Vasishṭha Karāla Janaka Saṃvāda (Brahma Purāṇa)

This dialogue is in the Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 241 to 245. It takes place in the royal assembly of king Karāla Janaka. Vasishṭha Maharshi teaches the king the whole Sāṃkhya-Yoga path. He names the twenty-four tattvas (the basic principles of the world), then the twenty-fifth, then the twenty-sixth. He describes three states of the seeker: the unawakened, the awakening and the fully awakened. He ends with the line of teachers who handed this vidyā (knowledge) down, and with strict rules for who may receive it.

Setting

The dialogue (saṃvāda) is held in the royal sabhā (assembly hall) of king Karāla Janaka. Janaka belongs to the old line of Janakas of Videha, a line that has always been linked with deep inquiry. He asks about the kshara (what is perishable and changing) and the akshara (what is imperishable and unchanging), and how they are related. Vasishṭha answers with a full teaching.

The narrator, Vyāsa, received this teaching from Nārada. Nārada received it from Vasishṭha. Vasishṭha received it from Hiraṇya-garbha Brahmā himself. This makes it one of the oldest teachings of its kind that has been handed down.

The twenty-four tattvas

Vasishṭha starts by naming the twenty-four tattvas of aparā-prakṛti, the lower nature. This is the field of what perishes and shows itself in the world.

1. Mūla-prakṛti: the first nature, without form, the unmanifest ground.
2. Mahat: the cosmic intelligence (buddhi-tattva at the level of the whole universe).
3. Ahaṃkāra: the principle of “I”, which makes each being separate.
4. Five tanmātras: śabda (sound), sparśa (touch), rūpa (form), rasa (taste), gandha (smell). These are the fine seeds of the elements.
5. Manas: the mind that joins and directs the senses.
6. Five jñānendriyas: the five organs of knowing, which are the ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose.
7. Five karmendriyas: the five organs of action, which are speech, hands, feet, the organ of birth and the organ of waste.
8. Five sthūla-bhūtas: the gross elements, ākāśa (space), vāyu (air), agni (fire), jala (water) and pṛthivī (earth).

Together these twenty-four make up the whole field of aparā-prakṛti. All of it is kshara: shown, perishable, and subject to making and unmaking. (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 241)

The twenty-fifth tattva: the unmanifest Paramātman

Beyond the twenty-four is the twenty-fifth. It is the avyakta (unmanifest) Paramātman, nirguṇa (beyond the three guṇas). It is pure witnessing awareness, and it is the adhishṭhāna (ground) of all the twenty-four.

It is described in this way:

• It lives in the hṛdaya-ākāśa, the space of the heart, of all beings.
• It is akshara, imperishable.
• It is nirguṇa, beyond the three guṇas.
• It is advaita, without a second.
• It is the source from which the five stages of srishṭi (creation) go forth.

The five stages of srishṭi are:

1. From Paramātman alone, before anything is shown.
2. Hiraṇya-garbha, the cosmic power of creation.
3. Sūkshma-bhūta-srishṭi, the making of the fine elements.
4. Bhūta-vaikṛta, the change of the fine elements.
5. Bhautika-loka-srishṭi, the making of the gross worlds.

In the budhyamāna (awakening) state the twenty-fifth tattva appears saguṇa (with qualities). This is because the seeker who is not yet free still puts the guṇas onto the pure Paramātman. Only in pratibodha (full realisation) does the seeker see the twenty-fifth as it is: wholly nirguṇa, wholly beyond the laws of making and unmaking. (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 241 to 243)

The twenty-sixth tattva: the pure jñānātman

Beyond even the twenty-fifth is the twenty-sixth. It is the vimuktātman (the freed ātmā), the śuci (pure), the kevala (alone). This is not a “higher tattva” in the sense of one more kind of thing. It is the knowing of what was always so. The jīva (the living being), in its true svarūpa (own form), is pure jñāna (knowledge). It is beyond kshara and akshara as they are usually understood. It is beyond bondage and moksha as events. It is beyond the world of twenty-four tattvas, and even beyond the role of the twenty-fifth as witness.

Vasishṭha says that one who knows the twenty-fifth tattva, the unmanifest nirguṇa witness (sākshi), and through that knowledge arrives at the twenty-sixth, the pure jñānātman, reaches a state free from old age and death, the state of sameness (samatā). The twenty-sixth is:

• vimala, spotless
• buddha, fully awake
• jñānātmaka, of the very nature of jñāna
• aprameya, beyond all measure
• sanātana, without beginning
• śāśvata, eternal

(Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 244 and 245)

The three states of the seeker

The teaching is built on three states. Every jīva passes through them on the road from saṃsāra to moksha.

