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Tale 49 · The Vāsiṣṭha Atlas

The Deer-like Mind

Nirvāṇa · second half · Mitra VI.2.44–45 · 4,567 words

The hunted deer-mind is not killed; it rests in shade.

Bhūmikā 6 · Padārthābhāvanī (melting of objects)DeepYour ally · The Stillpoint

The essence

Rāma asks about the tree of samādhi. Vasiṣṭha tells him it grows from a seed of regret at the world that falls into the heart of the reasonable man. It is watered by the kind words of good people and the sayings of the scriptures, fenced by perseverance, and guarded by contentment and cheerfulness from “the aerial birds of his expectations”. Its first two leaves are scripture and good company. It rises into branches of truth, equanimity and kindness and casts a cool shade, the stilling of the mind's movements. Then the deer-like mind enters. Galled by thorny forage and hunted by the passions, it chases the mirage of egoism and falls into pits. Rarely it reaches the shade. Once it rests there, it never looks for another arbour. It eats the fruit and climbs from branch to branch, looks down on family and wealth as on a dream, watches its passions act like players on a stage, and reaches the sixth stage. The deer is not destroyed: it is fed and set free.

What it teaches

  1. 01

    The seed of meditation is regret: “It is the heart's regret at the world, which is the seed of samádhi” (VI.2.44.5). Dissatisfaction is something to cultivate, not only something to relieve.

  2. 02

    Early practice needs a fence and guards. Perseverance, contentment and cheerfulness protect the sprout from “the aerial birds of his expectations” (VI.2.44.10–12). Expectation itself can eat the seed.

  3. 03

    The restless mind is not killed but given shade. Once it rests, it “never thinks of going to any other arbour” (VI.2.45.1), and it “does not choose its annihilation” (VI.2.45.64). Calming comes through shelter and nourishment, not suppression.

  4. 04

    Passions can be watched “as actors (dramatis personae), acting their several parts in the drama of his life” (VI.2.45.15). The witness position turns symptoms into characters.

  5. 05

    Attention and craving can be separated: one is to check one's yearning even when “unable to prevent his wistful eye, from falling upon it” (VI.2.45.23). The eye may see; the longing can be declined.

The Vāsiṣṭha Atlas

This tale’s coordinates

The wound and its virtue

The deer-like mind, galled by thorns and 'hunted by its enemies of the passions' (VI.2.44.33), lives the chronic anxiety of a mind that cannot stop running and chases mirage after mirage. Honesty is the seed of its healing, 'the heart's regret at the world' admitted rather than silenced (VI.2.44.5), and the deer is not suppressed but sheltered, watching its passions, 'fears, hopes' as actors in the drama of its life (VI.2.45.15).

What it trains

The tale trains attention that settles through shelter and nourishment rather than suppression: the eye may still fall on the object while the longing is declined (VI.2.45.23).

In other yogas

  • Patañjali · Yoga Sūtra · YS 1.2; YS 1.12

    Mitra himself glosses the tree's cool shade as chitta-vritti nirodha (VI.2.44.28), the definition of yoga in YS 1.2. The fence of perseverance and the seed of regret map onto the twin means of YS 1.12, practice and dispassion.

  • Bhagavad Gītā · BG 6.26; BG 6.35

    Kṛṣṇa's counsel to bring the wandering mind back each time it strays, and his admission that the restless mind is held by practice and dispassion, describe the deer's slow return to the shade.

  • Buddhist absorption · MN 19

    In the Dvedhāvitakka Sutta, once the crops are gathered the cowherd can rest at the root of a tree, needing only to know the cows are there. Like the deer that watches its passions as players on a stage (VI.2.45.15), vigilance relaxes into easy noticing.

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 asks Vasiṣṭha to describe at length the arbour of samādhi, with its creepers, flowers and fruits, which feeds holy men all their lives. Vasiṣṭha answers that it always grows in the forest of the holy. Somehow, through cultivation or of its own accord, a dissatisfaction with the wilderness of the world arises in the heart of a reasonable man. That heart is its field, ploughed by prosperity and watered day and night, and its channel now runs with sighs. The heart's regret at the world is the seed of samādhi.

