ICEF

Tale 2 · The Vāsiṣṭha Atlas

Śuka and Janaka

Mumukṣu · The Seeker · Mitra II.1 · 1,313 words

He knew already; he needed only to hear it said.

Bhūmikā 5 · Asaṃsakti (non-clinging)MediumYour ally · A Gentle Wind

The essence

Viśvāmitra answers Rāma's lament with a mirror: the story of Śuka, Vyāsa's son, who found the highest truth by his own inquiry and still could not rest in it. Śuka discounts his father's explanation as something he already knows, so Vyāsa, declaring that he knows no better, sends him to King Janaka. Janaka leaves him three weeks at the gate, in the outer court and in the inner apartments, first ignored, then surrounded by food, perfume and women; Śuka's mind stays 'firm as a rock at the blasts of wind'. Only then does the king rise, bow, and repeat the very teaching Śuka already holds, adding that he has gone beyond both his father and Janaka himself. That confirmation ends the doubt: Śuka falls silent, withdraws to Meru and merges in the supreme. The tale locates the missing step between insight and peace: a stability tested under provocation, and a knowledge recognised and ratified by a living witness who embodies it.

What it teaches

  1. 01

    Knowing is not the same as resting: Śuka 'obtained the highest truth' yet 'could not come to the belief of the certainty of his knowledge' (II.1.11); certainty is a separate event from insight.

  2. 02

    A teacher who cannot be heard can still serve by referring: Vyāsa, seeing that his son discounts him, says he knows no better and sends him to Janaka (II.1.17–18), putting the outcome above his own authority.

  3. 03

    Stability is demonstrated, not claimed: Janaka tests Śuka with three weeks of neglect and then indulgence, and acknowledges him only after his mind stays 'firm as a rock at the blasts of wind' (II.1.25).

  4. 04

    What heals here is recognition, not new content: Janaka repeats exactly what Śuka already knows, and the doubt dissolves because a free person confirms it (II.1.30–41).

  5. 05

    Once doubt ends, effort ends: Śuka is 'released from all efforts, exertions and doubts' (II.1.43); the sign of completion is the cessation of seeking.

The Vāsiṣṭha Atlas

This tale’s coordinates

The wound and its virtue

Śuka holds the highest truth yet 'was still unsettled in his mind' (II.1.11), oscillating between clarity and doubt and discounting even his father's answer until a living witness recognises what he knows. Janaka's ratification, 'There is nothing more certain … than what you have known by yourself' (II.1.35), lets him rest in Ease, released from all efforts, exertions and doubts (II.1.43).

What it trains

Three weeks of neglect and then of indulgence leave his mind 'firm as a rock at the blasts of wind' (II.1.25): one coherent state across deprivation and pleasure, neither numbed nor overwhelmed.

In other yogas

  • Bhagavad Gītā · BG 2.56; 3.20

    The Gītā's sage of steady wisdom is unshaken in sorrow and free of craving in pleasure (BG 2.56), the very profile Janaka tests in Śuka; and the Gītā names Janaka himself as one who reached perfection through action (BG 3.20).

  • Patañjali · Yoga Sūtra · YS 1.15

    Patañjali defines dispassion as mastery in one free of thirst for objects seen or heard of; Janaka's food, perfumes and company are a living examination of that definition (II.1.21–27).

  • Buddhist absorption · SN 56.11

    The Buddha's first discourse closes on the certainty 'unshakeable is my release' (own translation): the settled knowing Śuka had in content but not in confidence, and which Janaka's word completes (II.1.35).

IEAF: Integrative Emotional Alchemy Framework (Gallardo, Frontiers in Psychology, 2026). FP20: the Fundamental Peace Scale. ITM: the Integrative Transformation Model. Parallels in other yogas are contemplative correspondences, not claims of influence.

The tale

Rāma had finished his lament, and Viśvāmitra, seated before him, answered tenderly. Rāma had nothing left to learn, he said: his understanding was a clear mirror, and his questions were only the polishing of it, so that it could reflect light to others. His case was exactly that of Śuka, son of Vyāsa, the sage who was at that very moment sitting beside Daśaratha on a seat of gold, dark as a coal-black hill and blazing like the sun.

