ICEF

Tale 48 · The Vāsiṣṭha Atlas

Manki the Pious Brahmin

Nirvāṇa · second half · Mitra VI.2.23–26 · 6,306 words

Tired of holy places, the pilgrim sheds his seeking like a skin.

Bhūmikā 5 · Asaṃsakti (non-clinging)SomnambulisticYour ally · Returning to the One

The essence

Crossing a burning desert on his way to King Aja, Vasiṣṭha overtakes a weary traveller who is cursing the sun and heading for a hamlet to rest. Vasiṣṭha stops him. Whoever has found no rest among men will not find it there, he says, for brine does not quench thirst. The traveller is Manki, a brahmin of Śāṇḍilya's line. After long pilgrimages to holy places he is turning home, yet he recoils from going there, sick of a world in which lives flash past like lightning. Old now, he finds that his pleasures have become pain and his pains pleasure. Vasiṣṭha tells him he is already near the far shore. Then he teaches. There are four roots of evil: consciousness of objects, reflection on them, desire and imagination. Egoism is bondage and its absence is freedom. As shutting the eyelids hides what is visible, closing consciousness hides the world. Manki is freed “as a Snake gets loose from its slough”. He retires to a mountain and remains there a century in meditation, insensible as stone yet awake within.

What it teaches

  1. 01

    Rest sought in the wrong place deepens the thirst: “thirst is not appeased, but increased by a beverage of briny water” (VI.2.23.15). The quick refuge that tempts an exhausted seeker can prolong the very hunger it promises to end.

  2. 02

    Weariness with the search can be a sign of nearness. Vasiṣṭha tells the exhausted pilgrim he has “very nearly got over the ocean of the world” (VI.2.23.39). The same despair is reframed as standing on a threshold.

  3. 03

    In late-life weariness pleasure and pain can trade places: “all pleasures are as painful to me, as my pains have become pleasurable” (VI.2.24.6). The tale treats this inversion as a turning point, not as the end of the road.

  4. 04

    Suffering has a sequence that can be broken at any link: perceiving an object, dwelling on it, desiring it, imagining it (VI.2.25.1).

  5. 05

    Closing the eyelids teaches the whole method. As shutting the eyes removes the visible, “the closing of consciousness, puts out the appearance of all sights and thoughts” (VI.2.26.13–14).

The Vāsiṣṭha Atlas

This tale’s coordinates

The wound and its virtue

Manki crosses the desert complaining that the sun afflicts him like the company of evil men, sick of a world in which his pleasures have turned to pain (VI.2.24.6) and recoiling even from going home: an aversion that leaves him nowhere to rest. Vasiṣṭha meets him with Gentleness, greeting him as a fellow traveller and telling him 'not to be disheartened', since he has 'very nearly got over the ocean of the world' (VI.2.23.39), and Manki is released 'as a Snake gets loose from its slough' (VI.2.26.39).

What it trains

Vasiṣṭha tells him “not to be disheartened at your ignorance” (VI.2.23.39) and reframes exhaustion as nearness to the far shore, a training in kind, non-condemning recognition of one's own state.

In other yogas

  • Buddhist absorption · Snp 1.1

    The refrain of the Uraga Sutta describes the bhikkhu who gives up this shore and the far shore as a snake sheds its worn-out skin. Manki, told he is near the far shore and freed like a snake from its slough, carries both of the sutta's images.

  • Bhagavad Gītā · BG 2.62–63

    The Gītā's chain runs from dwelling on objects to attachment, desire, anger, delusion and ruin. Vasiṣṭha's four roots of evil, consciousness of objects, reflection on them, desire and imagination (VI.2.25.1), are a parallel causal sequence starting from the same place.

  • Patañjali · Yoga Sūtra · YS 2.54

    Patañjali defines pratyāhāra as the senses following the mind as it withdraws from their objects. Vasiṣṭha's model of shutting the eyelids for closing consciousness (VI.2.26.13–14) is that withdrawal, ending in Manki outwardly “insensible as a stone” yet awake within (VI.2.26.41).