When this seed falls into a great mind it must be watered diligently. It needs the society of pure and gentle people whose kind speech falls on it like dew, and the cool sayings of the scriptures. It is manured with austerities, rested in holy places, and fenced with perseverance. Once it sprouts, a man must guard it with his two companions, contentment and cheerfulness. He must keep off the birds of expectation, the fowls of attachment and the vultures of desire. Pious acts sweep away the dust of passion, and the sun of discrimination dispels the shade of ignorance. Wealth, women and fleeting pleasures strike at the young sprout like lightning, and patience, the muttering of mantras, ablutions and the trident of Om turn them aside.

So guarded, the seed sprouts into discrimination and opens two leaves, the knowledge of the scriptures and the company of the wise. Fixedness becomes its stem, patience its bark, and unconcern for the world its sap. It grows tall and firm, so that the apes of passion cannot shake it. It spreads branches of frankness and truth, constancy, equanimity, calmness, kindness and self-respect, with leaves of peace and flowers of good repute. Its shade cools on every side like a rain cloud and lays a quiet composure over the mind, chitta-vṛtti-nirodha.

To this shade comes the deer-like mind, tired from wandering the world's deserts. Its mouth is galled from browsing thorny brambles, and the passions lie in wait for it like huntsmen. Driven by vain desires, it chases the poisonous water of the mirage of egoism. It is battered running after green valleys seen in the distance and falls headlong into pits while foraging for its young. The elephant of desire stuns it, the snake of worldly affairs numbs it, and the fire of anger burns it. Poverty chases it like a tiger, the fear of losing honour shakes it like a lion, and the wolf of death glares at it. It seldom finds rest in the arbour of godliness, Vasiṣṭha says.

But once the deer-like mind finds its rest in that bower, it is content and never thinks of any other arbour. In time the tree bears the fruit of knowledge. The mind sees others climbing for it, and those who have climbed high never wish to come down. Tasting the fruit, a man forgets his old food and casts off his past as a snake casts its skin. He smiles at how meanly he lived before. He climbs the branch of fellow-feeling, treads on the snake of selfishness, and reigns within himself. From the higher branches he looks down on family, friends and wealth as on things from a former life or a dream. He watches his passions, fears and hopes as actors playing their parts in the drama of his life. He kindles the flame of the soul with the breath alone, as fire is kindled by wind without fuel. His eye may fall on things, but he checks the longing. So he reaches the sixth stage, whose glory no words can describe, and feeds freely on the fruit, free as the open sky. The deer-like mind does not choose its own annihilation. It drinks the sweet juice of divine knowledge until it is satisfied, and is freed from the fetters of earthly desire.

The text speaks

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

“It is the heart's regret at the world, which is the seed of samádhi or self-resignation; and it grows of itself in the ground of the contrite heart of the wise, in the forest land of reasonable men.”
VI.2.44.5Names the seed of samādhi.
“He should then keep off the aerial birds of his expectations and the fowls of his affection for others, and the vultures of his desire and cupidity, from darting upon and picking up the seed.”
VI.2.44.12Expectation is named as a threat to early practice.
“It spreads the awning shade of harmony, as the clouds cast a cooling shadow below; it stretches a quiet composure over the mind (chitta-vritti nirodha), as an extensive cloud overspreads a still calm in the air.”
VI.2.44.28The shade of the tree is identified with Patañjali's stilling of the mind's movements.
“The deerlike mind being tired with its wanderings, about the deserts of this world; takes its rest and refuge under this cool shade; as a weary traveller, worried out from his very birth, in his journey among men, comes to take his rest at last.”
VI.2.44.32The deer reaches the shade.
“This deer of the mind, that is galled in its mouth by browsing the thorny brambles of the forest for food, is again hunted by its enemies of the passions, which lay waiting like huntsmen, to kill the soul, as these slay the body of the stag for its skin.”
VI.2.44.33The hunters are the passions, not inquiry.
“He views with coldness his passions and feelings, his fears, hopes, his errors and honors, as actors (dramatis personae), acting their several parts in the drama of his life.”
VI.2.45.15The witness position, with passions seen as characters on a stage.
“As a flame of fire is kindled by the wind of breath and without the help of fuel, so let him kindle the flame of his soul within by the breath of respiration; and be united with the Supreme spirit.”
VI.2.45.22The tale's one explicit breath practice.
“Having attained this great dignity, which confers the fruits of best blessings on man, the devotee arrives to the sixth stage of his devotion, whose glory no language can describe.”
VI.2.45.24The text itself states the bhūmikā reached.
“Hence the deerlike mind does not choose its annihilation, (or the loss of its entity); for the sake of its liberation, (which is an ideal and negative felicity), and has no reality in it.”
VI.2.45.64The mind is not destroyed in liberation.

