Chapter LXIX - Freedom from attachment—the road to tranquillity

Argument. Abstraction of the mind from the external, and its Application to Intellectual objects.

Vasishtha continued:—

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Though remaining in all company, and doing all the duties of life; and although employed in all the acts; yet the wise man watches the movements of his mind.

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It is not to be engaged in cares of this world, nor employed in thoughts or things relating to this life; It is not to be fixed in the sky above or the earth below; nor let to wander about over the objects on all sides.

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It must not roam over the extensive field of outward enjoyments, nor dwell on the objects and actions of the senses. It must not look internally, nor be fixed to the breathing, the palate and crown of the head. (Which are certain modes of Yoga practice).

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It must not be attached to the eye brows, the tip of the nose, the mouth or the pupil of the eye; nor should it look into the light or darkness, or into the cavity of the heart.

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It must not think of its waking or dreaming states, nor those of its sound sleep or internal clearness of sight;nor should it take any colour as white, red, black or yellow for the object of its thought or sight.

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It must not be fixed on any moving or unmoving substance, nor set in the beginning, middle or end of any object. It must not take a distant or adjacent object either before or inside itself.

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It must not reflect on any tangible or audible object, nor on the states of felicity and insensibility. It must not think of the fleetness or fastness nor the measurement of time, by the measure and number of its thoughts.

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Let it rest on the intellect only, with a slight intelligence of itself; and taste of no joy except that of its self-delight.

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Being in this state of mind, and devoid at all attachment to any thing, the living man becomes as a dead body; when he is at liberty to pursue his worldly callings or not.

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The living being that is attached to the thought of itself, is said to be doing and acting though it refrains from doing anything;and it is then as free from the consequence of acts, as the sky is free from the shade of the clouds that hang below it.

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Or it may forsake its intelligential part (i.e. forget its intelligence), and become one with the mass of the Intellect itself. The living soul thus becomes calm and quiet in itself and shines with as serene a light, as a bright gem in the mine or quarry.

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The soul being thus extinct in itself, is said to rise in the sphere of the Intellect; and the animal soul continuing in its acts with an unwilling mind, is not subjected to the results of the actions in its embodied state.