The Mahabharata is not just the story of an epic. It is a Yoga Sastra, a text which explains the secrets of the mind. The Brahmana who is explaining the different ways of the yogi says, he is a very well disciplined and integrated person. He has the knowledge of the self with him and all his senses have been controlled by him.
Endowed with all these qualities, he gains the capacity to see his own self, with his own self. As he is well connected with the source of who he is, he sees very clearly.
Just as a person sees someone in a dream and recognises the person on waking, the wise one sees the form of the supreme being very clearly in a state of meditation. Just as the blade of a variety of grass contains a soft pith inside which can be separated from its covering, the wise one knows to see the self as different from the outer coverings of the body, mind and intellect.
For the one who can easily see the self as separate from the body complex, there is no other master in this universe. He is the master of the conscious waking world, sub-conscious dream world and unconscious deep sleep world. He has now the power to assume any form that he wishes. He transcends old age and death. He neither worries nor is extremely happy about anything.
Having transcended the ephemeral trappings of the body, he gains the ability to live like a god and even attains that state of the inexhaustible Brahma.
Having realised the oneness of his self in all, he is no longer afraid when beings around him get destroyed and killed. When other creatures go through trouble and suffering, his placid and calm mind knows no agitation.
The person who has realised his true nature is free of desire and is endowed with a peaceful mind. Hence even when there is raging sorrow born out of attachment, his mind is ever calm and unattached. With a well-integrated mind absorbed in the self no sword can pierce such a person nor does he know of anything called death. There exists no other joyful person other than him. With a mind that is united and resting in its own self, old age and sorrow has left him and he sleeps for ever in peace.
He can take up any lifestyle he wishes with such power of yoga after having dropped the body of a human being. That all this is the power of yoga should not be forgotten even while enjoying all the pleasures of the world. A yogi who has realised the self, has no great attraction for anything else in the world, even for the throne of Indra, the king of gods.
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