What the trance sees

MET

Therapeutic metaphor / reframe

VI.2.44.2–31; VI.2.44.32–50; VI.2.45.1–18

In the textAn extended double metaphor. The tree of samādhi grows from seed to fruit, and a deer-like mind “galled in its mouth by browsing the thorny brambles” finally “takes its rest and refuge under this cool shade”.

In the clinicAn Ericksonian therapeutic metaphor that paces the client's restlessness as the hunted deer, then leads it to the shade. The seed-to-tree sequence plants an idea early so that it can grow, a pattern known as seeding (Zeig).

DEEP

Deepening

VI.2.44.16–31; VI.2.45.13; VI.2.45.18; VI.2.45.24

In the textGrowth by stages (seed, sprout, two leaves, stem, bark, branches, flowers, fruit), then an ascent “by degrees to its higher branches” until “the devotee arrives to the sixth stage”.

In the clinicDeepening by graded ascent or descent, as with staircase and ladder deepeners. Each level is described and ratified before the next.

WIT

Witness position / dis-identification

VI.2.45.14–15

In the textFrom the higher branches he looks on family and wealth “as if they were the adjuncts of former life, or as visions in his dream”, and on his passions “as actors (dramatis personae), acting their several parts in the drama of his life”.

In the clinicThe observing self and externalisation of problems (White & Epston 1990). The passions become characters watched from a distance rather than states one is identified with.

IND

Induction

VI.2.45.22

In the text“let him kindle the flame of his soul within by the breath of respiration; and be united with the Supreme spirit”.

In the clinicBreath-focused induction, in which attention to a slow, steady breath serves as both the means of absorption and the image (a flame fanned without fuel).

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

  2. Integration zone
    Perceptual shift — the boundaries of things soften; consciousness expands past its usual partitions.

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 6 · Padārthābhāvanī

The text states that “the devotee arrives to the sixth stage of his devotion” (VI.2.45.24), and all sense of distinction then melts “as the solar heat melts down the frozen snow” (VI.2.45.32). That melting is padārthābhāvanī.

Zone · Deep

Rest in the cool shade, likened to the sweet sleep of an exhausted traveller (VI.2.45.26), with withdrawal from objects. But the mind still climbs, tastes and watches, so the state is not plenary.

In Mitra’s words

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

  • self-resignation (samádhi)It is the heart's regret at the world, which is the seed of samádhi or self-resignationVI.2.44.5
  • insensibleHe does not feel any craving for wealth, wife or friends in his breast, who lives dead to his feelings as an insensible corpse (or forgets himself to a stone).VI.2.45.17
  • roused from sleepIn the callings of his life, as also to the calls of his private and public interest; he is as displeased and annoyed, as one who is untimely roused from his wholesome sleep.VI.2.45.20

In the therapy room

Indications

  • Chronic anxiety and hypervigilance, where the client is the hunted deer (VI.2.44.33–48).
  • Restless, scattered attention, by offering the mind a place to rest rather than a command to stop.
  • Cycles of craving and addiction, chasing “the poisonous water of mirage” (VI.2.44.34).
  • Clients who resist meditation because they fear it will ‘kill’ their mind or personality (VI.2.45.64).
  • Building motivation by reframing dissatisfaction as the seed of change (VI.2.44.5).

Cautions

  • “Wealth and women” as lightning (VI.2.44.14) and the fear of “female companions” (VI.2.44.48) reflect ascetic misogyny. Do not reproduce them in scripts.
  • Living “dead to his feelings as an insensible corpse” (VI.2.45.17) is not a goal for depressed or emotionally numbed clients.
  • Images of a deer falling into pits or being hunted may trigger clients with histories of entrapment or pursuit. Keep the emphasis on the shade.
  • Looking down on family as on a dream (VI.2.45.14) should not be used to legitimise withdrawal from relationships.
From the bookThe full clinical note

Indications. Chronic anxiety and hypervigilance, where the client recognises the hunted deer (VI.2.44.33–48). Scattered, restless attention, by offering the mind a place to rest rather than an order to stop. Craving and compulsive cycles, the chase after "the poisonous water of mirage" (VI.2.44.34), with VI.2.45.23 as the working instruction. Clients who fear that meditation or hypnosis will erase their personality, for whom VI.2.45.64 is a direct reassurance. And clients stuck in dissatisfaction, for whom VI.2.44.5 reframes regret as a seed.

