Chapter XI
Success in meditation from uprooting impulses
Some aspirants say to themselves that in spite of many years of steady practice, they have yet to acquire success in meditation and concentration. The reason is easy to point out: they have not been able to uproot the impulses (vasanas)! Therefore, such practitioners must strive to conquer their innate tendencies. They must fortify themselves with greater faith, and act.
The aspirant who is disturbed now and then by impure impulses must overcome them by will power and spiritual exercises. The liberated soul (jivan-muktha) has burned out impulses, but the householder (grihastha) is cultivating them. There is no profit in simply controlling them; a cobra becomes harmless only when its fangs are plucked out; similarly, their roots must be burned. Then only can the aspirant attain the Brahman.
Of course, even pure desires are a bond. But they are not hindrances, however many they may be. A thorn is removed by another and both are thrown out afterward, right? So also, when impure impulses are overcome through the influence of pure impulses, one has to outgrow both. This means that even the purest of impulses, the craving for liberation (moksha), has to disappear in time. Only then can you become That. A shackle is a shackle, whether it be of iron or gold. One has to be free from both. That is to say, one should attain a stage when neither good nor bad will attract or repel.
Anyone aiming at the realization of God should practise the
diminishing of impulses, the curbing of the mind, and the understanding of the
fundamental principle. One of these is not enough for liberation (moksha). In
the liberated soul (jivanmuktha), impulses
persist, but only as fried seeds. They will not cause further births.
The Atma is free of everything
See, the subtle body is the seat of ignorance (ajnani). It is saturated with impulses and traditions and experiences. The Atma is free from all these. It is ever pure. It belongs to neither sex and has no mind, no senses, no form. Not only that; It has no breath (prana), even! It cannot be said to be alive or dead. How can contemplation on such an Atma be anything other than pure? How can light and darkness coexist? How can purity and impurity coexist?
Mountains can be swept away sooner than these deep-rooted impulses (vasanas). But with will power and zest, supported by faith, they can be overcome in a short time. Just do not give up your determination and faith, whatever the loss, hardship, or obstacle.
Remember, the impulses overpower you and keep you down as their slave. Opium and brandy enslave you and hold you in their full grip only for some time, but impulses grip you for a whole lifetime! The entire meaning and purpose of meditation is to attain freedom from these mighty and manifold impulses.
Introspection
The sequence of how vasanas get created and how they manifest and how they in turn fetch fresh vasanas, has been elaborately dealt in the blog posts under the theme Manas Buddhi Chitta Ahankara (MBCA).
The flow is recaptured here today.
The flow in the initial first action keeps continuing with each Karma.
From the second flow onwards, Karma fetches impact, which gets stored in the memory lake chitta which then develops as sanskaras, manifest as vasanas and many subsequent actions are influenced by such vasanas and thus a Jiva gets caught into the vicious circle of karma – vasanas - karma.
Only solution / way to break this circle is to get liberation / self-realization.
Upon Self-realization, actions cease to be born out of vasanas. Actions are undertaken with pure intellect and such actions do not bring in any fresh impact into the memory bank.
Thus, the memory bank is cleared, vasanas are uprooted, Raga Dvesha are transcended and avidya is annihilated totally when
a jiva lives as Jivanmukhta.
Love.