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

Vasiṣṭha tells Rāma that, having taught him dispassion, he will now give him the example of Manki, a brahmin praised for his devotion to holy vows. Once, Vasiṣṭha came down from the vault of heaven at the invitation of Rāma's grandfather Aja. Wandering over the earth toward Aja's realm, he came to a vast desert under a burning sun. It was boundless, full of hot sand and grey flying dust, with a few hamlets scattered here and there. In its emptiness and stillness it looked like the immensity of Brahman. With the false waters of its mirages it looked like illusion itself.

On the sand he saw a wayfarer ahead of him, muttering to himself in his weariness. The traveller complained that the sun afflicted him like the company of evil men and seemed to melt the marrow of his bones. He decided to go to the nearby hamlet to rest and recover his strength. The hamlet belonged to the Kirāta people. Vasiṣṭha stopped him. He greeted him as a fellow traveller, good-looking and passionless, and asked how one who had lived so long among men without finding rest could hope to find it in such a place. Thirst is not quenched but increased by brackish water, he said. He went on to describe the villagers harshly, as people without reason who live only for the passing moment, sweet as honey and deadly as poison.

Hearing this, the traveller felt as if he had been bathed in ambrosial showers. Who are you, he asked, so full and perfect in yourself, who look on the world's bustle as a passer-by looks on a village beside the road? Your soul seems void and full at once, still and moving, as the divine spirit is. He then told Vasiṣṭha who he was: Manki, a brahmin of the race of the sage Śāṇḍilya, given to visiting places of pilgrimage. After long journeys he had turned back toward his native home. But his mind was so sick of the world that he hesitated to go back, having seen men's lives pass like flashes of lightning. He begged the sage to remove the error his ignorance had bred in him.

Vasiṣṭha told him his name and errand, and told him not to lose heart. He had already come to the path of wisdom, had nearly crossed the ocean of the world, and possessed the treasure of indifference, for no worldling speaks as he did. As a gem is polished by gentle rubbing, the mind comes to reason as its prejudices are rubbed away. Manki fell at his feet, weeping for joy. He poured out his trouble. Birth and death, pleasure and pain, all end in pain. At his advanced age, with his teeth and hair falling out, his pleasures had become painful and his pains pleasurable. His mind still aspired to higher stations. His desires circled like vultures. He was still in the dark night of egoism.

Vasiṣṭha answered. Consciousness of objects, reflection on them, desire for them and imagination of them are the four roots of evil. Nothing exists but the clear and vacuous intellect, and everything visible is the outspread reflection of inner ideas. Knowing oneself as an ego is bondage, and knowing oneself without ego is release, and both lie in one's own power. Men are carried by desire like straws in an eddy and hurled from precipice to precipice. As opening the eyes brings the visible into view and shutting the eyelids removes it, so the closing of consciousness puts out all sights and thoughts. The wise man sits quiet as a stone and moves like a puppet, as he is moved. He is like a baby swinging in a cradle, empty of desire.

Hearing this, Manki was freed from his great error as a snake slips out of its slough. He went away to a mountain and stayed there in deep meditation for a hundred years, doing the duties that came to him of their own accord, without desire. He lives there still, unmoved and insensible as a stone, callous in all his senses, and awake within by the light of his yoga.

