Dhyana Vahini - Post 27

Chapter X

Be ever joyful and sweet

“For this spiritual discipline, you must cultivate the quality of always being joyful, with a smile on your face; this will give you good distinction. People will also like you more. So, the Lord will also have joy upon seeing you. Therefore, observe meditation with innocence, purity, and humility.

Then, without fail, you can attain whatever you strive for. Do not lose your temper in any situation; do not lose courage in any contingency. Respect everyone, whatever their status. Then the quality of universal love (prema) will develop in you. As a result, meditation will progress without disturbance.

For the cure of illness without resort to drugs, meditation is the only remedy. Even the capacity to discriminate and analyse will increase, and by means of that, illness, however serious, can be overcome.”

Introspection

Bro Sanjay Mahalingam’s sharing in one of the sessions is worth a recap here, in the context of what Swami has written above.

Sanjay recalls atleast few occasions when he as well as other few students have asked, “ Swami, tell us, please, what do you want from us, in what way we can be a worthy instrument in your mission, How you want us to be”

In all such situations, Swami’s one answer was, “BE HAPPY”.

That is what our dear lord wants from us and that is the purpose, that is the search of every human being, from his birth till the moment he realizes SELF, in one, few, many, numerous births, and it is “Search for happiness”

And, when you are able to be joyful all the times, Swami gives a huge assurance when he says “So, the Lord will also have joy upon seeing you”!!

Swami writes, 

“In every word uttered, there are two kinds of senses: the obvious and the innate, the native and the qualitative. The Upanishads take up the second kind and elaborate, clarify, and make the Brahman known. One important thing to be remembered is that it is possible and desirable to utilize the full power of words through softness and sweetness. 

If one is anxious to see God in every object, the sweetness of the word will be of immense help. Sir, Master, Lord: in these words, lie the secret of much affection and regard. Through these and such words, how happy you can make others, and how light your minds will become by the practice of softness of expression! When meditation is carried on in that happy atmosphere, how quickly concentration can be attained!

Instead, if in conversation you use words that blame others and despise them, in turn you become the target of blame, and your mind gets agitated by the effect of both; then the object of meditation is not realized because the atmosphere turns impure. Therefore, if you really wish to be happy through meditation, as a preliminary to the process, you must be engaged either in joyful conversation or in happy thoughts or memories. Sweet and soft conversation helps meditation a great deal.

You must cultivate such a character, for character outlasts the body. Virtues are your strength and glory. Character is power. So train the mind and use it to attain the visualization of the Lord (sakshatkara); hold fast to that goal.

Introspection

Swami Krishnananda writes,

“You require nothing in order to bring you peace of mind. You require only yourself. You are the master of yourself, and you have to know how to tune yourself to the requirement of existence as a whole. The tuning of your personality, your existence, to the existence that is total is peace of mind; that is peace of consciousness; that is harmony of existence; that is blessedness; that is happiness; that is bliss, you may say.

Here is the characteristic of a saint or a sage. Nothing is outside the saint and, therefore, he needs nothing from outside. One should not want anything from outside, because the outside thing does not exist apart from you and you do not exist outside that thing which you consider as outside. 

The saints and the sages ask not anything. They do not require anything because they have got everything by being united with that which you regard as outside you. The thing which you want is inside you in the sense that it is connected with your body, your personality, your consciousness. The moment you think, the universe acts, provided that your mind is united with the cosmic mind. 

Satisfaction is not in you or in somebody else. It is in consciousness itself. Satisfaction is uninterrupted performance of consciousness. A larger satisfaction flashes forth when the unit of consciousness that you are operates as a set adjustment with the consciousness of other such units or centers. Who feels happiness? Who feels peace? Consciousness feels peace. It gets disturbed when there is no peace. Who disturbs it? It is disturbed by the wrong notion that it is outside the thing to which it really belongs.

This little 'me' is organically related to the cosmic being – which means to say, I am a cosmic being. And the others I seem to see outside are not outside me, just as I am not outside the cosmic being." Go on asserting this with faith, with the power of will. "If I cannot stand outside the universe, I am the universe itself." Who will disturb your mind, then? Tell me frankly: who is there to disturb your mind? Nobody can disturb your mind. There is no such thing as 'your' mind. 

This is meditation. If anybody asks you what meditation is, tell them this is meditation. You are the maker of yourself. Your peace of mind is within you only. You are the culprit – if at all there is one – and, therefore, complain not. Complain against your inadequacies, your imperfections and the lack of power of will that you are sunk in, by which you are unable to understand how you are connected to the world, to people, to the atmosphere, to ecological conditions, to the world as a whole. 

Find fault with yourself only. Do not find fault with anybody else, because the world is a whole, and wholeness cannot have imperfections.

 

Love.