Chapter II
Chanting God’s Name
and Meditation
Swami continues,
“Spiritual
aspirants (sadhakas) all over the world will naturally be engaged in
repetition of the name (japa) and meditation, but first one has to
be clear about the purpose of repeating the name and meditation. Without this knowledge,
people believe them to be related to the objective world, capable of satisfying
worldly desires, and hope to demonstrate their value by means of sensory
gains! This is a grave error.
Repetition of God’s
name and meditation are for acquiring one-pointed attention on the Lord, for
casting off sensory attachments, and for attaining the joy derived from
the basis of all sensory objects. The mind should not be wandering in all
directions, indiscriminately, like the fly.
The fly dwells in
the sweetmeat shop and runs after the rubbish carts; the fly that has such
a mind has to be taught to understand the sweetness of the first place
and the impurity of the second place, so that it may not desert the
sweetmeat shop and pursue the rubbish cart. When such teaching is imparted
to the mind, it is called meditation!
Look at the other
type, the bee! It has contact only with sweetness; it approaches only flowers
that possess nectar; it is not attracted to other places; it does not
proceed there at all. Similarly, one has to give up all inclinations toward
sensory attraction, toward the rubbish cart of the untrue and the impermanent.
As far as possible, one has to direct the mind to all holy things, which
yield sweetness and the joy associated with the Lord. To attain these,
time is needed, of course. How long that time will be depends on the activities
of thought, word, and deed as well as on the motives that impel those
actions.
Comment- Swami,
while talking to an Ex student, quoted this very analogy and said, having
tasted the sweetness of Sai naamam, Sai roopam, Sai Sameepyam, (compared to the
fly dwelling on sweetmeat shop), one must never ever get into the desires of
the world (Fly moving to rubbish carts).
Gauge meditation by its
inner impact
The main things to
be considered are not at what expense one has prayed to the Lord, nor the
number of years one has been engaged in it, nor the rules and regulations
one has followed, nor even the number of times one has prayed over. The
main considerations are: with what mind one has prayed, with what degree of
patience one has been awaiting the result, and with what
single-mindedness one has craved Godly bliss, regardless of worldly happiness
and delay, with no lassitude and with constant attention to oneself, one’s
meditation, and one’s task.
Comment- Single
pointed devotion is referred by Swami here. This is 4th stage,
after Attraction, Faith, Adoration and worship.
This is the turning
point in a Bhakta/Meditator’s spiritual journey. Often, we get stagnated at
Adoration and worship for the entire life and even for few births. Unless this
single pointed devotion is achieved, the mind which is attracted to adoration
and worship at a certain duration of the day/ week, gets / may get equally
attracted to worldly desires, as it has not yet achieved single pointed
devotion where, there is only SAI/ God in mind, from dawn to dusk.
If one examines
deeply the success in getting rid of all idea of self, one can oneself gauge
the progress made. Instead, if one is engaged in counting the rules
and adding up the time spent and the expense incurred, such meditation can
belong only to the objective world; it can never come into the subjective and
spiritual fields.
Repetition of God’s
name and meditation (japa and dhyana) should never be
judged on mere external standards; they are to be judged by their inner
effects. Their essence is their relationship to the Atma.
The immortal Atmic experience
should never be mixed up with low activities of the temporal world. Such
activities deserve to be avoided. If room is given for them, and if one
sways between impatience and sloth, and if one always worries oneself,
feeling, “Why has it not come yet? Why is it still far away?” Then it all
becomes simply repeating the name and meditation done with intent to gain,
with an eye on the fruit thereof.
The single fruit of
repetition of divine names and meditation is this: the conversion of the
out-faced into the in-faced; the turning inward of one’s eye, the inward
eye seeing the reality of Atmic bliss. For this
transformation, one has to be always active and hopeful, regardless of the
time taken and the difficulties encountered. One should not count the
cost, the time, or the trouble. One should await the descent of the Lord’s
grace. This patient waiting is itself part of the austerity (tapas) of
meditation. Sticking unfalteringly to the vow is the austerity.
Comment- Now, Swami
takes a huge leap, by passes the stages of Devotion transforming to love, Love
expanding to the entire creation of the lord and He talks about Atmic
bliss/ immortal Atmic experience, which is the state of “ Atma nivedanam” , total
self-surrender, the last and final stage in the path of devotion where, the
devotee ceases to exist, devotion process is also transcended and even the
God ( in form) is not there any more, all these have merged into the ocean of
Sat chit ananda/ Ocean of Bliss.
And the most crucial
point mentioned by Swami here is “Patient waiting”. When a Bhakta has made his
100% efforts and has left no stone un-turned in his sadhana, the penultimate
stage is “WAITING FOR HIS GRACE”.
No one in any path-
Bhakti or Jnana, can claim to have attained Self-realization due to his/ her
own efforts. It is not possible. Whatever may be the path, it is the Lord who
ultimately has to shower grace, being satisfied with the sadhana of His bhakta,
and just lift the sadhaka and take him / her to His abode of peace, PRASHANTI.
“God’s power”, flows in two directions.
The first direction is outward, from God toward the world.
Consider this: we are living solely by His grace at this very moment. We
unconsciously exist, act and breathe by virtue of His grace all the time, and
His grace “accomplishes everything that we achieve in life.” The more we
elevate our consciousness, however, the more we can become aware of
that grace, learning how to become channels of it.
The great masters and saints are our role models as
they were powerful channels of God’s grace flowing outward into the
world.
The second flow is inward, from the world back to God. It
is a liberating power, which Swami Kriyananda describes as follows:
“It is divine grace alone, finally, that lifts the
devotee out of delusion and into Divine Perfection.”
In the Bhagawad Gita (18:73) Arjuna
exclaims: “My delusion has been demolished! I have, by Your grace, O Krishna,
regained the memory of my soul [smriti].”
To understand these two directions, think of the sun:
on the one hand, its nourishing sun rays stream outward toward all
creatures, who receive the gift gratefully.
On the other hand, its mighty gravitational pull
attracts everything inward, back into itself.”
Love.
