Bhusunda the Crow - Immortality

Rama: "O Vasishtha, you have spoken of countless souls trapped in their mental creations. But are there beings who have transcended this? Is there anyone who has witnessed the cycles of creation themselves?"

Vasishtha: "Indeed there is, Rama. Let me tell you of Bhusunda, an immortal crow whom I once visited on Mount Meru. This remarkable being has lived through more cosmic cycles than can be counted. I found him sitting peacefully on a branch of the wish-fulfilling tree, unchanged by the passing of ages."

Rama: "A crow who has lived through multiple creations? How is this possible?"

Vasishtha: "Bhusunda explained it to me thus: 'I was once an ordinary crow, limited and mortal like any creature. But through deep meditation and the grace of my teacher, I came to understand the nature of consciousness. I realized that what I truly am was never born and therefore cannot die. The body of this crow has been sustained by that understanding—but my immortality is not of the body. It is the recognition that I am the deathless awareness in which all bodies, all worlds, all cosmic cycles appear and disappear.'"

Rama: "What has he witnessed in all those ages?"

Vasishtha: "He told me of watching countless Brahmas come and go—each one the creator of a universe, yet each one arising and dissolving like bubbles in water. He described seeing the very mountains of Meru form and crumble, seeing this earth created and destroyed numerous times, seeing gods and demons and all manner of beings arise and fade. 'Yet through all this,' Bhusunda said, 'I remain unmoved, for I have seen that I am not any of these appearances. I am the unchanging witness.'"

Rama: "Does he not become weary? Is there not boredom in such endless existence?"

Vasishtha: "I asked him this very question. He laughed and replied: 'Boredom arises only when the ego seeks new experiences for itself. When you know yourself as the formless consciousness, every moment is fresh because you are not accumulating experience. I watch the play of the cosmos with the same joy a child feels watching clouds—without grasping, without needing anything to be different. This is the secret of my contentment.'"

Rama: "How does he maintain a body through cosmic dissolutions, when everything is destroyed?"

Vasishtha: "Bhusunda explained that during the great dissolution, he enters a state of pure consciousness, suspended in the void where even space and time dissolve. When a new creation begins, his body reconstitutes itself—not by his will, but spontaneously, as the natural expression of his realized state. 'The body,' he said, 'is merely consciousness appearing as form. When you know this, the body becomes as pliable as dream-stuff.'"

Rama: "This gives me hope, O sage—that there is something beyond the endless rounds of birth and death."

Vasishtha: "Yes, Rama. What you truly are has never entered the cycle of birth and death. Only the imagined self—the mental construction—goes through these rounds. Bhusunda discovered his deathless nature while still wearing a crow's form. You can discover it while wearing the form of a prince. The form is irrelevant; only the recognition matters."