Yoga Vasishta Maharamayana

The state mentioned above is called moksha (liberation). The self is ever-free.”Vasistha to Rama: “When the mind is at peace and the heart leaps to the supreme truth, when all the disturbing thought waves in the mind have subsided and there is unbroken flow of peace and the heart is filled with the bliss of the absolute, when thus the truth has been seen in the heart, then this very world becomes an abode of bliss. (II:12) Aum Namoh Narayana The Yoga-Vasistha is a popular text on non-dual God, ancient in form and philosophical in content. It is also known by other names like Knowledge Vasistha, Maha Ramayana, Vasistha Ramayana and Vasistha, and is ascribed to Sage Valmiki himself. It is in the form of replies given by Vasistha to Sri Rama’s queries regarding philosophical problems of life and death, and human suffering, and treats the essentials of Advaita Vedanta.It describes how Rama’s knowledge, wisdom and understanding evolved and progressed throughout the different stages of his life. Yoga Vasistha is an elaborate work, consisting of 32,000 verses and 64,000 lines.

The main theme of Yoga Vasistha is that the soul is undergoing a dream from which it must awake. This dream represents our association and identification with the world. The fact that it is described as being a dream means that whatever is in it has to be false. Nothing in a dream can be true. Waking up from that dream is the ultimate goal, Self-realization.People who are interested in self-realization can also study the more comprehensive Brihat Yoga Vasistha book and the smaller one, Laghu Yoga Vasistha. The term Brihat means great, while Laghu signifies small. The sum total of pleasures of the whole world is a mere drop when compared to the bliss of Moksha. When all the desires are destroyed, the extinction of the mind where Mind becomes “No-Mind” is Moksha. If the illusory I-ness or Ego perishes, the end of thoughts to the Maya is Moksha. Extinction of all psychological conditioning constitutes Eternal Liberation of the Self. Self-knowledge is the realization that the Self is in reality not bound, but always pure and free.Self-knowledge is not gained by explanations and descriptions, nor by the instructions of others – but by direct experience.

Whatever is experienced and known here in this world, all that is the Self, consciousness devoid of the duality of the experiencing and the experience. It is the Self alone that exists everywhere at all times, but because of its extreme subtlety, it is not experienced. In all beings, it is the jiva. All activities take place in the light of the sun, but if the activities cease, the sun does not suffer loss: even so, it is on account of the Self that the body functions, but if the body perishes, the Self does not suffer loss. The Self is not born, nor does it die; it does not acquire, nor does it desire; it is not bound, nor is it liberated – the Self is the Self of all, at all times. That (Self) is unconditioned by time and space; how does it become bound? Abandon these two false concepts — that of bondage and of liberation, and live an enlightened life here.There is no liberation in the sky, on earth or in the nether world; liberation is but a synonym for pure mind, correct Self-knowledge and a truly awakened state.

The complete absence of all desires and hopes is liberation. Until one reaches this true inner awakening or Self-knowledge, one considers oneself bound and strives for liberation. Abandon these wrong notions of bondage and liberation.O Rama, he who knows that all activities happen because of the mere existence of consciousness – even as a crystal reflects the objects around it without intending to do so – is liberated. They who, even after taking this human birth are not interested in such non-volitional activity, go from heaven to hell and from hell to heaven again. Some are devoted to inaction, having turned away from or suppressed all action; they go from hell to hell, sorrow to sorrow,fear to fear.

Others know the Self; blessed indeed are they, they have carefully enquired into the nature of the mind and overcome all cravings; they do go to higher planes of consciousness.He who has taken birth for the last time now, is endowed with a mixture of light (sattva) and a little impurity (rajas). Right from birth he grows in holiness. Noble qualities like friendliness, compassion, wisdom, goodness and magnanimity seek him and take abode in him. He performs all appropriate actions, but is not swayed if their results appear to be gain or loss, nor does he feel elated or depressed. His heart is clear. He is much sought after by people. One who is full of all the noble qualities seeks and follows an enlightened master who directs him along the path of Self-knowledge. He then realises the Self which is the one cosmic being. Such a liberated one awakens the inner intelligence, and instantly knows itself to be the infinite consciousness. Such is the normal course of evolution, O Rama. However, there are exceptions. For those who have taken birth in this world, two possibilities exist for the attainment of liberation. The first is: treading the path indicated by the master, the seeker gradually reaches the goal of liberation. The second is: Self-knowledge literally drops into one’s lap, as it were, and there is instant enlightenment.

While the project is in the process of production we will post chapters individually, when project is complete we will compile audio into the specific books, unless the files become to large and then we will compile in groups for easier listening. As with all foreign texts, I apologize for any mispronunciations, please accept this narration in the spirit in which it was intended. Special thanks to Karthik Krishna for introducing me to this rich and profound text.

Yoga Vasishta by Valmiki
The original Sanskrit attributed to Sage Valmiki
translated to English by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891)

BOOK ONE: Compilation Chapters 1-33 Complete ( Duration 2:48:22 )

Chapter 1 — The Liberation of Shukadeva: His Need for Confirmation
Chapter 2 — Vishwamitra’s Speech
Chapter 3 — Repeated Creations of the World; Repeated Incarnations of the Same Personality
Chapter 4 — Results Come from Effort, Not Fate or Chance;Acts of the Present Life Are Stronger than Those…
Chapter 5 — The Necessity of Effort
Chapter 6 — Fate Is the Result of Former Efforts
Chapter 7 — On the Necessity of Activity
Chapter 8 — Invalidation of Destiny
Chapter 9 — Investigation of Acts (Thoughts Are Action; Mind Is Soul)
Chapter 10 — Brahma Propounds the Knowledge of Liberation to Vasishta
Chapter 11 — On the Qualifications of Student and Teacher; the Four Guards at the Door of Liberation
Chapter 12 — The Greatness of True Knowledge
Chapter 13 — On Equanimity (Peace & Tranquility of Mind), the Characteristics of a Saint
Chapter 14 — On Rational Inquiry, the Necessity of Inquiry & Clear Reasoning
Chapter 15 — On Contentment
Chapter 16 — On the Company of the Virtuous and Good Conduct
Chapter 17 — On the Contents of the Yoga Vasishta
Chapter 18 — The Effect of the Yoga Vasishta; Its Similes & Examples
Chapter 19 — Interpretation of Comparisons in the Yoga Vasishta
Chapter 20 — On Wisdom & Good Conduct

BOOK TWO: Compilation Chapters 1-20 Complete ( Duration 2:02:38 )

