August 25, 2026
dhāraṇāyogino hyete vareṇa prāptasiddhayaḥ
avidyā vidyate teṣāṁ tena te ‘tadvicāriṇaḥ (28)
RĀMA asked:
If Vipaścit was an enlightened person, how could he consider himself a lion, etc.?
VASIṢṬHA replied:
My description of these kings as awakened or enlightened was only a figure of speech: in fact Vipaścit was not enlightened. The four Vipaścits were neither enlightened nor were they ignorant: they were swinging in-between. In such people the signs of enlightenment or liberation are seen as also the signs of ignorance and bondage. They are half-awakened. Whatever Vipaścit had attained had been attained through contemplation, not because he had reached the supreme state. All these siddhis or psychic powers are had by such contemplation.
In them who have reached the supreme state, there is no ignorance or delusion. How can they have a deluded vision and how can they see falsehood? The yogis who practise contemplation and who attain various psychic powers through grace or boons are subject to ignorance which is noticed in them. Hence, they contemplate not the truth but something which is other than the real.
There is something more. Even in the case of those liberated sages who are still alive, there is comprehension of materiality while they are engaged in the day-to-day activity. Mokṣa or liberation is also a state of the mind. The natural function of the body adheres to it and does not cease. One who is freed from ignorance or the mind is never again bound by the mind; even as once the fruit has fallen from the tree, no amount of effort can connect it to the tree. The body functions as it is natural to it even in the case of the liberated person; but the consciousness in that person is stable and is not affected by the states of the physical body.
The powers gained through contemplation, etc., can be seen by others; but the state of liberation that one attains cannot be seen by others. Even as in the taste of honey, it is capable of being tasted only by oneself. When one who has experienced the state of bondage and also pain and pleasure is liberated from all these, he is said to be liberated. He is considered a liberated person whose inner consciousness is cool and peaceful; he is in bondage whose mind and heart are disturbed and distracted. Bondage and liberation are not noticed in physical functions.
Whether his body is cut into thousand pieces or he is crowned an emperor, the liberated one is liberated even if he apparently weeps and laughs. Within himself he is neither elated nor depressed. He experiences neither happiness nor unhappiness, even while receiving all these experiences. He is not dead even when he is dead, he does not weep though he weeps, he does not laugh though he laughs – such is a liberated one. He is free from attraction or attachment, though he is attracted and attached. He gets angry though he is not angry, he is not deluded though he is deluded.