By Sri Chiraan 2009/10/12
Yoga Vashishtha is a dialogue between Sage Vashishtha and SriRama written by Valmiki. The following is the refutation of the Vashishtha Yoga through its various chapters and aphorisms as put by various translators. The words in bracket are refutations.
Chapter One
Dispassion
1. Salutations to that calm effulgence, which is endless and unlimited by space, time etc., the pure consciousness which can be known by experience only.
[ Mangalacharana assumes an inanimate GOD]
2. Neither one who is totally ignorant nor one who knows it (i.e. Truth) is eligible to study this book. Only he who thinks ‘I am bound; I must become free’ is entitled to study it.
[ So ignorant is one who is not aware that he is bound]
3. Until one is definitely blessed by the Supreme Lord, he will not find either a proper Guru or the right scripture.
[ This is in direct contrast to the teachings, when ignorant is not eligible to study and there is No GOD other than self, then to study it requires a blessings, which is not in the hands of self, yet self is capable of finding its truth. What are the consequences or causes that leads to this blessing so that one can study this? is it under self or other than self? NO answer because all that is not self is unreal so how come these blessings is real? if it not real then the understanding that I am bound also becomes unreal]
4. Just as a steady boat, O Rama, is obtained from a boatman, so also the method of crossing the ocean of samsara is learnt by associating with great souls.
[But all these souls are bound and yet in the states of unrealized and their states itself is unreal then their exercise must also be unreal]
5. The great remedy for the long-lasting disease of samsara is the enquiry, ‘Who am I?, to whom does this samsara belong?,’ which entirely cures it.
[whether the disease itself is real or unreal, in the following texts it is declared to be unreal]
6. Not a day should be spent in a place which does not possess the tree of a wise knower of Truth with its good fruit and cool shade.
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12. The Lord cannot be seen with the help of the sacred texts or the Guru. The self is seen by the Self alone with the pure intellect.
[ this is again in contrast with previous line ,saying guru is a must to know the self , Now it says guru cannot help in seeing the Self ]
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16. That perverted man who, even after knowing that worldly objects are deceptive, still thinks of them, is an ass not a man.
[this is again illusive; guru is a realised man. Guru cannot show self, yet Guru is a must to now we are bound, gurus do teach yoga vashishtha ! Are they not dealing with worldly object very well knowing that they cannot show self i.e. ALL those who preach Yoga Vashishtha are also ass because they are dealing with worldly object i.e. Yoga Vashishtha, is it not something in this world, about this word, if world is illusory so is this yoga vashishtha as it is part of this world]
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17. Even the slightest thought immerses a man in sorrow, when devoid of all thoughts he enjoys imperishable bliss.
[This is refutable as Geeta says there cannot be a single moment without thought]
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Chapter Two
Unreality of the World
6. O Rama, maya is such that it brings delight through its own destruction; its nature is inscrutable; it ceases to exist even while it is being observed.
7. Dear boy, wonderful indeed is this maya which deludes the entire world. It is on account of it that the Self is not perceived even though it pervades all the limbs of the body.
8. Whatever is seen does not truly exist. It is like the mythical city of Gandharvas (fata morgana) or a mirage.
[Is this maya real or unreal? It says unreal; self is real, how can unreal bind a real ENTITY. if an unreal thing binds a real entity so much so that real is affected, if this effect is also real then binding agent has to be real, yet Vashishtha says agent is unreal.] [Self is all knowing Bramha yet it is bound by unreal maya, then maya must be powerful than Bramha, so what you are getting by destroying maya again the self. But self was already knowing then how come it was bound- No answer]
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[Its strange that a REAL entity is bothered about a unreal samsara which also has unreal effect] Utterly illogical !
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11. This creation, which is a mere play of consciousness, rises up, like the delusion of a snake in a rope (when there is ignorance) and comes to an end when there is right knowledge.
12. Even though bondage does not really exist, it becomes strong through desire for worldly enjoyments; when this desire subsides bondage becomes weak.
[ if a rope is mistaken as snake, the fear that it has caused i the mind is real , yet the knowledge that it is not a snake but just a rope has to be real else the fact that we have mistaken a rope for snake also becomes unreal, so what is it that we have gained ? if it is accepted that knowledge that it was rope and not a snake is real then existence of real knowledge which is other than self is proved, but then this knowledge is also part of this world, when world is unreal so also the knowledge and efforts that goes into realising that rope was mistaken as snake, becomes unreal]
[Bondage does not exist at all, yet it becomes powerful /strong and subsequently becomes weak! if it is not existent at all what is the efficacy of it becoming weak or strong? if bondage is false so also its becoming strong or weak becomes false] self-contradictory statement
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15. This world, though unreal, appears to exist and is the cause of life-long suffering to an ignorant person, just as a (non-existent) ghost (is the cause of fear) to a boy.
[isnt fear [world] of the boy a real entity, his fear is real although the cause of the fear may be due to ignorance, but the fear is real, if fear itself is unreal as stated earlier then the effort to remove this fear also becomes unreal]
16. One who has no idea of gold sees only the bracelet. He does not at all have the idea that it is merely gold.
[The idea of gold [bliss] becomes real only when gold itself is taken as real without the object being real its idea cannot be real, if gold is real then the bracelet made out of it also becomes real]
21. He who reckons the rays as non-different from the sun and realizes that they are the sun itself is stated to be nirvikalpa (the undifferentiating man).