Chapter 1 — The Appearance of Creation Is from the Mind of Brahma
Chapter 2 — Description of the First Cause: Yama Explains Air-born Brahma to Death; Will without Form or Action
Chapter 3 — Subtle & Gross Bodies; Formless Mind (Brahma) Wills the Appearance of Forms
Chapter 4 — Nightfall; Creation of Objects
Chapter 5 — On the Original Cause (Mula-Karana)
Chapter 6 — Honest Effort Required to Attain Self Knowledge
Chapter 7 — God Is Pure Consciousness; the Phenomenal World Is Non-Existent
Chapter 8 — Nature of Good Scriptures; Yoga Vasishta as the Treasury of All
Chapter 9 — Description of Living & Bodiless Liberation; God as the Supreme Cause of All (Parama Karana)
Chapter 10 — The Emptiness upon Universal Dissolution Is Not Empty; Description of God
Chapter 11 — There Can Be No Creation or Dissolution of Something that Never Existed
Chapter 12 — Detailed Description of Original Creation, Elements in Their Subtle Forms
Chapter 13 — On the Production of the Self-Born
Chapter 14 — No Individual Souls, only One Brahma; Each Is Brahma; Brahma Creates the Rules and Delegates
Chapter 15 — Story of Leela and Saraswati (Padma’s Body on the Shrine)
Chapter 16 — The Lives of Queen Leela & King Padma; Leela Performs Tapas to Saraswati;Padma’s Death
Chapter 17 — Leela Sees Padma and His Court in the Spirit World, Checks Her Own Court…
Chapter 18 — Leela Wonders which World Is Real; Saraswati Explains
Chapter 19 — Story of a Former Vasishta & Arundhati
Chapter 20 — Saraswati Explains Leela’s Former Life as Arundhati
Chapter 21 — Saraswati Explains the Practice of Meditation, Astral Travel
Chapter 22 — Practice of Wisdom (Vijnana-Bhyasa)
Chapter 23 — Saraswati & Leela Meditate & Begin Astral Travel
Chapter 24 — Description of the Astral Journey
Chapter 25 — Description of Astral Travel over the Earth
Chapter 26 — Return to the Holy Brahmin’s House; Description of Gloom; Vasishta Explains Astral Appearance
Chapter 27 — Leela Remembers Her Past Lives
Chapter 28 — Leela’s Vision in Meditation; Description of the Mountain Hamlet
Chapter 29 — Description of Leela’s Life as Arundhati; Description of Astral Travel in Space
Chapter 30 — Vasishta Describes the Universe, the Cosmic Egg (Brahmanda)
Chapter 31 — Leela & Saraswati Arrive on Earth; Fate of Good & Bad Fallen in War
Chapter 32 — Onset of the War
Chapter 33 — The Battle: the Armies Engage
Chapter 34 — The Battle as Seen by Onlookers
Chapter 35 — The Battle: Description of the Battlefield
Chapter 36 — The Battle: Duels between Equals; Catalogue of Forces
Chapter 37 — The Battle: Catalogue of Forces Continued
Chapter 38 — The Battle: End of the Day, the Battlefield after Cessation of Fighting
Chapter 39 — The Battlefield Infested by Nocturnal Fiends
Chapter 40 — Subtle Body & Astral Travel; Intellectual Body; Details on the Process of Death,Conception & Birth
Chapter 41 — Leela & Saraswati enter King Viduratha’s Tent; He Remembers His Past Lives;…
Chapter 42 — Philosophy of Dreaming (Swapnam); Creation Is a Dream; Viduratha Asks a Boon to Be Reunited…
Chapter 43 — The City Burning
Chapter 44 — Enlightened Leela Sees Viduratha’s Queen Leela; Habits of the Mind Reproduce the Same Images
Chapter 45 — The Second Leela Gets a Boon the First Didn’t: How We Seek Is How We Obtain
Chapter 46 — Viduratha Counter-Attacks
Chapter 47 — Saraswati Explains Why Sindhu Will Win; the Encounter of Sindhu & Viduratha
Chapter 48 — Supernatural Weapons
Chapter 49 — More Supernatural Weapons
Chapter 50 — The Death of Viduratha
Chapter 51 — Sindhu’s Rule
Chapter 52 — The Second Leela Reflects upon the First Leela’s Own Self-Concept: Life after Death
Chapter 53 — The Second Leela Visits the Temple of Dead King Padma; Representations of Memory Are…
Chapter 54 — Divine Laws underlie Creation; Death as Reward; Life Durations
Chapter 55 — Categories of Death Experiences; Origin of Illusion
Chapter 56 — State of the Soul after Death; Ancestor Worship & Benefits to the Dead
Chapter 57 — Yogis’ Astral Bodies; Phenomena of Dreaming
Chapter 58 — The Two Leelas See Padma Revived
Chapter 59 — Padma & Two Leelas Live Out Their Liberated Lives
Chapter 60 — Time & Reality Are Relative
Chapter 61 — On the Origin of the World
Chapter 62 — Fate Is What Determines the Result of Action
Chapter 63 — No Duality; Only the Appearance of Forms of the One Divine Mind
Chapter 64 — Uncaused Brahma Creates Rules of Causation for Forms
Chapter 65 — Nature of the Individual Soul as the Same as Universal Consciousness
Chapter 66 — Individual Souls Mistake Subjective for Objective
Chapter 67 — Lecture on Creation: Still Consciousness & Moving Thoughts
Chapter 68 — Story of the Demoness Karkati, Vishuchika (Cholera) & Suchi (Needle); Her Tapas
Chapter 69 — Brahma Declares Karkati’s Tapas Complete, Grants Her Boon to Be a Pin to Cause Pain
Chapter 70 — Karkati as Suchi, the Needle of Colic and Cholera
Chapter 71 — Suchi’s Remorse
Chapter 72 — Suchi Again Performs Tapas
Chapter 73 — Narada Explains Suchi’s Tapas to Indra Who Sends Maruta to Disturb Her Tapas
Chapter 74 — Consummation of Suchi’s Tapas
Chapter 75 — Suchi Regains Her Former Frame
Chapter 76 — Refraining from Unlawful Food
Chapter 77 — Karkati Travels to the Land of the Kiratas, Sees a King & His Minister, Debates Food
Chapter 78 — Karkati Confronts the King & His Minister
Chapter 79 — The Rakshasi Karkati’s Questions
Chapter 80 — The Minister’s Answers
Chapter 81 — The King’s Answers
Chapter 82 — Friendship with the Rakshasi; Criminals as Food
Chapter 83 — Worship of Karkati as Kandara Devi or Mangala Devi
Chapter 84 — Imperfect Words Used to Guide to Understanding; the Power of the Mind
Chapter 85 — Brahma Describes His Own Experience; Asks the Sun
Chapter 86 — The Sun’s Story of Indu’s and His Wife’s Tapas & Their Ten Sons, the Aindavas
Chapter 87 — Ten Brother Aindavas Become the Ten Worlds of the Next Day of Brahma
Chapter 88 — Detachment of Brahma; Need to Act; Only One’s Own Mind Can Change One’s Own Mind
Chapter 89 — The Story of the Lovers Indra & Ahalya, the Fixation of Their Minds on Each Other
Chapter 90 — Indra’s & Ahalya’s Attachment through Reincarnations
Chapter 91 — Brahma Wonders Whether to Create; Two Aspects to the Mind
Chapter 92 — A Strong Mind Is Unaffected by Curses
Chapter 93 — Brahma as the Mind: A View of the Genesis of the Mind & Body
Chapter 94 — Fourteen Grades of Beings; Brahma the Origin of All
Chapter 95 — Identity of Mind & Action
Chapter 96 — Different Names for Mind
Chapter 97 — Three Spheres: Pure Consciousness, Mental & Physical
Chapter 98 — Story of the Origin of the Heart; Deluded Men Punishing Themselves in the Desert
Chapter 99 — Heart Origin: Deluded Men in the Desert Explained
Chapter 100 — Healing the Heart: All within God; No Bondage or Liberation
Chapter 101 — An Old Nurse Makes up a Story of Three Princes for a Boy
Chapter 102 — On the Indivisibility and Immortality of the Soul
Chapter 103 — The Changing Mind
Chapter 104 — A Magician, a Horse & a Stunned King Lavana
Chapter 105 — The Magic Spell on King Lavana Is Broken
Chapter 106 — King Lavana Marries a Tribal Maiden
Chapter 107 — Life among the Tribals
Chapter 108 — King Lavana’s Description of Drought & Wildfire
Chapter 109 — Migration of the Tribals; Mind Creates All
Chapter 110 — Description of the Mind’s Play
Chapter 111 — The Necessity to Control the Heart & Mind
Chapter 112 — Motion (Restlessness) Is Inherent in the Mind; the Mind Is Its Own Cure
Chapter 113 — Description of Ignorance & Delusion (Avidya)
Chapter 114 — Description of Error
Chapter 115 — Causes of Happiness & Misery
Chapter 116 — Moral of King Lavana’s Experience; Summary of Creation & Liberation
Chapter 117 — The Seven States of Ignorance
Chapter 118 — The Seven Stages of Knowledge
Chapter 119 — Illustration of the Gold Ring: Form Versus Substance
Chapter 120 — King Lavana Visits the Forest Where He Lived as a Tribal; Lamentation of the Woman Tribal
Chapter 121 — The Reality of King Lavana’s Dream Explained; Proof of the Futility of Mind
Chapter 122 — Ascertainment of the Self or Soul

