Swami Sivananda

 

 

“The divine within you is stronger than anything that is without you. Therefore, be not afraid of anything. Rely on your own Inner Self, the Divinity within you. Tap the source through looking within. Improve yourself. Build your character. Purify the heart. Develop the divine virtues. Eradicate evil traits. Conquer all that is base in you. Endeavor to attain all that is worthy and noble. Make the lower nature the servant of the higher through discipline, Tapas, self-restraint and meditation. This is the beginning of your freedom.”

 

 Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj

 

Dhyana Vahini - Post 9

Chapter III

 

Reaching the goal through meditation

 

Through meditation, it is possible to bring into memory the paradise that is one’s empire, discarding the transitory creations of the mind as a dream and a delusion. By engaging oneself systematically and calmly in meditation. Meditation can be made effective and tranquil. 

 

Thus, the road toward the highest experience is laid. A new understanding dawns, clear and unruffled. When the heights of meditation are reached, this understanding becomes so strong that one’s lower nature is destroyed and burned to ashes! Then, only “You” remain! The entire creation is a delusion of your mind! One alone IS truth (sathya), the Lord, Being-Awareness-Bliss (satchidananda), the highest Atma; the ONE is the Self (Sivoham).

 

The truth (sathya) is so subtle and so soothing. Once it is reached, there is no meditation and no meditator; all merge into One. That is the fixed, illumined experience. Exulting within that one is pure knowledge, the wise one (jnani) will be aware only of Atmic bliss (Atma-anubhava). That is the goal, the fruit of immortality. 

 

Attaining this transcendent experience, the yogi finishes meditation and moves among people resplendent with divinity! In the yogi, the Vedas find fulfillment. The yogi is transformed into a pure being. Only meditation has the capacity to make one transcend the vicissitudes of time and space and make one ever the same equanimous individual, as if one is another Creator himself.

 

Once the individual (jivi) is on the way toward the goal, the individual will derive full contentment from themself and discover within themself the source of bliss. The cravings and ambitions, delusions and falsehoods, and animal needs and antics that were worrying the individual till then all vanish. 

 

Since the Atma pervades all, equally and steadily, the individual also loses the “I-ness” and gets immersed in its inherent divine status. Such a person is the real great soul (mahatma), a liberated soul (jivan-muktha). Fullness is bliss (ananda); bliss is peace (santhi).

 

Those who do not give up the path of discrimination (vichara marga) receive the grace of the Lord, and they also realize the Atma. They will always be seeking the eternal truth that lies behind the dream-like illusions of this world.

 

Control the senses (jnanendriyas), which run helter-skelter; then, the origins of the disease will be destroyed. Let the mind keep a watch over its gymnastics; dam up the mad flood of thoughts and plans and schemes; then there will be no room for worries and anxieties in the mind. 

 

To diminish the wanderings of your thoughts, repeat the name of the Lord; that will keep out your sorrows and troubles. Without the effacement of the mind, spiritual wisdom (jnana) cannot dawn. The full person is one who has succeeded in this.

Gain inward vision

 

The spiritual aspirant must first learn the secret of the “inward sight”, the “vision directed inward”, and take the attention away from the exterior. You have heard so far little about the inner world, but divine life is nothing but this method of “inward living”. Just as the baby, after learning to watch and understands, tries to toddle here and there at home, so also the spiritual aspirant learns to toddle in the inner world and understands it. A healthy baby in the cradle waves its arms and legs in glee and lisps in joy, watching the lamp on the wall. Similarly, the spiritual aspirant, also healthy in body, mind, and soul, lying in the cradle of life, watches the inner world and claps the hands ceaselessly in great glee at that inner joy. This has to be done.

 

Besides, every thought, every word, every deed has to proceed from the full consciousness of knowledge. Direct your intelligence not to wander about but to dwell constantly in the inner world! This is the inward quest (antar vimarsha), and meditation (dhyana) is the most important instrument needed for this.

 

The spiritual aspirant can enter the inner quest through the gate of self-examination. That gate accords welcome into the highest and holiest status possible in life to every aspirant who is endowed with humility and devotion.”

 

Swami Sivananda says,

 

"When your meditation becomes deep, you will lose consciousness of the body. 

The state of Samadhi is beyond description. There is no means or language to give expression to it. Even in worldly experience, you cannot express the taste of an apple to one who has not tasted it nor the nature of the colour to a blind man. The state is All-bliss, Joy and Peace. This much only can be said. One has to feel this himself."

 

Now, for the author’s experience in meditation, extract from the sharing covered in one of the concluding posts under the theme “Veda and vedanta” is given below.

 

Thus, continuing with nidhidhyasana daily, in the morning hours and then during many part of the day, the sadhaka could instantly align and merge with the absolute TRUTH and exist as PURE EXISTENCE (Sathyam) instantly and naturally.

