The Yogi of Many Worlds

The sages told the Pandavas of Jaigishavya, the great master of yoga, and of Asita Devala, the proud ascetic whom he humbled and taught - a tale of the true goal of yoga, of the emptiness of mere powers, and of the supreme peace of the soul that is free of both joy and sorrow.

There were in olden times two great ascetics. The one was Asita Devala, a sage of fierce austerity and great learning, devoted to penance and to virtue, who had attained much by his discipline and was honored among men. The other was Jaigishavya, a master of yoga so deep and so high that few could comprehend his attainment - a sage who had passed beyond the common bounds of the spiritual life into states and realms unknown to others, and who dwelt in a profound silence and peace, saying little, his greatness hidden beneath a quiet exterior. Asita Devala knew of Jaigishavya, and they dwelt for a time near one another; but Asita did not yet understand how far the other had surpassed him.

Asita Devala was a diligent and devout ascetic, and not without pride in his own attainments; for he had practiced penance long and hard, and had gained much, and was honored as a great sage. And he observed his neighbor Jaigishavya, who lived in deep silence and humility, going about his devotions quietly, saying little, making no show of his powers or his attainments; and Asita, judging by the outward show, did not at first realize how great Jaigishavya truly was, but rather supposed that his own attainments might be the greater.

But Asita began to notice strange things about the silent master. For Jaigishavya would, at times, be present at the sacred rites and gatherings of the gods and the sages in distant and higher realms - and then would be found again in his own quiet place, as though he had never gone. Asita, himself a great ascetic possessed of yogic sight, grew curious and then amazed at this; for it seemed that Jaigishavya came and went among the worlds with a freedom that Asita could not match, appearing in realm after realm and yet always returning to his silence. And Asita resolved to follow him with his yogic vision, to see how far this silent master could truly go.

So Asita Devala, by the power of his own yoga and the yogic sight he had attained, set himself to follow Jaigishavya through the worlds, to see how far his attainment reached. And he was astonished beyond measure at what he found. For wherever Asita went in his pursuit - through this heaven and that, through realm after realm, through the worlds of the sages and the worlds of the gods, through region upon region of the higher worlds - he found that Jaigishavya had already been there before him, was honored there, was at home there, as though all those worlds were open to him and familiar.

World after world, realm after realm, Asita followed, straining the full reach of his own great attainment to keep pace; and everywhere he came, Jaigishavya was already there, or had passed through, honored and at ease, his yoga having carried him through them all. Asita went as high and as far as his own powers could take him, through all the worlds he could reach; and in every one, the silent master had been before him. At last Asita understood the truth: that Jaigishavya's attainment in yoga immeasurably surpassed his own; that where Asita could barely reach, Jaigishavya dwelt at ease; and that all his own pride in his attainments had been the pride of the lesser before the greater.

Asita Devala, having followed Jaigishavya through all the worlds and found him everywhere before him, was utterly humbled. His pride in his own attainments fell away; he saw plainly how far the silent master surpassed him, and how little his own greatness was beside that of Jaigishavya. And, as a true seeker should when he meets one greater than himself, Asita did not envy or resent the other, but reverently approached him, acknowledged his own lesser state, and besought Jaigishavya to teach him - to share the secret of his far greater attainment, that Asita too might rise toward it.

So the proud ascetic became the humble disciple, bowing before the master whose greatness he had at last understood. And in this humbling there was a lesson already: that even great attainment breeds pride, until one meets a greater and is humbled; and that the mark of the true seeker is not to resent the one who surpasses him, but to honor him and learn from him. Asita, for all his own greatness, had the wisdom to recognize the greater, and the humility to sit at his feet; and so he was made ready to receive the highest teaching that Jaigishavya had to give - the teaching not of powers, but of peace.

But when Asita asked Jaigishavya to teach him, the silent master taught him a thing that overturned all Asita's notions of what attainment meant. For Asita had marveled at Jaigishavya's wandering through the worlds, supposing that to be the height of his greatness; but Jaigishavya taught him that all such powers and wanderings, all the realms and heavens, were not the true goal of yoga at all, but were as nothing beside the one thing that mattered: the perfect peace and equanimity of the soul that has freed itself from both joy and sorrow.

