Introduction to Vedas and Vedanta - Part 29

SAMADHANA- MENTAL BALANCE

Samadhana is concentration of mind. Be attentive always on that which you are seeking. 

Your eye is always on that, like the consciousness of a target of a bowman who strikes it with an arrow. Concentration is the consciousness inside, fixing itself with its attention on that which it wants. 

When you want a thing, why should you not be concentrating on it? People say, “I want a thing, but my mind cannot go there”. The reason is that you are not really wanting it. 

You have got a divided psyche, and so half of the mind goes somewhere else, and another fraction of it goes to what you are thinking you want. 

If you really want the thing, the mind must go there; and when the mind is not going there, you are not really wanting it. Thus knowing, concentrate your mind.

  

Sri Sankaracharya defines in 'atma-anatma viveka': 'whenever a mind engaged in sravana - hearing - and the rest wanders to any worldly object or desire, and finding it worthless, returns to the performance of the three exercises - such returning is called samadhana'.

The mind is free from anxiety amid pains. There is indifference amid pleasures. There is stability of mind or mental poise. The aspirant or practitioner lives without attachment. 

He neither likes nor dislikes, he has a great deal of strength of mind and inner peace, he has unruffled supreme peace of mind. 

Some aspirants have peace of mind when they live in seclusion, when there are no distracting elements or factors, they complain of great tossing of mind - viksepa - when they come to a city, when they mix with people, they are completely upset. They cannot do any meditation in a crowded place.

This is a weakness. This is not achievement in samadhana. There is no balance of mind or equanimity in these persons. Only when a student can keep his balance of mind, even in a battlefield when there is a shower of bullets all round, as he does in a solitary cave in the himalayas, can he be really said to be fully established in samadana.

Lord Krishna says in the Gita:

'Perform all actions, o dhananjaya,

dwelling in union with the divine,

renouncing attachments,

and balanced evenly in success and failure.'

This is samadhana. 

Again you will find in the Gita: 

'the disciplined self, moving among the sense objects

with senses freed from attraction and repulsion,

mastered by the self, goeth to peace.'

This is also samadhana.

Love.

Dayananda Saraswati

Introduction to Vedas and Vedanta - Part 28

SHRADDHA- FAITH

Shraddha is the faith in that which you are asking for. You should not go to God with a doubt whether He is, or He is not. “O God, if you are there, please come”. He is certainly there. “God is certainly there. It is certain that I am going to attain it. 

It is certain that the method I am adopting is correct. It is certain that I am progressing every day. I have symptoms and experiences which tell me that I am progressing every day”. 

Have faith in yourself, faith in the art of the progressive practice of sadhana, faith in God Himself, faith in the scripture which are your guides, and faith in the Guru also. Shraddha is faith in your own self first, faith in the method of practice which you are adopting, faith in your Guru who has initiated you, and faith in the existence of God.

Faith in God is the first step to God-realization. Not an iota of progress is ever possible in the path of spirituality without faith. The faith must be a living faith. It must be unwavering faith. Lack of faith is a stumbling block in the path of realization. 

Faith develops into Bhakti or devotion to God. Faith is the gateway to the Kingdom of God. It is the threshold to the Knowledge of God. Faith gives strength and removes anxieties and uneasiness of mind. Faith is therefore a powerful mental tonic.

Faith is one of the important items in the Shad-Sampat or six fold virtues of the four means of salvation or Sadhana Chatushtaya in the path of Jnana. 

Even Patanjali Maharshi, the exponent of Raja Yoga philosophy lays much stress on faith. 

He says: 

"Sraddha veerya smriti samadhi prajna - purvaka itaresham"

(To others (this Samadhi) comes through faith, energy, memory, concentration and discrimination of the real.)

He has placed Shraddha (faith) in the very beginning of this Sutra. He has given prominence to this. If a man has faith, then energy, memory etc., come by themselves. 

He will collect all his energies and remember the ultimate Tattva and will exert to realize the basic Reality. Let me repeat the words of the Gita here – “He who is full of faith obtaineth wisdom, and he also who hath mastery over his senses; and having obtained wisdom he goeth swiftly to the Supreme Peace. 

But the ignorant, faithless, doubting self goeth to destruction; nor this world, nor that beyond, nor happiness is there for the doubting self”. (IV, 39-40)

Faith can work miracles. Faith can work wonders. Faith can move mountains. Faith can reach a realm where reason dare not enter. There is nothing impossible under the sun for the man of faith to accomplish. 

Have therefore absolute and unshakable faith in God, in the power of RAMA NAM, in the Vedas and the scriptures and in the teachings of your Guru and, last but not the least, in your own self. 

In the path of wisdom, shraddha is faith in our srutis,, faith in the need for acquiring the 4 qualifications itself, faith and surrender to the Guru who is to impart Brahma Jnana to you, Faith and conviction that Intense Sadhana is MUST for progress along the lines of Guru's instructions.... so on.....!!

Actually, there is no English translation for the  expression and for the experience of " Shraddha". 

As a disciple progresses in his sadhana, he actually experiences " shraddha" which he himself will not be able to explain.

This is the master-key for success in life and God-realization or attainment of Divine Consciousness.

Love.