When the Mind Becomes the Maker

9th Sarga of Mumukshu Vyavahara Prakaranam of Yoga Vasishta -

श्रीराम उवाच ।

भगवन्सर्वधर्मज्ञ यत्प्राक्कर्मोपसंचितम् ।

तद्दैव दैवमित्युक्तमपमृष्ट कथं त्वया ।। ११

Rama speaks — not as a casual disciple, but as a warrior of truth.

He turns to Vasishta and says:

‘O revered one, knower of all dharma, master of all wisdom —
You say that what has already been gathered from past karma, the weight of what was done before…
That which the world calls destiny, daivam — you say even that can be wiped away.
How? How can you say that?’

Look at the beauty of this moment. Rama is not confused — he is challenging the very foundation of what every householder, priest, and philosopher has blindly accepted — that our past karma rules us, that daivam is inescapable. That we are bound, from birth, by chains we can’t even see.

And yet here is his Guru, Vasishta, speaking as though even that can be erased — apamrishtam. Wiped away like chalk from a board.

Rama’s heart burns with this question — because this is the dividing line.
Either destiny is unshakable and man is a puppet.
Or destiny is a myth — and the soul is free to rise.

He doesn’t ask for comfort.
He asks for truth.

And this is the cry of every real seeker:
‘If I am truly the architect of my freedom, then why do the echoes of old karma still chase me?
Why does my past bind me like a shadow in every step?
And if daivam is real — then what is the point of effort?’

This verse is not just Rama’s question.
It is our question —
yours, mine, everyone who’s ever stared at the ceiling at 2 am wondering, ‘Am I free? Or just following a script?’

Vasishta’s answer is about to shake that script to dust.

श्रीवसिष्ठ उवाच ।।

साधु राघव जानासि शृणु वक्ष्यामि तेऽखिलम् ।

दैवं नास्तीति ते येन स्थिरा बुद्धिर्भविष्यति ।। १२

Vasishta begins not with a scolding, not even with an explanation. He begins with respect.

‘Well done, Raghava. You have asked well.
Now listen — for I will tell you everything.’

There is love in his tone. Not the pampering kind — but the deep love a mountain has for a flame that dares to reach its peak.

And then, Vasishta hurls the lightning bolt:

‘So that your intellect may become unshakeable,
let me plant this truth in you —
There is no such thing as fate.
Daivam naasti.’

Pause. Read that again.
Not perhaps, not maybe, not sometimes fate is flexible.
He says, flat-out — There is no fate.

He doesn't mean that effects don’t follow causes. He doesn’t mean you can do anything and never face consequences. But what he does mean — is that you are not a prisoner.

You are not a plaything in the hands of invisible stars.
You are not born to serve past karma like a slave.
You are born to burn through it like a blazing sun.

Vasishta wants Rama — and us — to root this in the core of our being:
That the idea of ‘daivam’ as something external, fixed, or unbreakable is an illusion.
It is like a mirage that steals your willpower and feeds your helplessness.

And unless that illusion is shattered — your mind will never be sthira — stable, calm, unwavering.

Rama’s question was fire.
But this reply?
This is the axe that cuts through the deepest root of bondage.

या मनोवासना पूर्व बभूव किल भूरिशः ।

सैवेयं कर्मभावेन नृणां परिणतिं गता ।। १३

Vasishta continues — and now he drops the curtain on this so-called daivam.

‘That which was — in the past — a flood of mental impressions,
A storm of countless vasanas — tendencies, cravings, urges —
Those very mental ripples have now taken shape,
And become the “karma” you see playing out in men’s lives.’

Here, Vasishta cracks open the chest of destiny and shows what’s really ticking inside.

No gods in the sky.
No celestial script being read out by fate.
Just you — and your own mind.

Everything we call karma, or daivam, or destiny — is nothing but the mind’s own past echoing into the present.

Not random. Not inflicted.
Self-authored. Self-sustained. Self-transformed.

The desires we fed yesterday — not just once but again and again —
those subtle leanings,
those quiet cravings,
those intense aversions —
they formed patterns.

