Mokshadharma Parva — The doctrine of knowledge according the Yoga system

Vyasa said O excellent son, accosted by you. I have told you truly what the answer to your question should be according to the doctrine of Knowledge as explained in the Sankhya system.

Listen now to me as I explain to you all that should be done according to the Yoga doctrine. The unison of intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all-prevading Soul is said to be the highest kind of knowledge. That Knowledge should be gained by one who is of a tranquil mind, who has governed his senses, who is capable of seeing the Soul, who takes pleasure in (such) meditation, who is gifted with intelligence and purity in acts. One should try to gain this knowledge by abandoning those five obstacles of Yoga which are known to the wise, namely, desire, anger, cupidity, fear, and sleep. Anger is conquered by tranquility of disposition. Desire is defeated by giving up all purposes.

By meditating with the help of the understanding upon topics deserving meditation one, gifted with patience, succeeds in relinquishing sleep. By steady endurance one should govern his organs of generation and the stomach. One should protect his hands and feet by his eyes.

One should protect his eyes and ears by the help of his mind, and his mind and speech by his acts, One should avoid fear by carefulness, and pride by attending the wise.

Controlling procrastination, one should by these means subdue these obstacles of Yoga. One should pay his adorations to fire and the Brahmanas and should bow his head to the gods.

One should avoid all kinds of unholy conversation and malicious speech and words which pain other minds. Brahma is the effulgent seed. It is again, the essence of that seed from which proceeds all this.

Brahma became the eye, in the form of this mobile and immobile universe, of all elements that were born. Meditation, study, gift, truth, modesty, simplicity, forgiveness, purity of body, purity of conduct, and subjugation of the senses, these increase one's energy which dissipates his sins.

By treating impartially all creatures and by living contentedly upon what is gained easily and without exertion one acquires the fruition of all his objects and succeeds in gaining knowledge.

Purged of all sins, gifted with energy, sparing in diet, with senses under complete control, one should, after having subdued his desire and anger, try to attain to Brahima.

Uniting firmly the senses and the mind with gaze fixed inwards, one should, in the silent hours of evening or those before dawn, fix his mind upon the understanding.

If even one of the five senses of a human being be kept ungoverned all his wisdom escapes through it like water through a hole not made up at the bottom of a leather bag.

The mind in the first instance should be controlled by the Yogin like a fisherman trying at the commencement to make that one among the fish powerless from which he auticipates the greatest danger to his nets. Having first governed the mind, the Yogin should then proceed to subdue his ears, then his tongue, and then his nose.

Having controlled these, he should fix there on the mind. Then withdrawing the mind from all purposes. He should settle it on the understanding.

Indeed having governed the five senses, the Yati should fix them on the mind. When these with the mind for the sixth become concentrated in the understanding, and thus centred remain steady and firm then Brahma becomes perceptible like a smokeless blazing fire or the effulgent Sun.

Indeed, one then beholds in himself his own soul like lightning in the firmament. Everything then appears in it and it appears in cverything on account of its infinitude.

Those great Brahmanas, who are possessed of wisdom, who are endued with fortitude, who are possessed of high knowledge and who are cngaged in the well being of all creatures, succeed in saying it.

Practising austere vows, the Yogin, who acts thus for six months seated by himself on a lonely spot, becomes at one with the Indestructible.

Acquiring by Yoga annihilation, extension, power to present different shapes in the same person or body, celestial scents, and sounds, and sights, the most agreeable sensations of taste and touch, pleasurable sensations of coolness and warmth, equality with the wind, power to understanding the meaning of scriptures and every work of genius, living with celestial damsels, the Yogin should not care for them and merge them all in the Understanding.

Restraining words and the senses should practise Yoga after dusk and before dawn seated on a mountain summit, or at the foot of a huge tree or with a tree before him.

Controlling all the senses within the heart, one should, with faculties concentrated, think on the Eternal and Indestructible like a man of the world thinking of wealth and other valuable properties. One should never, while practising Yoga, with draw his mind from it. one

One should with devotion pursue those mcans by which he may control the restive mind. One should never suffer himself to fall away from it.

With the senses and the mind withdrawn from everything else, the Yogin should repair 10 empty caves of mountains, to temples consecrated to the gods and to empty houses or apartiments, for living there.

One should not mix with another in either speech, act or thought. Disregarding all things and eating very sparingly the Yogin should regard equally objects acquired or lost.

He should treat equally one who praises and one who censures him. He should not seek the good or the evil of one or the other.

He should not rejoice at an acquisition or be sorry at a failure or loss. Treating all beings equally he should imitate the wind.

Brahma, represented by sound, appcars very clearly unto one whose mind is thus turned to itself, who leads a pure life, and who sees all things equally, indeed unto one who is ever engaged in Yoga thus for even six months.

Seeing all men stricken with anxiety the Yogin should regard a clod of earth, a piece of stone, and a lump of gold with an equal eye. Indeed, he should withdraw himself from this path, cherishing a hatred for it, and never allow himself to be stupefied.

By following the path indicated above, even a person of an inferior caste, or a woman, will surely acquire the highest end.

He who has subdued his mind sees in his own self, by the help of his own understanding the Increate, Ancient, Undeteriorating, and Eternal Brahma,-That which cannot be attained to except by controlled senses,-That which is subtler than the most subtile, and grosser than the most gross, and which is Emancipation's self.

Bhishma said By ascertaining from the preceptors and by themselves reflecting with their minds upon these words of the great Rishi spoken so properly wise persons become at one with Brahima himself, till, indeed, the time when the universal dissolution sets in that swallows up all existent beings.