July 30, 2026
svapnasaṅkalpasaṁśāntau svapnasaṅkalpapattanaṁ
yadā sā sukuṭī naṣṭā matsaṅkalpopaśāntitaḥ (15)
VASIṢṬHA continued:
After all this, I re-entered my cottage or hermitage in outer space. I looked for my physical body. It was not there. But, I found an aged sage sitting in that hermitage. He was in deep meditation. He was seated in the lotus-posture. His face was radiant and beautiful on account of the peace and bliss that filled him. His lotus-like hands had been placed in front of his navel, and they shone with an extraordinary brilliance. His eyes were closed and he was obviously beyond body-consciousness. Not seeing my own body but observing the sage sitting in meditation I began to think as follows:
Surely, this is a great and perfected sage. Like me, he must have arrived here seeking total seclusion. Since he sought seclusion he should have seen this hermitage in space. Perhaps he expected me to return and seeing that I had not returned for a long time, he would have thrown that body out and himself occupied the hermitage. Let me return to my own realm.
When I thus reflected and when my desire to stay in that hermitage ceased, that hermitage disappeared and with it even that sage disappeared. When one’s thoughts (notions or concepts) cease, that which those thoughts brought into being also ceases. When my wish for the hermitage ceased, it disappeared. Like a spacecraft that hermitage fell. The sage fell. And I too descended along with him on to the earth-plane. The sage landed in the same state and posture in which he was in that hermitage. This was because, through the union of prāṇa and contemplating, he had overcome the force of gravity. He did not even wake up from his meditation. His body was strong as a rock and light as cotton.
In order to bring him back to normal body-consciousness, I assumed the form of a big cloud which rained and thundered. Then he regained body-consciousness. I enquired of him: “Where are you, O sage? What are you doing? Who are you? Though you fell from such height, you are oblivious of it; how is that?”
After contemplating the past for a few moments, the SAGE said: “I have now recognised you, O holy one; I salute you. Kindly pardon me for not having saluted you earlier. It is indeed the nature of sages to be forgiving. O sage, I have wandered in the realms of the gods for a considerable time. I am tired of this saṁsāra. When all this is pure consciousness, what is it that we call pleasure? Hence I reside in space, free from mental distractions and attraction. None of these sense-experiences is real, independent of consciousness. Objects of pleasure are sources of poison, sexual delights are delusions, sweetness robs the enjoyer of sweetness: he who is overcome by them is surely destroyed. This life is short. It is full of distractions. By sheer accident sometimes one gets a little happiness here. Nothing is permanent or stable here. Like a pot on the potter’s wheel, this body revolves endlessly in this life. There are powerful thieves (sense-objects) everywhere. Hence, I should be vigilant.”