Yoga Vasistha

Vasishta Yoga Samhita (Sanskrit: योगवासिष्ठम्, IAST: yoga-vāsiṣṭham; also known as Maha-Ramayana, Arsha Ramayana, Vasiṣṭha Ramayana, Yogavasistha-Ramayana and Jnanavasistha.) is a historically popular and influential syncretic philosophical text of Hinduism, dated to the 6th CE or 7th CE — 14th CE or 15th CE.
The text is attributed to Maharishi Valmiki, but the real author is unknown. It is named after sage Vasistha who is mentioned and revered in the seventh book of the Rigveda. The complete text contains over 29,000 verses, while the short version of the text, called Laghu yogavāsiṣṭham, contains 6,000 verses, translated into Persian by the 15th-century.
The text has a philosophical foundation similar to Advaita Vedanta, and expounds the principles of Maya and Brahman, as well as the principles of non-duality. and its discussion of Yoga. The text is structured as a discourse of sage Vasistha to Prince Rama, and consists of six books, describing the search for liberation through self-effort and meditation, and presenting cosmology and metaphysical teachings of existence embedded in stories and fables.
The name Vasistha in the title of the text refers to Rishi Vasistha. The term Yoga in the text refers to the underlying Yogic theme in its stories and dialogues, and the term is used in a generic sense to include all forms of yoga in the pursuit of liberation, in the style of Bhagavad Gita.
The long version of the text is called Brihat Yoga Vasistha, wherein Brihat means "great or large". The short version of the text is called Laghu Yoga Vasishta, wherein Laghu means "short or small". The longer version is also referred to simply as Yoga Vasistha and by numerous other names such as Vasiṣṭha Ramayana.
The date or century of the text's composition or compilation is unknown, and variously estimated from the content and references it makes to other literature, other schools of Indian philosophies. Scholars agree that the surviving editions of the text were composed in the common era, but disagree whether it was completed in the first millennium or second. Estimates range, states Chapple, from "as early as the sixth or seventh century, to as late as the fourteenth century".
The surviving text mentions Vijnanavada and Madhyamaka schools of Buddhism by name, suggesting that the corresponding sections were composed after those schools were established, or about 5th-century. The translation of a version of the text in 14th- to 15th-century into Persian, has been the basis of the other limit, among scholars such as Farquhar in 1922.
Atreya in 1935 suggested that the text must have preceded Gaudapada and Adi Shankara, because it does not use their terminology, but does mention many Buddhist terms. Dasgupta, a contemporary of Atreya, states that the text includes verses of earlier text, such as its III.16.50 is identical to one found in Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava, thus the text must be placed after the 5th-century. Dasgupta adds that the philosophy and ideas presented in Yoga Vasistha mirror those found in Advaita Vedanta of Adi Shankara, but neither mention the other, which probably means that the author(s) of Yoga Vasistha were scholars who lived in the same century as Shankara, placing the text in about 7th- to early 8th-century. The shorter summary version of the text is attributed to the Kashmiri scholar Abhinanda, who has been variously dated to have lived in 9th- or 10th-century.
Mainkar states that Yoga Vasistha probably evolved over time. The first work, states Mainkar, was the original ancient work of Vasistha that was an Upanishad with Brahamanical ideas, a work that is lost. This text, suggests Mainkar, was expanded into Moksopaya in or after 6th-century, which is now commonly known as Laghu-Yogavasistha. The Laghu (shorter) version was then expanded into the full editions, over time, in the centuries that followed the completion of Laghu-Yogavasistha. The syncretic incorporation of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism ideas happened in the Laghu-Yogavasistha edition, states Mainkar, while ideas from Kashmiri Shaivism, particularly the Trika school, were added to the growing version by the 12th-century. Similar serial expansion, revisions and interpolation is typical in Indian literature. Peter Thomi has published additional evidence in support Mainkar's theory on Yoga Vasistha's chronology.
The oldest surviving manuscript of the Moksopaya (or Moksopaya Shastra) has been dated to have been composed in Srinagar in the 10th century AD.
The Yoga Vasistha is traditionally attributed to Maharishi Valmiki, the author of the Ramayana. However, scholars are uncertain about the exact authorship and date of composition. It is likely that the text evolved over several centuries, starting as an ancient Upanishadic work and expanding into the Moksopaya in the 6th century CE. The text reached its current form between the 10th and 14th centuries, incorporating influences from various Indian philosophical traditions, including Buddhism, Jainism, and Kashmiri Shaivism."
The text exists in many editions of manuscripts with varying number of verses, but similar message. The full editions contain over 29,000, to a few with 32,000 verses, and in some editions about 36,000 verses. The Nirnaya Sagar version of Yoga Vasistha manuscript has 1146 verses in the first Book, 807 in second, 6304 verses in third, 2414 verses in the fourth book, 4322 in the fifth, while the last is longest with 14,296 verses, for a cumulative total of 29,289 verses. An abridged version by Abhinanda of Kashmir (son of Jayanta Bhatta) is Laghu ("Little") Yogavasistha and contains 6,000 verses.