And those patterns? They didn’t just sit quietly.
They evolved into actions.
And those actions built our environment, our responses, our entire reality.

So what we call karma is really just the fruiting of vasanas —
Thoughts becoming tendencies, tendencies becoming habits, habits becoming action, action becoming result.

And we sit in the result and cry, ‘Oh fate, why me?’
But Vasishta says — ‘No, my dear. Why not you?’

You planted. You watered. You’re eating the fruit.
Not punishment — just consequence.

This isn’t cruel. This is empowering.
Because if your present was built by your past mind,
then your future can be rebuilt by your present mind.

Nothing is locked. No cosmic jailer holds your key.
Your mind is both the prisoner and the warden — and the one who walks free.

जन्तुर्यद्वासनो राम तत्कर्ता भवति क्षणात् ।

अन्यकर्मान्यभावश्चेत्येतन्नैवोपपद्यते ।। १४

Vasishta’s gaze sharpens. The words are simple — the truth behind them, earth-shaking.

‘O Rama, whatever vasana — whatever mental tendency — exists in a being,
That very moment, in that very breath,
He becomes the doer of action based on it.’

In other words, you don’t have to decide to act.
Your vasana decides for you.
The mind flows where it’s trained to go.
You may think you're in charge, but really, it's your accumulated mental impressions — old likes, dislikes, ego patterns — that pull the strings.

So, if at this moment your vasana is towards anger, even a tiny trigger will explode into rage.
If your vasana is toward compassion, even a thorn on the road will stir your heart.

You become the instrument of your own impressions.

And then Vasishta delivers a knockout punch:

‘To say that one has certain inner tendencies,
but acts in a totally different way — that is impossible.’

In short:
There is no such thing as innocent action.
No one accidentally becomes who they are.
Whatever you are doing, whatever you are becoming — it is the mirror of what’s inside.

If your actions don’t match your thoughts,
then your thoughts are not what you think they are.
There’s a deeper vasana beneath them. Dig there.

He’s demolishing excuses now.
‘I didn’t mean to say that.’
‘I don’t know what came over me.’
‘This isn’t who I am.’

Vasishta says — No, child. That is who you are.
That’s what came out — because that’s what was stored in the seed.’

This verse calls for one thing: radical self-honesty.
To stop hiding behind masks of circumstance and start owning the script we ourselves have written — sometimes in ink, sometimes in blood.

But the hidden blessing?
If vasana drives karma, and vasana lives in the mind — then the same mind can rewire itself.
Through clarity. Through viveka. Through sadhana.

You are the author of your bondage.
You are also the key to your freedom.

ग्रामगो ग्राममाप्नोति पत्तनार्थी च पत्तनम् ।

यो यो यद्वासनस्तत्र स स प्रयतते सदा ।। १५

Vasishta now opens up the truth with the simplicity of a farmer, but the precision of a sage:

‘One who desires a village goes to a village.
One who longs for the city moves toward the city.
Wherever a person’s vasana lies —
That is where he constantly strives, without fail.’

This is the anatomy of desire.
You don’t move because of external pressure.
You move because your vasanas pull you like a magnet.

Why does one man walk away from power while another chases it at the cost of sleep, shame, and self-respect?
Why does one person renounce the world, while another clings to possessions till their last breath?

It’s not fate. It’s not God writing a story from above.
It’s vasana — that subtle internal force shaped by repeated thoughts, cravings, fears, and attachments.

Vasishta isn’t being poetic here. He’s laying down law:

Your life doesn’t drift randomly. It flows in the exact direction of your deepest mental programming.

A man may say he wants peace, but if his vasana craves validation, he will unconsciously start conflicts.
Another may say he wants wealth, but if his vasana longs for detachment, he will sabotage every business chance that comes to him.

Wherever the deepest root lies — that’s where the branches grow.

So what is to be done?

Vasishta doesn’t say — ‘Kill your vasanas’.
He says: Know them. Watch them. Replace them.

