(Sep 28,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Practical Aspect of Meditation by Swami Sivananda

Practical Aspect of Meditation

Divine Life Society Publication: Meditation by Swami Sivananda

 

This world is full of miseries and sufferings. If you want to get rid of the pains and afflictions of this Samsara, you must practice meditation. Meditation leads to the knowledge of the Self, which brings about Eternal Peace and Supreme Bliss. Meditation prepares you for the integral experience or direct intuitive knowledge. Meditation is the flow of continuous thought of one thing or God or Atman. Meditation is the pathway to divinity. It is the royal road to the kingdom of Brahman. It is a mysterious ladder which reaches from earth to Heaven (Vaikuntha-Kailasa-Brahman), from error to Truth, from darkness to Light, from pain to Bliss, from restlessness to abiding Peace, from ignorance to Knowledge, from mortality to Immortality.

Truth is Brahman. Truth is Atman. You cannot realize the Truth without reflection and meditation. The mode of meditation differs according to the path adopted by the aspirant. A Bhakta practices Saguna Dhyana on the form of his Ishta Devata. A Hatha Yogi meditates on the Chakras and the presiding deities. A Jnana Yogi meditates on his own Self. He practices Ahamgraha Upasana. A Raja Yogi meditates on the special Purusha who is not affected by afflictions and desires.

The mind assumes the form of the object it cognizes. Then only perception is possible. A Bhakta constantly meditates on the form of his tutelary deity or Ishta Devata. The mind always takes the form of the deity. When he is established in his meditation, when he attains the stage of Para Bhakti or supreme devotion, he sees his Ishta Devata only everywhere. The names and forms vanish. A devotee of Lord Krishna sees Lord Krishna only everywhere and experiences the state described in the Gita "Vaasudevah Sarvam iti-Everything is Vaasudeva only." A Jnani or a Vedanti sees his own Self or Atman everywhere. The world of names and forms vanishes from his view. He experiences the utterances of the seers of the Upanishads: "Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma-All indeed is Brahman."

You must have a pure mind if you want to realize the Self. Unless the mind is set free and casts away all desires, cravings, worries, delusion, pride, lust, attachment, likes and dislikes, it cannot enter into the domain of Supreme Peace and unalloyed felicity-the Immortal Abode. A glutton or a sensualist, a dullard or a lazy man, cannot practice meditation. He who has controlled the tongue and other organs, who has an acute acumen, who eats, drinks and sleeps in moderation, who has destroyed selfishness, lust, greed and anger, can practice meditation and attain success in Samadhi.

You cannot enjoy peace of mind and cannot practice meditation if there is Vikshepa in your mind. Vikshepa is tossing of mind. Vikshepa is Rajas. Vikshepa and desires co-exist in the mind. If you really want to destroy Vikshepa, you must destroy all mundane desires and cravings through dispassion and self-surrender to the Lord.

If you apply fire to a green wood, it will not burn; if you apply fire to a piece of dried wood, it will at once catch fire and burn. Even so, those who have not purified their minds, will not be able to start the fire of meditation. They will be sleeping or dreaming-building castles in the air-when they sit for meditation. But those who have removed the impurities in their minds by Japa, service, charity, Pranayama, etc., will enter into deep meditation as soon as they sit for meditation. The pure, ripe mind will at once burn with the fire of meditation.

Mind is compared to a garden. Just as you can cultivate good flowers and fruits in a garden by ploughing and manuring the land, by removing the weeds and thorns and by watering the plants and trees, so also you can cultivate the flower of devotion in the garden of your mind by removing the impurities of the mind, such as lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, etc., and watering it with divine thoughts. Weeds and thorns grow in the rainy season, disappear in summer, but their seeds remain underneath the ground. As soon as there is a shower, the seeds again germinate and sprout out. Even so, the Vrittis (modifications of the mind) manifest on the surface of the conscious mind, then disappear and assume a subtle seed-state, the form of Samskaras or impressions. The Samskaras again become Vrittis either through internal or external stimulus. When the garden is clean, when there are no weeds and thorns you can get good fruits. So also, when the mind is pure, when the mind is free from lust, anger, etc., you can have the fruit of good, deep meditation. Therefore cleanse the mind of its impurities first. Then the current of meditation will flow by itself.

If you want to keep a garden always clean, you will have to remove not only the weeds and thorns and other small plants but also the seeds that lie underneath the ground which again germinate during rainy season. Even so, you will have to destroy not only the big waves or Vrittis of the mind but also the Samskaras which are the seeds for births and deaths, which generate Vrittis again and again, if you want to enter into Samadhi and attain liberation or perfect freedom.

Without the help of meditation, you cannot attain knowledge of the Self. Without its aid, you cannot grow into the divine state. Without it, you cannot liberate yourself from the trammels of the mind and attain Immortality. If you do not practice meditation, the supreme splendor and fadeless glories of Atman will remain hidden from you. Tear the veils that cover the soul by practicing regular meditation. Rend asunder the five sheaths that screen the Atman by constant meditation and then attain the final beatitude of life.

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Practical Aspect of Meditation by Swami Sivananda

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(June 12,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Mind Control is Self Control

Mind Control is Self Control

Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 21: True Spiritual Living by Swami Krishnananda

Control or restraint, as we understand it, is the exercise of a power upon something which is external to us. The act of control requires a distinction between the controller and the controlled. We are not different from ourselves. How can we influence or control our own selves? What is control and what does the yoga actually mean by saying that there should be self-control, or control of the modifications of the mind?

People speak of control of mind, control of the vrittis etc., as if they are going to control servants or like a boss exerting pressure upon his subordinates, etc. All this is not simple as it appears to be because the modifications, or vrittis, of the mind are not capable of observation, because the observer has identified himself with the modifications themselves. One who has to control the mind has become one with the mind. No distinction exists between us and the mind, though we generally say: “I am thinking”, “this is my idea”, “my thought”, “my feeling”, etc., as if thought, feeling etc. are outside us. They are only ways of expression. Our feeling is us only. The feeling is not outside us, external to us, and different from us. Therefore, we cannot do anything with it, because we cannot do anything with our own selves.

And since the mind does identify with our own personality and vice versa, we cannot deal with the mind as we deal with the body (by asanas) or even with the pranas (by pranayama). If the policeman himself has become the thief, how will he detect the thief? He himself is the culprit, and he is also the policeman. The judge himself has become the client, a very difficult situation indeed.

The consciousness, which is our essential nature, animates the modifications of the mind in such a manner that we cannot know which is the modification of the mind, and which is us. By way of analogy, they give the instance of a heated iron ball or an iron rod. When a ball of iron is heated until it becomes red-hot, we cannot see the iron; we can see only the fire. When we touch a heated iron ball, it may burn us, and we will say, “Oh! This iron ball has burnt me.” What has burnt us is the fire, not the iron ball. But we mix up one with the other. Consciousness cannot be the modifications of the mind, and the modifications of the mind cannot be consciousness, because consciousness has no modifications; It is indivisible eternity. Then, what is it that is modified?

The whole process of yoga is nothing but a series of self-control from the lower stage to the higher in an appropriate manner. The achievement in yoga becomes a sort of awakening rather than an activity. We enter a new world altogether when we wake up from dream or sleep. The achievement called ‘waking up from sleep’ is not the result of an action. This is why Acharya Sankara tirelessly hammers upon the idea that liberation is not an action, and it cannot be achieved by any kind of action. Moksha is nothing but an awakening into a wider reality which is already planted in us and is not external to us. Yoga is a process of awakening, rather than an activity in an empirical sense. It is not a work that we perform. And this awakening is brought about by control of the mind.

All activity is an externalised movement of consciousness towards an object outside. But here the object is ourself, and therefore there cannot be such a movement of our consciousness. The nature of truth requires a purification of the self, which is the means of self-awakening; and this purificatory process is analogous to a gradual rise of the soul from one stage of self-identification to another stage of self-identification.

The whole of life is nothing but an awareness of selfhood. If we properly and deeply think over the matter, we will realise that there is no such thing as an object in this world; there is only a self. There is no such thing as a self getting connected with an object, ultimately speaking, because the moment the self gets connected with an object, it ceases to be an object. It becomes a part of the Self itself. There is no such thing as love of an object, because the moment we love the object, the object ceases to be the object; it becomes the Self. This is why it is said that what we love is the Self only. And when we extend our selfhood, what we are doing is not the action of the love of an object outside, but only another form of the Self. We love the bodily self if we are utterly selfish – only this body. Otherwise, if we are more altruistic and civilised, we become a family self, a social self, a political self, an international self, a human self. We may become even a world self. But, it is after all the Self. There is nothing but that.

Thus, yoga takes us to the root of the whole matter, and wishes to disillusion us of all our prejudices and old notions of things, so that we may know what it is to control the mind, what is meant by all this. To control the mind and to control the self are the same thing. Mind control is self-control. Chitta nirodha is atma vinigrahah; they are identical. Inasmuch as it is difficult to understand what the Self is, what the mind is, what its modifications are, yoga practice becomes difficult; and, therefore, with tenacity of purpose and incisive understanding, we have to take to the various prescriptions given by the Yoga Sastra in a methodical manner.

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Mind Control is Self Control by Swami Krishnananda

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