Yoga Vāsiṣṭha — A Spiritual Text on Advaita Vedānta and Liberation The Yoga Vāsiṣṭha is one of the longest and most elaborate treatises on Advaita Vedānta in the Sanskrit canon — a vast dialogue between the sage Vāsiṣṭha and the young prince Rāma, composed to address the deep existential despondency that overtook Rāma after a period of pilgrimage, when the vanity and suffering of ordinary life became apparent to him. The text covers the nature of existence, the illusory nature of the world, the mind and consciousness, and the path to liberation. Its form is narrative — story after story unfolding within stories — because Vāsiṣṭha understood that the intellect grips an abstract argument only for a moment, while a…