26. There is no god above Him in the past, present or future. He who is Visnu is Brahma and he who is Brahma is Maheswara, too.
The Brahman is considered the Supreme Deity. IT is not one among many. Everything in the world has its being in the Brahman. IT is concrete in the sense that IT IS and asserts itself in the form ‘I-AM’. We only know that IT IS. It cannot be a person, as the word is generally understood. IT IS, and yet indeterminate, beyond speech and concept.
27. Men who are learned in the three Vedas and adept in sacrifices have declared that he, who draws a distinction among us three, is sinful and wicked, and faces downfall.
28. Oh Agastya! Listen. I shall tell you about the early times when people were not having devotion to Hari.
29-30. In olden times, the people of the Bhuloka (earth) performed sacrifice to Janardana, and went to the Bhuvarloka. There they worshipped Him and attained heaven, being liberated gradually.
31. Even after liberation, everyone began to meditate on Hari, and He, being present everywhere, appeared before them.
The Brahman – the highest Being is the Absolute, Transcendental Self. The three distinctions – Being (Existence), Reality and Truth become one in the Absolute Reality.
32. He asked them all as to what He might do for them. They then bowed to Him and said:
33. ‘Oh great God! All people have now been liberated. How then will creation proceed and who will go to hell?’
34. Thus asked by Devas, Lord Janardana told them: ‘During the first three yugas, most people reach Me.
35. But in the last yuga (Kali), those who attain me will be a few. I then create the force of stupefaction which deludes people.
36. Oh you Rudra! You produce the Mohasastra (the science of stupefaction). With a little effort, you produce delusion’.
When the Infinite Consciousness vibrates, the worlds appear to emerge. When IT does not vibrate, they appear to submerge. Vibrating or not vibrating, IT is the same everywhere and ever. Not realizing it, one is subject to delusion. The delusion of the world-existence attains expansion by its repeated affirmation. When it is realized, all cravings and anxieties vanish.
The delusion that veils self-knowledge is seven-fold – seed state of wakefulness, wakefulness, great wakefulness, wakeful dream, dream, dream wakefulness and sleep. These seven states have their own innumerable subdivisions according to Yogavasistha.
One is wise not to desire those experiences, which one does not effortlessly obtain, and to experience those that have already arrived. One who has realized one’s oneness with the entire universe, and has thus arisen above both desire ‘for’ and desire ‘against’, is never deluded.
37. So saying, the great Lord concealed Himself, and I was made very manifest.
38. From then onwards people became more interested in the Sastras which I promulgated.
39. Following the Vedic path, worshipping Lord Narayana and finding unity in all the three gods, people get liberation.
To remain established in self-knowledge is liberation. The state of self-knowledge is that in which there is no mental agitation, distraction and dullness of mind, egotism or perception of diversity.
Liberation arises when ignorance ceases through self-enquiry.
Liberation or realization of the Infinite is attained when one arrives at the state of supreme peace after intelligent enquiry into the nature of the Self, and, after this, has brought about an inner awakening. Kaivalya or total freedom is the attainment of ‘pure being’ after all mental conditioning is transcended consciously, after thorough investigation, in the company and with the help of enlightened sages.
Liberation is but a synonym for pure mind, correct self-knowledge and a truly awakened state. The attainment of inner peace by total non-attachment to anything in the world is liberation.
Liberation is the Absolute Itself, which alone is. As one sees only gold in ornaments, water in waves, emptiness in space, heat in mirage and nothing else, the liberated yogi sees only the Brahman everywhere, not the world.
40. Those who consider me as different from Visnu or Brahma are driven to do sinful deeds and reach hell.
41. It is for the delusion of those who are outside the Vedic fold that I introduced the Sastras called Naya, Siddhanta, etc.
42. This is the rope (pasa) that binds men (pasu), and that should be snapped. Therefore, it is the Pasupata-sastra which is Vaidic.
43. Oh sage! My body is of the Veda. This truth is not known by those who propound other Sastras.
44. I am to be known through the Veda and particularly by the brahmanas. I am the three yugas and also Brahma and Visnu.
The Brahman is the Supreme Being, permeating and pervading everything in the world. IT is the Supreme Consciousness. IT is also considered the Supreme Spirit or the Atman. By Its very nature, IT is all-encompassing and all-pervading.
45. I am the three gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas, the three Vedas, the three fires, the three worlds, the three sandhyas and the three varnas.
46. I am the three savannas, the three bonds in the world.
