Some Stories from Yoga Vasishta
in Brief
These summaries of stories from Yoga Vasishta are based upon the 1891 Mitra translation of the Sanskrit into English.
They are all illustrations of the philosophy that only consciousness exists. There is nothing "physical" or "material" other than our ideas of them.
Punya & Pavana (On Relationships & Grief)
An enlightened couple live out their lives leaving two sons behind. The elder, Punya, is enlightened like his parents, but the younger, Pavana, grieves over the loss of his parents. Punya explains that we live innumerable lives with innumerable relationships, and all exist only in consciousness, so why grieve over any particular relationship?
Indra’s Rule of an Atomic Universe
Indra, king of the gods, avoids the demons by making himself so small as to live inside an atom. There he imagines his atom to be the universe and becomes the founder of a dynasty of Indras, each ruling the atomic universe.
Queen Ahalya and a young brahmin named Indra carry on a tempestuous affair so openly that the king, also named Indra, has the adulterous couple tortured; with no effect. They explain that nothing done to the body can affect the mind that is fixed upon a single object, and the lovers’ minds were fixed upon each other. Finally the king has the sage Bharata curse the couple to an early death. The couple incarnated again and again, each time as lovers, until they attained their release.
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Indra's Rule of an Atomic Universe
