The Yoga of Isvara

This perfect knowledge of mine is an eternal mystery and secret. It cannot be adequately expressed. Devas do not know it even though they strive for it, O twiceborn ones.

Resorting to this perfect knowledge, excellent Brahmanas have become identical with Brahman. They, the earlier expounders of Brahman, do not undergo worldly existence i.e. Samsara (cycle of births & deaths consequent to sufferings).

It is the secret of secrets. It must be strenuously guarded. I shall explain it to you who are expounders of Brahman and endowed with devotion.

This Atman is absolute, pure, clean (v.l. quiescent) subtle and eternal. It exists within everything. It is the pure consciousness itself. It exists beyond the darkness of ignorance.

According to Vedas He is the immanent Being, the Purusa, the vital Breath, Mahesvara, Kala (Time). Here he is unmanifest but He knows.

The universe is born of him. In him alone it gets dissolved. He is the master of the Maya but unfettered by it (the Maya), he assumes various bodies (or forms).

He does not undergo the process of worldly existence (i.e. birth and death). The lord is not identical with the physical world, He is neither the Earth nor the water nor the fire nor the wind nor the Ether.

He is not the Vital breath, nor the mind nor the Pradhana nor the unmanifest. It is neither the sound nor the touch nor the colour nor the form nor the taste nor the smell nor the ego nor the Agent of an act or speech.

O excellent Brahmanas, the Atman is (not a sense organ as he is) nor the foot, neither the anus nor the genitals. He is neither the doer (the agent of an action) nor the enjoyer, neither the Prakrti nor the Purusa.

As a matter of fact, Caitanya (consciousness) or the Atman is neither Maya nor the Vital Breath. Just as the relation between light and darkness cannot be deemed possible, so is the relation between Prapanca (the visual illusory world of diversity) and the supreme Soul.

Just as shade and the sunlight are mutually distinct and different in this world, in the same manner, the world and the purusa are intrinsically and factually different.

Should it be argued that the Atman is innately soiled or dirty, created and changeable, it can never be liberated even in hundreds of births.

The liberated sages visualize that their Atman is intrinsically devoid of aberrations or change, free from Dvandvas (mutually chasing opposites). They realise that the Atman is blissful in form and unchanging.

"I am the doer", "I am happy", "I am unhappy", "I am lean", "I am stout" - such ideas are caused by the ego. They are superimposed on the Atman by the people.

Vedic scholars assert that the Atman is the witness, beyond the range of Prakrti. It is the enjoyer, imperishable, enlightened and permeating everything. Hence, the worldly existence or Samsara of all embodied beings originates from ignorance.

Due to ignorance and erroneous conception the reality gets mingled with Prakrti. The ever-rising self-luminous Purusa is the greatest and omnipresent. Due to the thoughtlessness, non-discrimination of the ego, one considers himself, "I am the doer". But the sages realize the unmanifest soul as eternal and Prakrti of the nature of sat and asat (existence and non-existence). He takes Pradhana to be Purusa and begins to argue that it is the Brahman that is the cause. Thereby the Atman, though steady and unsullied becomes (associated with it) by contact.

He (therefore) does not comprehend that his own Atman is in reality the imperishable Brahman. (What he has then) is the (erroneous) notion of the Atman in what is the non-Atman. Hence it is misery.

All defects such as passion, hatred etc., are brought about due to wrong notions. Its greatest defect is performance of actions meritorious or otherwise. This is the state.

It is due to that cause that everyone is invested with different kinds of physical bodies. The soul, however, lies concealed within, yet it is everywhere, eternal and free from blemishes.

It stands single by his Maya power and not by its nature. Hence the sages say that non-dualism is the ultimate truth.

The difference is due to the nature of Avyakta (the unmanifest). That Maya has the Atman for its support. Just as the sky does not become dirty or soiled due to the contact with smoke, so also the Atman is not vitiated due to the effusions of the Antahkarana (the inner sense-organ or mind).

The unattached (pure) crystal piece shines by dint of its own lustre, without any conditioning cause, so also does the pure Atman shine untouched by any conditioning causes.

