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.