How to use it. As metaphor, tell the tree before the deer, as the text does; let the client watch it grow before any problem is named. As protocol, the sequence is: seed, guards against expectation, growth, shade, the deer's arrival, breath-flame, the view from a higher branch, return. Leave the client's own deer in the shade at the end of the session; the text's claim that once it rests it "never thinks of going to any other arbour" (VI.2.45.1) is a post-hypnotic suggestion worth borrowing.

Cautions. "Wealth and women" as lightning (VI.2.44.14) and the fear of "female companions" (VI.2.44.48) are ascetic misogyny; do not reproduce them. Living "dead to his feelings as an insensible corpse" (VI.2.45.17) is not a goal for depressed, numbed or dissociative clients, and the image of being annoyed at the calls of life "as one who is untimely roused from his wholesome sleep" (VI.2.45.20) should not be offered to anyone already withdrawing. Seeing family "as visions in his dream" (VI.2.45.14) must not be used to justify cutting off relationships; the first branch is fellow-feeling. The images of pits, hunters and pursuit can trigger clients with histories of entrapment or being chased; for them, keep the hunters off-stage and the shade in front.

The practice

Shade for the Deer

  1. Find the seed. Name, honestly and gently, one regret or dissatisfaction with how things are (VI.2.44.5).
  2. Water and fence. Recall one kind voice and one sentence of wisdom. Set a fence of perseverance, and post contentment and cheerfulness at the gate (VI.2.44.7–11).
  3. Watch the birds. Notice expectations swooping at the seed (‘it should be working by now’) and let them fly past (VI.2.44.12).
  4. Grow the tree. Watch it rise: two leaves, stem, bark, and branches of truth, equanimity and kindness. Feel its cool shade spread over the mind (VI.2.44.18–28).
  5. The deer arrives. See the restless mind, tired and scratched by thorns, step into the shade and lie down. Nothing chases it here (VI.2.44.32; VI.2.45.1).
  6. Breath flame. With each slow out-breath let a small inner flame brighten, with no fuel needed (VI.2.45.22).
  7. From a higher branch, watch your passions and fears act their parts as players on a stage (VI.2.45.15).
  8. Return. Leave the deer resting in the shade. Climb down the tree, feel the ground under your feet, breathe fully and open your eyes.

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

Shade for the Deer

Read slowly, aloud, leaving a breath between lines; about fifteen minutes.

Before you begin. This practice is safe for most healthy adults. If you have, or have had, a psychotic illness, a dissociative disorder or trauma involving being hunted or trapped, practise it only with a clinician who knows your history. If you are severely depressed, use it only for rest and leave out the view from the high branch. Never practise while driving, operating anything, or in or near water. Sit rather than lie down.

How to return at any moment. Press your feet into the floor, say "Back to the ground", take one full breath, count from one to five, and open your eyes on five.

Sit, and let the eyes close or rest on a point in front of you.

Somewhere in you there is a regret: a small sense that things are not as they could be. Do not argue with it. Let it be a seed. Let it fall into the ground of the heart.

Remember one kind voice. Let what it said fall on the seed like dew. Remember one sentence of wisdom that has stayed with you. Let it water the ground.

Set a fence around the seed: perseverance. At the gate post two guards, contentment and cheerfulness. Notice the birds that come: it should be working by now… am I doing this right? Let the guards wave them off. The seed is safe.

Now watch it grow. A sprout. Two leaves. A stem that stands firm, a bark of patience. Branches spreading: truth, steadiness, calm, kindness. Leaves of peace. And a shade, cool, wide, like a cloud over a hot field.

Somewhere at the edge of the field is a deer. It has run a long way. Its mouth is sore from thorns. It has fallen into pits and climbed out. Let it see the shade. Let it come in. Nothing follows it here. Let it lie down. Breathe out.

Now the breath. With each slow out-breath, imagine a small flame inside you brightening, as a fire brightens when someone blows on it, with no fuel needed. Breathe out… brighter. Breathe out… brighter. Breathe out.

If you wish, climb a little way into the tree, one branch at a time. From here look at your own fears and hopes and old habits as actors on a small stage below. Let them play. You are watching. Your eyes may rest on anything; you need not long for it.

(Silence: one to three minutes.)

Now leave the deer resting in the shade. It knows the way here.