The text speaks

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

“You can have no rest at the abode of the vile people in yonder village, which is mostly peopled by the Pamara villains; thirst is not appeased, but increased by a beverage of briny water.”
VI.2.23.15The interruption that turns Manki aside. It also carries the text's caste contempt, which must be handled with care.
“I tell you sir, not to be disheartened at your ignorance, as you have already come to the path of wisdom, and very nearly got over the ocean of the world, and arrived at the coast of transcendental knowledge.”
VI.2.23.39Ego-strengthening that reframes exhaustion as nearness to the goal.
“O friend! all pleasures are as painful to me, as my pains have become pleasurable at this advanced age of mine; when my teeth and the hairs of my body, are falling off with the decay and wearing out of my internal parts also.”
VI.2.24.6Manki's presenting complaint: in old age, pleasure and pain have changed places.
“Consciousness (of the objects of perception), their reflection, the desire of having them and their imagination, are the four roots of evil in this world”
VI.2.25.1Vasiṣṭha's diagnostic sequence of suffering.
“As the opening of the eyes, presents the visibles to sight; so doth the waking consciousness introduce the ego and phenomenal world into the mind. … And as the shutting of the eyelids, shuts out the view of the visible objects from sight; so, O destroyer of enemies, the closing of consciousness, puts out the appearance of all sights and thoughts from your eyes and mind”
VI.2.26.13–14Eye closure as the bodily model for withdrawing consciousness, the core of an induction.
“The wise man manages himself as a mechanical figure or puppet, never moving of its own motion but moving as it is moved, and having no impulse of his desire within him, he sits as quiet as a doll without its mobility.”
VI.2.26.32Action experienced as non-volitional.
“Hearing all this, Manki was released from his great error; as a Snake gets loose from its slough by which it has been fast bound.”
VI.2.26.39The moment of release.
“He resides there still, unmoved and insensible as a stone, quite callous in all his senses and feelings, and wakeful with his internal sensibility by the light of his yoga contemplation.”
VI.2.26.41Outward anaesthesia with inner wakefulness: the outcome, sustained for a century.

What the trance sees

RAP

Rapport, pacing and leading; entering the other's world

VI.2.23.8–23

In the textVasiṣṭha falls in with the muttering traveller, greets him as “my fellow traveller on the way”, and speaks to the intention he has just voiced, rest in the hamlet, before redirecting him. Manki “felt himself as glad, as if he was bathed in ambrosial showers”.

In the clinicPacing and leading. The therapist joins the client's current direction and language before redirecting, and the rapport here is confirmed by the client's immediate shift of feeling.

EGO

Ego-strengthening / resourcing

VI.2.23.39–41

In the text“not to be disheartened at your ignorance, as you have already come to the path of wisdom … I see you have come to the possession of the invaluable treasure, of your indifference to worldly matters”.

In the clinicHartland's ego-strengthening: affirming existing resources and progress before any corrective work begins.

IND

Induction

VI.2.26.13–14

In the text“as the shutting of the eyelids, shuts out the view of the visible objects from sight; so … the closing of consciousness, puts out the appearance of all sights and thoughts”.

In the clinicEye-closure induction, in which the physical closing of the eyes serves as both model and trigger for the narrowing and withdrawal of awareness.

DIS

Dissociation

VI.2.26.31–33

In the textThe sage “is no voluntary actor of any act, although he may be physically employed”. He moves “as a mechanical figure or puppet … moving as it is moved”, like “a babe sleeping in a swinging cradle”.

In the clinicThe classic suggestion effect (Weitzenhoffer): suggested actions experienced as happening by themselves. Also ideomotor automatism.

ANA

Analgesia / anaesthesia

VI.2.26.31; VI.2.26.41

In the text“The anaesthetic sage” and Manki “unmoved and insensible as a stone, quite callous in all his senses and feelings, and wakeful with his internal sensibility”.

In the clinicHypnotic anaesthesia with a preserved inner witness, the configuration of Hilgard's (1977) hidden observer.

CAT

Catalepsy

VI.2.26.40–41

In the textHe “remained in his deep meditation for a century of years” and “resides there still, unmoved and insensible as a stone”.

In the clinicCatalepsy and prolonged immobility in deep trance, extended here to a legendary scale.

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

After his release Manki does “the duties that occurred to him of their own accord, without his retaining any desire” (VI.2.26.40) and stays “insensible as a stone … wakeful with his internal sensibility” (VI.2.26.41). This is Manu's fifth stage, “partly waking and partly sleeping” (VI.1.120.3): asaṃsakti.

