RETURNING TO SHIVA
The Sage Vasishtha said: The Goddess dances with her arms
outstretched, moving like a swaying forest of tall pines against the
empty sky.
She is the power of the intellect, ignorant of herself and ever
prone to action, continuing to dance about, bedecked with diverse
emblems and devices.
She is arrayed with all kinds of weapons in her thousand arms -
the bow and arrow, the spear and lance, the mace and club, the sword,
and all sorts of missiles. Conversant with all the elements of being
and non-being, she is engaged in every moment of passing time.
She contains the world in the vibration of her mind, as airy
cities and palaces are contained in the power of imagination. She
herself is that world, as the imagination itself is the utopian city.
She is the volition of Shiva, like the wind in the air. As the
air is still without its vibration, so Shiva is quiescent without his
volitional power.
This arupa volition becomes the rupa creation, just as the
formless sky produces the wind which vibrates into sound. Thus does
the will of Shiva bring forth the world out of itself.
When this volitional energy of Kali dances and plays within the
void of the Divine Mind, the world springs forth, as if by union of
the active will and the infinite field of that Supreme Mind.
Touched by the dark volitional power, the Supreme Soul of Shiva
is dissolved into the waters, just as submarine fire is extinguished
by its contact with the waters of the sea.
No sooner does this power come in contact with Shiva, the prime
cause of all, than it inclines and turns to assume the veil of nature
and its conversion to external forms.
Forsaking her boundless and elemental form, she takes upon
herself the gross and limited shapes of land and hills, and then
becomes the beautiful forms of forests and flowers.
In the great round she rebecomes the formless void, and again is
one with the infinite vacuum of Shiva, just as a river with all its
impetuous speed enters into the immensity of the sea.
She becomes as one with Shiva by giving up her identity as an
aspect of Shiva. This feminine form of Shiva is merged back into
Shiva, the prime male, who is the form of the formless void and
perfect tranquillity.
Rama asked: Tell me, O Sage, how that sovereign Goddess Shiva
could obtain her quietude by coming into contact with the Supreme God
Shiva?
Vasishtha replied: Know, Rama, that the Goddess Shiva is the will
of the God Shiva. She is styled as nature and famed as the Great
Illusion of the world.
The great God is said to be the lord of nature and the prime
male. He is of the form of air and is represented as Shiva, calm and
quiet as the autumnal sky.
The great Goddess is the energy and will of the Intellect and is
ever active as force in motion. She abides in the world as its nature,
and roves about as the great delusion.
She ranges throughout the world as long as she is ignorant of her
lord, Shiva, who is ever serenely self-contained, without decay or
decrease, beginningless and endless, and without a second.
No sooner is this Goddess conscious of herself as one and the
same with the Lord of self-consciousness than she is joined with her
Lord Shiva and becomes one with him.
Nature touching Spirit forsakes her character as gross nature and
becomes one with the sole Unity, as a river is absorbed into the
sea.
The river falling into the ocean is no more the river but the
ocean. Its waters mingling with sea waters become the salt sea.
Just so, the mind cleaving to Shiva is united with him and finds
rest therein, as the blade is sharpened by its reduction upon the
stone.
The mind engrossed in its own nature forgets the Eternal Spirit
and must return again to this world, never attaining spiritual
felicity.
An honest man dwells amongst thieves only so long as he does not
know them as such. No sooner does he come to know them than he is sure
to shun their company and flee from the spot.
So too the mind dwells amongst unreal dualities as long as it is
ignorant of the transcendent One. But when it becomes aware of True
Unity, it is sure to be united with it.
When the ignorant mind comes to know the Supreme Bliss attendant
on the state of Nirvana, it is ready to resort to it, as the inland
stream runs to join the boundless sea.
The mind roams bewildered in its repeated births in this
tumultuous world so long as it does not find its ultimate felicity in
the Supreme, unto which it may fly like a bee to its honeycomb.
Who is there that would abandon Divine Wisdom, once having tasted
its bliss! Who would forsake the sweet, once having known its
flavour. Tell me, Rama, who would not run to sip the delicious nectar
which pacifies all our woes and pains, prevents our repeated births
and deaths, and puts an end to all our delusions in this darksome
world?
Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
First 