Laghu YOGA VASISHTHA - HolyBooks.com

LAGHU YOGA VASISTHA
more durable than iron itself. Iron chains wear out
in a length of time, but the desires which prevail
grow more and more. The breaking loose of the
elephant from its strong bonds stands for your late
relinquishment of all desires and going into the
forest. The fall of the driver from the howdah
represents the destruction of your Ajnana through
your Vairaggya. If once we free ourselves from
desires, shall Ajnana and the necessity for re-births
exist?
If the delusion of wealth is abandoned through
sheer asceticism, Ajnana will only be hovering
about like a ghost in a tree when it is being felled.
But if the delusion of wealth be destroyed through
the action of Viveka, then Ajnana will take its flight
like a ghost from a tree already felled. With the
relinquishment of Ajnana, all its retinue will bid
adieu. As soon as you reached this forest, all your
Ajnana was levelled to the ground like nests of
birds in a felled tree. But you did not chop off the
Ajnana with the sharp sword by uninterrupted
renunciation of all. Inasmuch as you did not do so,
you again began to groan under the pains arising
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