'All these worlds I have wandered,' Jaigishavya taught, 'and all the powers you have marveled at, are not the goal, but only things passed through and left behind. The true goal of yoga is not to gain powers, nor to dwell in higher worlds, nor to taste their pleasures; for all worlds, however high, are still within the round of joy and sorrow, of gain and loss, and the soul that seeks them is still bound. The true goal is the supreme peace: the state of the soul that has stilled all craving, that is indifferent alike to pleasure and pain, to praise and blame, to gain and loss, that rests in its own tranquillity, freed from both joy and sorrow, needing nothing from any world. This peace, which depends on nothing and is shaken by nothing, is the real attainment; beside it, all powers and all worlds are worthless.'

Jaigishavya unfolded for Asita the nature of this supreme peace, the equanimity beyond joy and sorrow. 'Consider,' he said, 'that joy and sorrow are a pair, and that they follow one another endlessly: every joy is shadowed by the fear of its loss and followed in time by sorrow, and every sorrow may turn again to joy, and so the soul that is subject to them is tossed forever between the two, never at rest. The one who seeks pleasure and shrinks from pain is bound to this endless tossing, and can never find peace, however high the worlds he gains; for in every world there is still this pair, and still this tossing.

'But the soul that has risen above this pair - that has ceased to crave pleasure and to fear pain, that meets joy and sorrow, gain and loss, praise and blame, with the same unshaken calm - that soul has found a peace that nothing can disturb, a freedom that depends on no world and no condition, the very peace of liberation. This is the highest state, beyond all the worlds and all their powers: not to wander among heavens, but to rest in the tranquil Self that is untouched by joy and sorrow alike. Seek this, Asita; for this peace, and not any power, is the true fruit and the true goal of all yoga and all penance.' And Asita, hearing this, understood at last what he had been seeking all along without knowing it.

There was in the tale a teaching about the true goal of yoga and all spiritual striving. For Asita Devala had supposed, as many do, that the height of attainment lay in powers - in the ability to wander through the worlds, to do wonders, to reach the higher heavens; and he had marveled at Jaigishavya's mastery of these. But Jaigishavya taught him that all such powers and worlds are not the goal at all, but things to be passed through and left behind; and that the true fruit of yoga is the supreme peace of the soul that is free of both joy and sorrow, the equanimity that depends on nothing and is shaken by nothing.

The tale teaches, then, that we should not mistake powers and attainments and higher experiences for the goal of the spiritual life; that all such things, however marvelous, are still within the round of gain and loss, and leave the soul still bound; and that the real goal, beyond them all, is the inner freedom and peace of liberation - the tranquil Self, untouched by joy and sorrow, needing nothing from any world. And it teaches, too, the humility of the true seeker: that even great attainment breeds pride until one meets a greater; and that the mark of wisdom is to honor the one who surpasses us, to learn from him, and to set our hearts not on powers but on the peace that is the true and final goal.

The sages drew the lessons of the tale for the Pandavas.

'See, first, the true goal of yoga and of all spiritual striving. Asita Devala marveled at Jaigishavya's power to wander through all the worlds, supposing that to be the height of attainment; but the silent master taught him that all powers and worlds are not the goal, but things to be passed through and left behind, and that the true fruit of yoga is the supreme peace of the soul that is free of both joy and sorrow. The tale teaches that we must not mistake powers and wonders and higher experiences for the goal; that all such things still leave the soul bound within the round of gain and loss; and that the real attainment is the inner freedom and equanimity of liberation, the tranquil Self that nothing can shake. Set your heart, then, not on powers, but on that peace.

'And see the equanimity that is that peace: to meet joy and sorrow, gain and loss, praise and blame, with the same unshaken calm; to cease craving pleasure and fearing pain; to rest in the Self that is untouched by the endless tossing between the pairs. This peace depends on nothing and is disturbed by nothing, and is the true freedom. And see, too, the humility of the true seeker, who honors the one greater than himself and learns from him, as Asita honored Jaigishavya. Seek, then, not powers but peace; cultivate the equanimity beyond joy and sorrow; and be humble enough to learn from those who have gone further; for this is the true and final goal of all striving.'

And the Pandavas, tossed as they were between great joys and great sorrows, took to heart the tale of the yogi of many worlds and the peace beyond them all.