The Yoga-Vasistha is a popular text on Advaita Vedanta, though it is more like the puranas in form and style. It is greatly valued for the wisdom it contains and enjoys a popularity rivalled only by the Bhagavadgita and Srimadbhagavatam.
The work is in the form of a dialogue between Sri Rama and the sage Vasistha and covers a variety of subjects including the philosophical problems of life, death, human suffering and final release.
It is also known as Arsaramayana, Jnana Vasistha, Maharamayana, Vasistha Ramayana or merely Vasistha and is traditionally ascribed to the sage Valmiki. This extensive philosophical poem contains as many as 23, 734 verses characterized by exquisite poetic qualities.
This work is divided into Six Prakaranas or Sections, Viz., Vairagya, Mumuksu, Utpatti, Sthiti, Upasama, and Nirvana dealing respectively with topics of philosophical importance like indifference to worldly things, longing for liberation, origin of the universe and jiva, preservative aspect of the mind and the universe, quiescence of the mind after its sport in the universe and the final merger into the Absolute. |