The verses of Yoga Vasistha are structured in the genre of ancient Indian literature, called Grantha. In this genre, each Shloka (verse) in the text is designed to equal 32 syllables, while conveying its message. A Grantha can be sung and depending on its meter, set to specific Raga music. This genre is found in Bhakti movement literature, and Yoga Vasistha's Advaita theories and monism influenced the Grantha literature of Sikhism, whose primary scripture is called Guru Granth Sahib.
The Yoga Vasistha is a syncretic work, containing elements of Advaita Vedanta, Yoga, Samkhya, Jainism, Pratyabhijña, Saivite Trika, and Mahayana Buddhism, thus making it, according to Chapple, "a Hindu text par excellence, including, as does Hinduism, a mosaic-style amalgam of diverse and sometimes opposing traditions".
This is one of the longest Hindu texts in Sanskrit after the Mahabharata, and an important text of Yoga. It consists of numerous short stories and anecdotes used to help illustrate its ideas and message. In terms of Hindu mythology, the conversation in the Yoga Vasishta is placed chronologically before the Ramayana.
The traditional belief is that reading this book leads to spiritual liberation. The conversation between Vasistha and Prince Rama is that between a great, enlightened sage and a seeker of liberation. The text discusses consciousness, cosmology, nature of the universe and consciousness, the ultimate dissolution of body, the liberation of the soul and the non-dual nature of existence.
The text consists of six books:
The Yoga Vāsiṣṭha states the following on the credibility of the provider and seeker of knowledge through these words.
The Yoga Vasistha states that there are four characteristics that mark someone ready for spiritual journey who:
Yoga Vasistha teachings are divided into six parts: dispassion, qualifications of the seeker, creation, existence, dissolution and liberation. It sums up the spiritual process in the seven Bhoomikas:
In Chapter 2 of Book VI, titled as The story of Iksvaku, the text explains the state of nirvana (liberation) as follows, "Liberation is peace. Liberation is extinction of all conditioning. Liberation is freedom from every kind of physical, psychological and psychic distress. This world is not seen by the ignorant and the wise in the same light. To one who has attained self-knowledge, this world does not appear as samsara, but as the one infinite and indivisible consciousness".
The Yoga Vasistha describes the Jivanmukta, or liberated person, as follows (abridged from the 1896 translation by KN Aiyer):
The Yoga Vasistha describes samsara and reality as follows:
The following traditional Sanskrit commentaries on the Yoga Vasistha are extant:
The Yoga Vasistha is a key text for understanding the late medieval synthesis of various Indian philosophical traditions. The Yoga Vasistha, states David Gordon White, was one of the popular texts on Yoga that dominated the Indian Yoga culture scene before the 12th-century. It has, states White, served as a reference on Yoga for medieval era Advaita Vedanta scholars. According to Ayer, it is particularly associated with drsti-srsti subschool of Advaita which holds that the "whole world of things is the object of mind".
The practice of atma-vichara, "self-enquiry," described in the Yoga Vasistha, has been popularised due to the influence of Ramana Maharshi, who was strongly influenced by this text.
Originally written in Sanskrit, the Yoga Vasistha has been translated into many Indian languages, and the stories are told to children in various forms. There are multiple collections of audio, video and mini-articles available on the scripture.
During the Mughal Dynasty the text was translated into Persian several times, as ordered by Akbar, Jahangir and Darah Shikuh. One of these translations was undertaken by Nizam al-Din Panipati in the late sixteenth century AD. This translation, known as the Jug-Basisht, which has since become popular in Persia among intellectuals interested in Indo-Persian culture. The Safavid-era mystic Mir Findiriski (d. 1641) commented on selected passages of Jug-Basisht.
The unabridged text is currently being translated into Russian and published by Swamini Vidyananda Saraswati, first five books are completed by 2017.
Yoga Vasistha was translated into English by Swami Jyotirmayananda, Swami Venkatesananda, Vidvan Bulusu Venkateswaraulu and Vihari Lal Mitra. K. Naryanaswami Aiyer translated the well-known abridged version, Laghu-Yoga-Vasistha. In 2009, Swami Tejomayananda's Yoga Vasistha Sara Sangrah was published by the Central Chinmaya Mission Trust. In this version the Laghu-Yoga-Vasistha has been condensed to 86 verses, arranged into seven chapters. A list of all known English translations follows:
Yoga Vasistha was translated in 2018, from English into Portuguese by Eleonora Meier for Satsang Editora (Brazilian publisher) of the version of Swami Venkatesananda and it is available at www.lojasatsangeditora.com.br - ISBN 978-85-92598-26-6 - Páginas: 848 Swami Venkatesananda.
Vāsišthas joga. Svami Venkatesananda, 2020, 630 pp. A Latvian translation by Inese Kausa, publisher www.svami.lv