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.

 

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

 

It is the nature of the mind to wander.

You are not the mind.

 

The mind springs up and sinks down.

It is impermanent, transitory, whereas you are eternal.

 

There is nothing but the Self.

To inhere in the Self is the thing.

 

Never mind the mind.

If its source is sought, it will vanish leaving the Self unaffected.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

Dhyana Vahini - Post 5

Chapter II

 

The three paths of meditation

 

Swami writes on the three paths / Gunas in one’s meditation process,

 

“There are three ways by which aspirants try to enter the path of meditation: the path of truth (sathwika- marga), the path of passion and emotion (rajasika-marga) and the path of ignorance (thamasika-marga).

 

“Pure, serene (sathwic) path. On this path, one considers repetition of the name and meditation as a duty and suffers any amount of trouble for its sake; one is fully convinced that all this is just an illusion, so one does only good under all conditions and at all times. One desires only the good of all and is always loving toward all; one spends time uninterruptedly in the remembrance and meditation of the Lord. One does not crave even the fruit of repeating the name and meditation; one leaves it all to the Lord.

  

The passionate, restless (rajasic) path. Here, one craves the fruit of one’s act at every step. If the fruit is not available, then, gradually, laxity and disgust overpower the spiritual aspirant and repetition of the name and meditation slowly dry up.

  

The ignorant (thamasic) path. This path is even worse. The Lord will come into the memory only in times of danger or acute suffering or when one is the victim of loss or pain. At such times, such a person prays and vows to arrange this worship (puja), offer this particular food, or build this kind of temple to the Lord. One will be calculating the quantity of food placed before the Lord, the tribute offered at His feet, the number of prostrations performed, and the number of times the shrine was circled — and ask for proportionate awards! For those who adopt this attitude in meditation, the mind and intellect can never be pure.

 

Most people now follow only the passionate, restless (rajasic) and dull, ignorant (thamasic) paths in repeat- ing the divine name and meditation. However, the very intention of repeating the divine name and meditation is to purify the mind and the intellect. In order to achieve this, the first path is best: pure, serene (sathwic) meditation. When the mind and the intellect become pure, they will shine with the splendour of the understanding of the Atma. He in whom this understanding shines fully is called a sage (rishi).”

 

Comments:

 

We want to become aware of the meaning of each of the gunas, not merely by knowing its definition but by being able to observe them in our daily life. 

 

Therefore, let us choose for a day or a week to be aware of one of the gunas as we go through activities, situations, and conversations. 

 

Observe how this guna is related to actions, thoughts and speech.  

 

For example, when we feel lazy, dull, inert, or grounded it is tamas; when you feel energetic, rushed, all-over-the-place, or full of attachment it is rajas; when you feel serene, calm, and balanced it is sattva.  

 

We will discover that everything in the apparent manifestation is related to the gunas. Thus it is useful to find your own examples of the gunas which allows you to have direct knowledge of this concept of the gunas. This expanded awareness about the gunas then also brings the opportunity to play with the gunas and to regulate them.

 

Sattva preferably the predominant guna

 

Of all the three gunas, sattva is the one that we would like to cultivate. It is the quality that makes buddhi sharp enough to penetrate all the levels of our being, until it becomes aware of itself and even sattvic buddhi need to be let go of. But until then one needs to purify all the levels of one’s being so that sattva predominates. But do not think that the other two gunas are bad, both rajas and tamas can be of service for sattva. Tamas brings stability and rajas can be used wisely when you need the energy to do something.

 

Swami concludes on 3 Gunas and meditation beautifully, thus:-

 

“The knower of Atma becomes the Atma itself (Brahmavid Brahmaiva bhavathi). The goal of life, that which makes life worthwhile, is the understanding of the Atma or, in other words, the basis of the individual soul (jiva).”

 

Comments:

 

 Yoga sutra reveals what Swami has written above.

 

Purusha artha sunyanam gunanam pratiprasavah kaivalyam svarupa pratistha va chiti shaktih iti (4.34)

 

          

purusha	pure consciousness, Self
artha	purpose, meaning
sunyanam	devoid
gunanam	elements, prime qualities, constituents, attributes; (three gunas of sattvas, rajas, tamas)
pratiprasavah	involution, resolve, recede
kaivalyam	absolute freedom, liberation, enlightenment (2.25)
svarupa	own form
pratistha	Established
va	Or
chiti	Consciousness
shaktih	Power
iti	the end, finis (to denote the end of the teachings)

 

When those primary elements involve, or resolve themselves back into that out of which they emerged, there comes liberation, wherein the power of pure consciousness becomes established in its true nature.

 

When the gunas involve, liberation is realized: When those primary elements or gunas involve, or resolve themselves back into that out of which they emerged, there comes liberation, wherein the power of pure consciousness (purusha) becomes established in its true nature. 

 

(The involution which mentioned is the essence of Sankhya yoga where, at the penultimate stages, upon the three Gunas settled eternally in perfect equilibrium, prakriti retraces to purusha).

 

This getting established in its true nature is given in another sutra, thus:

 

Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam (1.3)

 

Then the Seer abides in Itself, resting in its own True Nature, which is called Self-realization.

 

The enlightened Yogi: Such an enlightened Yogi is purely spontaneous, with no actions whatsoever being motivated by the inner drives of samskaras and karma. One hundred percent of actions are from the here-and-now response to the needs of the moment, in relation to the service of other beings. This is easy for such a yogi, as there is no I and no other; it is all a constant flow of pure, undivided consciousness (purusha), that only seems to play, here, there, and everywhere.

 

Love.