"The
contemplation of the Lord must proceed in union with the dharmic life. This
type of life has no need for status, scholarship, or vanity. The latter only
lead people astray. It is only through this life that the mind and the
intellect can be controlled, the knowledge (vidya) of Atma cultivated, and the will sublimated.
A good
character is essential for the realization of the Atma. In other words, all
evil propensities have to be uprooted. Just as the army becomes dispirited and
surrenders when the commander falls, so the army of evil qualities will
surrender its arms as soon as egotism (ahamkara) is destroyed.
The evil
qualities are all natives of the realm of anger, so if that region is
devastated, the soldiers can never again raise their heads. It is enough to accomplish
this alone, for what can commander Egotism achieve without a single soldier to
march under his orders?
So, all
efforts must be directed to destroy the realm of anger so that no commander can
venture to let loose the hounds of war. Let each spiritual aspirant preserve
the region of his mind in peace, by putting a stop to the rise of this
commander and these soldiers. Let each spiritual aspirant bask forever under
the smile of the ruler, the Atma.”
The eight gates
The
destruction of the modifications and agitations of the mind is the prerequisite
for getting an audience with that ruler. His reception hall has eight gates
through which one has to pass for the audience: control of the inner senses,
control of the outer senses, sitting posture, breath control, mind control,
concentration, meditation, and super-consciousness (yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, prathyahara, dharana, dhyana, and
samadhi).
Of these
eight gates, meditation is the seventh and super-consciousness is the eighth.
Meditation is the royal road to super-consciousness.
After the
mind has been brought under control by these eight disciplines, the will can
easily be developed. The will is the nature of the Lord; it is also referred to
as the Lord’s ordinance. The Lord, by mere willing, can do anything immediately
and easily.
But one
cannot realize this will as soon as it is entertained. The power of the will is
the deciding factor. The will is generally not so overpoweringly strong; when
one achieves that power, one gets something equal to the power of the Lord.
That is the meaning of merger (laya). Such merger is made possible through meditation (dhyana).
Introspection
A yogi
writes,
Dhyana
[meditation] is the unbroken flow of awareness [ekatanata] of that [desha or object].
Ekatanata
can also mean the unbroken extension or movement along something–in this case
the subtle stream of Om. Meditation is the unbroken
experience-awareness-movement within the subtle sound-mutations of Om.
Meditation
is continuity of the experience of the meditation-object in that are, a stream
of identical vrittis [waves, modifications] untouched by any other vritti,”
says Vyasa.
To induce
meditation we produce a stream of identical waves in the chitta by the mental
intonations of Om until that stream becomes a continuous unitary flow of
increasingly rarefied sound, a single object or wave that is “untouched” by any
other thought or impression.
Meditation (dhyana) is “a stream of identical vrittis as a unity, a continuity of
vrittis not disturbed by intrusion of differing or opposing vrittis. This is
dhyana.” So says Shankara. And He contrasts the beginning stage of meditation,
dharana, with dhyana, saying: “Whereas in dharana there may be other
impressions of peripheral thoughts even though the chitta has been settled on
the object of meditation alone–for the chitta is functioning on the location [desha] as a pure mental process–it is not so with dhyana, for there it
[the object of meditation] is only the stream of a single vritti untouched by
any other vritti of a different kind.”
And How Such
Dhyana leads to Samadhi
“The same
[i.e. dhyana] when there
is consciousness only of the object of meditation and not of itself [the chitta] is samadhi.” This sutra is extremely difficult to translate. It
can also be put: “When that object of meditation alone appears therein in its
true or essential form [swarupa] as shunyam
[empty or void of all else, as a single thing alone], that is samadhi.”
Vyasa
comments on it in this way: “Dhyana, when it comes to shine forth in the form
of the meditation object alone, apparently empty of [or beyond] its own nature
as a vritti, and [the meditator] having entered the being of the meditation
object and become it–that is samadhi.”
Sankara’s
expansion on this statement of Vyasa makes it clear that meditation is being
spoken of: “Meditation, consisting of the idea-stream, having apparently given
up being a stream of one idea [vritti], is radiant as the form of the object, just as a clear crystal
shines out as the material on which it has been placed, and is apparently empty
of its own nature, and when, ‘having entered the being of the meditation
object,’ that being the cause of the thought [vritti], ‘becomes it,’ that very dhyana is samadhi.”
That is,
when the idea-stream of the repetitions of Om ceases to be a stream or movement
and becomes the shining of the pure consciousness of the self (spirit),
seemingly having become “empty of its own nature”–but only apparently so, for
consciousness is the essential nature of all being–including God. And when the
meditator has “entered the being of” Brahman and become It…that is samadhi.
Sankara then concludes that meditation is “the method whereby what was a stream
of ideas becomes, from entering the being of the meditation object, the very
form of that object.”
When all
other possible objects of awareness are excluded and the object of meditation
is perceived in its essential form absolutely devoid of any connotations or
even its nature as an object to be perceived–when it has become a “no thing”
through absolute oneness with the meditator–that is samadhi, the culmination of
meditation. Samadhi means oneness or sameness, the state when the meditator,
object of meditation, and meditation have become ONE.
Introspection
This is the
same as taught to seekers on the line “Aham Bhojanam Naiva Bhojyam na Bhokta”
in the nirvana shatakam sessions.
Also,for the
one who have carefully followed and absorbed to Attraction to Atma nivadanam
series of talks, this is the same as focussing on Krishna, all other objects
merging in Sri Krishna, with Krishna merging in the Devotee or Devotee merging
in Krishna, elaborately dealt in the talks in the backdrop of the song “Sai Aum Sai Aum Sai Aum - especially on the
line Nayan Nayan me Sai Aum”
Swami
continues,
Wish versus will
Some people
use “wish” and “will” as if there was no difference between the two. This is
very wrong. The wish is related to the tendencies (vasanas) embedded in the
mind (manas). The will is related to the fundamental character of Atma. Wish
means the craving to get something; will is the determination to acquire it.
Both wish
and will are based on the moral culture of the individual. Once the Atma is
cultivated, they can be sublimated accordingly. But if they are cultivated
without the Atmic point of view, the faults and failings of the mind will get
mixed up with what is wished for and willed for.
Introspection
After
devoting 4 talks on Karma theme, it would be enough to cover the above
invaluable lesson imparted by Swami in one line - WISH is Play of mind and WILL
is intense Purushartha, pointed towards one single goal- SELF REALIZATION.
Love.
