Dissolution into the Real

"When the web of thoughts ceases, one’s own natural state is left behind. When the great dissolution is accomplished, the state of non-existence (of objects) is reached, and at the beginning of creation, only stillness remains. The supreme Self (alone) exists – the great Lord, the shining Light which never sets!"

-Concise Yogavasistha, verses 12-13

Commentary by Swami Tejomayananda:

 

"We have seen that the entire universe is created by sankalpa. Sankalpa is the notion that something exists and different from me, has qualities and is capable of giving me joy or sorrow. The projection of such thoughts, entertaining and expanding upon them creates, sustains and expands the universe. When the sankalpa is withdrawn or falsified the universe also dissolves or stands falsified. Such a falsified world loses its sting and is incapable of giving me sorrow. If we have the power to initiate a Sankalp. We also have the power to stop it. In reality, the Sankalp depends on us for its existence. I can exist without a sankalpa, but the sankalpa cannot exist without me. During the deep sleep state there is  no sankalpa, and so there is no experience of the universe. At that time, I exist as pure Being. This deep sleep state, however, is temporary and the universe again comes into existence upon waking to persecute me. But when the sankalpa ceases due to true Knowledge, the universe ceases to exist in its entirety and I alone remain as I was before the creation of the sankalpa. This is called the great dissolution. For one who has realized this, the universe is falsified once nad for all, in spie of its perception.

 

"Peace is my true nature and so it cannot be created. Only agitations are created. When they end, peace alone remains.

 

"The vision of a snake imagined upon a rope is created by the mind. The snake has no actual existence apart from mind. It arises from me and it sustained by brooding over it. When I go to sleep the vision of the snake ceases temporarily. Upon waking, I see the snake vision on the rope again. But when the rope is known as a rope, the snake vision is falsified and disappears along with the snake. The rope alone remains as before. The snake vision can never again appear on that rope.

 

"The Self is described as the light which never sets. The sun rises and sets. The light of knowledge too dawns and wanes. But the Knowledge Principle. The pure Consciousness neither rises nor sets. It is ever existing. The Self is the Supreme and is Lord of all, having the capacity to rule, control, create and destroy all..."