Dhyana Vahini - Post 41 (concluding post)

Chapter XIV

Dear All,

 

All good things must come to an end.

Dhyana Vahini blog posts END today, with the only aim to invoke an irresistible urge in you to BEGIN your spiritual journey, with a re-kindled spirit, with a conviction now, like never before.

"Be comfortable in all environments

The capacity to concentrate is a very useful qualification. You must watch the vagaries of your own mind — how it travels, what objects it runs after, etc.— and, slowly, by means of meditation, you should teach it to stay still and to behave beneficially.

Do not worry about the unsatisfactory environment you may have. Of course, the place may have some drawbacks and it may not be ideal. But it is no use trying to run away from all that. You can overcome the drawbacks by training your own mind. Stay in your environment and pray to the Lord! 

Pray that He may fill you with His thoughts and His vision, making you ignore the defects of the environment. Do not seek comfort, for comfort might not be conducive to meditation. Learn to be comfortable in any place; that is better. 

Live in joy wherever you are; that is the way. Revel in the realm of your mind; worship in the mind the Lord you have chosen as your goal and be free of all the defects of the natural or human environment! Then, no spot can be irksome to you, nor will any place seem disgusting.

Concluding admonitions

Pride is an insidious vice, so at the slightest inkling of the disease, try your best to eradicate it by retiring into a lonely spot and engaging yourself in meditation. Delay is dangerous. “Even divine nectar (amrita) becomes a poison if the dose is delayed,” says the proverb. Remember this and act swiftly. Meditation stills the agitated mind and makes it clear and full of joy.

Many in this world, even among the learned, do not spend their allotted span of life in the pursuit of certain selected ideals. Hence, their earthly careers are like the voyage of a storm-tossed ship that has lost both its anchor and its compass and is caught in mid-ocean. 

They are torn between opposing ideals and goals; they listen to diverse appeals; and their lives end in waste and failure, for they say one thing and do another in their ignorance and fear. Meditation gives them fixity of purpose, courage, and wisdom.

The feelings that arise in the mind, which are classified as serene, restless, and ignorant (sathwic, rajasic, and thamasic), also have to be watched and cleansed. The restlessness and ignorance have to be uprooted. Meditation is the weapon for this task.

The path of meditation (dhyana-marga) will destroy ignorance (a-jnana), and it will grant the individual union with the Godhead (Brahmaikyatha). 

 Introspection on the concluding post

Swami has emphasized on the following things in this last, concluding part of Dhyana Vahini

1)     Do not pay attention to the unfavorable environment for taking up Dhyana.

2)    Don’t try to run away from your existing environment to a better environment, if you have not still controlled your mind.

3)    Stay wherever you are and take up meditation intensely

4)    Get rid of “pride” which is a worst quality.

5)    Do not delay sadhana, do not delay meditation. Don’t get stuck up between your desires and your goal. 

6)    Watch the three qualities of Rajas, Tamas and Satvic arising in you, transcend all of them through meditation.

7)     The path of meditation (dhyana-marga) will destroy ignorance (a-jnana), and it will grant the individual union with the Godhead (Brahmaikyatha). 

We will delve on the 5th point today, which is the concluding post on this theme, given to us by the Avatar.

A disciple of Swami Sivananda writes,

“An aspirant put this question once to the Holy Mother of the Aurobindo Ashram: "I have been practising Sadhana for so many years, but there has been no significant progress. Why?” Said the Holy Mother: "Because you have not taken the spiritual plunge!" 

To the same question put by different aspirants at different times, Gurudev Sivananda used to say: "You have not progressed much, because you have not given 100% of your mind to God, because you have not given your whole mind to God".

It is the same answer given in two different ways. Most aspirants stand on the shore of the spiritual sea, deliberating whether to take the spiritual plunge or not. This deliberation, this hesitation, this vacillation, goes on for years. 

As long as this vacillation is there, there is little progress. Because the mind is not made up. If the plunge is not taken, the lower mind retains its strong hold on the aspirant. The worldly Samskaras have their sway. The earthly Vasanas rule supreme. They put up a tough fight. In this tug-of-war which goes on in the mind of the aspirant, the lower mind exercises the stronger pull.