BOOK THREE: Part 1 Compilation Chapters 1-20 ( Duration 2:42:27 )
BOOK THREE: Part 2 Compilation Chapters 21-40 ( Duration 2:25:45 )
BOOK THREE: Part 3 Compilation Chapters 41-60 ( Duration 2:33:22 )
BOOK THREE: Part 4 Compilation Chapters 61-80 ( Duration 2:10:07 )
BOOK THREE: Part 5 Compilation Chapters 81-100 ( Duration 2:19:19 )
BOOK THREE: Part 6 Compilation Chapters 101-122 ( Duration 2:37:58 )

Chapter 1 — Immaterial Spirit Cannot Have a Material Seed to Produce any Material World
Chapter 2 — There Is No Material Explanation for the World; It Exists only in Divine Consciousness
Chapter 3 — The World Is Eternal; There Can Be No Creation or Dissolution
Chapter 4 — The World Exists in the Mind
Chapter 5 — The Story of Shukra (Bhargava): Shukra Falls in Love with a Fairy Nymph
Chapter 6 — Shukra Imagines Indra’s Paradise
Chapter 7 — Shukra Imagines Embracing the Fairy Nymph
Chapter 8 — Reincarnations of Shukra
Chapter 9 — Description of Shukra’s Body during His Austerities
Chapter 10 — Bhrigu’s Anger Evokes Yama Who Describes Shuka’s Many Lives
Chapter 11 — Yama (Time) on the Mind as the Cause Producing the World
Chapter 12 — Yama on the Mistake of Individual Consciousness; Different Levels of Awareness
Chapter 13 — Yama Explains to Bhrigu How Thoughts Create; They Go to Shukra
Chapter 14 — Yama & Bhrigu Awaken Shukra from His Tapas; He Remembers His Past Lives
Chapter 15 — Shukra Laments His Original Body; Behaving in the Physical Body
Chapter 16 — Shukra’s Original Body Is Brought Back to Life
Chapter 17 — The Difference between Shukra’s Daydreams & Ordinary Daydreams
Chapter 18 — Incarnations of the Living Spirit
Chapter 19 — Differences between Waking & Dreaming States
Chapter 20 — The Mind Is the Person, not the Body
Chapter 21 — Philosophy of the Mind Creating Its Own Reality; Different Schools of Thought
Chapter 22 — Qualities of the Mind Resting in Supreme Joy
Chapter 23 — The Wonders within the Realm of the Body
Chapter 24 — The Non-Entity of the Mind
Chapter 25 — Story of Dama, Byala & Kala Created by Demon King Sambara
Chapter 26 — Description of Battle between Gods and Demons
Chapter 27 — Brahma Advises the Defeated Gods to Foster the Demons’ Ego
Chapter 28 — Description of Renewed Battle between Gods & Demons
Chapter 29 — Defeat of the Demons
Chapter 30 — The Subsequent Lives of Dama, Byala & Kata
Chapter 31 — Reality is within God; There Is no Reality without
Chapter 32 — Dama, Byala & Kata Obtain Liberation; On Good Conduct
Chapter 33 — Effort Attains; Ego & Its Three Forms
Chapter 34 — End of the Story of Dama, Byala & Kata: Bhima, Bhasa & Dridha
Chapter 35 — Description of Detachment & Bliss
Chapter 36 — Description of the Intellect’s Creation
Chapter 37 — Upasama: Stillness of the Soul; Apparent Activity of the Mind
Chapter 38 — The Same Stillness of Spirit; the Mind as the Agent
Chapter 39 — Vasishta Postpones the Question of Impurity from Purity; the Unity of All Things
Chapter 40 — Identity of the World with Brahman; Using Words
Chapter 41 — Use of Words; Description of Ignorance
Chapter 42 — From Brahman to Ordinary Mind: Producing Individual Souls
Chapter 43 — Varieties of Living Souls
Chapter 44 — Description of Brahma’s Self-Birth
Chapter 45 — Dependence of All on God; Nothing Is Lost Which Doesn’t Exist
Chapter 46 — Description of Living-Liberation
Chapter 47 — Description of Innumerable Different Worlds, their Gods & Time
Chapter 48 — Story of Dasura; He Receives Agni’s Boon to Live Treetop
Chapter 49 — Description of Dasura’s Kadamba Forest
Chapter 50 — Dasura’s Survey of the Heavens
Chapter 51 — Dasura Begets a Son
Chapter 52 — The Allegory of Air-Born King Khottha (Mind) and His Grand City
Chapter 53 — Explanation of the City
Chapter 54 — Dasura Explains: Desires Vanish when You Give Them No Thought
Chapter 55 — Vasishta and Dasura Meet; Further Description of the Kadamba Forest
Chapter 56 — The Paradox of the Soul as Passive Cause; Spirit & Corporeality Do Not Mix
Chapter 57 — The Question of Duality again Deferred; First Avoid Desire
Chapter 58 — The Song of Kacha
Chapter 59 — How Brahma Creates and Sustains
Chapter 60 — Production of Sattvic and Rajas-Sattvic Beings
Chapter 61 — Rajas and Sattva Qualities to Be Desired
Chapter 62 — Vasishta Exhorts Rama How to Conduct Himself

BOOK FOUR Part 1 Compilation Chapters 1-20 ( Duration 1:46:41 )
BOOK FOUR Part 2 Compilation Chapters 21-40 ( Duration 2:17:52 )
BOOK FOUR Part 3 Compilation Chapters 41-62 ( Duration 2:14:33 )