Zone · Somnambulistic

He is outwardly insensible and inwardly awake, and still performs duties as they arise. Profound analgesia combined with the capacity to act is the profile of somnambulistic trance, which Mitra elsewhere calls “half hypnotism”.

In Mitra’s words

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

  • hypnotismHe who remains insensible and unconscious of every thing, like the empty state of the open sky; arrives by his constant practice to his state of sound sleep or hypnotism without the disturbance of dreams.VI.2.26.24
  • anaestheticThe anaesthetic sage, that is cold-blooded and sober minded as a silent muni, is no voluntary actor of any act, although he may be physically employed in his active dutiesVI.2.26.31
  • insensibleHe resides there still, unmoved and insensible as a stone, quite callous in all his senses and feelings, and wakeful with his internal sensibility by the light of his yoga contemplation.VI.2.26.41

In the therapy room

Indications

  • Seeker fatigue and spiritual bypass: exhaustion after years of retreats, pilgrimages, workshops and teachers.
  • Ambivalence about returning ‘home’, to family, work or ordinary life, after long travel or a long search (VI.2.23.33–34).
  • Late-life weariness, ageing and the inversion of pleasure and pain (VI.2.24.4–6).
  • Burnout, where the client reaches for any nearby relief that only increases the thirst (VI.2.23.15).
  • Teaching an eye-closure induction with a meaningful frame (VI.2.26.13–14).

Cautions

  • Vasiṣṭha's contempt for the Kirāta villagers (VI.2.23.12–22) is caste prejudice and must not be reproduced. Retell the redirection without it.
  • “My pains have become pleasurable” (VI.2.24.6) and world-weariness in an older client may signal depression. Screen before framing them as spiritual maturity.
  • Stone-like insensibility is not a goal for clients with emotional numbing, alexithymia or dissociation.
  • The century-long withdrawal to a mountain should not be offered as a model for clients who are already isolating.
From the bookThe full clinical note

Indications. Seeker fatigue and spiritual bypass: exhaustion after years of retreats, teachers and pilgrimages. Ambivalence about returning home, to family, work or ordinary life, after a long absence or search (23.33–34). Late-life weariness and the inversion of pleasure and pain (24.4–6). Burnout, where the client reaches for any nearby relief that only increases the thirst (23.15). And as a frame for teaching eye closure (26.13–14).

How to use it. Pace before leading; strengthen before correcting. In trance, the four roots make a short protocol: take one current craving and trace it back, object seen, dwelt upon, desired, imagined, and let the client find the link that loosens most easily.

Cautions. The caste contempt of 23.12–22, and Manki's claim of brahmin superiority (24.3), must not be reproduced in any retelling or script; retell the redirection as a turning from brine, not from people. "My pains have become pleasurable" (24.6) and world-weariness in an older client may signal depression: screen for mood disorder, hopelessness and suicidal thinking before framing them as spiritual maturity. Stone-like insensibility is not a goal for clients with emotional numbing, alexithymia or dissociation. The century-long withdrawal to a mountain is not a model for a client who is already isolating.

The practice

The Pilgrim's Return

  1. The desert. Pace the client's weariness: the heat, the long road, the wish to rest anywhere at all (VI.2.23.4–11).
  2. The fellow traveller. A calm figure falls into step beside you and greets you warmly (VI.2.23.13).
  3. Recognition. Hear the words “you have already come to the path of wisdom” (VI.2.23.39), and let the fatigue be felt as nearness to the goal.
  4. The four roots. Follow one current craving back through its links (the object seen, dwelt on, desired, imagined) and notice where the chain can loosen (VI.2.25.1).
  5. The eyelids. Let the eyes close completely and notice the visible world disappear. Let awareness close in the same way to outer sights and thoughts (VI.2.26.13–14).
  6. Shedding the slough. Feel the old identity of ‘the seeker’ loosen and slide off like a snake's skin (VI.2.26.39).
  7. The mountain. Rest with the body as still as stone and the inner light awake (VI.2.26.41).
  8. Return home. Walk down from the mountain and along the last stretch of road to your own door. Feel the feet and the breath, open the eyes, and greet the room.

