Tattva Bodha - Post 11

SAMADHANA - MENTAL BALANCE

 Samadhana is concentration of mind. Be attentive always on that which you are seeking.

Your eye is always on that, like the consciousness of a target of a bowman who strikes it with an arrow. Concentration is the consciousness inside, fixing itself with its attention on that which it wants. 

When you want a thing, why should you not be concentrating on it? 

People say, “I want a thing, but my mind cannot go there”.  The reason is that you are not really wanting it. 

If you really want the thing, the mind must go there; and when the mind is not going there, you are not really wanting it. Thus knowing, concentrate your mind.

A commentator while writing on Sri Sankaracharya's 'Atma-Anatma-Viveka' writes: 'Whenever the ears are engaged in sravana - hearing, and the mind wanders to any worldly object or desire, and finding it worthless, returns to the performance of the three exercises (Sravana, Mañana and Nidhidhyasana) - such returning is called Samadhana'.

The mind is free from anxiety amid pains. There is indifference amid pleasures. There is stability of mind or mental poise. The aspirant or practitioner lives without attachment. 

He neither likes nor dislikes, he has a great deal of strength of mind and inner peace, he has unruffled supreme peace of mind. 

Some aspirants have peace of mind when they live in seclusion, when there are no distracting elements or factors. They complain of great tossing of mind - vikshepa - when they come to a city, when they mix with people. They are completely upset. They cannot do any meditation in a crowded place.

This is a weakness. This is not achievement in Samadhana. There is no balance of mind or equanimity in these persons. 

Only when a student can keep his balance of mind, even in a battlefield when there is a shower of bullets all around, as he does in a solitary cave in the Himalayas, can he be really said to be fully established in Samadhana.

Lord Krishna says in the Gita:

          'Perform all actions, O Dhananjaya,

dwelling in union with the Divine,

renouncing attachments,

and balanced evenly in success and failure.'

This is Samadhana. 

Again you will find in the Gita: 

'The disciplined Self, moving among the sense objects

with senses freed from attraction and repulsion,

Mastered by the Self, goeth to peace.'

This is also Samadhana.

Love.

Tattva Bodha - Post 10

SHRADDHA - FAITH

Shraddha is the faith in that which you are asking for. You should not go to God with a doubt whether He is, or He is not. “O God, if you are there, please come”. He is certainly there. “God is certainly there. It is certain that I am going to attain it. It is certain that the method I am adopting is correct. It is certain that I am progressing every day. I have symptoms and experiences which tell me that I am progressing every day”. 

Shraddha is faith in your own self first, faith in the method of practice which you are adopting, faith in your Guru who has initiated you, and faith in the existence of God.

Faith in God/SELF is the first step to God/Self-realization. Not an iota of progress is ever possible in the path of spirituality without faith. The faith must be a living faith. It must be unwavering faith. Lack of faith is a stumbling block in the path of realization.

Faith is one of the important items in the Shad Sampat or six fold virtues of the four means of salvation or Sadhana Chatushtaya in the path of Jnana.

Even Patanjali Maharshi, the exponent of Raja Yoga philosophy lays much stress on faith. He says: 

"Shraddha veerya smriti samadhi prajna - purvaka itaresham"

(To others (this Samadhi) comes through faith, energy, memory, concentration and discrimination of the real.)

He has placed Shraddha (faith) in the very beginning of this Sutra. He has given prominence to this. If a man has faith, then energy, memory etc, come by themselves. 

Faith can work miracles. Faith can work wonders. Faith can move mountains. Faith can reach a realm where reason dare not enter. There is nothing impossible under the sun for the man of faith to accomplish.

In the path of wisdom, Shraddha is faith in our Srutis, faith in the need for acquiring the four qualifications itself, faith and surrender to the Guru who is to impart Brahma Jnana to you and faith in God without whose grace, nothing is possible at all. 

How a disciple/spiritual seeker expresses his Shraddha to Guru, Sruthis and God?

To the Guru: “O Guru, I trust your nobility; I see your nobility; I see your utter selflessness, the compassion with which you share your knowledge. I am eternally indebted to you, and forever I shall serve you. I do not know whether I deserve this or not – I don’t know... probably I don’t, but still, somehow, in your heart has come compassion for me. I know not why. I am eternally grateful to you, my Guru. I know that you will take me to the Supreme Truth. Please do use me forever.” 

Towards the Scriptures: “O Mother Sruti! How many people you have liberated by your blessed words! By your pure wisdom, how many saints have crossed the ocean of Samsara!

As my Guru remains yours, won’t you help me? Aren’t you my Mother? You protect those who follow you. Help me follow you implicitly. There are many things what you say that I don’t understand, but I know that a mother cooks food and gives it to her child, and the child takes that food without a doubt, feeling, “Yes, what my mother has given is good for me.” In the same way, let me take your words, relish them in my heart, live my life according to your dictates, and let me be blessed like how the saints of yore have been blessed.” 

Towards Easwara: “O Lord, the Master of the whole Universe! O Lord, the Governor of the whole Cosmos, whom I do not see, but, Lord, who in every instant of my life comes forward and guides me, helps me and takes me forward!

Forever clear my path that I may walk in peace. Show me my way. Give me faith in my Guru, and give me faith in the Shastras, for it is you who gives faith. Make my heart pure, so that I may receive the knowledge that my Guru gives. Make me adorned with Sadhana Chatushtaya. Please ensure that my Guru forgives my trespasses.” 

Love.

Tattva Bodha - Post 9

TITIKSHA

Titiksha is the state of enduring or bearing.

It is the capacity or power to endure without opposition, and to suffer pain, distress, hardship or any prolonged stress without succumbing, murmuring, complaining, lamenting or repining. It is patient fortitude. It is the ability to bear and continue in spite of destructive forces.

He who endures conquers. Through endurance, will-power and patience are developed. Through endurance, evils and difficulties are overcome. Your strength often increases in proportion to the obstacles imposed upon you. 

The palm tree grows best beneath a ponderous weight, and even so the character of man. The greater the difficulty,  the more glory in surmounting it. Through endurance, you exhibit your divine grandeur and make alliance with God. Titiksha is a condition of wisdom. It is a means for acquiring knowledge.

Though Titiksha develops your will-power and brings happiness herein and hereafter, it has one defect. People misconstrue those who practice forbearance for impotent, effeminate men.

Power of endurance is a virtue to be possessed by a Yogi, a Jnani and a Bhakta. 

Sri Sankara defines Titiksha in Viveka Chudamani as follows: 

"The bearing of all afflictions without caring to redress them, being free at the same time from anxiety or lament on their score, is called Titiksha, forbearance."

Lord Krishna advises Arjuna to bear heat and cold: 

"The contacts of the senses with the objects, O son of Kunti, which cause heat and cold, pleasure and pain, have a beginning and an end; they are impermanent; endure them bravely, O Arjuna. That firm man whom, surely, these afflict not, O chief among men, to whom pleasure and pain are the same, is fit for attaining Immortality." 

- Bhagavad Gita (II - 14, 15)

The spiritual path invites ups and downs of wider amplitude than usual. The additional insight needed in spiritual life is to realize that at the core, it is our ego alone that keeps complaining about the opposites (pleasure and pain). 

The ego wants only its own way, whereas Titiksha compels it to yield its own demands to opposing circumstances. Yes, it is a blow indeed to the ego to be criticized, and a boost to be praised. 

Only one who is training to free himself from ego can face both with equipoise. 

God always finds a way to tell us, “You are nobody”, and therefore He sends us confrontations. We as seekers are expected to meet these with Titiksha. 

Continued.....

Love.