Chapter 1 — The Midday Ritual
Chapter 2 — That Night Rama Ponders Vasishta’s Lectures
Chapter 3 — Description of the Royal Assembly
Chapter 4 — Dasharata’s Praise; Rama Asks Vasishta to Continue
Chapter 5 — Lecture on Tranquility of the Soul and Mind
Chapter 6 — Doing One’s Duty; Merit Accrues through Lifetimes
Chapter 7 — Two Ways to Attain Self Realization: Effort & Intuition
Chapter 8 — Janaka Hears the Songs of the Holy Masters (Siddhas)
Chapter 9 — Janaka’s Reflections
Chapter 10 — Silent and Solitary Reflections on Janaka
Chapter 11 — Subjection of the Mind
Chapter 12 — On the Greatness of Reasoning (Self Inquiry)
Chapter 13 — Government of the Mind: Consciousness Is Real, Mind (Imagination and Will) Is Not
Chapter 14 — Impossibility of Curing the World; the Parade of Prey; the Thinking Principle
Chapter 15 — On Greed
Chapter 16 — Two Ways to Abandon Greed: Reason and Insight
Chapter 17 — Describing Liberation while Living and Brahman beyond Words
Chapter 18 — Living Liberation or True Joy of Man; Everything Is Connected
Chapter 19 — On Family Relationships: the Story of Punya and Pavana
Chapter 20 — Punya Reasons with Pavana
Chapter 21 — Suppression of Desires by Suppression of Thoughts
Chapter 22 — The Story of Mahabali, the Benevolent King of Demons, and His Father Virochana
Chapter 23 — Virochana’s Story about the Ruler’s (Soul’s) Undefeatable Minister (the Mind)
Chapter 24 — Virochana on Mind Control: Hiring Teachers and Practicing Reason & Detachment;and Realization
Chapter 25 — Bali Reflects on What His Father Virochana Had Taught
Chapter 26 — Shukra Teaches Bali that All Is Consciousness
Chapter 27 — Bali’s Detachment
Chapter 28 — Bali’s Meditation, Shukra’s Advice to the Demons
Chapter 29 — Bali Returns to Ordinary Consciousness
Chapter 30 — The Story of Prahlada: Narasimha Destroys Hiranyakashipu and the Age of Demons
Chapter 31 — Prahlada Bemoans the Demon’s Loss and Praises Vishnu
Chapter 32 — Prahlada and the Daitya Demons Worship Vishnu; the Gods Complain
Chapter 33 — Vishnu Explains Prahlada to the Gods; Appears to Prahlada
Chapter 34 — Prahlada’s Discrimination Leads to Self Realization
Chapter 35 — Prahlada in Praise of Self Realization
Chapter 36 — Prahlada’s Hymn to the Soul
Chapter 37 — Prahlada Meditates
Chapter 38 — Vishnu Decides to Restore Order and Awaken Prahlada for Thousands of Years;Asura’s in Chaos
Chapter 39 — Vishnu’s Awakens Prahlada & Exhorts Him to Live Out His Life
Chapter 40 — Vishnu Further Explains Living Liberation to Prahladam
Chapter 41 — Installation of Prahlada in His Kingdom
Chapter 42 — God Realization in the Form One Worships God
Chapter 43 — Worship of the Formless Versus the Forms of God
Chapter 44 — The Story of Gadhi: His Tapas, Vishnu’s Boon, and His Death
Chapter 45 — Gadhi Reborn as a Tribal, then Made Gavala, King of Kirapura
Chapter 46 — Gadhi’s Loss of his Visionary Kingdom
Chapter 47 — A Traveler and a Journey Verify Gadhi’s Dream
Chapter 48 — Gadhi Verifies His Dream Again; Vishnu Explains the Wonderful Power of Illusion
Chapter 49 — Vishnu Instructs Gadhi to Do Ten Years of Tapas; He Attains Self Realization
Chapter 50 — Live in the Present; Trust Consciousness; Control Mind, Heart & Greed
Chapter 51 — The Story of Uddalaka: His Desire for Realization & the Cave
Chapter 52 — Uddalaka Meditates and Reasons
Chapter 53 — Uddalaka’s Reasoning and Bliss
Chapter 54 — Uddalaka’s Meditation and Samadhi
Chapter 55 — The Pure Consciousness and Being of Uddalaka
Chapter 56 — Characteristics of Samadhi; Indifference to Surroundings
Chapter 57 — Dualism Is Innate in the Soul
Chapter 58 — Legend of King Suraghu; His Doubt and Sage Mandavya’s Teaching
Chapter 59 — King Suraghu’s Self Inquiry and Realization
Chapter 60 — King Suraghu’s Realization During and After Life
Chapter 61 — King Parigha’s Tapas; His Meeting with King Suraghu
Chapter 62 — King Suraghu Describes His Samadhi
Chapter 63 — Conclusion of Parigha’s and Suraghu’s Conversation
Chapter 64 — Ignorance, the Life of a Bullock; Samadhi
Chapter 65 — The Story of Bhasa and Vilasa
Chapter 66 — The Two Hermits Wander & Meet in Old Age
Chapter 67 — Soul & Mind Are Unrelated to Phenomena; Abandonment of Intrinsic Relations
Chapter 68 — The Pain of Attachment; the Liberation of Non-Attachment
Chapter 69 — Living without Attachment
Chapter 70 — Perfect Bliss of Living Liberation
Chapter 71 — Samadhi and Beyond; Body Unrelated to Soul; Various Names for Jiva
Chapter 72 — A Lecture on the Nature of Liberation
Chapter 73 — Visualizations of the Soul; Its Experience More Manifest in Living Beings;Knowledge, not Liberation
Chapter 74 — Qualities of One Who Abides in the Truth
Chapter 75 — Examples of the Living Liberated
Chapter 76 — The World Compared with the Ocean
Chapter 77 — Description of Living Liberation
Chapter 78 — Techniques of Meditation, Pranayama and Inquiry
Chapter 79 — Spiritual Knowledge: All Is Subjective
Chapter 80 — Investigation of Visible Phenomena; Ode to the Death of the Mind
Chapter 81 — The Mind Is Unknowable, Only the Soul
Chapter 82 — Sage Vitahavya’s Self Inquiry into the Nature of His Mind
Chapter 83 — Sage Vitahavya Continues His Self Inquiry, Admonishes Mind, Arrives at Soul
Chapter 84 — Vitahavya’s Tapas; His Mental or Imaginary Worlds
Chapter 85 — Vitahavya’s Samadhi; the Sun God Restores His Body
Chapter 86 — Vitahavya Bids Farewell to His Mind, Bodily Organs
Chapter 87 — Vitahavya’s Samadhi, Union with All
Chapter 88 — Lessons to Be Drawn from Vitahavya’s Tapas
Chapter 89 — Acquiring Powers; How Yogis’ Bodies Survive During Tapas; Yogis’ Thoughts Actualize
Chapter 90 — Two Forms of Mind Extinction: with and without Form
Chapter 91 — Seeds for the Mind: Breathing Vital Breath, Thinking Thoughts, Desires; Thoughts Create Form
Chapter 92 — Means to Obtain Divine Presence: Knowledge of Truth, Subjection of the Mind, Abandon Desires
Chapter 93 — Universal Detachment