Think of a foolish child in a dark room which cries for light, while at the same time refusing to come out into the open. Identical is the position of the weak-kneed Sadhak who refuses to give his whole mind over to God, who refuses to take his feet off the world, who refuses to take the spiritual plunge, but keeps crying all the time that there is no light in his life, that there is no spiritual progress. How can the Sadhak have spiritual progress when he is refusing to enter the spiritual waters?

"You cannot have light and darkness at the same time. You cannot have nectar and poison in the same cup." How many times has not Sivananda stressed this basic point that a person can have either this world or that, but not both! Yet, if you check on the generality of spiritual seekers all over the world, you will find that their feet are clinging fast to earth and things earthly, while a fraction of their mind is vaguely given over to God.

Now, who can take the spiritual plunge? Who will take the spiritual plunge? He will take the spiritual plunge who feels that the world is afire. He who feels suffocated in the world, who feels he is being roasted in the world as if in a furnace, will long with his full mind, with the entirety of his mind, to take an immediate plunge in the ambrosial waters, in the cooling waters, of the spiritual sea. He who is totally disgusted with the world will yearn to get away from it all by entering the spiritual path. He will not retrace his steps. He will not look back. He will not become a spiritual turncoat.

In normal day-to-day life, we do not generally act unless compelled by external circumstances or inner motivations. Very often, action starts only when it becomes inescapable or inevitable, only when it becomes a dire necessity. To cite a couple of common instances, the child in its cosy bed does not get up in the morning until it is time for school. The father does not think of his daughter’s marriage until she is grown up.

And if you look closely into it, all actions, even the most humdrum actions of daily life, are coloured by a sense of urgency in the moments immediately preceding those actions. In other words, action results only from a sense of urgency. Thought or desire must reach a state of urgency in order to precipitate into action, in order to materialize into action.

In the moment preceding any action, the desire to perform that action, the thought to perform that action; comes to a climax. 

That is why perhaps my revered Master Sivananda once told a visitor, with regard to a particular course of action, "Want to do it!" "Want to do it!" was the sage’s simple advice. But, what a wealth of meaning! What deep psychological implications! 

Buddha realized, because he sat under the Bodhi tree with the firm resolve: "I must realize God now". In recent times, Sivananda resorted to Sadhana and the Swargashram jungle with the same resolve. And he too realized.

Ramana realized, because a sense of urgency possessed him to get out of the inscrutable fear that filled his heart. He had to find an answer to the question, "Who am I?" And find out he did.

If this element of compelling urgency is not there in the life of a spiritual aspirant, his progress is bound to be slow, because complacent Sadhana is no Sadhana. Sadhana is a battle. And a battle is not fought with complacency. If it is fought so, it will end in defeat and regret.

Is Samsara burning you? If your answer is "Yes", and on top of it if you are a practising Sadhak, there is every chance of your success. The Sadhak who is hard-pressed by Samsaric fire will act like the cornered cat. He will give battle and fiercely too.

Gurudev tells the story of a certain Chaubey who wanted to go from Mathura to Varanasi by boat and went on rowing all night only to find himself at the same point in Mathura the next morning. Bystanders pointed to the bewildered Chaubey that his boat was secured to the bank and he had not untied the rope. So, if you are tied to the world through kith and kin, through position and power, through desires and cravings of all sorts, then do not ever dream of going anywhere near God despite all the mechanical Sadhana you may do!

Before you become completely old, before you become an ugly old man, an object of ridicule and contempt for others, before senility overtakes you, plunge into Sadhana. Think of God. Your efforts will be rewarded, and the rewards will exceed your best expectations. Your body may grow old, but your spirit is ever young. 

Identify yourself with the Spirit within. Do Sadhana. Evolve. God will bless you. The world will respect you. You will be at peace and you will radiate peace. Do not delay. Waste not time. Be up and doing. Start the spiritual life today. Remember: IT IS AN URGENT TASK.

We end this post with Swami's reminder

"START EARLY, DRIVE SLOWLY, REACH SAFELY"

 

Love.