Change cannot begin until you know where you are.
And you are exactly where your vasana has brought you.

This is not fatalism. It’s the first taste of real freedom.
Because once you see that your inner tendencies shape your outer path — you stop blaming and start transforming.

You can turn the cart.
You can rewire the pull.
But only if you stop pretending you’re not being pulled.

यदेव तीव्रसंवेगाद्दृढं कर्म कृतं पुरा ।

तदेव दैवशब्देन पर्यायेणेह कथ्यते ।। १६

Vasishta says —
‘That very action,
Which was once done by you with fierce effort, deep urgency,
With focus, with pressure, with burning intensity —
That very action, coming from such a state,
is what people now refer to as daivam — fate.’

Boom.

What is fate?

Not a mystical force.
Not some cosmic puppet master.

Fate is just the echo of your own past done with passion.

You were the one who acted with fire.
You were the one who built that momentum.
And now that wave has come back around —
and instead of owning it,
you call it fate.
You say ‘It was written’,
when in fact — you wrote it.

This is the bitter truth most minds don’t want to accept —
that we are living inside the consequences of our own intensity.

The world sees a man trapped in habits and says,
‘What can he do? It’s his fate.’
But Vasishta replies —
‘No. It’s just his past self’s ferocious choice, still unfolding.’

And the moment you see this, a door opens.
Because if intense action in the past became your daivam,
then intense self-effort in the present can rewrite that daivam.

Not with laziness.
Not with half-hearted japa or routine sadhana.
But with teevra samvega — fierce inner urgency.

You once acted with power.
That power became your fate.
Now act with a greater power — and let that become your freedom.

एवं कर्मस्थकर्माणि कर्मप्रौढा स्ववासना ।

वासना मनसो नान्या मनो हि पुरुषः स्मृतः ।। १७

Vasishta speaks now with crystalline clarity. Everything till now has been leading to this:

‘Thus it is, O Rama —
All the karma that exists, all that is happening through the body, the senses, the world —
All of it is simply your vasana, your mental tendencies, expressing themselves through action.’

It’s not the world making you act.
It’s not circumstances, nor family, nor stars.
It is your vasana — ripened, matured, bloomed into karma.

But he goes one level deeper:

‘And vasana — where does that live?
It is not different from the mind.
Because mind itself is vasana.
And man is nothing but this mind.’

Let that sink in.

You are not some soul plus mind plus body cocktail floating in the universe.

According to this — you are your mind.
And that mind is a swirling mass of vasana — desires, fears, memories, ambitions, identities.

So when you say ‘I am like this’,
what you really mean is ‘My vasanas are like this.’

If a person is violent, it’s not an accident.
Their inner landscape is shaped by violent vasana.
If a person is peaceful, generous, creative —
those aren’t qualities they have.
Those are mental tendencies they’ve cultivated — or carried — over time.

And here comes the fire:

If your mind is your vasana,
and your vasana drives your karma,
then unless you burn through your vasanas, you will repeat your karma — again, and again, and again.

That’s the cycle.
Samsara is not a place.
It’s the looping mind — tied to itself by its own inertia.

And liberation?
Is not about destroying the world.
It’s about dissolving the vasana —
till the mind becomes still, transparent, weightless —
and you, the purusha, wake up from the dream.

So, Rama’s question — ‘What is fate?’ — is now answered in full.

Fate is just intensified, stored mind.
And freedom is pure mind, cleansed of its residues.

यदैवं तानि कर्माणि कर्म साधो मनो हि तत् ।

मनो हि षुरुषस्तस्माद्दैव नास्तीति निश्चयः ।। १८

Now Vasishta calls Rama saadho — not just a seeker, but a noble one, a worthy one.

Because this knowledge isn’t for the passive.
It’s for those ready to wake up — those brave enough to rip the illusion off their own soul.

He says:

‘Since all actions, O noble one,
Are but expressions of the mind,
And since karma is nothing but mind in motion —
And the mind alone is what we call man —
Therefore, it must be known with final certainty:
There is no such thing as fate.
Daivam naasti iti nischayah.’