Chapter 1 — Description of Evening and the Assembly Breaks
Chapter 2 — On the Perfect Calm and Composure of the Mind
Chapter 3 — The Unity and Universality of Brahman: Intellect Is the Soul and Is Brahman
Chapter 4 — The Unity and Universality of Brahman: All Derives from Consciousness
Chapter 5 — Rama Acknowledges the Effect of Vasishta’s Preaching
Chapter 6 — Excellent Sayings to Edify the Audience: Disparagement of the Ignorant
Chapter 7 — Condemnation of the Ignorant View of Creation
Chapter 8 — Allegory of the Spreading Tree of Ignorance
Chapter 9 — Three Gunas; Gods are Pure Sattvic; No Such Thing as Ignorance
Chapter 10 — Inert Is Not Realized; Ignorance Is of the All-Pervading God
Chapter 11 — The Supreme Truth: Knowledge of Brahman
Chapter 12 — Qualities of the Self-Realized
Chapter 13 — The Two Yogas of Pranayama and Self Inquiry Lead to Meditation
Chapter 14 — Bhushunda, the Ancient Crow; and Description of Mount Meru
Chapter 15 — Vasishta’s Visit & Description of Meru and Bhushunda
Chapter 16 — Vasishta and Bhushunda Meet; Vasishta’s Question
Chapter 17 — Description of Bhushunda
Chapter 18 — Bhushunda’s Matrika Background, Alambusha; the Matrikas Overpower Parvati
Chapter 19 — Bhushunda’s Birth with Twenty Brothers, Blessings of Brahmi, His Father’s Advice to Live…
Chapter 20 — Bhushunda’s Survival of the Ends of Ages
Chapter 21 — Explanation of Bushunda’s Longevity; His Memories of the Past
Chapter 22 — Further Memories of Past Ages, Gods and Scriptures
Chapter 23 — Bhushunda’s Fate to Survive Creations; Nothing Is as Precious as Knowing the Soul
Chapter 24 — Bhushunda Describes Vital Air as the Living Principle
Chapter 25 — Bhushunda on Pranayama: the Inward and Outward Breaths and the States in between (Samadhi)
Chapter 26 — Bhushunda’s Self-Control and Spiritual Knowledge Are the Cause of His Longevity
Chapter 27 — Conclusion of the Story of Bhushunda
Chapter 28 — The Body, like Creation, Is a Reflection of the Mind
Chapter 29 — The World Full with Supreme Soul; Shiva Explains the Best Way to Worship God
Chapter 30 — Shiva Explains How the Consciousness Forgets Itself
Chapter 31 — Shiva on Consciousness, Living Soul, Understanding, Mind, Vital Air and the Body
Chapter 32 — Shiva on the Preservation and Dissolution of the Body
Chapter 33 — Shiva: Resolution of Duality into Unity; Creation Really Exists
Chapter 34 — Shiva: Three Stages of Awakening
Chapter 35 — Adoration of the Great God, Mahadeva, in the Form of the Ishtadeva
Chapter 36 — Shiva Describes the Supreme God
Chapter 37 — Shiva: The Stage Play and the Dance of Destiny
Chapter 38 — Shiva on the External and Internal Worship of God
Chapter 39 — Shiva on the Internal Worship of God
Chapter 40 — Shiva on the Worship of God
Chapter 41 — Shiva on How to Know God, the Development of Mind, and Desires & Thoughts Cause Misery
Chapter 42 — Shiva on the Phases and Names of the Supreme Soul; Spiritual Cords
Chapter 43 — Vasishta Exhorts Rama; Rama without Questions
Chapter 44 — Vasishta Praises Rama’s Understanding; Warns Him to Maintain It
Chapter 45 — Parable of the Bael Fruit as Creation
Chapter 46 — Parable of a Carved Rock as the Soul
Chapter 47 — The Density of the Intellect; Bael Fruit, Stones and Peahen Eggs
Chapter 48 — Unity and Identity of Brahma and World; the Realized
Chapter 49 — Changes in the World Are no Changes; Ignorance Does Not Exist
Chapter 50 — How the Soul Receives Sensations and the Objects of Senses
Chapter 51 — One Becomes Many; Ignorance; Consciousness Precedes Sense; Scriptures & Agnostic Doctrines
Chapter 52 — Story of Vishnu’s Dual Incarnations as Krishna and Arjuna
Chapter 53 — Krishna Admonishes Arjuna
Chapter 54 — Krishna Admonishes Arjuna: Do Your Duty with Detachment
Chapter 55 — Krishna: The Soul is Permanent, the Body Perishes; Mind Creates Body
Chapter 56 — Krishna’s Description of the Mind
Chapter 57 — Krishna on the Abandonment of Desire and Result of Tranquility
Chapter 58 — Arjuna Understands Krishna’s Words
Chapter 59 — Knowledge of the Latent and Inscrutable Soul
Chapter 60 — The Majesty and Grandeur of God
Chapter 61 — Description of the World as a Passing Dream
Chapter 62 — The Mendicant’s Idle Thought: the Story of the Hundred Rudras
Chapter 63 — Dream of Jivata: the Hundred Rudras
Chapter 64 — The Attendants of God Rudra; How One Soul Becomes Many
Chapter 65 — Rama’s Wonder at the Error of Men