Śuka, a boy of great learning with a moon-like face, had reflected on the vanity of the world as Rāma had, and had grown indifferent to it. His own discriminating mind led him through a long inquiry, until by his own investigation he found what was true. Yet having found the highest truth, he could not settle; he could not believe in the certainty of what he knew. Like the chātaka bird that drinks only falling rain, he thirsted for heavenly bliss.

One day, finding his father sitting quietly alone, he asked him where this commotion of the world came from, how it subsides, what causes it, how far it extends and where it ends. Vyāsa explained everything clearly. Śuka, thinking he knew all this already, gave the instruction little weight. Vyāsa read the thought in his son's mind and answered that he himself knew no better, but that there was a king named Janaka who knew the knowable, and from him Śuka could learn everything.

Śuka went to Janaka's city of Videha at the foot of Meru. The doorkeeper told the king that the son of Vyāsa was waiting at the gate. Janaka, understanding why he had come, paid no heed and kept silent for seven days. Then he had Śuka brought into the outer court, where he waited in vexation of spirit seven days more. Then Śuka was taken into the inner apartments, and waited a third week without seeing the king, entertained there with abundant food, perfumes and lusty damsels. Neither the vexation nor the entertainment moved him. His mind stood firm as a rock in the wind; like the full moon it neither waned nor grew; he remained tranquil, silent and content.

Knowing now the unalterable disposition of his mind, Janaka had him brought into his presence, and on seeing his composure rose and bowed down to him. You have accomplished everything, the king said, and obtained your heart's desire to the utmost; what do you want now? Śuka asked him the same question he had asked his father. Janaka answered with the same teaching Śuka had heard from Vyāsa. Śuka replied: I knew this long ago, by intuition and from my father; you say the same, and so do the scriptures, that the world is a creation of volition and vanishes when desire is absent. Now tell me truly what you think this world is, so that my mind may stop wandering.

Janaka answered that nothing was more certain than what Śuka had known by himself and heard from his father. There is one undivided intelligent spirit and nothing else; it is confined by its desires and freed by their absence. Śuka had truly known the knowable. He must be a hero to have overcome desire from his early youth. Even his father, with all his learning and austerity, had not reached such perfection; Janaka was Vyāsa's pupil and Śuka was Vyāsa's son, but Śuka was greater than both. Taking no interest in the visible world, he was already free and had nothing left to doubt.

Śuka fell silent, his mind fixed on the supreme. Free of sorrow and fear, released from all efforts, exertions and doubts, he went to a peaceful summit of Meru, remained there ten thousand years in unalterable meditation, and at last left his body and was extinguished in the supreme soul like a lamp without oil, as a drop of water merges into the depth of the ocean.

The text speaks

Passages from Mitra’s translation (1891–99), cited by book, chapter and verse.

“Thou hast a mind like that of Suka—the son of the great Vyása, who knowing the knowable by intuition, was yet in need of some precepts for confirmation of his belief.”
II.1.4Viśvāmitra frames the tale as a mirror of Rāma and names its theme: confirmation, not new knowledge.
“Having obtained the highest truth, he was still unsettled in his mind, and could not come to the belief of the certainty of his knowledge.”
II.1.11The precise problem: insight without settledness.
“Vyása understanding the thoughts of his son, replied to him saying that, he knew no better the true nature of these things.”
II.1.17The teacher reads the student's discounting and steps aside instead of insisting.
“But neither those vexations nor these entertainments could affect the tenor of Suka’s mind, which remained firm as a rock at the blasts of wind.”
II.1.25The test result: the state holds under both deprivation and temptation.
“There is nothing more certain, O sage! than what you have known by yourself and heard from your father. 36. “There is but one undivided intelligent spirit known as the universal soul and nothing besides; it becomes confined by its desires, and freed by its want of them.”
II.1.35–36The ratification itself: Janaka adds nothing, he certifies what Śuka already holds.
“Then being devoid of sorrow and fear, and released from all efforts, exertions and doubts, he repaired to a peaceful summit of the mount Meru to obtain his final absorption.”
II.1.43The effect of confirmation: doubt and effort fall away together.

What the trance sees

TEST

Trance testing / ratification

II.1.21–27; II.1.30–41

In the textJanaka keeps Śuka seven days at the gate, seven in the outer court and seven in the inner apartments, then plies him with 'eatables, perfumeries and lusty damsels'; only after 'having thus known the (unalterable) disposition of Suka's mind' does he receive him. He then repeats Śuka's own knowledge back and declares, 'There is nothing more certain'.