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 Pilgrim's Return

Read aloud, slowly; about fifteen minutes, seated.

Before you begin. This practice meets weariness and closes the eyes on purpose. If you are low in mood most days, or have thoughts of not wanting to live, bring it to a clinician rather than practising alone. Do not use it alone if you have a dissociative disorder. Never practise while driving, operating anything, or in or near water.

How to return at any moment. Open your eyes, press your feet into the floor, and say where you are.

Let the breath come as it comes.

You are walking a long road in heat. Feel the weariness honestly: the sun on the shoulders, the dry mouth, the wish to rest anywhere at all.

Someone falls into step beside you. Calm. Unhurried. He greets you: may all be well with you, fellow traveller.

And he says, you have already come to the path of wisdom. You have very nearly crossed. Let the tiredness be felt differently now, as the tiredness of someone close to the shore.

Now take one craving you know well. Trace its four roots. The thing seen. The dwelling on it. The wanting. The picture of having it. Notice which link is loosest. Let it loosen.

Now the eyelids. If they are open, let them close slowly. Notice how, as they close, the visible world goes out. Let awareness close the same way, to the sights outside, to the thoughts that follow them. Gently. As if lids were lowering inside, too.

Feel the old identity of the seeker loosen, and slide off, as a snake slips out of a skin it has outgrown.

Rest here, still as a stone, and awake within, a lamp lit inside the stone.

(Silence: one to two minutes.)

Now walk down from the mountain, the last stretch of road, to your own door. Open it.

Feel the feet. Feel the breath. Feel the seat beneath you.

One. The breath full and ordinary.

Two. Hands and feet warm and your own.

Three. Sounds of the room.

Four. Stretch, and lift the head.

Five. Eyes open. Fully alert.

Say your name, the day and the place, and greet the room: name three things you can see. If you feel heavy or far away, stand, walk to the door of the room and back, drink water, and count again from one to five.

Meta Pets World · Your ally · Meta Pet 2

Manki the pilgrim, told he is nearly home

Returning to the One card
02Returning to the OneI return to the wholeness of who I am.

Manki is Dislocation on foot: a weary pilgrim who has visited every holy place, recoils from going home, and will rest anywhere at all. Vasiṣṭha gives him Orientation, the news that he is already near the far shore, and the teaching frees him into Unity, a stillness in which he sheds the seeker's identity like a snake's skin.

  1. Shadow · what you avoidDislocation

    Dislocation is a life turned inside out on the burning sand: “all pleasures are as painful to me, as my pains have become pleasurable at this advanced age of mine” (VI.2.24.6), and the nearest rest only deepens the thirst, like “a beverage of briny water” (VI.2.23.15).

  2. Gift · what is hidden in itOrientation

    Orientation is the fellow traveller's word: “you have already come to the path of wisdom, and very nearly got over the ocean of the world” (VI.2.23.39), followed by the map of the four roots, perceiving, dwelling, desiring, imagining (VI.2.25.1).

  3. Essence · what you embodyUnity

    Unity arrives as release, “as a Snake gets loose from its slough” (VI.2.26.39), and Manki rests on the mountain, still as stone and “wakeful with his internal sensibility by the light of his yoga contemplation” (VI.2.26.41).

Here is Returning to the One, and a tired pilgrim who has seen every holy place and dreads going home. Someone falls into step beside him. You may be closer than you feel.

— Felicia
Today’s contemplation

Before you return to the One, where are you standing: still among the holy places, on the burning sand of weariness, or, as Vasiṣṭha told Manki, nearly at the far shore?

To close the night

Tonight, write one honest sentence about the home, the person or the ordinary life you have been reluctant to return to.

