Stories From Yogavasishtham

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Foreword Yogavasishtham is an ancient philosophical text, unique in its kind. It contains the essence of all the Hindu Philosophical texts - The Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads and the Brahmasutra.

Those whose minds are turned away from the worldly desires and have become indifferent towards the objects of this mundane world, and those who are longing for liberation will be really benefited by this book. The nature of Brahman, Supreme God consciousness and the methods to attain Self Realization are vividly described in this book. It helps everyone who wants to know the Truth. Even an intellectual understanding of the Truth will help us overcome miseries of life to some extent, and that will gradually carry us to the Goal: the realization of the Ultimate Reality or Atman.

Much of this text is told through parables that have many hidden depths within them. Our Rishis of yore as well as modern saints tried their best to make the complicated theories and philosophical intricacies simple through similes, examples and stories in simple language to impart their experiences to the common people. This is one of the most important texts among them.

Dr. Jayasree Sukumaran, an ardent student of Vedanta and an experienced teacher who succeeded in conveying the ideas to the students, especially for the sake of the new generation, has taken much effort to write in a lucid language the stories of Yogavasishtham in a book form. I am confident that this book is helpful not only for beginners but for the practitioners also.

I wish the author and the Publisher the successful fulfillment of their wish.

Preface The Yogavasishtham is one of the greatest spiritual classics of Hinduism. It enunciates the quintessence of Advaita through stories that communicate to and inspire every one, old or young. The original text contains 32000 slokas. The Yogavasishtham as indicated by the title is the teaching of yoga or union of the Jivatma with Paramatma as expounded by Sage Vasistha to Sri Ramachandra who was only a teenager at the time. Rama had learnt all that has to be learnt as a prince. But learning had made him only withdrawn and unhappy. It was about this time that Sage Visvamitra reached Ayodhya to seek the help of Rama and Lakshmana to ward off the demons who had been disturbing his yagas. When Visvamitra asked the reason for Rama's dejection, unusual in a boy of that age, Rama opened out his heart and expressed his dispassion towards life, and his eagerness to understand the Truth about life. Visvamitra was pleased to sense the maturity, and the sincere yearning of the prince to gain the ultimate knowledge. Rama requested Sage Vasistha to clarify the doubts and give him jnanopadesha' or the knowledge of the Self, which would make him remain happy and peaceful always. Vasistha delightfully began the Upadesa. The teaching continued for eighteen days, at the end of which Sri Ramachandra became fully enlightened. The original text has six chapters- Vairagya Prakarana, Mumukshu Prakarana, Utpatti Prakarana, Sthithi Prakarana, Upasama Prakarana and Nirvana Prakarana.

The present volume is a brief summary of the stories and instructions in the original text. The stories are rendered in a simple narrative style so that the spiritual truth which cannot really be expressed verbally, may yet reach the hearts of the readers with the help of God's Grace, as was the experience of the first listener, the young Ramachandra.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages