The Story of Gādhi — The Illusion of Birth and Death

(from Yoga Vāsiṣṭha Tales)

Opening Scene
When dawn broke across the forest hermitage, Prince Rāma bowed before the sage and asked,
“Master, if the world is born of the mind, what of death? Does the soul truly leave the body, or does even death belong to illusion?”

Vāsiṣṭha’s eyes sparkled like sunlight upon water.
“Listen well, O Rāma,” he said. “Even death is but a shadow in the dream of life. Let me tell you the story of Sage Gādhi, who entered that dream and awoke laughing.”

---

The Sage and the River

Sage Gādhi was born in a noble family of ascetics. He was pure in conduct, devoted to truth, and blessed with insight. Yet one question haunted him: What happens after death?

He prayed to the divine that he might know this mystery — not through teaching, but by experience.

One day, while performing his morning ablutions in the river, he felt a strange dizziness. The world blurred. The sound of flowing water grew distant, then vanished. He fainted — or so it seemed.

---

A New Birth

When Gādhi opened his eyes, he was no longer a sage but a fisherman’s son — lying beside the sea in a small hut. He grew up as “Kāpaṭa,” the son of a humble couple, learning to cast nets and live by the tides.

Years passed. He married, had children, and worked hard to survive. He laughed, wept, aged — forgetting all about his former life as a sage.

Then one stormy night, while rowing his boat, lightning struck. The sea roared, the waves swallowed him, and darkness claimed all.

---

Return to the River

Gādhi awoke with a gasp — back in his ascetic body, standing knee-deep in the same river, his palms still cupped with water. The sun had not yet moved an inch in the sky.

He staggered to the shore, trembling. “What was that?” he whispered. “A dream? A vision? A birth and death within a moment?”

For years, he pondered this mystery. The memories of his fisherman life were as vivid as his present one — the faces of his wife and children, the smell of the sea, the pain of death. Everything was real… and yet, nothing had truly happened.

---

The Realization

At last, in meditation, the truth dawned:

“The mind alone creates birth and death.
Consciousness, unchanged and eternal, only reflects these passing scenes.”

He saw that his “death” as Kāpaṭa and his “birth” as Gādhi were two ripples in the same infinite awareness. Life was not a line from birth to death — it was a circle of thought within the still ocean of Being.

Smiling, he whispered, “I have seen the illusion dissolve. What dies is the dream, not the dreamer.”

---

Vāsiṣṭha’s Teaching

When the story ended, Rāma sat in silence, the forest wind playing through the leaves.

Vāsiṣṭha said softly,
“O Rāma, even when you dream of dying, you wake untouched. So too, the Self remains untouched by the births and deaths of bodies and worlds.

The wise mourn not for the dead, nor crave for birth — for they see life and death as two sides of the same mirror.”

---

Essence

What we call life is the dream of the mind;
what we call death is only its turning page.
The Self neither comes nor goes —
it simply is.