Rishabha Gita

1. Oh great one! In the case of those who are established in the Atman, they have already burnt the seeds of karma in the fire of yoga. How can the powers of yoga that have come to them automatically, prove to be a bondage to them? Why did then Rishabha refuse to accept them?

The self-conscious atman in the Jiva is the spirit within, ontologically. It seeks realization of itself, meaning to be real with it. It is self-realization. It is an experience for the spirit or the self. It is beingness what it seeks.

The ‘I’ consciousness is the pure being, eternal existence, free from ignorance and thought illusion. If the seeker stays as the ‘I’, his being alone, without thought, the ‘I’ thought for him will disappear. The illusion will vanish for him forever.

The real Self is the infinite ‘I’. The infinite ‘I’ is eternal. It is perfection. It is without a beginning or an end.

When the ‘I’ (ego) merges into the ‘I’ (existence-consciousness – sat-cit), what arises is the infinite ‘I’. This is the true ‘I’ consciousness – the Atman.

Sri Suka Said:

2. What you say is true in a way. But though the mind has been controlled, it cannot be trusted too much. The best of yogis do not do so, knowing its fickleness and untrustworthiness, just as a determined hunter would not entrust a captured animal with any freedom.
Mind is a stream of thoughts passing over consciousness. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Thought, therefore, is the very nature of mind.

Everything in the world is dependent upon the mind, upon one’s mental attitude. On examination, the mind itself appears to be unreal. But we are bewitched by it. With mind controlling our activity, we seem to be running after mirage.

The mind flits in all directions all the time and is unable to find happiness anywhere. Like the lion in a cage, the mind is ever restless, having lost its freedom. It is never happy with its present state.
When objectivity arises in one’s consciousness, one becomes conditioned and limited.

That is bondage. When objectivity is abandoned, one becomes mindless. That is liberation. When one thinks ‘I am the Jiva’, etc the mind arises and with it the bondage. When one thinks ‘I am the Self; the Jiva and such other things do not exist’, the mind ceases and with it arises liberation.

3. So it is said: Do not compromise with the fickle mind. For, by doing so, very powerful personages have lost all their spiritual powers.
The conditioned mind alone is bondage; liberation is when the mind is unconditioned. The conditioning of the mind drops away when the Truth is clearly seen and realized.

When the conditioning has ceased, one’s consciousness is made supremely peaceful. ‘The Self alone is all that is’ is clear perception. ‘Conditioning’ and ‘mind’ are mere words with no corresponding truth; when the truth is investigated, they cease to be meaningful – this is clear perception. When this clear perception arises, there is liberation. In essence, bondage is the craving for pleasure; its abandonment is liberation.

4. A yogi who trusts his mind too much is like a husband who does so in regard to his unfaithful wife. The fickle mind might betray him into the hands of his enemies like lust and its allies, just as the unfaithful wife might betray her husband by colluding with her paramour. The mind flits in all directions all the time and is unable to find happiness anywhere. Like the lion in a cage, the mind is ever restless,having lost its freedom. It is never happy with its present state.

5. Can any man of true discrimination put full trust in the mind in the belief that it has come under his control – the mind which is the root cause of all dangerous passions like lust, anger, pride, greed, sorrow, infatuation, fear and the bondage of karma?

Everything in the world is dependent upon the mind, upon one’s mental attitude. On examination, the mind itself appears to be unreal. But we are bewitched by it. With mind controlling our activity, we seem to be running after mirage.

The mind alone is the cause of all objects in the world. The world exists because of the mind-stuff. The mind vainly seeks to find happiness in the objects of this world. When the mind is transcended, the world vanishes, dissolves into its source.

6. Thus, though he was the king of kings, he veiled his divine nature from vulgar eyes by assuming the attitude of a senseless man in dress, language and conduct. Next, in order to show how great yogis abandon their bodies, he established himself in the perpetual consciousness of the Atman by recognizing the indivisibility of the Atman into the seer and the seen, and thus overcoming even the modicum of tendencies he had assumed for the blessing of the world.

Just as water remains water and flows down, and as fire does not abandon its nature of rising up, consciousness remains forever consciousness. To the enlightened person, there is only one Infinite Consciousness – Pure Atman, indivisible and immutable. In reality one is unborn and one does not die. The notions that ‘I am’, ‘these are’, etc do not exist for the enlightened one.

In the seed, there is no diversity. However, there is a notion of potential diversity of leaves, flowers, fruits, etc supposedly present in it. Even so, Cosmic Consciousness is one devoid of diversity. Yet the universe of diversity is said to exist potentially in the said Consciousness.

7. Without connection with even the lingasarira (subtle body), by the mere remaining momentum left of the impulsion given by yogamaya, his body travelled all over the land, and reached the region of Konka, Venkata, and Kutaka included in Dakshina Karnataka. There he travelled in the forest at the foot of the mountain known as Kutakadri like a ghoul – with the mouth filled with stones, hair dishevelled, and stark naked.

The subtle body (lingasarira) consists of the inner instrument, the senses and the subtle elements. It is considered the same as the Jiva (soul) except the atman. It is the subtle body without the gross body that is given by the parents. What transmigrates on the death of an individual is the same subtle body.

The reflection of consciousness within itself is known as puryastaka. It is also known as the subtle body – lingasarira. As long as the puryastaka functions, the body lives.

When it ceases to function, the body is said to have died. When the body dies, the subtle body chooses another, suited to fulfill the hidden vasanas.

8. Once a forest fire broke out there by the mutual rubbing of bamboos in a strong wind. The whole forest, along with his holy body, was burnt in that fire.