Climb down, branch by branch. Feel the ground under your feet. Feel the seat holding you.

I will count from one to five. One: the breath grows fuller. Two: the hands and feet are warm and your own. Three: the sounds of the room return. Four: a deep breath in, shoulders roll once. Five: eyes open, here, now, fully alert.

Say your name, the day and the place aloud. Name three things you can see. If you feel slow, count again from one to five, stand, and drink some water. Wait ten minutes before you drive.

Meta Pets World · Your ally · Meta Pet 52

The deer-like mind finds the stillpoint

The Stillpoint card
52The StillpointI rest in the stillpoint between worlds.

The Stillpoint walks with the deer-like mind because Vasiṣṭha's parable follows its arc step by step. The mind galled by thorns and hunted by its passions is Stress; the fence of perseverance and the eye that sees but checks its longing are Restraint; the cool shade where the mind lies down and never seeks another arbour is Stillness.

  1. Shadow · what you avoidStress

    Stress: the deer's mouth is galled by thorny brambles while the passions lie in wait for it like huntsmen, and it runs after the mirage of egoism into pits (VI.2.44.33).

  2. Gift · what is hidden in itRestraint

    Restraint: the young sprout is fenced by perseverance and the 'aerial birds of his expectations' are kept off (VI.2.44.12); higher up the tree, the eye may fall on things, but the longing is checked.

  3. Essence · what you embodyStillness

    Stillness: the tired deer 'takes its rest and refuge under this cool shade' (VI.2.44.32), the quiet composure the text names chitta-vṛtti-nirodha (VI.2.44.28).

Here is your deer, a little scratched, still running. I'm not asking it to stop, only showing it the shade. Lie down for three breaths. Nobody is hunting you here.

— Felicia
Today’s contemplation

If at the stillpoint everything moves, what in you can keep moving while the deer lies down in the shade?

To close the night

Tonight, write one honest sentence about what hunted you today, and where you found a little shade.

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 eyes open or softly lowered. Take three slow breaths, the Umbral, letting each out-breath be a little longer than the one before.
  2. The tale in one line: a hunted, thorn-scratched deer finds the cool shade of the tree of samādhi and never seeks another arbour (VI.2.44.32; VI.2.45.1).
  3. Meet the card. Look at the art of The Stillpoint for a few breaths. Then read the affirmation slowly, aloud if you can: 'I rest in the stillpoint between worlds.'
  4. Shadow. Where did the hunters wait for you this week? Name one moment when stress sent you after a mirage (the next message, the next purchase, the next proof) and notice how you felt afterwards.
  5. Gift. Choose one thing your eye will fall on today. Let the eye see it, and decline the longing once, kindly. Then picture one of your passions as an actor and watch it play its part.
  6. Essence. See the deer lying down in cool shade. Rest there for three breaths, saying silently on each out-breath: 'I rest in the stillpoint between worlds.'
  7. Return. Leave the deer resting. Press your feet into the floor, open and close your hands, open your eyes fully and look around 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 Akiko All sixty-four allies →

The 30-day Bond

At the stillpoint everything moves: each day of the Bond, notice where your deer ran today and where it lay down.

The Sister · Akiko

Japanese · Kyoto, Japan · Mu

Visit Akiko, the Sōtō Zen nun of Kyoto, whose single word 'Mu' is a shade the deer-like mind can lie down in without being asked to stop being a deer.

Guided Meditation

#52 · The Stillpoint

Voice & guidance: Prof. Luis Miguel GallardoWatch on YouTube (ES also available)
For facilitatorsA session with “The Deer-like Mind” and The Stillpoint

Aim. To help the client move from a hunted, reactive mind to a rest offered as shelter rather than suppression, with the passions watched from the witness seat.

ITM 2 Conscious Recognition. The tale's decisive move is the witness on the higher branch who watches the passions 'as actors' (VI.2.45.15): Conscious Recognition, the step that turns stress from something one is into something one sees.