Clever people call this universe as being of the form of knowledge. Other people with vitiated vision (followers of heretic paths) see it in the form of matter or the objects.

The Atman or spirit is by nature steady, devoid of Gunas, omnipresent and of the nature of consciousness. But it is looked upon as matter by men of wrong (heretical) outlook.

Just as the pure crystal when in contact with a red object like Gunja seeds appears to be red, so also the great Being is seen (in the form of the objects or Gunas).

Hence the Atman should be worshipped, pondered over and heard by the seekers of liberation, as being in the form that is imperishable, pure, eternal, omnipresent and unchanging.

When consciousness ever appears everywhere in the mind of a faithful Yogin, he attains the knowledge of the self.

When one observes all living beings as abiding in the Atman and the Atman in all living beings, the Brahman is realised.

When the Atman is in the state of Samadhi (Trance), he does not perceive the living beings. Then he has become one with the Supreme Soul. The Atman is absolute then.

When all the passions that stick to the heart, drop off, the scholar becomes immortalised and attains welfare (moksa).

When he realizes the whole variety or the separate states of the living beings as stationed in the One and as evolved from just that One - he attains the Brahman.

When he observes the absolute Atman factually, and the entire universe only an illusion, he experiences the greatest bliss.

When one derives the perfect knowledge of the absolute Brahman, the sole panacea for the miseries of births and old age as well as ailments, he becomes Siva.

Just as the rivers and rivulets get mingled with the ocean and become one, so also the Atman becomes one with the imperishable and the unsullied Brahman.

Hence perfect knowledge alone exists. Neither the universe nor its existence is real. Perfect knowledge is enveloped by ignorance in this world, thereby the world gets deluded.

Perfect knowledge is blemishless, subtle, free from doubts and unchanging. Everything else is Ajnana (Ignorance). This entire (thorough) realisation is considered Vijnana (perfect knowledge).

Thus the Sankhya which is called excellent knowledge has been recounted unto you. It is certainly the essence of all Vedanta (Upanisads). Yoga is the single-minded concentration on this knowledge.

Knowledge originates from Yoga and Yoga functions due to knowledge. There remains nothing unaccomplishable to one endowed with both Yoga and Knowledge.

That which the Yogins attain is also attained by Sankhyas. He who sees Sankhya and the Yoga as one, is the knower of the real principle.

O Brahmanas, other Yogins, very much attached to Aisvarya (prosperity and glory), get submerged in those different activities. So also those whose intellects are impeded and blunted.

At the end of the body (i.e. on death), one who is endowed with Jnana and Yoga shall attain the great, pure and divine Aisvarya (prosperity and glory of Brahmahood) which is approved by all.

This Atman is I myself, the unmanifest Master of Maya, the great Isvara. I am glorified in the Vedas, as being the Atman of all and having faces in all directions.

I (i.e. the Atman) have within me all forms, tastes, fragrances. I am free from old age and death. I have hands and feet all round. I am the eternal immanent soul.

Though handless and feetless I am the speediest grasper, and am stationed in the heart of all. (Though) eyeless I observe and (even if) earless, I do hear.

I know all these. No one knows me. Persons of truthful vision call me as being one, the only great Purusa.

Sages of subtle visions see the cause of the Atman. They see the excellent Aisvarya of the Nirguna form which is blemishless.

I shall mention to you what Devas, deluded by my Maya, do not know. Ye all the expounders of Brahman, listen with concentration of your minds.

I am by nature beyond the ken of Maya. Hence I cannot be praised by all. I, however, urge it the reason of which the wise sages know.

Hence, the Yogins who have visualised Reality get into my secretmost (inner) personality which is omnipresent, and attain complete identity with me.

Those who have crossed my Maya which is of universal forms, attain the great and pure Nirvana (beatitude) along with me.

They have no return (to samsara) even in hundreds and crores of Kalpas, thanks to my favour. O leading Yogins, this is the injunction of the Vedas.

The (perfect knowledge) should be imparted (only) to sons, disciples and Yogins. Thus the perfect knowledge which is a synthesis of Sankhya and Yoga (lit. Sankhya based on Yoga) has been expounded by me.