Chapter 66 — The Mendicant’s Wanderings; Multiple Births with Similar Forms and Personalities
Chapter 67 — The Unity of God; Religious Differences Are Divisive
Chapter 68 — Four Types of Silence (Mouna), the State of Sleep-Silence
Chapter 69 — Samkhya & Jnana Yoga; Mind (Desires) and Vital Breath Linked
Chapter 70 — A Vetala Ghost Questions a Prince
Chapter 71 — Prince’s Answers to the Vetala’s First Question
Chapter 72 — The Prince’s Answers to the Vetala’s Remaining Questions
Chapter 73 — Conclusion to the Story of the Vetala
Chapter 74 — King Bhagiratha Tires of the World, Seeks the Counsel of Sage Tritala
Chapter 75 — Bhagiratha Renounces All and Lives as a Wandering Beggar
Chapter 76 — Bhagiratha’s Tapas Brings the Ganges River down to the Earth
Chapter 77 — The Story of Chudala and Sikhidhwaja
Chapter 78 — The Self Realization of Chudala
Chapter 79 — King Sikhidhwaja Notices the Change in Queen Chudala
Chapter 80 — Sikhidhwaja Laughs at Chudala; Astral Flight; Kundalini to Attain Ends; — the Five-Fold Pattern…
Chapter 81 — Kundalini, Balance of Vital Breath, Physical & Mental Disorders, Simultaneous & Disjunct…
Chapter 82 — Instructions for Acquiring Powers
Chapter 83 — Queen Chudala’s Powers, the King’s Ignorance, and the Story of the Miserly Kirata
Chapter 84 — King Sikhidhwaja Abandons His Kingdom for the Life of a Hermit
Chapter 85 — Chudala Appears as a Brahmin Boy to Sikhidhwaja; Narada’s Ejaculation; the Outline of Nature…
Chapter 86 — Narada’s Sperm Gestates in a Pot and Is Born as Kumbha, Who Is the Brahmin Boy
Chapter 87 — Chudala, as the Brahmin boy, Criticizes Sikhidhwaja’s Withdrawal
Chapter 88 — The Tale of the Rich Man Who Failed to Grasp the Real Philosopher’s Stone
Chapter 89 — The Parable of an Elephant Twice Captured
Chapter 90 — Explanation of the Story of the Philosopher’s Stone
Chapter 91 — Explanation of the Parable of the Elephant
Chapter 92 — The King Burns His Hermit Possessions
Chapter 93 — Chudala Explains the Meaning of Complete Renunciation
Chapter 94 — Kumbha Enlightens Sikhidhwaja Regarding the Mind and Ultimate Causation
Chapter 95 — Sikhidhwaja Understands that God Is No Cause of Anything Separate
Chapter 96 — Kumbha Explains God and Creation Are the Same; Consciousness Depicts Creation…
Chapter 97 — Kumbha: How Variety Appears in Unity
Chapter 98 — Kumbha: Immaterial Cannot Produce Material
Chapter 99 — Kumbha Lectures Sikhidhwaja: All Is Brahman
Chapter 100 — Kumbha Lectures Sikhidhwaja: More on All Is Brahman
Chapter 101 — The Mind of the Living Liberated Is Called Goodness; — Kumbha Advises Sikhidwaja to Abandon…
Chapter 102 — Kumbha Departs; Sikhidhwaja in Samadhi
Chapter 103 — Kumbha Returns and Awakens the Trace of Life in Sikhidhwaja
Chapter 104 — Sikhidwaja & Kumbha Enjoy Each Other’s Company; — Kumbha on the Needs (Fate)…
Chapter 105 — Kumbha’s Story of Being Cursed by Durvasa, Nightly Changing into a Female
Chapter 106 — Chudala Weds Sikhidhwaja
Chapter 107 — Chudala Makes a False Indra Appear to Test Sikhidwaja
Chapter 108 — Chudala again Tests Sikhidwaja by Taking a Lover; then Manifests in Her Own Form
Chapter 109 — Sikhidwaja & Chudala Reunited
Chapter 110 — Sikhidhwaja Returns to Rule His Kingdom; His Nirvana
Chapter 111 — Story of Kacha & His Enlightenment by Brihaspati
Chapter 112 — Parable of the Aerial Man Building Aerial Homes
Chapter 113 — Explanation of the Parable of the Aerial Man Building Aerial Homes
Chapter 114 — Supreme Spirit, Thought, Creation
Chapter 115 — Shiva Describes the Triple Virtues of Men to the King of the Bhringis
Chapter 116 — Melting Down of the Mind; Self Inquiry
Chapter 117 — Sage Manu Teaches King Ikshaku: Creation Is an Appearance
Chapter 118 — Manu Teaches Ikshaku: Divine Will Creates & Dissolves
Chapter 119 — Manu Teaches Ikshaku: Living in the Spirit
Chapter 120 — Manu Teaches Ikshaku: Seven Stages of Yoga; Living Liberated
Chapter 121 — Manu Teaches Ikshaku: Avoiding the Sense of Ego and Possession
Chapter 122 — Manu Teaches Ikshaku: Manu’s Admonition to Ikshaku
Chapter 123 — Spiritual Powers
Chapter 124 — Three Bodies; Turiya; the Story of the Hunter and the Sage
Chapter 125 — Means of Attaining Steadiness of Turiya State
Chapter 126 — The Seven Stages of Yoga; Each Leads to the Next through Incarnations
Chapter 127 — Valmiki Admonishes Bharadwaja
Chapter 128 — Valmiki Summarizes the Yoga Vasishta for Bharadwaja; Vishwamitra Explains Who
Is Rama; Rama Is Brought out of Samadhi

