Sitting for Meditation
Divine Life
Society Publication: A Brief Outline of
Sadhana by Swami Krishnananda
The conflict which is
characteristic of life is due to the apparent irreconcilability obtaining, as
it were, among the subjective side known as the adhyatma,
the objective side known as the adhibhauta, and
the transcendent side known as the adhidaiva. In
ordinary language, we may say that this is the conflict among the principles of
God, world and soul, whose internal relationship is never clear to anyone’s
mind.
The very existence of the adhyatma or the subjective side,
and the adhibhauta or the objective side,
is determined and transcended by a superior interconnecting divine principle
known as adhidaiva. The adhidaiva is not a third principle
apart from the adhyatma and the adhibhauta. It does not mean that
the god is sitting far away from ourselves and from the world, because the
principle of divinity we call God, the transcendent element, is hiddenly
present on both the sides of experience – the subjective adhyatma and the objective adhibhauta – in such a manner that
in bringing about an organic connection between the two terms, the subjective
and the objective, the individual and the world, it not only constitutes the
very stuff of the world and the stuff of the individual, but ranges far above
both these principles.
God is in us, and also not in
us. He is in us, because He is the Self of our being; He is not in us, because
He is transcendent to both ourselves and the world. A comparative illustration,
as I mentioned, is the ocean and the drops. The ocean is not the drops, but the
ocean is the drops.
The withdrawal of
consciousness from the externalized self, and bringing it back to the internalized
self, is the first step in the raising of the self by the Self. The cause
raises the effect into itself. How would we achieve this? It is by a logical
application of sensible understanding that we cannot be other than what we are.
This discriminative understanding should help us in centering the
consciousness in the cause, rather than in the effect that is the object of
concentration. Then we withdraw our consciousness from the world into ourselves,
and then also raise ourselves from our personality to the adhidaiva principle, the
transcendent Creative Principle.
The whole is the action of
God. “I have done all the things myself. You be an instrument.” (Gita 11.33). The total action, which is the action of
God, is the principle that operates in our endeavor to raise the internal self
to the Universal Self. Therefore, in this meditational exercise of the rising
to the transcendental consciousness above internal consciousness, activity of
the ordinary kind ceases completely. This is an actionless action.
The objects appear to be very
important. That is the first stage of human involvement in the world. Higher
than the objects are the perceptional faculties, the sense organs. What we call
the object is not a solid substance. It is a form that has been assumed by the
mind when certain concentrated parts of space and time are cast into the mould
of the mind itself. The senses, therefore, are superior to the objects;
superior to the senses is the mind. Beyond the mind is the reason, or the buddhi. Beyond the reason or the buddhi is the Cosmic Intellect,
then the supreme cause of the universe, called Mulaprakriti and then the Absolute Being. Beyond that
supreme state, nothing is. It is the final goal of everything.
In the exercise called
spiritual practice, first of all, there should be time for us to sit and pray
and meditate.
Vasishtha, a great sage,
speaks to Rama in the Yoga Vasishtha: Control of the mind being very difficult,
do not jump into the highest peak of it at once. Give one sixteenth of your
mind to God, and the rest to the world and the business of life. The mind will
not feel disturbed by this, because the lion’s share has come to it and you
have given only a little bit to God. It doesn’t matter; even that is good
enough.
This prescription of Vasishtha
is to see that the mind is not disturbed by any kind of renunciation activity.
You should not reject anything. You must go so slowly that you do not know what
is actually happening. After some time, give two sixteenths to God, and the
balance to the world. Like that, go on increasing the proportion you give to
God more and more, and less and less to the world, until a day will come when
your absorption in God-consciousness will bring you such satisfaction that you need
not go to the objects of the world for secondary satisfaction.
The time for meditation is not
any particular hour of the day. It is that time when you are really relaxed, free
from any kind of occupation. The convenience of the mind is the time, not the
clock time. So, it is the quality of the approach that is more important than
the quantitative assessment of it. If possible, have the same place for
meditation. The place where you sit gets
charged by the meditational effort, and if it is done every day, the spot on
which you sit, together with the time during which you sit, join together and
cooperate in bringing about concentration of the mind.
