आमुक्तमाल्यदा (विजयनगर सम्राट् श्रीकृष्णदेवराय - गोदा देवी आण्डाल भक्ति एवं साम्राज्य-नीति)

20 Goda's Garland of Devotion
destroys the good deeds of the past. We belong to the great
Nimi dynasty. Hence wisdom has dawned upon you. The
thoughts ‘me’ and ‘mine’ are seeds for the tree of Ignorance.
Man thinks the body made of five elements is the soul. The
atman shines independent of the body. Things like house and
property are related to the body, not the soul. So too the
children. This body made of earth (Prithivi) is covered by
drink and food very much as a house with water and mud.
This soul has walked through the road of a thousand births
and is covered by the dust of Karma vasanas; it is down with
a sense of tiredness that is Ignorance. The tiredness will vanish
only when the dust is washed away by the warm water of
knowledge. Then will he gain Ananda consciousness.
As water when heated gets hot, makes hissing sounds and
boils over, the jiva gets various qualities like me and mine due
to connection with nature. But the soul is independent, in-
destructible, I have spoken of the evil effects of Ignorance.
Yoga alone can cure the ills”.
Kandikya then requested Kesidhwaja to enlighten him about
the Yoga. The latter agreed to do so with pleasure:
“One who follows that yoga and reaches the Brahman
never returns. If the mind holds on to the senses, it will lead
to Ignorance. If the mind keeps apart, Release is certain. The
mind should be withdrawn from the senses and made to con-
centrate upon Brahman. The Brahman itself will then trans-
form the jeevatma into a yogi as a magnet transforms the iron;
yoga is the act of connecting the mind to the Brahman by
conscious effort like self-control”.
Further, Kesidhwaja spoke about the various steps in yoga
like Brahmacharya, Svādhyaya and Asanas; having controlled
one’s breath by prāṇāyāma and senses by pratyahāra, one should
settle the mind in an auspicious state (subhaasraya). This subhaasraya
is the Parabrahman which is realised in two states. The apara (lower)
state has a body like Hiranyagarbha. The para (higher) state is
formless. As the aspirant (yogayuk or yunjanana) cannot concentrate
upon the formless which is Pure Knowledge, he should hook his
mind to the universal form of Lord Vishnu which is seen every-