Apratibuddha, the unawakened

The apratibuddha is the ordinary jīva in saṃsāra. He thinks he is the body, the mind, his place in society, and the pleasures and pains of the world. He is like a fish that cannot imagine life outside water and fears the very shore. He is wrapped in aparā-prakṛti and takes it for the whole of reality. The twenty-fifth tattva cannot be seen by him. Through ahaṃkāra (the sense of “I”) and mamakāra (the sense of “mine”) he goes through birth and death. He gathers karma and does not know his akshara svarūpa, his imperishable own form. (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 242 and 243)

Budhyamāna, the awakening one

The budhyamāna is the seeker who has woken enough to listen, to ask and to begin to tell things apart. He has not yet come to the full vision. In this state śravaṇa (hearing), manana (reflection) and nididhyāsana (deep meditation) are at work. He begins to see through the twenty-four tattvas. But he still sees the twenty-fifth as saguṇa, because the veil of avidyā (ignorance) has not yet been fully removed.

Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 7 teaches that parā-prakṛti, the jīvabhūtā (living awareness), is the higher nature. It teaches that aparā-prakṛti, the eight tattvas, is the lower nature. It says that Kṛshṇa is the yoni (source) of both. This teaching belongs to this stage of understanding. (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 243)

Pratibuddha, the fully awakened

The pratibuddha has come to full realisation. He sees the twenty-fifth tattva as truly nirguṇa. He knows the twenty-sixth as his own svarūpa. For him, bondage and moksha are no longer events that happen to him. They are ideas that belong only to the view of avidyā.

The pratibuddha is like fire without smoke, like the sun without clouds, like lightning in a clear sky. He is pure shining awareness with nothing to cover it. He is kshara, because he appears in the world as a being who shows himself. He is akshara, because in paramārtha (the highest truth) he was never bound. But in the deepest truth he is neither, since both names belong to the frame of twenty-four tattvas, which he has gone beyond. (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 243 to 245)

The play of the Unborn

Chapter 245 is called Ajasya api vikriyayā. It takes up the question of the twenty-fifth tattva, the unmanifest Paramātman, who is aja, birthless and unborn. Through his own play (krīḍā) he gives the look of vikāra (change). The twenty-four tattvas seem to rise from him, and the whole show of saṃsāra goes on. The budhyamāna, even when told that the twenty-fifth is nirguṇa, still sees it as saguṇa and puts the work of creation onto it.

Only when the jīva, by steady viveka (discernment), fully knows the nirguṇa svarūpa of the twenty-fifth tattva, and so arrives at the twenty-sixth, does the play stop binding him. Then the jīva sees that aparā-prakṛti is jaḍa (without awareness) and nirguṇa by its own nature. It only seems saguṇa because the caitanya (awareness) of the twenty-fifth tattva lights it up. The abhimāna (self-identification) of the twenty-fifth in aparā-prakṛti, its taking itself to be the twenty-four tattvas, was the root of saṃsāra. The removal of that abhimāna is moksha. (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 245)

Who may receive this teaching

Vasishṭha ends with exact rules for passing on this vidyā. It may be given only to one who:

• has śraddhā (true faith) in the Veda and śāstra
• has sadguṇas (good qualities) and does not speak ill of others
• has viveka-śīla (a discerning nature)
• is vinaya-yukta (humble in manner)
• does not take part in hetuvidā (pure argument against śāstra)
• has heard many śāstras from senior teachers
• does not take part in vāda (debate for sport)

It must not be given to liars, to deceivers, to those with kuhana (hypocrisy), to those who insult paṇḍitas, to nāstikas (those who deny the Veda), or to those who have no śraddhā. Even if an unfit person offers the whole earth as payment, the vidyā must not be taught to him. Giving to the unfit (apātra-dāna) brings no śreyas (good) even to the giver. (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 245)

The line of teachers

Vasishṭha names the paramparā (line of transmission) of this teaching:

• Hiraṇya-garbha Brahmā was the first to receive this vidyā, from Sanātana Paramātman.
• Vasishṭha received it from Hiraṇya-garbha, by his grace.
• Nārada received it from Vasishṭha.
• Vyāsa received it from Nārada.
• The ṛshis at Naimiśāraṇya received it from Vyāsa. This was the occasion of the telling of the Brahma Purāṇa.

This line shows the teaching as unbroken, going back to Brahmā’s own direct realisation. (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 245)

Sāṃkhya and Yoga

Vasishṭha states that Sāṃkhya and Yoga are not two separate systems. They are two ways of the same inquiry. He says: “Sāṃkhyam eva yoga, yogam eva sāṃkhyam.”

Sāṃkhya goes by naming and viveka. It clearly tells apart and names all twenty-four tattvas, then the twenty-fifth, then the twenty-sixth, and it points to the goal by exact analysis. Yoga goes by direct practice: prāṇāyāma (breath control), dhāraṇā (holding the mind steady) and dhyāna (meditation). It gives the budhyamāna a lived way, based on direct experience (anubhava), to the same realisation. Both end at Nārāyaṇa as the akshara, dhruva (fixed), sanātana Brahma-tattva. (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 241 to 245)

Sources

• Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 241 to 245
• Bhagavad Gītā, Chapter 7 (named for the teaching of parā-prakṛti and aparā-prakṛti)