In the clinicRatification of a state before naming it (Erickson & Rossi 1979): the stability of a change is first demonstrated under challenge, then verbally confirmed so that the client recognises it as his own. Here the challenge runs in both directions, deprivation and temptation.

EGO

Ego-strengthening / resourcing

II.1.38–41

In the text'You must be a hero to have overcome your desire ... Even your father ... has not arrived to the state of perfection like you ... you are greater than both of us'; 'you are liberated from it, and have nothing to doubt of.'

In the clinicEgo-strengthening (Hartland 1971) of a specific kind: it installs nothing new but affirms a resource the client already possesses, which is what converts private insight into confident possession.

CAT

Catalepsy

II.1.42–44

In the textŚuka 'remained silent with his mind fixed in the purely supreme object', then 'passed ten thousands of rains in a state of unalterable meditation, till at last he broke his mortal coil'.

In the clinicCatalepsy and prolonged immobile absorption, a classical marker of deep trance, here pushed to its mythic limit: a state that, once confirmed, needs no further effort to maintain.

Read upward — stage 1 at the bottom, stage 7 at the top

  3. Integration zone
    Post-trance integration — sustained non-reactivity carried into behaviour; what was seen in depth becomes how one lives.

A note on what this map claims. The alignment between stages of knowledge and trance depths is a clinical map — a heuristic correspondence proposed for research, not a claim of identity between contemplative attainment and hypnotic depth.

Bhūmikā 5 · Asaṃsakti

Śuka already has the knowledge (II.1.10) and in Janaka's palace shows non-clinging under provocation, 'firm as a rock' amid pleasures and vexations (II.1.25–26); Janaka confirms 'as you take no interest in the outer and visible world, you are liberated from it' (II.1.41): asaṃsakti, with the coda pointing to turyagā (II.1.44–45).

Zone · Medium

The decisive event, hearing one's own knowledge confirmed, needs absorption with full receptivity to speech, the medium range; Śuka's ten-thousand-year meditation is a plenary image, not the working state of the tale.

In Mitra’s words

In Calcutta in the 1890s, the translator chose the vocabulary of hypnotism to name these states. More →

  • mind fixedBeing thus advised by the magnanimous Janaka, Suka remained silent with his mind fixed in the purely supreme object.II.1.42
  • final absorptionThen being devoid of sorrow and fear, and released from all efforts, exertions and doubts, he repaired to a peaceful summit of the mount Meru to obtain his final absorption.II.1.43
  • unalterable meditationThere he passed ten thousands of rains in a state of unalterable meditation, till at last he broke his mortal coil, and was extinguished in the supreme soul like a lamp without oil.II.1.44

In the therapy room

Indications

  • Clients who understand their situation clearly but cannot trust or rest in their understanding
  • Consolidating gains at the end of therapy: ratifying change before discharge
  • Spiritual practitioners with intellectual insight but persistent doubt
  • Students or professionals who discount their first teacher or parent and need a credible external witness
  • Impatience and need for immediate validation (the three weeks of waiting as a frame)

Cautions

  • Withholding, delay and temptation are not to be imitated as therapeutic technique; in a clinic they will be experienced as rejection or manipulation
  • Ratification must be honest: confirming what the client does not actually hold is flattery and can inflate grandiosity
  • The coda (leaving the body after long meditation) must not be literalised as an ideal of withdrawal from life, especially with depressed or dissociative clients
  • Comparisons that place the client above parents and teachers (II.1.39–40) can feed narcissistic defences; use them sparingly
From the bookThe full clinical note

Indications. Clients who understand their situation clearly but cannot trust or rest in their understanding; consolidation at the end of therapy, ratifying change before discharge; spiritual practitioners with intellectual insight and persistent doubt; students or professionals who discount a first teacher or parent and need a credible external witness; impatience and the need for immediate validation, for which the three weeks provide a frame.

How to use it. As metaphor, the tale tells the client that what he lacks is not knowledge but confirmation, and that this is a legitimate need. As protocol, at the close of a course of work, invite the client in trance to recall the challenges he has met since the change, aversive and tempting, and to notice that the change held; then state, in his own words, what he already knows, and let him hear it from you. Vyāsa's referral is also a model for the clinician: if a client cannot hear you, refer him to someone he can.