Chapter 1 — Passively Act out Your Duties from Prior Lives
Chapter 2 — Lack of Choice Means No Responsibility for Actions
Chapter 3 — Disappearance of Phenomena
Chapter 4 — Annihilation of Egoism
Chapter 5 — Bhushunda’s Story of a Vidyadhara and His Questions
Chapter 6 — The Vidyadhara Expresses His Disgust with the World to Bhushunda
Chapter 7 — Bhushunda Describes the Seed of the Tree of the World
Chapter 8 — Bhushunda Describes the Tree and the Temple of Illusion
Chapter 9 — Bhushunda on the Creations of the Intellect
Chapter 10 — Bhushunda Describes Brahman
Chapter 11 — Bhushunda: Creation Necessarily Is of the Same Nature as Brahman
Chapter 12 — Bhushunda on the Identity of Will & Its Work of Desire; Vasishta on the Four Quarters…
Chapter 13 — Bhushunda’s Anecdote of Indra’s Rule of an Atomic World
Chapter 14 — Bhushunda: Countless Indras Ruling an Atomic World
Chapter 15 — Bhushunda, the Sense of Ego Is the Seed of Error
Chapter 16 — The Extinction of the Vidyadhara in Samadhi
Chapter 17 — The Minute Seed of Egoism; as a Cannonball
Chapter 18 — All Memories Remain in Bits in the Air; Each Sees Only His Own
Chapter 19 — The Form of Viraj, the Living Cosmos
Chapter 20 — Description of Viraj & the Origin of Individual Life
Chapter 21 — Earning a Living from the Scriptures
Chapter 22 — The Meaning of Knowledge; the Wise and the Not Wise
Chapter 23 — Story of Vasishta Meeting the Brahmin Manki in the Desert Seeking Rest in an Outcaste Village
Chapter 24 — Manki Complains about Life to Vasishta
Chapter 25 — Vasishta Instructs Manki
Chapter 26 — Vasishta’s Teaching Continued; Manki Attains Self Realization
Chapter 27 — All Is One, so We Cannot Conceive Diversity
Chapter 28 — Destiny, Deed, Agent & Doing Are All the Same; God as the Seed
Chapter 29 — Sermon on Holy Meditation
Chapter 30 — Sermon on Spirituality
Chapter 31 — Sermon on the Means of Attaining Extinction
Chapter 32 — Sermon Inculcating Knowledge of Truth
Chapter 33 — Sermon on the True Sense of Truth
Chapter 34 — Sermon on the Practice of Spiritual Yoga
Chapter 35 — Description of the Supreme Brahma
Chapter 36 — Sermon on the Seed or Source of the World
Chapter 37 — If Will Is within God, Why Lecture against Desire?
Chapter 38 — Disquisition of Nirvana — Quietism
Chapter 39 — Vasishta’s Sermon on Peace of Mind
Chapter 40 — On the Quiescence of the Soul
Chapter 41 — Repose in One’s Essential Nature
Chapter 42 — Lecture on Duality within Unity; Worship of God; to Remain Still Is to Be Like God…
Chapter 44 — Growing the Tree of Samadhi; the Deer-Like Mind
Chapter 45 — The Deer-Like Mind; Climbing the Tree of Life; Meditation in Samadhi
Chapter 46 — On Samadhi Meditation
Chapter 47 — The First Step towards Liberation
Chapter 48 — The Nature of a Yogi; the Worship of the Lord God
Chapter 49 — The World as Light from Gems; Total Detachment and Indifference
Chapter 50 — Description of the Seven Kinds of Living Beings; We Are Dream-Objects
Chapter 51 — Admonition to Arrive at the Yoga of Ultimate Rest
Chapter 52 — Description of Brahma
Chapter 53 — Knowing the Nature of Brahman is Nirvana
Chapter 54 — There is no Cosmic Seed; only the Consciousness of God
Chapter 55 — The Spiritual Sense of the World
Chapter 56 — Story of Vasishta’s Search for Seclusion and Hundred Year Meditation
Chapter 57 — Vasishta’s Stirring of Ego Dispelled by Certain Knowledge that All Is a Dream
Chapter 58 — There Is Nothing Physical in God Who Is Consciousness
Chapter 59 — Vasishta Seeks the Source of a Sound, Describes Infinite Networks of Alternative Realities
Chapter 60 — Networks of Alternate Realities, Continued
Chapter 61 — Creation and Destruction Are Only Memory and Forgetfulness of the Intellect
Chapter 62 — Identity of Intellect with the Intellectual World
Chapter 63 — Identity of the Universe with the Universal Soul; Dreams within Dreams
Chapter 64 — A Beautiful Vidyadhari Complains to Vasishta about Her Uninterested Husband
Chapter 65 — The Vidyadhari Explains Her Frustration and Prays to Vasishta
Chapter 66 — The Vidyadhari’s Description of the Inside of Her World inside Stone
Chapter 67 — The Vidyadhari Praises Continued Practice, the Force of Habit
Chapter 68 — Vasishta in Samadhi Sees the Pure Ideals from which Intellect Fabricates the Unreal World
Chapter 69 — Vasishta and the Vidyadhari Awaken the Brahmin; He Explains Who Is the Vidyadhari
Chapter 70 — Words of the Brahmin Who Created the Worlds in Mundane Stone
Chapter 71 — Vasishta Describes a Final Dissolution of the World (1)
Chapter 72 — Description of Viraj as God in the Form of Creation
Chapter 73 — More Description of Viraj, the God of Nature
Chapter 74 — The Cosmic Body of Viraj, Continued
Chapter 75 — Vasishta Describes a Final Dissolution of the World (2)
Chapter 76 — Vasishta Describes a Final Dissolution of the World (3)
Chapter 77 — Vasishta Describes a Final Dissolution of the World (4)
Chapter 78 — Vasishta Describes a Final Dissolution of the World (5)
Chapter 79 — After Dissolution, Vasishta Sees the Gods in Nirvana; Creation Linked to Desire
Chapter 80 — Vasishta Describes a Final Dissolution; Appearance of Adipurusha (Rudra, Shiva); Voids
Chapter 81 — The Dance of Kali, Bhairavi
Chapter 82 — All Phenomena Are Void; Shiva
Chapter 83 — All Is Shiva
Chapter 84 — Description of Kali, Shiva and Shakti; All Ideas Are Real
Chapter 85 — Relation of Shiva and Kali
Chapter 86 — Vasishta Describes the Stone: Creation as Images in Unchanging God; All Things Are Repetitions…
Chapter 87 — Vasishta Describes the Infinity of the World Shown in His Material Body
Chapter 88 — Further Description of the Earth within Vasishta
Chapter 89 — Phenomena as Reproductions of Memories
Chapter 90 — Description of Water in Creation
Chapter 91 — Description of Fire in Creation; Astral Travel
Chapter 92 — Description of Air in Creation, the Universal Spirit
Chapter 93 — A Siddha Master Comes to Vasishta’s Aerial Home
Chapter 94 — Conclusion of Siddha Story; Vasishta Travels like a Pisacha; Description of Pisachas, Origin…
Chapter 95 — Description of Vasishta’s Bodies
Chapter 96 — Summation of the Story of the Stone; Nothing Exists or Does Not Exist
Chapter 97 — Different Beliefs Lead to the Same Unity; Examples of Self-realized
Chapter 98 — Praise of Good Society
Chapter 99 — Consciousness in Plants, Insects and Animals
Chapter 100 — Refutation of Atheism, Material Determination
Chapter 101 — Consciousness Is Self-Evident; No Reason to Fear Death
Chapter 102 — The Life of the Awakened; Feigning Wisdom
Chapter 103 — Consciousness Creates Both Knowledge and Ignorance; Praise for the Yoga Vasishta; Causation…
Chapter 104 — The Process of Production Is Indescribable Except as a Dream
Chapter 105 — Waking and Sleeping Dreams Are Alike
Chapter 106 — Description of Intellectual Emptiness; the Impossibility of Material Creation
Chapter 107 — Formless Cannot Create Form; All Is Subjective (Ideal)
Chapter 108 — Story from Another World of a Besieged King (Vipaschit)
Chapter 109 — King Vipaschit Immolates Himself in Sacred Fire, Producing Four Copies
Chapter 110 — Description of Battle
Chapter 111 — The Four-fold King Lets Loose His Weapons and the Enemy Flees
Chapter 112 — Catalogue of Fleeing Foreign Foes
Chapter 113 — Combatants Exhausted; Description of the Ocean
Chapter 114 — The King’s Companions Praise Nature in India
Chapter 115 — The King’s Companions Continue to Praise Nature in India
Chapter 116 — The King’s Companions Continue: Praise of Sky and Air as Metaphors for God; a Beautiful Valley…
Chapter 117 — Description of a Lotus-Lake, Bees and Swans
Chapter 118 — Descriptions of Cranes, Herons, Deer & Travelers
Chapter 119 — A Lovelorn Traveler Talks to a Cloud and Is Almost Cremated
