Story of Suka – How Suka attained the Highest State of Bliss

Raja Rishi Viswamitra said to Lord Rama: "You know all that should be known. You and Rishi Suka are full of spiritual wisdom. Both of you have attained equally the highest wisdom, but you need to acquire the state of quietness and stillness."

 

Lord Rama: "O, please inform me how Brahm Rishi Suka achieved wisdom without quiescence of mind, and how he secured that blissful state?"

 

The Master: "Rishi Suka had absolute spiritual wisdom which is the only sword to cut the rope of re-birth. Once he tried to inquire of the origin of things, as you are doing, and he then became doubtful of his wisdom. The object of his mind became disturbed, but he was free from sensual desires. Rishi Suka went to the Himalaya Mountains to his father, who was one of the Masters there, and asked for instruction that he might not lose his faith.

 

Thus he said to his father: 'O Father, from whence came all this Maya (illusion), which produces misery and darkness? How did it originate? How may it be destroyed?' What pare does it play in the origin of the universe?' His father replied with wisdom, as he did unto all others, but his answer did not dispel his son's doubt. Suka said to his father: 'I know all that'. And alas! his father was unable to remove his doubt. His father then requested him to go to King Janaka, who was the highest being in spiritual wisdom of his time.

"Rishi Suka left the Himalaya Mountains and later approached the golden gates of the King's palace. Although the King was aware of Brahm Rishi's (Suka) arrival, he refused to go forth and meet him. He requested that the Rishi should not be admitted into his palace, as he wanted to test the sincerity of his mind. Rishi Suka waited full seven days at the golden gate.

 

At last he was conducted into a magnificent hall where beautiful women were indulging in worldly enjoyments. But Suka's mind did not lose its balance. He was not affected by the unjust act of the King in making him wait seven days at his gate, nor was he moved by the disgraceful conduct of worldly association.

 

The King came and addressed him thus: 'O, Brahm Rishi (there are three kinds of Rishis), you hast reached the highest state. The worldly joys and sorrows do not affect thee. I beseech you to tell what hast brought you here?' Rishi Suka asked: 'What has caused my illusion? How does it generate? How can it be destroyed? Please instruct me.' The King gave him the same explanation that his father had given him.

 

Rishi Suka returned: 'I know that, and my father gave me the same information. If Maya (illusion) which is produced by a differentiation of one Atma as breath, etc.) and merged again into the Atma, then no benefit can be derived from this perishable Maya (illusion). O Highest Guru, You are able to dispel this delusion of my mind! Please enlighten me on this matter.'

 

"The King: 'You have known what should be known, but still you ask me—although your father has instructed you aright. The enlightenment we have given to you is the real one. Atma alone, is that which is everywhere, just as the ether pervades all space and atmosphere. Wisdom is bound by naught else but its own thought. Freeing yourself from sensual thoughts, is freeing yourself from bondage. You hast clearly realized the Atmic wisdom for you hast given up all longing for sensual objects. You hast by thine own efforts, through the higher mind, reached the highest Brahmic State; you hast become a Jivanmukta (the state of emancipated embodiment).

 

But one thing you hast yet to accomplish—that of giving up the delusion of the illusion which has arisen through doubt in your mind. When you hast accomplished this, then you wilt be free.' King Janak thus initiated Rishi Suka into the Atmic mysteries, where he acquired the highest state of wisdom, and was freed from all misery, doubt, death and rebirth. He lived for 1000 years, then merged into that higher wisdom, which is Brahm. As water returns to the ocean, so the light which departs from the "I", returns to the higher light (Atma), and becomes Brahm. Thus Rishi attained that liberation, which is above all else. O Rama, you should follow the same path.

 

"To become a slave of desire is bondage; to master it, is liberation. Master your desires and become indifferent to worldly enjoyments; become a Jivanmukta (emancipated embodiment), without the assistance of austerities of religions; follow the path of wisdom and you will realize the reality. O Ram, there is but one person who can remove the doubt from your mind, and that is the Omniscient Vasistha, who knows the past, present, and the future. He is the Guru (spiritual teacher) of all mankind."

 

Persons qualified to read this work called Vasishta (the work of Vasistha) should not be Ajnanis (the ignorant or the worldly wise), but only those who, conscious of being under bondage, long after freedom from it, and are in that vacillating position, from which they contemplate attaining Moksha.

When the notion of (empirical) self is destroyed by the withdrawal of the fuel of ideas from the mind, that which is, is the infinite. (III:10)

 

The world exists because consciousness is: and the world is the body of consciousness. There is no division, no difference, no distinction. Hence the universe can be said to be both real and unreal: real because of the reality of consciousness which is its own reality, and unreal because the universe does

not exist as universe, independent of consciousness. (III:14)

 

Death is but waking from a dream. (III:19)

 

Direct inquiry into the movements of thought in one’s own consciousness is the supreme guru, the greatest teacher. (III:75)

Eternal Brahman, pure existence, is known when the three-fold modifications known as waking, dreaming and deep sleep cease and when the mind-stuff is rid of all movement of thought. It is expressed in silence when the known comes to an end.

 

This Self can be attained by a hundred ways and means; yet when it is attained, nothing has been attained! It is the supreme Self; yet it is nothing [no-thing]. One roams in this forest of samsara, or repetitive history, till there is the dawn of that wisdom which is able to dispel the root-ignorance in which

the world appears to be real. But the truth is that it is the infinite consciousness that perceives the universe within itself, through its own power known as Maya. That which is seen within also appears outside.

 

The seer is the sight only, and when latent psychic impressions have ceased, the seer regains its pure being; when the external object is imagined, a seer has been created. If there is no subject, there is no object either. Because the subject (seer) is pure consciousness, he is able to conjure up the object.

This cannot be the other way round; the object does not give birth to the subject. Therefore the seer alone is real, the object being only name and form. As long as the notions of the object persists, the division between the seer and the seen also persists. When self-knowledge arises and the name and form of objects ceases to be, the seer (subject) is realized as the sole reality. (III:81)