Cautions. Withholding, delay and temptation are not to be imitated as therapeutic technique; in a clinic they will be experienced as rejection or manipulation. The test belongs in the client's life and memory, not in the therapist's conduct. Ratification must be honest: confirming what the client does not actually hold is flattery and can inflate grandiosity. Comparisons that place the client above parents and teachers (II.1.39–40) can feed narcissistic defences; use them sparingly, and remember that Janaka also honours the father as a source (II.1.35). The coda, leaving the body after long meditation, must never be presented as an ideal of withdrawal from life, especially to depressed or dissociative clients.

The practice

The Living Witness: ratifying an insight you already hold

  1. Bring to mind something you already know to be true about your life but cannot rest in (II.1.10–11).
  2. Notice the restlessness that keeps asking, like the chātaka bird that will drink only rain, and let it be present without acting on it (II.1.12).
  3. Pass three gates: wait at the gate, in the outer court, in the inner rooms. At each, breathe out impatience and let the waiting itself deepen the stillness (II.1.21–23).
  4. Let pleasant distractions appear (food, scent, company) and pass by without being refused or pursued; feel the mind 'firm as a rock at the blasts of wind', full as the full moon (II.1.24–26).
  5. Enter the presence of someone who embodies freedom. See them rise and bow, and hear your own insight spoken back to you, unchanged: 'There is nothing more certain' (II.1.27; II.1.35).
  6. Let the doubt fall away and rest in the silence that follows, with nothing more to seek (II.1.42–43).
  7. Anchor the state: a gesture or word that will recall this settledness when doubt returns.
  8. Re-alert: return through the three gates in reverse, open the eyes, and say the insight aloud once, in your own words.

Practise with a qualified professional if you have a history of dissociation, trauma or psychosis.

From the book · to be read aloudThe full guided script

The Living Witness

Read slowly, aloud; about fifteen minutes. Sit upright.

Before you begin. This practice ratifies something you already know; it does not create new beliefs. Choose an insight that is genuinely yours and that has been tested by your life. If you live with a psychotic or dissociative illness or with severe depression, practise only with a clinician. Never practise while driving, operating anything, or in or near water.

How to return at any moment. Open your eyes, feel your feet on the floor, and say your name and the date aloud.

Sit, and let the breath slow by itself.

Bring to mind something you already know to be true about your life. Not a hope: something you have found out, by your own looking, and still cannot quite rest in.

Notice the restlessness around it, the part of you that keeps asking, like the bird that will drink only rain. Let it be here. You do not have to answer it yet.

Now you are standing at a gate. No one comes. Breathe out the impatience. Let the waiting itself make you still.

The gate opens onto an outer court. Again no one comes. Breathe out. Each breath a little slower.

Now an inner room. Pleasant things appear: good food, a sweet scent, warm company. Let them be there. You do not refuse them. You do not reach for them. The mind stays where it is, a rock in the wind, the full moon neither growing nor waning.

A door opens. Someone who lives in freedom, someone you would believe, rises when they see you, and bows. They ask what you want. You tell them your question. And they answer you with what you already knew, in almost your own words. Then they say: There is nothing more certain than what you have known by yourself.

Let that land. Let the asking stop. Rest in the quiet that comes when there is nothing left to seek.

Choose a small gesture, touching thumb to forefinger, or a single word, and let it hold this settledness, so that you can find it again when doubt returns.

(Silence: one to two minutes.)

Now come back through the three rooms: the inner room, the outer court, the gate.

I will count from one to five, and on five your eyes open.

One. The breath is full and ordinary.

Two. Feel your feet, your hands, your weight on the seat.

Three. The sounds of the room return.

Four. Stretch a little; take one deep breath.

Five. Eyes open. Here. Now. Fully alert.

Say your name aloud, the day and the place, and name three things you can see. Then say the insight aloud once, in your own words. If you feel at all distant, count again and walk a few steps before you go on.

Meta Pets World · Your ally · Meta Pet 57

Śuka at Janaka's gate, and the gentle wind

A Gentle Wind card
57A Gentle WindA gentle wind carries my spirit forward.

A Gentle Wind walks with Śuka because his predicament is Unease: he has found the highest truth and still cannot rest in it. His turning is Intuition, a knowing that holds 'firm as a rock' through neglect and temptation, and his arrival is Clarity, when a free man speaks his own knowledge back to him and the doubt simply stops.

  1. Shadow · what you avoidUnease

    Unease: 'having obtained the highest truth, he was still unsettled in his mind' (II.1.11), so Śuka discounts his own father's answer and keeps asking.

  2. Gift · what is hidden in itIntuition

    Intuition: through three weeks of neglect at the gate and then of food, perfume and company, his mind 'remained firm as a rock at the blasts of wind' (II.1.25); the inner knowing holds without anyone's approval.

  3. Essence · what you embodyClarity

    Clarity: Janaka bows and says, 'There is nothing more certain, O sage! than what you have known by yourself' (II.1.35); Śuka is 'released from all efforts, exertions and doubts' (II.1.43).

A Gentle Wind, and a young sage waiting at a king's gate. You already know more than you trust. Let the wind blow; be the mountain for a breath or two. Then listen.

— Felicia
Today’s contemplation

Which quiet knowing has already been moving your life, like the gentle wind the mountain never noticed, while you waited at the gate for someone to confirm it?

To close the night

Tonight, write one honest sentence about something you already know but have not yet allowed yourself to trust.

The Ally Journey · about 15 minutes

Light trance, eyes open if you prefer. For the full, deeper script, see “The practice” above and its cautions.

  1. Threshold: sit with your back easy and your eyes soft. Take three slow breaths, feeling the air come in like a light wind and leave a little more slowly. This is the Umbral.
  2. The tale in one line: Śuka knows the truth yet cannot rest in it, waits weeks at Janaka's gate unmoved, and is freed when the king says his knowledge back to him (II.1.11; II.1.35).
  3. Meet the card: look at A Gentle Wind for a few breaths. Let your eye drift wherever the picture moves it. Read the affirmation once: A gentle wind carries my spirit forward.
  4. Shadow: where this week did you ask again for reassurance about something you already knew? Recall one message, search or conversation, and the small restlessness that sent you there.
  5. Gift: picture three gates. At each, breathe out a little impatience. Let one pleasant distraction drift past without chasing or refusing it. Feel yourself steady, like rock in the wind (II.1.25).
  6. Essence: now say your quiet knowing silently, in your own words, as if a kind and free person were saying it back to you. For three breaths, repeat the affirmation and rest.
  7. Return: walk back through the three gates. Press your feet into the floor, open and close your hands, open your eyes fully and look around. Write tonight's honest line.
Open the card in Meta Pets World Alchemical Journey in the app Begin a 30-day Bond The card on this siteVisit Branwen All sixty-four allies →

The 30-day Bond

The gentle wind of what you already know is moving your mountain today: where did you notice it, and where did you go on asking?

The Sister · Branwen

Welsh · Snowdonia, Wales · Bendith — Bendith

Visit Branwen, the Welsh bardic poet of Snowdonia, whose craft is to speak back to a people what they already carry, as Janaka did for Śuka; her mantra, Bendith, is simply a blessing.

Guided Meditation

#57 · A Gentle Wind

Voice & guidance: Prof. Luis Miguel GallardoWatch on YouTube (ES also available)
For facilitatorsA session with “Śuka and Janaka” and A Gentle Wind

Aim. To help the person rest in an insight they already hold, by testing its steadiness and then ratifying it honestly, adding nothing new.

ITM 4 Essence Embodiment. Śuka has already found the gift; what he lacks is to live it rather than keep proving it, which is the work of Essence Embodiment.

The session (60–75 min)

  1. Arrival and Umbral: three slow breaths together; ask what the person keeps coming back to ask about (8 min)
  2. Telling the tale: a 4-minute version of Śuka, Vyāsa's referral and the three weeks at Janaka's gate; point to the tale page for the full text (5 min)
  3. The card: show A Gentle Wind, read the affirmation and the koan, and explore the image of the mountain that never noticed (7 min)
  4. Shadow inquiry: map the loop of reassurance, whom they have asked, whose answer they discounted as Śuka discounted his father, and what the asking protects them from (12 min)
  5. Trance practice: The Living Witness, using the full guided script on the tale page at LIGHT to MEDIUM depth; in the ratification step, speak back only the person's own words, unchanged (15 min)
  6. Gift and Essence integration: the person says the insight aloud once in their own words; choose a small gesture or word as an anchor for when doubt returns (12 min)
  7. Closing and Bond: set the 30-day Bond with the koan variation and agree how they will notice the seeking stop (8 min)

Integration questions

  • What did you notice in your body when your own words were spoken back to you without change?
  • Which distraction or delay tested your steadiness most, and what kept you steady?
  • What would you stop doing this week if you trusted what you already know?

In a circle

In a circle, tell the tale and let each person write privately one thing they know but cannot rest in. Lead the Living Witness practice at light depth for everyone together, then work in pairs: one person reads their sentence, and the partner reads it back slowly, word for word, adding nothing, praising nothing. Swap. Gather the circle for a round in which each person says only what changed when they heard their own words in another voice. Remind the group that the point is honest recognition, not approval, and that nobody should be confirmed in more than they said.

Cautions

  • Do not imitate Janaka's withholding, delay or temptation as technique; in a session they are experienced as rejection or manipulation.
  • Ratify only what the person actually holds; confirming more is flattery and can inflate grandiosity.
  • Do not present Śuka's leaving the body as an ideal of withdrawal from life, especially with depressed or dissociative clients.
  • Avoid comparisons that place the person above parents and teachers; they can feed narcissistic defences.

Training and certification in the Meta Pets Method: metapetsworld.org/facilitators ↗

The correspondence between tales and Meta Pets is contemplative: the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha does not contain the Meta Pets; each tale enacts its ally’s arc. Felicia is an artificial-intelligence companion; her words are contemplative reflections, not clinical advice.

The song

From the cycle The Sixty-Four Tales

Nothing More Certain

Tat tvam asi

Title: Nothing More Certain Título: Nada más cierto

Figure — Śuka, son of Vyāsa, who knew already, and King Janaka of Videha, who said it back to him.

Where in the text — Book II (Mumukṣu Prakaraṇa), Mitra chapter 1.

Hypnotic phenomenon the song enacts — TEST and EGO: the voice holds one state through three pressures (silence, a vexing drone, a sweet texture it will not follow), and is then ratified by repetition, as a second voice sings its first line back on the same melody, unchanged.

Mantra — Tat tvam asi (तत् त्वम् असि). Source: Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8.7 (Uddālaka to his son Śvetaketu, repeated through 6.16). Meaning: "That thou art": the oldest Upaniṣadic form of a teacher confirming to a student what he already is.

Lyrics (English)

Performance: three verses, one for each week, seven bars each: the first against silence, the second against a low drone, the third against flute and hand drum that the voice does not follow. Janaka is a second, lower voice heard only in the bridge, and his first two lines are Śuka's first two lines, note for note.

Verse 1 — Śuka, at the gate (silence) The world is made of wanting, and it goes when wanting goes. I found that on my own, and still I could not rest in what I knew. My father said, "I know no better. Go to Janaka." Seven days I waited at the gate. The king said nothing.

Verse 2 — the outer court (low drone) Seven days in the outer court, the doorkeeper with his club, and still the king said nothing. Like the chātaka I thirsted only for the dew of heaven.

Chorus A rock in the blasts of the wind, a full moon, no wane, no growth; seven days, and seven, and seven, and I am the same as I came.

Verse 3 — the inner rooms (flute and drum; the voice does not follow) Then the inner rooms: food heaped high, perfumes, and women at my side. I did not send them away. I did not follow.

Chorus A rock in the blasts of the wind, a full moon, no wane, no growth; seven days, and seven, and seven, and I am the same as I came.

Bridge (mantra) (Janaka rises and bows; he sings Śuka's first melody) The world is made of wanting, and it goes when wanting goes. There is nothing more certain than what you knew yourself. (second voice, once) Tat tvam asi (That thou art) (the cello holds the note)

Outro (Śuka, then Viśvāmitra to Rāma) I knew it. Now I've heard it said. No sorrow, no fear, nothing left to ask. And there, Rāma, by your father's side, sits Vyāsa on his seat of gold, dark as a coal-black hill and blazing like the sun. Your mind is a clear mirror; your questions only polish it, so its light can reach the rest of us.

Letra (castellano cantable)

Interpretación: tres versos, uno por semana, de siete compases cada uno: el primero contra el silencio, el segundo contra un bordón grave, el tercero contra una flauta y un tambor que la voz no sigue. Janaka es una segunda voz, más grave, que solo suena en el puente; sus dos primeros versos son los dos primeros de Śuka, nota por nota.

Verso 1 — Śuka, a la puerta (silencio) El mundo está hecho de deseo, y se va cuando el deseo se va. Lo hallé yo solo, y aun así no descansaba en lo que sabía. Mi padre dijo: "No sé más que tú. Ve a Janaka." Siete días esperé a la puerta. El rey no dijo nada.

Verso 2 — el patio de fuera (bordón grave) Siete días en el patio de fuera, el portero con su maza, y el rey sin decir nada. Como el chātaka, tenía sed solo del rocío del cielo.

Estribillo Roca ante las ráfagas del viento, luna llena, sin menguar ni crecer; siete días, y siete, y siete, y soy el mismo que llegó.

Verso 3 — las salas de dentro (flauta y tambor; la voz no los sigue) Luego las salas de dentro: manjares a montones, perfumes, y mujeres a mi lado. No las aparté. No las seguí.

Estribillo Roca ante las ráfagas del viento, luna llena, sin menguar ni crecer; siete días, y siete, y siete, y soy el mismo que llegó.

Puente (mantra) (Janaka se levanta y se inclina; canta la primera melodía de Śuka) El mundo está hecho de deseo, y se va cuando el deseo se va. No hay nada más cierto que lo que supiste por ti mismo. (segunda voz, una sola vez) Tat tvam asi (Eso eres tú) (el violonchelo sostiene la nota)

Final (Śuka, luego Viśvāmitra a Rāma) Lo sabía. Ahora lo he oído decir. Sin pena, sin miedo, nada que pedir. Y ahí, Rāma, junto a tu padre, está Vyāsa en su asiento de oro, oscuro como un monte de carbón, ardiendo como el sol. Tu mente es un espejo claro; tus preguntas solo lo pulen, para que su luz nos llegue a los demás.

One line to carry

EN: You knew already. Let someone free say it back. ES: Ya lo sabías. Deja que alguien libre te lo devuelva.

Libreto note

The shortest tale in the cycle, and one every student knows from the inside. Śuka has found the truth by his own inquiry and cannot rest in it. His father, seeing he is not heard, steps aside and sends him to a king. Janaka leaves him seven days at the gate, seven in the outer court, seven among food and perfume and women, and only when the boy stays a rock in the wind does he rise, bow, and say back what Śuka already knew. Nothing new heals here; recognition does. Three verses against three textures the voice will not follow; then a second voice returns the first line unchanged, and one cello holds it.

Source check

Source check (Mitra, Book II)

  1. Seven days at the gate while Janaka "held his silence"; seven more "in the outer compound … in the vexation of his spirit"; a week in the inner apartment with "eatables, perfumeries and lusty damsels"; the club-bearer (door keeper) announcing him: ch. 1, vv. 20–24.
  2. "Firm as a rock at the blasts of wind"; "as the full moon (without any wane or increase)": ch. 1, vv. 25–26.
  3. Śuka "like the Chátaka thirsted only after the dew drops of heavenly bliss"; Vyāsa "knew no better" and sends him to Janaka: ch. 1, vv. 12, 17–18.
  4. "The world is a creation of volition, and loses itself with the absence of our desires"; Janaka: "There is nothing more certain, O sage! than what you have known by yourself"; Janaka "rose up and bowed down to him"; Śuka "devoid of sorrow and fear": ch. 1, vv. 27, 33, 35, 43.
  5. Vyāsa "sitting on his seat of gold by thy father's side, swarthy … like a coal-black hill, but blazing as the burning sun"; Rāma's understanding "clear as the mirror", his queries "the cleansing of the reflector (in order to refract its light to others)": ch. 1, vv. 3, 7.

Read the full text

Source: Vihari-Lala Mitra, The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki (1891–99), public domain.

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luismiguel@shooliniuniversity.comThe FP20 scaleWorld Happiness FoundationORCID 0009-0005-3222-6092

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