THE STORY OF THE NON-EXISTENT PRINCES

There is an interesting legend relating to the nature of creation, kindly listen to it... A young boy asked his nanny to tell him a story, and the nanny told him the following story, to which the boy listened with great attention:

Once upon a time in a city which did not exist, there were three princes who were brave and happy. Of them two were unborn and third had not been conceived. Unfortunately all their relatives died. The princes left their native city to go elsewhere. Very soon, unable to bear the heat of the sun, they fell into a swoon. Their feet were burned by hot sand. The tips of grass pierced them.

They reached the shade of three trees, of which two did not exist and the third has not even been planted. After eating there for some time and eating the fruit of the trees, they proceeded further.

They reached the banks of three rivers; of them two were dry and in the third there was no water. The princes had a refreshing bath and quenched their thirst in them.

They then reached a huge city which was about to be built. Entering it, they found three palaces of exceeding beauty. Of them two had not been built at all, and the third had no walls.

They entered the palaces and found three golden plates; two of them had been broken into two and the third had been pulverized.

They took nintey-nine minus one gram one hundred grams of rice and cooked it.

They then invited three holy men to be their guests; of them two had no body and the third had no mouth. After these holy men had eaten the food, the three princes partook of the rest of the food cooked. They were greatly pleased.

Thus they lived in that city for a long, long time in peace and joy. My child, this is an extremely beautiful legend, pray remember this always and you will grow up into a learned man.

When this little boy heard this, he was thrilled.

What is known as the creation of the world is no more real than this story of the young boy. This world is nothing but pure hallucination. It is nothing more than an idea. In the infinite consciousness the idea of creation arose: and that is what it is.

This world is nothing more than an idea; all the objects of consciousness in this world are just an idea; reject the error (dirt) of ideation and be free of ideas; remain rooted in truth and attain peace. Only a fool, not a wise man is deluded by his own ideas; it is a fool who thinks that the imperishable is perishable, and gets deluded. Egotism is but an idea based on false association of the self with the physical elements.

When one alone exists in all this as the infinite consciousness, how has what is called egotism (separate individual) arisen?

In fact, this egotism does not exist any more than water exists in a mirage. Therefore, abandon your imperfect vision (of diversity) which is not based on fact; rest in the perfect vision which is of the nature of bliss and which is based on truth. Inquire into the nature of truth. Abandon false-hood. You are ever free, why do you call yourself bound and then grieve?

The Self is infinite; why, how and by whom is it bound? There is no division in the Self. Brahman (consciousness) is all this. What then is called bondage and what is liberation? It is only in ignorance that you think you experience pain, though you are untouched by pain. These things do not exist in the Self. Let the body fall or rise or let it go on to another universe. I am not confined to the body, then how am I affected by all this? The relationship between body and the self is like the relationship between the cloud and wind. When the cloud is dispersed, the wind becomes one with space. The self is not destroyed when the body falls.

Even the mind does not cease to be until it is burnt in the fire of self-knowledge; not to mention the self. Death is but the veiling by time and space of the ever-present self. Only foolish people fear death. Abandon your latent tendences even as a bird wishing to fly into the sky breaks out of its shell. Born of ignorance, these tendencies are hard to destroy, and they give birth to endless sorrow.

It is this ignorant self-limiting tendency that views the infinite as finite. However, even as the sun dispels mist, inquiry into the nature of the self dispels this ignorant self-limiting tendency. In fact, the very desire to undertake this inquiry is able to bring about a change. Austerities and such other practises are of no use in this. When the mind is purified of its past by the arising of wisdom, it abandons its previous tendencies.

The mind seeks the self only in order to dissolve itself in the self. This indeed is in the very nature of the mind.

This is the supreme goal. Strive for this.

(Concise Yoga Vasistha pg 98 to 100 - ISBN: 087395954X)