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: three slow breaths, letting the body's tiredness be exactly as it is. Feel the ground under you, the end of a long road.
  2. The tale in one line: in a burning desert, Vasiṣṭha meets the weary pilgrim Manki, who dreads going home, tells him he is nearly across, and frees him like a snake from its skin (VI.2.23–26).
  3. Meet the card: look at the art of Returning to the One and notice where it draws your eye home. Read the affirmation aloud: “I return to the wholeness of who I am.”
  4. Shadow: where did you feel out of place this week, reaching for any quick relief that left you thirstier? Name the place, or the habit, that was your briny water.
  5. Gift: imagine a calm fellow traveller falling into step beside you and saying: “You have already come to the path.” Let your fatigue be felt as nearness, not failure.
  6. Essence: let the eyelids close for three breaths and the visible world rest, then open them softly. On each out-breath say: “I return to the wholeness of who I am.”
  7. Return: picture the last stretch of road to your own door; feel feet and breath, open your eyes fully and greet the room. Write tonight's honest sentence.
Open the card in Meta Pets World Alchemical Journey in the app Begin a 30-day Bond The card on this siteVisit Ananya Mehta All sixty-four allies →

The 30-day Bond

Before you returned to the One, where were you, and which step today already touched the far shore?

The Sister · Ananya Mehta

Indian (Gujarati-Maharashtrian) · Mumbai, India · Asato Mā Sad Gamaya

Visit Ananya Mehta, the clinical psychologist of Mumbai called The Bridge, and walk the last stretch home with her mantra, Asato Mā Sad Gamaya, the pilgrim's prayer to be led from the unreal to the real.

Guided Meditation

#2 · Returning to the One

Voice & guidance: Prof. Luis Miguel GallardoWatch on YouTube (ES also available)
For facilitatorsA session with “Manki the Pious Brahmin” and Returning to the One

Aim. To help a weary seeker reframe exhaustion as nearness to the goal, loosen the chain of craving at one of its four links, and return to ordinary life without the identity of ‘the seeker’.

ITM 5 Transcendent Integration. Manki's freedom is lived in the duties that arise “of their own accord, without desire” (VI.2.26.40), and the pilgrim's return home is the shape of Transcendent Integration.

The session (60–75 min)

  1. Arrival and Umbral: three breaths, pacing the client's weariness; ask how long they have been searching and for what (8 min).
  2. Telling the tale: the four-minute version of the desert meeting, the confession and the teaching, retold without Vasiṣṭha's contempt for the villagers; point to the tale page for the full text (5 min).
  3. The card: show Returning to the One, read Shadow → Gift → Essence and the affirmation; ask where the client feels out of sync with their life (7 min).
  4. Shadow inquiry: follow one present craving back through its four links, the object seen, dwelt on, desired, imagined, and find where the chain could loosen (12 min).
  5. Trance practice: “The Pilgrim's Return”, the full guided script on the tale page, at light to medium depth only, not the stone-like stillness of the tale; the eyelid closing is the heart of it, and the walk home is never skipped (18 min).
  6. Gift and Essence integration: name what ‘home’ means now, and one ordinary duty the client will do this week without the seeker's agenda (12 min).
  7. Closing and Bond: greet the room, re-alert fully and set the 30-day Bond (8 min).

Integration questions

  • What changed in your tiredness when you heard that you had already come to the path?
  • At which of the four links did your craving loosen most easily?
  • What does going home mean for you this week, and what will you do there without needing to seek?

In a circle

For 8–20 people, begin with a slow walk around the room in silence, as pilgrims at the end of a long road, then sit for the tale. In pairs, one partner walks a few steps beside the other and says simply, “You have already come to the path,” then they change roles. Guide “The Pilgrim's Return” at light depth for the whole circle, giving the walk home its full time. Close with each person naming, in a word or two, the home they are returning to, then Ananya's Asato Mā Sad Gamaya and the affirmation spoken together.

Cautions

  • Vasiṣṭha's contempt for the Kirāta villagers is caste prejudice and must not be reproduced; retell the redirection without it.
  • ‘My pains have become pleasurable’ and world-weariness in an older client may signal depression; screen before framing them as spiritual maturity.
  • Stone-like insensibility is not a goal for clients with emotional numbing, alexithymia or dissociation.
  • The century-long withdrawal to a mountain is not a model for clients who are already isolating.

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

The Pilgrim in the Desert

Yadā sarve pramucyante kāmā ye 'sya hṛdi śritāḥ / atha martyo 'mṛto bhavaty atra brahma samaśnute

Título: El peregrino del desierto

Figure — Manki, the weary brahmin pilgrim of Śāṇḍilya's line, and Vasiṣṭha, who overtakes him on the sand

Where in the text — Book VI (second half, Nirvāṇa-prakaraṇa), Mitra chapters 23–26 (VI.2.23–26)

Hypnotic phenomenon the song enacts — RAP leading into IND: the kind voice falls into step with the weary one and speaks to the rest he was about to seek, then leads him to the eye-closure induction of VI.2.26.13–14 (the band drops out as the eyelids close), and the song opens them again on the road.

Mantra — Yadā sarve pramucyante kāmā ye 'sya hṛdi śritāḥ / atha martyo 'mṛto bhavaty atra brahma samaśnute (यदा सर्वे प्रमुच्यन्ते कामा येऽस्य हृदि श्रिताः । अथ मर्त्योऽमृतो भवत्यत्र ब्रह्म समश्नुते ॥) — Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.3.14, also quoted in Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.7, where it is followed at once by the image of a snake's slough lying cast off on an anthill. The bridge sings its last words, atra brahma samaśnute. Meaning: "When all the desires that dwell in the heart are let go, the mortal becomes immortal and reaches Brahman here": the rest Manki was looking for in the wrong hamlet, found where he stands, and shed "as a Snake gets loose from its slough" (VI.2.26.39).

Lyrics (English)

[Performance: two voices. Manki is dry and weary; Vasiṣṭha is low and warm, and falls into Manki's rhythm before he changes it. The slide guitar is the heat. In the bridge the four roots get one bar each; on the fourth the band drops out and only the drone is left: the eyes are closed. The slide comes back in the outro.]

Verse 1 — Manki Sand to the edge of the sky, grey dust flying, water on the sand that isn't water. The sun pours fire like the company of cruel men, melting the marrow in my bones. There's a hamlet. I'll rest there a while, get my strength, go on.

Verse 2 — Vasiṣṭha, then Manki Peace to you, fellow traveller on this road. So long among men, and you found no rest: how will you find it in those huts? — It fell on me like rain of nectar. I am Manki. I have walked to every holy place. I turned for home, and can't go home: I've seen men's lives go by like lightning.

Chorus — Vasiṣṭha Salt water, traveller, salt water never put out a thirst. You're nearly over the sea already, you're standing on the shore.

Verse 3 — Manki, then Vasiṣṭha My teeth are going, my hair is going, my pleasures hurt, my pains are sweet, my wants go round like hungry vultures. — A gem comes bright with gentle rubbing; the mind comes clear as the dust comes off.

[Chorus]

Bridge (mantra) — Vasiṣṭha, then both Four roots: you see it, turn it over, want it, dream it. (band out) Open your eyes, and the world comes in. Close your eyelids, and it goes out. atra brahma samaśnute (the wants let go: right here is the rest) atra…

Outro He slipped out like a snake from its old skin, went up a mountain and sat a hundred years, still as a stone, numb in every sense, awake inside; did the work that came to him, and wanted nothing. Now open your eyes. The road is rough. Walk it with your eyes open, and go home.

Letra (castellano cantable)

[Interpretación: dos voces. Manki, seco y cansado; Vasiṣṭha, grave y cálido, que entra en el ritmo de Manki antes de cambiarlo. La guitarra slide es el calor. En el puente cada raíz tiene un compás; en la cuarta la banda calla y queda solo el bordón: los ojos están cerrados. La slide vuelve en el final.]

Verso 1 — Manki Arena hasta el borde del cielo, polvo gris que vuela, agua en la arena que no es agua. El sol derrama fuego como la compañía de hombres crueles, fundiéndome el tuétano en los huesos. Hay una aldea. Descansaré allí un rato, recobraré fuerzas, seguiré.