The session (60–75 min)

  1. Arrival and Umbral (5 min): three slow breaths together; ask for one word for the state the client arrives in.
  2. The tale (5 min): tell the tree of samādhi growing from the seed of regret, then the hunted deer reaching its shade. Point to the tale page for the full text.
  3. The card (8 min): The Stillpoint, its art, affirmation and koan. Ask what 'everything moves' might mean if the deer is at rest.
  4. Shadow inquiry (12 min): map the client's hunters (passions, fears, expectations) and the mirages they run after. Reframe their dissatisfaction as the seed of practice (VI.2.44.5).
  5. Trance practice (20 min): 'Shade for the Deer', following the full guided script on the tale page, at light to medium depth. Dwell on the shade and the breath-flame; keep the hunting imagery brief.
  6. Gift and Essence integration (10 min): rehearse 'the eye sees, the longing is declined' on one real trigger; let the client say the affirmation from inside the shade.
  7. Closing and Bond (5 min): assign the 30-day Bond with The Stillpoint and its daily koan; agree one fence of perseverance for the week.

Integration questions

  • What did the shade feel like in your body, and where in your life does that shade already exist?
  • Which passion did you watch as an actor, and what part was it playing?
  • Which expectation is most likely to swoop down on your new practice this week?

In a circle

In a circle, tell the tale around the image of the tree, then lead the practice at light depth for about fifteen minutes, with permission to keep the eyes open. Invite each person to write one 'hunter' on a slip of paper they keep rather than share. In pairs, practise 'the eye sees, the longing is declined' with a neutral object in the room. Close with the whole circle breathing the affirmation three times, and before anyone leaves, check each person's orientation individually: a moment of eye contact and their name is enough.

Cautions

  • Do not reproduce the text's ascetic misogyny ('wealth and women' as lightning, VI.2.44.14) in any script.
  • Living 'dead to his feelings' (VI.2.45.17) is not a goal for depressed or emotionally numbed clients.
  • Hunting and pit imagery can trigger clients with histories of entrapment or pursuit; screen first and keep the emphasis on the shade.
  • Seeing family 'as a dream' (VI.2.45.14) must not be used to legitimise withdrawal from relationships.

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

Shade for the Deer

Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ

Título: Sombra para el ciervo

Figure — The deer-like mind, hunted by its own passions, and the tree of samādhi that shelters it

Where in the text — Book VI (second half, Nirvāṇa-prakaraṇa), Mitra chapters 44–45 (VI.2.44–45)

Hypnotic phenomenon the song enacts — MET and DEEP: an extended metaphor that grows by stages (seed, two leaves, stem, bark, branches, shade), one instrument per stage, until the hunted deer lies down in the shade and climbs branch by branch to where its fears and hopes look like players on a stage.

Mantra — Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ (योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः) — Patañjali, Yoga Sūtra 1.2; Mitra prints the phrase himself, glossing the tree's shade that "stretches a quiet composure over the mind (chitta-vritti nirodha)" (VI.2.44.28). Meaning: "Yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind": not the killing of the deer, but the shade it lies down in. Sung on one long out-breath, the breath that fans the inner flame "without the help of fuel" (VI.2.45.22).

Lyrics (English)

[Performance: Verse 1 grows like the tree: a new instrument enters at the seed, the leaves, the stem, the branches. Verse 2 runs, quicker and breathier; the hunters are heard only as distance. The chorus stops growing and spreads: one long, low, held chord. In the bridge the mantra is one real, audible out-breath.]

Verse 1 A sigh falls in the heart like a seed. Good people's kind words fall on it like dew; keep off the birds of expectation. Two leaves come up: the scriptures, and good company. Steadiness for a stem, patience for bark, and the apes of passion can't shake it. Branches of truth and kindness; the shade spreads.

Verse 2 The deer has run the deserts since the day it was born, its mouth torn on the thorny brambles, the passions lying in wait like huntsmen. It runs for the mirage, for the green valley far away, and falls in the pit, foraging for its young. The elephant of wanting screams; the fire of anger burns; the wolf of death looks it in the face.

Chorus Here is the shade, deer, here is the shade, cool as a cloud in the rains. Lie down; you've run since you were born. You won't go looking for another tree.

Verse 3 Fruit hangs heavy on the branches over it. It eats, and forgets the thorns it used to eat, sheds the old life like a snake its skin. Up the branch of fellow-feeling, branch by branch, it looks down on its fears and hopes like players on a stage, each playing a part.

[Chorus]

Bridge (mantra) A flame grows on breath, without wood: breathe the flame up inside. yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ (the mind's running, stilled)

Outro No one kills the deer. It drinks the sweet juice to its fill, gets up from the shade with its eyes open — look on all things, long after nothing — and goes out, free as the open sky.

