Yoga Vasishtha

Vasishta Yoga Samhita (Sanskrit: योगवासिष्ठम्, IAST: yoga-vāsiṣṭham; also known as Mokṣopāya or Mokṣopāyaśāstra, and as Maha-Ramayana, Arsha Ramayana, Vasiṣṭha Ramayana, Yogavasistha-Ramayana and Jnanavasistha, is a historically popular and influential syncretic philosophical text of Hinduism, dated to the 11th—14th century CE.

According to Mainkar, writing in 1977, the text started as an Upanishad, which developed into the Laghu Vasistha, incorporating Buddhist ideas, and then, between 1150 and 1250, the Yoga Vasistha, incorporating Shaivite Trika ideas. According to Slaje, writing in the 2000s, the Mokṣopāya was written in Kashmir in the 10th century. According to Hanneder and Slaje, the Mokṣopāya was later (11th to the 14th century) modified, showing influences from the Saivite Trika school, resulting in the Yogavāsiṣṭha, which became an orthodox text in Advaita Vedanta.

The text is attributed to Maharishi Valmiki, but the real author is unknown. It is named after sage Vasistha who is mentioned and revered in the seventh book of the Rigveda. The complete text contains over 29,000 verses, while the short version of the text, called Laghu yogavāsiṣṭham, contains 6,000 verses, translated into Persian by the 15th-century.

The text has a philosophical foundation similar to Advaita Vedanta, and expounds the principles of Maya and Brahman, as well as the principles of non-duality. and its discussion of Yoga. The text is structured as a discourse of sage Vasistha to Prince Rama, and consists of six books, describing the search for liberation through self-effort and meditation, and presenting cosmology and metaphysical teachings of existence embedded in stories and fables.