Practice of Meditation
Divine Life
Society Publication: What does Swami Sivananda
Teach? by Sri
N.Ananthanarayanan
A baby's eyes are riveted on a
flower or a butterfly. It keeps looking at the object with unwinking eyes, eyes
full of wonder, for minutes together.
In the dilapidated building of
an elementary school, the class is on. The teacher explains something and then
asks the children, "Did it enter?" There is an instant response from the backmost
bench: "Only the tail has not entered yet!" The earnest voice belongs
to a boy who has been all along intently watching the struggle of a rat to
wriggle out of the class room through a hole in the wall. It has managed to
squeeze in its body, but its tail is still not gone in. Perhaps the hole is
blocked.
These are everyday examples of
concentration. Attention, concentration, meditation-these are different degrees
of the same process. It is fixing the mind on a single object or idea to the
exclusion of everything else.
In his book,
"Concentration and Meditation", holy Master Sivananda presents a most
beautiful scene to illustrate what is meant by concentration. In this,
Dronacharya tests the power of concentration of his students, the Pandavas. A
basin of water is placed on the ground. Above, a clay bird is kept rotating.
The archer had to hit the bird by looking at its reflection in the water.
Drona: "O Yudhishthira,
what do you see?"
Yudhishthira: "O Acharya
(teacher), I see the bird to be aimed at, the tree on which it is sitting and
yourself also."
Drona: "What do you see,
Bhima?"
Bhima: "I see the bird,
the tree, yourself, Nakula, Sahadeva, the tables and chairs, etc."
Drona: "What do you see,
Nakula?"
Nakula: "I see the bird,
the tree, yourself, Arjuna, Bhima, the garden, the streamlet, etc."
Drona: "What do you see,
Sahadeva?"
Sahadeva: "I see the bird
to be aimed at, yourself, Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhishthira, the horses, carriages,
all the onlookers, several cows, etc."
Drona: "Now then, Arjuna,
what do you see?"
Arjuna: "O Revered Guru!
I see nothing but the bird to be aimed at."
That is concentration.
Arjuna's is the power of concentration. Concentration, when developed, becomes
meditation.
Yoga is an exact science.
Asanas and Pranayama (Yoga postures and breathing exercises) perfect the body.
Service and charity expand the heart. Prayer, Japa (repetition of the Lord’s
Name), Kirtan (singing devotional songs) and other devotional practices purify
the mind and make it more subtle.
The purified mind must be made
to concentrate. Concentration is mental focusing. The mind can be focused on a
concrete object or an abstract idea. Concentration should be followed by
meditation. Meditation is nothing but protracted or sustained concentration. The
Sadhak (aspirant) who wants God must meditate, meditate and meditate.
Says the Master: "There
is no knowledge without meditation. An aspirant churns his own soul. Truth
becomes manifest".
Meditation confers peace and
strength. Meditation must be regular. Brahmamuhurtha (period between 4 am and 6
am), says the Master, is the ideal time for meditation. It is not possible to
meditate the whole day. The beauty of divine life lies in the fact that the
seriousness of meditation is tempered with the joy of Kirtan, the happiness and
strength of service, the peace of Japa and the understanding of Svadhyaya
(reading of scriptures).
The senses and the mind must
be withdrawn from the sense objects and the mind must be focused on the God
within. This is inner Yoga. The outer Yoga practices are to prepare the
aspirant to gain fitness to practice this inner Yoga.
While meditation in itself
constitutes. a very powerful attack on ignorance, Swami Sivananda suggests that
the spiritual aspirant should practice Vichar also. Vichar is enquiry into the
real nature of things. Vichara results in Viveka or discrimination between the
real and the unreal. It helps the aspirant to sift the true from the false.
Swamiji asserts that without cogitation, Truth cannot be known or realized.
Vichara sharpens the intellect and leads to the discernment of the Truth that
lies behind the phenomenal universe.
How should the aspirant
reflect? The Master shows the way: "Who am I? What is Brahman (God)? What
is this Samsara (process of worldly life)? What is the goal of life? How to
attain the goal? How to attain freedom from births and deaths? What is the
Svarupa of Moksha (Essential nature of liberation)? Thus should the aspirant of
liberation ever enquire, seeking to achieve the purpose of life". The
justification for this method of Vichara or enquiry is contained in the saying,
"As you think, so you become". By constant reflection on the Reality
behind the appearances, the seeker attains oneness with the Reality and becomes
that Reality itself.
The secret of spirituality
lies in realizing one's essential nature. It is not becoming something outside
of oneself. Meditation and enquiry enable the aspirant to feel, to realize that
he is, after all, Brahman and not a bundle of body and mind. When divine wisdom
dawns, the Sadhak realizes his innermost Being. And being is Brahman.
Man himself is God and the
entirety of Sadhana (spiritual practices) is meant to enable man to realize his
God-nature, to realize that the God he has been searching for is his own Self.
Initially, Yoga Sadhana purifies the mind. Later on, the seeker uses this
purified mind, to concentrate and meditate on the God within; and at the
deepest point of meditation, the purified mind melts in the God within and is
itself lost there, destroyed there. And only God remains. Being remains.
God-consciousness remains. A telling analogy given in the Yoga texts is the dry
twig used in kindling a fire, where the twig itself is ultimately consumed in
the fire. The purified mind is like this twig. It helps to kindle the fire of
God-consciousness within, and in the process, is itself destroyed in that fire.
In Samadhi (superconscious state), the mind melts in Brahman as camphor melts
in fire. The separate identity of the individual soul vanishes. Only
Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence- Consciousness-Bliss Absolute) prevails.
Excerpts from:
Practice of Meditation - What does Swami Sivananda
Teach? by Sri
N.Ananthanarayanan
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