Chapter 120 — Description of Breezes & Winds, Flowers without Fragrance, Celestial Gardens…
Chapter 121 — King Vipaschit’s Companions Settle by the Ocean and Pray to Agni
Chapter 122 — King Vipaschit and His Companions Walk on the Ocean
Chapter 123 — King Vipaschit Wanders in Various Continents
Chapter 124 — Fourfold State of King Vipaschit
Chapter 125 — Each Body of the King Helps the Other; On Yogis; None but Yogis Can Know the Mind of Another…
Chapter 126 — Death and Further, Varied Consciousness of the Four Vipaschitas
Chapter 127 — Cosmology of the Universe
Chapter 128 — Endlessly Wandering in the Vacuum of Brahma; Everything We Perceive Is through God
Chapter 129 — Identical Self Develops Different Desires from Different Circumstances; Ignorance…
Chapter 130 — Vipaschit the Stag Enters Fire, Is Restored and Becomes Bhasa
Chapter 131 — Vishwamitra Lectures on Endless Phenomena; — Bhasa Describes His Lives Searching…
Chapter 132 — Bhasa (King Vipaschit) Describes His Reincarnations and Experiences
Chapter 133 — Bhasa’s Story of the Wonderful Carcass
Chapter 134 — The Story of the Carcass Continued: Goddess and Demons Devour It; Celestials Lament the Loss
Chapter 135 — The Carcass Disappears and Used to Recreate the World
Chapter 136 — Story of the Asura Cursed to Become a Gnat: He Becomes a Deer and a Hunter
Chapter 137 — An Unnamed Sage Teaches the Hunter; Travel through Breath into a Student’s Body…
Chapter 138 — The Unnamed Sage Describes Entering the Student’s Consciousness, Seeing Double…
Chapter 139 — Vasishta Explains the Relationship between Mind and Prana; — the Unnamed Sage…
Chapter 140 — The Unnamed Sage Describes His Life as a Brahmin in the Body of Viraj; — His Escape…
Chapter 141 — The Unnamed Sage Describes His Own Dream of Universal Fire
Chapter 142 — The Sage Continues: There Is No Karma; Pure-Born Souls; Religious Acts Useless
Chapter 143 — The Philosophy that All Is within God Is Compatible with All Beliefs, but It Is Wrong to…
Chapter 144 — The Individual Mind is a Microcosm of Brahman; Dreams and Creations; the Rules…
Chapter 145 — Concentration Expands Ideas; Descriptions of Body Fluids Affecting the Quality of Dreams
Chapter 146 — Brahman Does not Sleep, Dream or Awake
Chapter 147 — The Sage Awakens within His Student, Becomes Absorbed in His Own Memories…
Chapter 148 — No One Can Say Whether Dreams Are Real or Unreal; Certainty Makes Things Real…
Chapter 150 — The Sage in the Dream Is the Sage Who Forgot Himself in the Dream: He Imagined Everything
Chapter 151 — The Dream Sage’s View of Inexistence
Chapter 152 — The Dream Sage Proposes Living with the Hunter’s Sage
Chapter 153 — Prediction of the Arrival of the Hunter; the Sage’s Self-Inquiry Results in the Conclusion…
Chapter 154 — The Sage Describes His Own Life and Admonishes the Hunter to Practice Becoming Established…
Chapter 155 — Agni Describes the Hunter’s Astonishment; the Sage Predicts the Hunter’s Tapas…
Chapter 156 — The Hunter Becomes King Sindhu and Defeats King Viduratha; His Minister Explains the Events…
Chapter 157 — The Minister Explains Creation and King Sindhu’s Tamasic Nature; the King Retires, Nirvana
Chapter 158 — Agni Completes the Story of the Fall of the Hunter’s Huge Body
Chapter 159 — Vipaschit (Bhasa) Wanders; Indra Says He Has Still to Become a Deer; Indra Cursed by Durvasa…
Chapter 160 — Vasishta Explains that Ignorance is Limitless and Is Brahman; Description of Heaven and Hell…
Chapter 161 — Vasishta Explains Dreams and Waking Are identical; Nirvana Is that Realization
Chapter 162 — Vasishta on Ignorance; the Folly of Worshipping Form
Chapter 163 — Means of Governing the Senses: Control the Mind; the Value of this Book
Chapter 164 — How the Wise and the Ignorant View the World
Chapter 165 — Play on the Similarity between Waking and Dreaming; Real or Unreal, Why Be Deluded?
Chapter 166 — Story of the Unnamable Crystal Rock
Chapter 167 — Words Cannot Describe Consciousness, Not Even Awake, Dream, Sleep or Turiya…
Chapter 168 — Forms of a Tree; the Value of Investigating Our Dreams; the Origin of Dreams & Creations…
Chapter 169 — Description of the Calm and Tranquil Mind
Chapter 170 — The Friends of a Wise Man: Good Conduct and Mind
Chapter 171 — Meditation of Pure Emptiness: the Space between Thoughts
Chapter 172 — There Is no Memory; All Thoughts Are Memories
Chapter 173 — Brahman Is Both Conscious and Unconscious; Brahma Is the Mind, Viraj the Imagined Body
Chapter 174 — Nirvana Is Knowing God Is All and Nothing Else Exists; Only This Knowledge Yields Nirvana
Chapter 175 — Manifestation of All as Intellect’s Dream; the Value of the Yoga Vasishta
Chapter 176 — Brahma Gita, the Story of Brahma: the Cosmic Egg
Chapter 177 — Brahma Gita, There Can Be No Cause for Creation
Chapter 178 — How Spirit Can Perceive Physical; Story of Indu’s Ten Sons, the Aindavas (again);…
Chapter 179 — Phenomena Are Points of Consciousness; Dreams Evidence Things Exist without Cause…
Chapter 180 — The Story of Kundadanta and the Upside-down Ascetic
Chapter 181 — Kundadanta and the Ascetic Travel, Find a Hermit at What Was Gauri’s Ashram,Kadamba Tree
Chapter 182 — The Kadamba Tree Hermit Describes the Tapas of the Eight Brothers, Their Wives’ Austerities…
Chapter 183 — Blessing and Curse Argue before Brahma; — the Blessings Bear Fruit in the Minds of…
Chapter 184 — The Kadamba Tree Hermit Explains to Kundadanta: — Diversity in the One, Fate Governs All…
Chapter 185 — Kundadanta Completes His Story, Attains Liberation from Listening to Vasishta
Chapter 186 — Demonstration of All Nature as Brahma; Intellect Equally Everywhere in Varying Degrees…
Chapter 187 — Cosmology of the Living Creation; Ideas Beget Words Beget Objects
Chapter 188 — Creation Stories Are Fiction; How Yogis See Creation
Chapter 189 — The Creation of Brahma’s Thoughts
Chapter 190 — Rama’s Enlightenment: Short Answers to Many Questions
Chapter 191 — Solution of Great Question of Unity & Duality
Chapter 192 — Rama Realizes there Is No Error, No Ignorance
Chapter 193 — Rama Realizes that All Questions Become Meaningless upon God Realization
Chapter 194 — Rama Understands that Knowledge of the One Is Indescribable, Describes Realization
Chapter 195 — Vasishta Tests Rama: Why Didn’t God Create the World?
Chapter 196 — Realization Cannot Be Obtained from Scriptures; Story of the Wood-Cutters,Philosopher’s Stone
Chapter 197 — The Value of the Scriptures
Chapter 198 — Excellence of Equanimity, Humility and Universal Benevolence
Chapter 199 — Varieties of Ways in which Living Liberated Men Live in the World
Chapter 200 — Loud Applause for the Sage’s Speech
Chapter 201 — The Assembly Gathers again; Rama Describes His State; Vasishta Exhorts Him to Serve…
Chapter 202 — Rama Describes His State
Chapter 203 — Valmiki Describes the Noon Sun; Assembly Retires; — Dasharata’s Largesse;Sunrise; …
Chapter 204 — All Forms, Dream or Awake, Are Manifestations of Intellect
Chapter 205 — There Can Be No Material Cause for Material Creation
Chapter 206 — The Story of King Prajnapti Asking How Immaterial Can Create Material, (Buddhist Inquiry)
Chapter 207 — Vasishta Replies to the Questions (of the Buddhist): Non-Dualism in a Nutshell
Chapter 208 — Vasishta Explains that Everything is the Expression of an Idea in God,…
Chapter 209 — Judgment and Reincarnation; Any Idea Can Manifest
Chapter 210 — We See What We Believe; Karma; upon Realization, Phenomena Disappear
Chapter 211 — Seeing the Supernatural; All Is the Creation of the Viewer
Chapter 212 — On Ascertainment Of Truth
Chapter 213 — Rama’s Prior Learning under Vasishta
Chapter 214 — Description of the Great Celebration
Chapter 215 — Eulogy on This Work and the Mode of Its Recital
Chapter 216 — The Celestial Messenger’s Message of Liberation