The third thing is the method
– place, time, and method. Whatever method you are adopting in meditation, it
should be continued every day. You should not dabble in different kinds of
techniques – one day concentrating on the breath, another day on the trikuti, the third day on the
heart, the fourth day on the Ishtadevata, and the fifth day on some Upanishadic
passage. This should not be done. Whatever is conducive to help concentration
of mind, that method is final.
The object of meditation
should be finally chosen. It is the most dear thing for you. The Ishtadevata is
the dearest thing that you can think in the mind. No object in the world can be
regarded as the dearest, because every object is perishable. You infuse
divinity into the concept of your deity, and feel its presence with great
intensity of concentration. Since there is the immanence of God in everything,
any point in space can be the object of meditation. If you touch a part of the
wall of your building, you have touched the whole universe. People keep symbols
for meditation in front of them – portraits, diagrams, mandalas, yantras,
tantras, mantras, idols – as symbolic
representation of a concentrated point of divinity in any particular spot. The
world concentrates itself at every point of space. It converges even into an
atom, and the whole energy of the universe can be seen present concentrated
even inside an atom, as people have learnt today, to the disaster of mankind.
Just as when sunlight is focused
through a lens it becomes very hot and is capable of burning objects, so this
concentrated consciousness becomes very strong, and compels the universal
forces to converge at one point. Thus, any god is good; any idol is good; any
symbol, any portrait before your mind is good enough. Whatever you intensely
concentrate and feel in your heart will materialize itself. The power of
thought is such that it gets materialized into form by the intensity of the
effect.
You raise the lower by the
higher, and raise the higher by the highest. Raise the effect by the cause;
raise the cause by the highest cause. Raise the outside by the inside; raise
the inside by the universal. Meditation in the beginning is external, conceived
as an object located somewhere in space and time of the world. Later it becomes
internal, a point in the personality of one’s own self. It can be the heart center,
or any kind of chakra, as people call it, or the center
of the eyebrows. From the external concept you come to the internal concept;
then you go to the universal concept, inclusive of both.
The world on one side and
yourself on the other side – this is the epic of all the religions of the
world. Conflict between yourself and the world outside is the war; this is the
battle. This is the business of life. The conflict between oneself and the
outer world is the transaction that is going on in markets, whether it is economics,
financial, political, social, or whatever. Everything is a conflict between
oneself and that which is not oneself. It is resolved only by an element which
is above both the outer and the inner.
A hard job is this, as right
from childhood you have been brought up in a false atmosphere of
possessiveness, and intense likes and dislikes; and the old habit still
continues. However much you may try to understand the Gita, and try to
meditate, the idea of possession, property and relation will not leave a
person.
The self-controlled mind’s
wish is indestructible. When God thinks, it should take place. And God thinks
through us, also; through the Self within us, it should take place. There
should be no hesitation when you sit for meditation: “I have chosen the right
path, I have chosen the right method of meditation, and I have also the correct
perspective of it. The purpose of meditation is also clear to me. There is
nothing wrong in the technique that I am adopting; therefore, I should achieve
success.” Then, you will be successful.
All prosperity will follow you
if the mind gets tuned up to the Cosmic Mind. Any music, any talk anywhere can
be heard through the receiver set of your radio, provided the wavelength is
tuned to the waves moving on the space, which are transcendent. Similar is the
way that you can concentrate your mind on the Cosmic Mind. The Cosmic Mind
raises the lower mind; just as the lower mind raises the world into itself, the
lower mind is raised by the Cosmic Mind.
A simple thing is told a
hundred times in the scriptures, in various ways. It is just a withdrawal from
the outer to the inner, and a withdrawal from the inner to the universal
(transcendent). The whole of sadhana is only
this much. It is a simple thing, but it is a most difficult thing. The whole of
spiritual practice is here. But adamant is the ego. It will not permit it. It
will say, “No, this is not possible. I am not meant for it.” For this purpose,
a daily hammering of the mind into this concentrated purpose should be done. A
daily session of meditation is necessary.
Continue to read:
A Brief Outline of
Sadhana by Swami Krishnananda
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