22. Just as the cloth, when investigated, is seen to be nothing but thread, so also this world, when enquired into, is (seen to be) merely the Self.
[The rays are not as hot as sun, so rays are not sun
Even more inspection gives that cloth is made up of thread and thread s made up of cotton, and cotton is a plant, but plant is not cloth neither is each thread same as other nor the thread can be reversed to cotton such a thing is unheard of] so cotton thread and cloth are distinct entities and essentially different]
24. Just as the foam, the waves, the dew and the bubbles are not different from water, even so this world which has come out of the Self is not different from the Self.
[But the earlier statement was world is unreal and self is real, now since water is same as bubble, vahsishtha is saying [unreal] world has come out of [real] self and both are not different. this is self-contradictory]
27. The snake appears when one does not recognise the rope; it disappears when one recognises the rope. Even so this world appears when the Self is not recognised; it disappears when the Self is recognised.
[this is illusory, the knowledge that rope is not snake pre-assumes knowledge of snake and rope in its real form, else such a distinction is not possible. So, a real snake has to be known prior to understand that rope is not snake.
How we come to know that rope is not a snake. we have to know that snake is moving entity [conspicuous] and it makes hissing sound , its poisonous etc , it is this knowledge which has to be present beforehand , that rope is harmless should also be known beforehand , and all this knowledge should be real thus the inspection and analysis reasoning by mind has to be real only then the removal of fear of snake, mistaken for rope becomes fruitful, { but snake and rope both are illusory as they are part of world so their pre-knowledge also becomes illusory according to vashishtha } how come illusory knowledge lead to real self ] debatable?
6. Wise men also, like foolish men, (occasionally) make others angry, (but they do so only) in order to test their ability to control their innate feelings (that is to say to see how far the anger of other persons will affect them).
7. Just as the trembling (of the body) caused by the (imaginary) snake persists (for some time) even after realising that there is no snake, so also the effect of delusion persists (for some time) even after getting rid of all delusions.
[ If delusion is got rid of, then how can it still remain, if it is remaining means it is still not got rid of] again a contradicting statement!
3. The knowers of truth declare that enquiry into the truth of the Self is knowledge. What is to be known is contained in it like sweetness in milk.
[The sweetness of milk is an attribute of milk, but the SELF as preached by Vashishtha has no attributes] wrong analogy!
4. To one who has realized the Self by enquiry Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are objects of compassion.
[Here Vashishtha is teaching this yoga so it should be assumed that he is realised soul else he will be lying. SO he is equating himself with RAMA whom he is teaching this. RAMA is already VISHNU] either RAMA is object of compassion to Vashishtha [self]. Isn't the compassion an illusion, or RAMA is ignorant soul? either way Vashishtha is not in realistic position. Yet we see Vashishtha praying Lord RAM for removal of ignorance. in RAMAYANA. so which vashishtha is truth, the SELF who sees RAM as object of compassion or IGNORANT who seeks his blessings for MOKSHA .. RAMAYANA says the later.
Meditation on the Self
1. I, the pure, stainless and infinite Consciousness beyond maya, look upon this body in action like the body of another.
2. The mind, the intellect, the senses, etc. are all the play of Consciousness. They are unreal and seem to exist only due to lack of insight.
[So, the body of the other is same as ours and someone else's as well, there is no difference among the bodies as all are unreal and exists only due to lack of insight.
That means a mother and wife and daughter all are delusive concepts and exist only because of delude or lack of insight in fact they are all same and any relations with them is unreal, and any lack of relation is yet unreal, so all the words of dharma as to what should be carried out in terms of mother, wife and daughter is also delusive as there is no difference in them]
This message has a very dangerous outfall and is not conducive and supported by Vedas as Vedas clearly stress on the dharma and adharma and its strict adherence to! But the above doctrine falsifies the scriptures it talks about world as unreal and efforts in the world as unreal and the achievement of self is already there so nothing special is achieved after all this is known as SELF is already real. After mammoth exercise of going through this doctrine what we find is everything around us delusive and there is no real goal to be achieved.
It proposes inaction and self-praise as GOD which is definite road to HELL.
As it says
28. There is neither bondage nor liberation, neither duality nor non-duality. There is only Brahman always shining as Consciousness.
29. Awareness is Brahman; the world is Brahman; the various elements are Brahman; I am Brahman; my enemy is Brahman; my friends and relatives are Brahman.
[As there is only one bramha it means enemy, friends, relatives, wife, daughter, mother brother, friend's wife everyone is bramha and one only. So, it makes literally no difference really as to what wand how we behave with them as such a distinction and thought is maya and ignorance.
it is encouraging sins]
NIRVANA
5. The belief in a knower and the known is called bondage. The knower is bound by the known; he is liberated when there is nothing to know.
So the entire trouble Vashishtha has taken to say that there is nothing to know. If there is nothing to know then even an ignorant is confident that there is nothing to know, and a Realised Vashishtha also is confident that there is nothing to know, so what is the difference between the first state and second as both have same SELF which is one and all knowing.
But this same self which is existing in Vashishtha and ignorant person simultaneously knows itself as bliss in Vashishtha and is suffering in ignorant. How come one soul is experiencing bliss aswell as ignorance and bondage at the hands of maya.
either it has to be two different entities else it cannot be blissful and ignorant at the same time.
NO ANSWER!
Shri Krishnarpanamastu