 

In this state He could:-

 

Not differentiate between good beings and bad beings

 

Not differentiate between Man and woman, found and old.

 

Not relate to any relations in the past

 

Not recount any specific thing that happened in his past.

 

This is explained by the truth that the memory bank or the chitta is empty, all actions are undertaken / propelled by pure intellect and once action is performed, the impact of the action does not get stored in the mind, in chitta.

 

Not recall / think / contemplate on any form of any God, including his Sadguru and God Sai with whose grace, he could reach to this state.

 

Not relate to any of the wordings/ expressions / Bhava contained in any bhajan while singing any bhajan in the centre.  This is so because, the differentiation between God and himself was gone and there was nothing but God, the pure existence that existed.  

 

At this state of existence one is all alone and one is all complete, exactly as explained in the creation theme posts through Vedic verses when it is said that " HE/ THAT WAS ALONE, WITHOUT ANY THING APART FROM IT".

 

The Dheena hitherto, had merged with the Nadhi and ultimately with the endless ocean, the God supreme. Post-merger, the part that had merged, could never be withdrawn from the ocean!!!! The doll that was made of salt, had merged with the ocean that is salty, never to be withdrawn from the ocean to exist again as the salt doll!!

  

Love.

 

Dhyana Vahini - Post 8

Chapter III

Yearn for the right thing!

 

Swami continues,

 

“There are two types of people: one set on accusing themselves as sinners and the other flattering themselves as great. Both types are being worried by their own mental aberrations! What they both need is mental satisfaction, and this can be obtained by meditation. 

 

Through meditation, understanding will increase and wisdom will grow. For this, a person should develop interest in and a taste for meditation —that is to say, a yearning that admits of no other step and that will not tolerate any obstacle. Of course, one may yearn to hear music and derive joy there from or see the bodies of near relatives who have died and derive sorrow therefrom. Yearning may thus have pleasant or even unpleasant consequences. 

 

Yearning must have the strength to inspire endeavor. In fact, yearning is but dormant endeavor, and endeavor is yearning in action. When yearning is weak, endeavor declines; when one is strong, the other is also active.

 

Meditation gives concentration and success in all tasks. Through meditation alone, great personages and sages (rishis) have controlled their mental activities, directed them toward the pure (sathwic) path, established themselves at all times in contemplation of the Lord, and finally succeeded in achieving union with the Godhead. First, yearning, then selection of the goal, then concentration, and, through the discipline, conquest of the mind —that is the object of meditation.

 

One must give up the craving for material comfort and the attachment to sense objects. One must direct the false fears, the absurd desires, the sorrow, the worries, and the artificial pleasures that now fill mind. That is to say, one must discriminate and train oneself to realize that everything is as illusory as the ghost in the well! Everyone needs this self-education. The pathetic condition of everyone is due to its absence. Meditation is the remedy for this state of mind.”

 

Glimpses from yoga sutra on withdrawal of senses

 

In Yoga, Pratyahara is the withdrawal of the senses of cognition and action from both the external world and the images or impressions in the mind field. The senses are said to follow the mind in the same way the hive of bees follows the queen bee. Wherever she goes, they will follow. Similarly, if the mind truly goes inward, the senses will come racing behind. 

 

Withdrawing the senses does not mean just regulating the physical sense organs, such as closing the eyelids or sitting physically still. The senses are a mental function, and whenever that mental function is drawn to the objects of the mind field, there is active engagement of the senses. 

 

The willingness or unwillingness to withdraw attention from sensory experience is a significant dividing line between those who experience true meditation and those who experience only physical relaxation.

 

Swami Rama writes,

 

“All the things in the world have a name and form. Is there any form that does not go through change, death and decay? So, name and form are temporary aspects of that something which goes on changing. There is one word in Sanskrit for this world, samsara. It continues, goes on, like a river that goes on flowing. One mass of water passes, yet another mass comes, fills that gap and there is no gap at all. There is continuity. We will all go away, others will come. There will be continuity.

 

Herein lies a secret for the sadhaka, the aspirant. To turn the consciousness within, you will have to use a method of withdrawing the senses from the external world. If you analyze two things in your life, one called pain and another called pleasure, you will come to know that pain and pleasure, these two stimuli, are received when your senses contact matter. 

 

So all the time, with the help of your senses, you are in contact with the objects of the external world. You do not know how to withdraw your senses. That is why on the eight runged ladder of yoga, ashtanga yoga, the fifth rung, pratyahara or sensory withdrawal, is very important. You should learn to withdraw your senses, to turn inward, because the senses make you contact the external world and that’s why you feel pain and pleasure. You have to be free from pain and pleasure; you can be free!”

  

Love.