He doesn’t leave it open-ended.
He doesn’t say ‘perhaps’, or ‘in some cases’.
He says — this is the only conclusion worth engraving into your bones.

Let’s break this apart:

1. Karma is mind.
   What you do is what you think.
   The action is the fruit, but the thought — the vasana — is the seed.
   
   
2. Mind is man.
   You are not separate from your mental structure.
   Your identity, your choices, your joys, your miseries — all flow from there.
   
   
3. Therefore, daivam — fate — is fiction.
   A label we slap onto the results of our own inner storms.
   
   

This isn’t just philosophy. It’s a call to arms.
Because if there is no external daivam,
then you alone bear the responsibility — and the power — to transform your life.

No more blaming.
No more waiting.
No more hoping some star in some sky will suddenly favor you.

You are the star.
You are the planet.
You are the orbit — and the liberation from orbit.

This is Vasishta’s shuddha-vakyam — purest truth, boiled down to its essence.

And this is why the Yoga Vasishta is not a book for bedtime — it’s a scripture for the soul ready to break its own walls.

एष एव मनोजन्तुर्यद्यत्प्रयतते हितम् ।

कृतं तत्तदवाप्नोति स्वत एव हि दैवतः ।। १९

Now Vasishta reveals the real daivam — not the daivam of superstition and helplessness,
but the daivam that lives and breathes within you.

He says:

‘This very being — born of mind —
Whatever he puts effort into, whatever he works for, sincerely,
He receives exactly that as the result.
Because — and this is the key —
He himself is his own daivam.’

Svata eva hi daivatah — from himself, he becomes his own fate.

What a stunning reversal.

No temple bell. No planetary alignment. No horoscope chart.

The moment you act with conscious effort toward your welfare,
you awaken a hidden force inside —
and that becomes your guiding daivam.

So when someone says:

‘Will I succeed?’ — Vasishta answers, ‘Will you strive with fire?’

‘Will this puja help?’ — ‘Will your mind align with its intent?’

Because every time you act with clarity, purpose, dharma, and full presence —
you become the architect of the outcome.

This verse shifts the entire center of gravity inward.

You don’t hope for grace —
you invoke it through your own right action.

And when you walk that path,
your own self becomes your luck, your god, your guiding star.

This is not arrogance.
This is not ego.

This is the highest empowerment — the kind only the sages can give.
Not sugar. Not sentiment. Strength.

The journey doesn’t end in surrender to an unknown hand.
It begins when you recognize the daivam already inside you —
shaped by your will, carved by your effort, lit by your clarity.

मनश्चित्तं वासना च कर्म दैवं च निश्चयः ।

राम दुर्निश्चयस्यैताः संज्ञाः सद्भिरुदाहृताः ।। २०

Now Vasishta lines up the whole army of words we use — and unmasks them one by one:

‘Mind… thought… vasana… karma… fate… decision…
Rama, these are all just different names
given by the wise to describe the same unclear, unawakened mind.’

Yes. Read that again.

All these fancy terms that people throw around —
'That’s my karma…'
'This is fate…'
'The mind is like this…'
'My vasanas are strong…'
'My chitta is disturbed…'
'It’s written in my stars…' —

Vasishta says — Stop. It’s all just one thing — a confused mind.

And the sages — the sadbhih, those who see clearly —
they only use these words so the confused can start somewhere.
But make no mistake — behind all these labels is just one problem:
lack of clarity.
Dur-nishchaya — poor, hazy, indecisive, misdirected understanding.

And that’s the root of all suffering.

So what do we do?

We stop dancing with these labels.
We stop fighting shadows.
And we face the source — the restless, reactive, samsara-spinning mind.

Once that is stilled, once you pierce through its false layers…
there’s no karma left to fear.
No daivam left to blame.
No vasana left to chase.
There’s only clarity.
And in clarity, freedom.

This verse is like a sudden bell ringing in a foggy valley.
Everything you've believed till now about destiny and fate —
Vasishta gathers them all, folds them up, and drops them into fire.