Verso 2 — Vasiṣṭha, luego Manki Paz a ti, compañero de camino. Tanto tiempo entre los hombres, y no hallaste descanso: ¿cómo vas a hallarlo en esas chozas? — Me cayó encima como lluvia de néctar. Soy Manki. He ido a todos los lugares santos. Volví hacia casa, y no puedo volver: he visto pasar las vidas como relámpagos.

Estribillo — Vasiṣṭha Agua salada, viajero, agua salada nunca apagó una sed. Ya casi has cruzado el mar, ya estás en la orilla.

Verso 3 — Manki, luego Vasiṣṭha Se me caen los dientes, se me cae el pelo, mis placeres duelen, mis dolores son dulces, mis deseos dan vueltas como buitres con hambre. — La gema se aclara frotando despacio; la mente se aclara cuando se le va el polvo.

[Estribillo]

Puente (mantra) — Vasiṣṭha, luego los dos Cuatro raíces: lo ves, le das vueltas, lo quieres, lo sueñas. (calla la banda) Abres los ojos, y el mundo entra. Cierras los párpados, y se apaga. atra brahma samaśnute (sueltos los deseos, aquí está el descanso) atra…

Final Se soltó como la serpiente de su piel vieja, subió a una montaña y se quedó cien años, quieto como piedra, dormido en cada sentido, despierto por dentro; hacía el trabajo que le llegaba, sin querer nada. Ahora abre los ojos. El camino es áspero. Recórrelo con los ojos abiertos, y vuelve a casa.

One line to carry

EN: Salt water never quenched a thirst; open your eyes and walk. ES: El agua salada nunca apagó una sed; abre los ojos y camina.

Libreto note

A desert, a mirage, and an old man muttering at the sun. Manki has walked to every holy place and cannot face going home; his pleasures hurt and his pains have grown sweet. Vasiṣṭha does not lecture. He falls into step, speaks to the rest Manki was about to seek, and turns him with one line: salt water never put out a thirst. Then the warmth (you are already on the shore), and only then the teaching, ending in the simplest induction there is: close the eyelids. Desert blues, two voices, slide guitar for the heat; the band drops out as the eyes close. Manki stays on his mountain, still as stone and awake. You open your eyes and walk.

Source check

Source check (Mitra, Book VI second half)

  1. The desert "filled with burning sands and obscured by grey and flying dust", "the deceptive waters of mirage upon the sand"; the sun afflicting "as much as the company of evil-minded men", melting "the pith and marrow of my body and bones"; the resolve to rest in "yonder hamlet" and "recover my strength" — ch. 23, vv. 5–11.
  2. "My fellow traveller on the way"; "who have long lived in the habitations of men, and have not found your rest"; "thirst is not appeased, but increased by a beverage of briny water"; Manki "as glad, as if he was bathed in ambrosial showers"; his pilgrimages, his turn toward home, and men's lives "passing away as flashes of lightening" — ch. 23, vv. 13–15, 23, 32–34. "Very nearly got over the ocean of the world, and arrived at the coast"; the precious stone "polished, by gentle abrasion" — ch. 23, vv. 39, 41.
  3. "All pleasures are as painful to me, as my pains have become pleasurable … when my teeth and the hairs of my body, are falling off"; desires "flying like hungry vultures" — ch. 24, vv. 6, 8.
  4. The four roots of evil: consciousness of objects, their reflection, desire, imagination — ch. 25, v. 1. "As the opening of the eyes, presents the visibles to sight … as the shutting of the eyelids, shuts out the view of the visible objects" — ch. 26, vv. 13–14. The wayfarer on the rugged road "walking with his open eyes" — ch. 26, v. 11.
  5. Released "as a Snake gets loose from its slough"; a century on a mountain, discharging "the duties that occurred to him of their own accord, without … any desire"; "unmoved and insensible as a stone, quite callous in all his senses … and wakeful with his internal sensibility" — ch. 26, vv. 39–41.

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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