Background

Yoga Vashishta is the earliest scripture about yoga. It is purported to have been imparted by the vedic sage, Vashishta to his royal disciple Lord Ram, the hero of Ramyan. In this scripture, sage Vashishta gives spiritual instructions to Lord Ram. Vashishta, the wisest of the sages in his remarkable work called Vashishta Ramyan or Yoga Vashishta explains to Lord Ram about the illusory nature of the world and shows him the path of the supreme spirit.

Sage Vashishta explains the doctrine of Vedanta in the form of stories and illustrations to his pupil, Ram. Through the narratives, the sage shows the best means to attain wisdom and happiness.

Yoga Vashishta consists of 32,000 slokas. The text is in the form of questions and answers between the pupil, Ram and the teacher, sage Vashishta. The questions raised by Lord Ram, that fills the text, pertains to the problems of human existence, life and death, suffering, and the way to happiness. The sage clarifies these in the form of stories that contain deep metaphysical truths. The whole treatise is in the form of poetry.

Vashishta declares that the scripture benefits those who have become detached to material existence and long for the realization of truth. It is divided into six sections

1. Dispassion              2. Aspiration

3. Origin                      4. Existence

5. Quiescence             6. Liberation

Each section is a revelation of the profound truths of Vedanta, explained in an easy- to-understand manner.

The Brihat Yoga Vashishta or Yoga Vashishta Maha Ramyan as it is also called, is traditionally attributed to Valmiki, the author of Srimad Ramyan. It is a dialogue between Sage Vashishta and Sri Ram, during which Advaita (the doctrine of non-duality) in its pure form of ajatavada (theory of non-origination), with illustrative stories in between. This work was abridged by Abhinanda Pandita, a Kashmiri scholar, into 6,000 couplets, called Laghu Yoga Vashishta.

Condensation of Yoga Vashishta was done long ago into about 230 couplets, divided into ten chapters, as Yoga Vashishta Sara (Essence of Yoga Vashishta) – a gold mine fit for repeated reading.