No more philosophy. No more analysis.

From now on, it’s only about waking up.

एवंनामा हि पुरुषो दृढभावनया यथा ।

नित्यं प्रयतते राम फलमाप्नोत्यलं तथा ।। २१

Here, Vasishta brings it all home. He says:

‘O Rama,
A man becomes what he names himself to be —
what he identifies with —
through firm, unwavering bhavana — deep feeling, deep conviction.’

Let’s pause here.

Dridha-bhavana is not some casual wish or lazy dream.
It’s the iron vow in the core of your being.
It’s when your bones, breath, and blood all speak the same resolve.

Not lip-service.
Not outer rituals.
But inner alignment — total energetic commitment to a vision.

And then he says:

‘That man — who lives with such steady resolve,
who strives every single day in that direction —
he most certainly receives the fruit.
Not just a little — but fully. Abundantly.’

Phalam aapnoti alam — he gets the result, completely, without doubt.

No exceptions. No footnotes.

You want to know the real formula behind success in sadhana, in dharma, in anything?

Here it is:

• Dridha bhavana — the rock-solid feeling in the heart: I will.
  
  
• Nitya prayatna — tireless, daily effort. No shortcuts. No skipping.
  
  
• And then? — Phalam aapnoti — the fruit must follow. That’s the law. That’s the daivam — your own inner daivam now awakened.
  
  

The world may tell you — ‘Maybe it’ll happen.’
Vasishta says — ‘If your inner fire is steady and your effort is true, it will happen.’

So finally, fate is redefined —
not as some distant force,
but as the inevitable result of disciplined inner conviction.

This verse is not just reassurance — it’s a blueprint for mastery.

You don’t need blessings from ten temples.
You don’t need perfect stars.

You need:

• One clear thought
  
  
• One firm resolve
  
  
• And daily action rooted in dharma.
  
  

Do this, and life bends. Not maybe. Not someday. But surely.

एवं पुरुषकारेण सर्वमेव रधूद्वह ।

प्राप्यते नेतरेणेह तस्मात्स शुभदोऽस्तु ते ।। २२

Vasishta speaks now not as a philosopher — but like a father, like a warrior-mentor handing the sword to the prince:

‘O scion of the Raghu race —
Know this firmly:
It is only through purushakara — personal effort, human endeavor,
That everything is attained.’

Not some things. Not most things.
Everything. Sarvam eva.

And he says it clearly:

‘Nothing is gained by any other means in this world.’

Not rituals without understanding.
Not prayers without presence.
Not fate, not luck, not leaning on someone else’s tapasya.

Only purushakara.
Only that fire in your chest,
Only that hand that doesn’t give up,
Only that step that keeps moving even when the road disappears.

This is Vasishta’s spiritual doctrine of self-mastery.
No begging. No waiting.
Only walking — steady, straight, inward.

And then — the final line:

‘May that force — that purushakara —
bring you only good, Rama.
May it be your shubhada — your bringer of blessings.’

This is not an empty wish.
This is the highest form of ashirvada —
A blessing that says:

‘You don’t need anything else.
You have the power.
Use it — and you will not fail.’

This is not just the end of a philosophical teaching.
It’s the ignition of a seeker’s inner sun.

You now know the truth:

• There is no daivam (fate/destiny) outside you.
  
  
• Your mind, your vasana, your effort — they are the only gods at play.
  
  
• And if you move with clarity and fire — nothing can stop you.

In the 9th Sarga of Mumukshu Vyavahara Prakaranam, Sage Vasishta tears down the illusion of fate and declares with fierce clarity — man is not a puppet of karma or daivam. It is dridha bhavana and nitya prayatna, firm resolve and daily effort, that shape one’s life. The mind, driven by vasanas, is the true architect of destiny. Nothing is gained by waiting on fate; everything is achieved through self-effort. This is not just philosophy — it is empowerment. Vasishta blesses Rama, and through him all seekers: Let purushakara be your guide, and may it bring you only good.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi