Dhyana Vahini - Post 6

Chapter II

 

Swami writes,

The need for bodily and mental training

There is a close mutual relationship between the attitudes of the body and the attitudes of the mind. So, people’s inner feelings will be evident from their physical bodies. The stance and the appearance of the body help us to discover these feelings. 

Take one example. With the loins girded, the sleeves of the shirt rolled, and the palms rounded into fists, it is not possible to exhibit love or devotion. 

With bent knees, the eyes half-closed, and the hands raised up over the head with the palms joined, is it possible to show one’s anger or hatred or cruelty? That is why the ancient sages used to tell the spiritual aspirant that it is necessary during prayer and meditation to adopt the appropriate bodily pose. They saw that it is possible to control the waywardness of the mind by this means.

Of course, for the expert spiritual aspirant, meditation is easy in any pose; but for the novice, such physical means are essential. This bodily and mental training must be undergone only to be later discarded as but a means to attain the true and eternal Atma. Until this is realized, spiritual discipline has to be consistently practised.

 

Comment

A sage, an expert in Kriya yoga, writes on preparation and posture for beginners, 

“If the beginner yogi sits on the hard floor to meditate he will find his legs going to sleep, owing to pressure on his flesh and arteries. If he sits on a blanket over a spring pad or mattress, on the floor, or over a hard bed, he will not experience discomfort in his legs. 

A Westerner, used to sitting on chairs with his thighs at a right angle to his torso, will find it more comfortable to meditate on a chair with a woolen blanket and silk cloth under him, extending under his feet which rest on the floor. Those Western yogis, especially youths, who can squat on the floor like Orientals, will find their knees pliable, owing to their ability to fold their legs in an acute angle. Such yogis may meditate in the lotus posture, or in the more simple cross-legged position. 

No one should try to meditate in the lotus posture unless he is at ease in that position. To meditate in a strained posture keeps the mind on the discomfort of the body. Meditation should ordinarily be practised in a sitting position. Obviously, in a standing posture (unless one is advanced) he may fall down when the mind becomes interiorized. Neither should the yogi meditate lying down, for he might resort to the “practised” state of slumber.

“The proper bodily posture, one which produces calmness in body and mind, is necessary to help the yogi shift his mind from matter to Spirit.”

Swami continues,

"Through meditation, people reach the divine experience of realizing the Atma within themselves. Through meditation, spiritual aspirants are able to cast off sheaths of ignorance, layer after layer. They withdraw their sense perceptions from contact with worldly objective experiences. The process that aims at this holy consummation deserves to be called meditation.

For this process, one must be equipped with good habits, discipline, and high ideals. One must be full of renunciation toward worldly things and their attractions. Whatever the situation, one should conduct oneself with enthusiasm and joy. Whatever is done must be dedicated not for the eking out of a livelihood but for earning Atmic bliss (Atma-ananda). One should train oneself to adopt a good sitting pose (asana), to avoid tension of the body, and to ease the mind from the weight and pressure of the body. This is what deserves to be called pure meditational practice (sathwika dhyana sadhana). Discipline is very necessary for this.

Everyone has the right to spiritual success

Everyone has the right to achieve this high degree of success. I do not say this in just a quiet tone; I declare this loud enough for all quarters to hear. Knowing this, meditate and advance! Do meditation and progress! Realize the Atma!

Comment

Another realized yogi writes,

“Before you start doing yoga, ask yourself—what do you want? Most people cannot answer this question. What do you want? It is a terrible question. You cannot say what you want. Here, a little bit of philosophy is good. Philosophy is the art of finding the ultimate causes of things; not immediate causes only, but the final causes. You want something just now. But why do you want that? You want it because if you do not get it, some trouble arises. That trouble arises because of a cause behind this feeling of immediate necessity. There is cause behind cause, cause behind cause, until you reach a point where you cannot think of any further cause. A causeless cause is the state you reach, which is a state of perfect rest.”

How beautifully the above explanation, which leads a meditator to reach to the cause less cause, aligns with the last line of Swami- “Do meditation and progress! Realize the Atma!"

Love.