Letra (castellano cantable)

[Interpretación: el Verso 1 crece como el árbol: entra un instrumento nuevo en la semilla, las hojas, el tallo, las ramas. El Verso 2 corre, más rápido, con más aliento; a los cazadores solo se los oye lejos. El estribillo deja de crecer y se extiende: un acorde largo, grave, sostenido. En el puente el mantra es una sola espiración real que se oye.]

Verso 1 Un suspiro cae en el corazón como semilla. La palabra amable de los buenos le cae como rocío; ahuyenta los pájaros de la expectativa. Brotan dos hojas: las escrituras y la buena compañía. Firmeza por tallo, paciencia por corteza, y ya no lo sacuden los monos de la pasión. Ramas de verdad y de bondad; la sombra se extiende.

Verso 2 El ciervo corre los desiertos desde el día en que nació, la boca herida en las zarzas de espinas, las pasiones al acecho como cazadores. Corre tras el espejismo, tras el valle verde a lo lejos, y cae en el foso, buscando pasto para sus crías. Barrita el elefante del deseo; quema el fuego de la ira; el lobo de la muerte lo mira a la cara.

Estribillo Aquí está la sombra, ciervo, aquí está la sombra, fresca como nube en tiempo de lluvias. Échate, que corres desde que naciste. Ya no buscarás otro árbol.

Verso 3 El fruto cuelga pesado en las ramas sobre él. Come, y olvida las espinas que comía, muda la vida vieja como la serpiente su piel. Por la rama del sentir con los demás, de rama en rama, mira desde arriba sus miedos y esperanzas como actores en escena, cada uno en su papel.

[Estribillo]

Puente (mantra) La llama crece con el aliento, sin leña: aviva la llama dentro de ti. yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ (la mente que corre, quieta)

Final Nadie mata al ciervo. Bebe el jugo dulce hasta saciarse, se levanta de la sombra con los ojos abiertos — mira todas las cosas, no anheles ninguna — y sale, libre como el cielo abierto.

One line to carry

EN: No one kills the deer: it rests in shade, and goes free. ES: Nadie mata al ciervo: descansa a la sombra y sale libre.

Libreto note

Rāma asks about the tree of samādhi, and Vasiṣṭha plants it first: a sigh for a seed, kind words for dew, two leaves, a stem of steadiness, a bark of patience, at last a shade. Only then does the deer come in, mouth torn on thorns, hunted by its own passions, falling into pits as it forages. No one tames it and no one kills it. It lies down, eats the fruit, and climbs until its fears and hopes look like actors in a play. This is resourcing before the trouble, as good induction does. The music grows like the tree, runs like the deer, then holds one long chord; the mantra rides the out-breath, and the deer walks free.

Source check

Source check (Mitra, Book VI second half)

  1. The heart's conduit "now flowing with sighs"; "the heart's regret at the world, which is the seed of samádhi"; the kind speech of good men falling "as the sprinkling of fresh water or milk or dewdrops"; "keep off the aerial birds of his expectations" — ch. 44, vv. 4–5, 7, 12.
  2. The two leaves, "the knowledge of sástras, and … the society of the good and wise"; "let your fixedness support the stem … make your patience its covering bark"; a fixity "not to be shaken by the apes of passions"; branches "of frankness and truth … of kindness"; it "cools all sides like clouds in the rainy weather" and spreads "the awning shade" — ch. 44, vv. 18–19, 21, 23, 27–28.
  3. The deer-like mind "tired with its wanderings, about the deserts of this world", "galled in its mouth by browsing the thorny brambles", hunted by the passions "like huntsmen"; the "water of mirage"; the "verdant valley at distance"; the pit, "in search of the food and forage for its offspring"; the elephant of desire that "stuns it with its loud shrieks", "the wild fire of anger", "the wolf of death at its face" — ch. 44, vv. 32–35, 41, 43, 46.
  4. It "never thinks of going to any other arbour"; branches "hanging downward, with loads of the fruits"; it "forgets the relish of his habitual food … as a snake casts aside his slough"; "the branch of fellow feeling"; passions "as actors (dramatis personae), acting their several parts in the drama of his life" — ch. 45, vv. 1, 3, 6, 8, 15.
  5. "As a flame of fire is kindled by the wind of breath and without the help of fuel"; Mitra's gloss "(Look on all things, but long after nothing)"; "as free as the open air and sky"; "the deerlike mind does not choose its annihilation" and "drinks its sweet juice … to its satiety" — ch. 45, vv. 22–23, 28, 64–65.

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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