Sri Vasishtha narrated the story of King Lavan to young Rama. This story illustrates the strength of the mind to create illusion and separation from Brahman. Everything in this world, including the body, is an illusion. The Atma passes from body to body. Lord Krishna taught that the mind accompanies the Atma to the new body. This is the point Vasishtha is making to young Rama. The mind causes the illusions.
Question 116: The three types of Akasha
Rama asks about the nature and cause of reality that is experienced. The Sage replies, explaining the nature of the three types of akasha.
Question 114: Is the Mind Sentient or Insentient?
Each day we pass through all four states: the waking state, the dream state, the deep sleep state, and the turiya, when the Atma is itself and no object nor ideation. Young Rama asks if this mind – a bundle of thoughts brought across to the new body with the Atman, the Soul – young Rama asks if the mind is sentient or insentient. Is this a question about self awareness? Consider Vasishtha’s response.
Question 113: Ego is the false conviction of a self in a body
The young Rama what is the cause of the illusion and how is it sustained in the akash, the formless?
Question 112: The Form the Mind takes
The young Rama asks “What form the mind takes?”. This leads to a terse reply from the Sage. There is more, when we unpack the terse reply and examine what is involved when the mind perceives illusion, maya.
Question 111: The Mind and Actions – what is distinct?
The young Rama queries the sage who has told that there is no distinction between Brahman and the mind, no distinction between the agent and action. So what is going on, who is the doer, and how does this relate to the Soul and to the All?
Question 109: Meditation is better than knowledge:
It behooves the young Rama to seek the distinction between that which is seen outwardly, and that which is known inwardly. Steadiness in meditation and action is ever a virtue to be acquired. Preferably when one is young. It is hard, hard, hard, to still the mind in the later years.
Question 108: ‘I am’ and how illusion arises:
The experience of the universe arises due to the modifications in the individual consciousness based in Pure Consciousness, and this universe is cognised as real due to the illusion that arises therefrom.
Question 106: Consciousness and the nature of illusion
What is the individual consciousness and how does it arise?
Question 105: Destiny and the Great Goals of Life (Purusharthas)
What is the difference between destiny and the goals of life? It matters much to what purpose the mind is put. The key is in the heart; turn it towards the world, the world and maya will cause loss. Turn the key in the heart towards the Divine, and everything is gained; that which is known, by which all things in this world are known. That is the goal, the difference between daiva and purushartha.