February 15, 2026
ajñastu ditacittatvāt kriyāniyamanaṁ vinā
gacchannyāyena mātsyena paraṁ duḥkhaṁ prayāti hi (9)
RĀMA asked:
How did the one hundred Rudras come into being, O sage?
VASIṢṬHA replied:
The mendicant (bhikṣu) dreamt all the one hundred Rudras. Whatever they whose minds are pure and unobscured by impurities imagine or will-into-being, that alone they experience as being real. Whatever thought-form thus arises in the one infinite consciousness appears to be so.
RĀMA asked again:
Why is it, O sage, that lord Śiva chose to appear as one unclad, inhabiting the cremation ground, garlanded with human skulls, smeared with ashes and as one who is easily overcome by lust?
VASIṢṬHA replied: The conduct of the gods, the perfected beings, the liberated sages is not determined by rules and codes of conduct – these are invented by ignorant people. Yet, since the mind of the ignorant is heavily conditioned, if they are not governed by such rules of conduct, there will then arise disorder in which the big fish will eat the small fish. The man of wisdom, on the other hand, does not drown himself in what is desirable and what is undesirable because he has his senses naturally in control and because he is awake and alert. He lives and works without intending to do so, without reacting to events on a causal basis, his actions being pure and spontaneous (as the cocoanut falling, without any causal relation with the alighting of the crow on it); or he may not do anything at all!
Thus have even the members of the trinity (Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva) engaged themselves in incarnation. In the case of the enlightened ones, their actions are beyond praise and reproach, beyond acceptance and rejection, for they have no notion of “This is mine” and “This is other”. Their actions are pure like the heat of fire.
I did not wish to elaborate on the other form of mouna, known as the silence of the disembodied, for you are still embodied. However, I shall briefly describe it now. They who are fully awakened and who are constantly engaged in samādhi and who are thoroughly enlightened are known as sāṁkhya-yogis. They who have reached the state of bodiless consciousness through prāṇāyāma, etc., are known as yoga-yogis. Indeed, the two are essentially the same. The cause of this world-appearance and bondage is indeed the mind. Both these paths lead to the cessation of the mind. Hence, by the devoted and dedicated practice of either the cessation of the movement of prāṇa or the cessation of thought, liberation is attained. This is the essence of all scriptures dealing with liberation.