed all his foes, remains rapt in thoughts in his room like a bee closed in a lotus at night. He said that he is coming in a moment, but he is so lost in his lonely meditation that he likes nobody to be near him.” — 1.10.3-5

“The lotus-eyed Rāma appears dejected ever since he has come back from his pilgrimage in company with the brahmins. When asked to perform his daily rites, he sometimes discharges them with a sad face, and at other times, he wholly dispenses with them. He is adverse, O lord, to bathing, to worshipping the gods, to the distribution of alms, and to his meals also. Even when we troubled him to eat, he does not take his food with a good relish.”
 — 1.10.9-11

“O king, his aversion to clothing, conveyance, food and presents indicates that he is following the line of life led by wandering ascetics. He lives alone in a lonely place and neither laughs nor sings nor cries aloud from a sense of his indifference to them. Seated in the lotus posture with folded legs, he stays with a distracted mind, reclining his cheek on his left palm. He assumes no pride to himself and does not wish for the dignity of sovereignty. He is neither elated with joy nor depressed by grief or pain. We do not know where he goes, what he does, what he desires, what he meditates upon, or from where or when he comes and what he follows.” — 1.10.22-26

“He lectures his companions and friends saying, ‘Do not set your mind to sensual enjoyments which are only pleasing for the time being.’ He has no affection for the richly adorned women of the harem, but rather looks upon them as the cause of destruction presented before him. He often sings in plaintive notes how his life is being spent in vain cares, estranged from those of the easily attainable state of heavenly bliss. Should some courtier speak of his being an emperor one day, he smiles at him as upon a raving madman, and then remains silent as one distracted in his mind. He does not pay heed to what is said to him, nor does he look at anything presented before him. He hates to look upon even the most charming of things. ‘As it is imaginary and unreal to suppose the existence of an ethereal lake or a lotus growing in it, so it is false to believe the reality of the mind and its conceptions.’ Saying so, Rāma marvels at nothing.” — 1.10.30-35

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