Bhupendra Kumar Dave on Meditation
The wise man should surrender his words to his mind;
And this he should surrender to the Knowing Self
And the Knowing Self he should surrender to the Great Self
And that he should surrender to the Peaceful Self.
(Katha Upanishad)
A monk was once asked, "Have you seen God?" He politely answered, "With or without spects."
What he meant was clear. We too need spectacles to see God, but where to find them? As a child we were seeing the image of God in our parents. As the age advanced we probably misplaced our spectacles and failed to see the image of God anywhere around us. Unfortunately a very few are still trying to search the spectacles and have the glimpses of God again. Those who tried became the masters of meditation.
Since this works has its roots nursed by meditation, it is necessary to meditate first on the art of meditation and discover our self that the results of meditation are amazing.
Art of meditation though explained in numerous ways, ultimately tells us that when we think, innumerable thoughts rush in our mind. Most of them are dominated by desire and lust. The thinking process (विचार) therefore needs some selection and this is achieved by igniting ‘चिंतन'. During ‘चिंतन’ the mind rejects the unwanted thoughts and selects those, which require deep thinking. The mind can now concentrate (ध्यान) on the selected thoughts and begin meditation(मनन), which is the continuous process of distilling the thoughts. The thoughts so distilled can be by the practice of Yoga fuse with other distilled thoughts and make our mind Sankhya yogi or turn into action to make it Karma yogi or mingle with the self (आत्मा ) to make us Sidhi Yogi. This gives rise to sharp and subtle reasoning and lead us to self-realisation.
‘Sadhana’ is a stage, where keeping aside the self (आत्मा), the thoughts mingle with the supreme (परमात्मा). This is the stage of God realization. The stage ahead of Sadhana is ‘Siddhi’, which enables the self to fuse with the supreme. The physical aspect of this chain leading to higher thinking levels explains the evaluation of the thinking mind. To understand this chain let us observe the one who goes to sleep. In this state of unconsciousness (अचेतन) , he forgets his body, but when he wakes up, he comes in the state of consciousness (चेतन) and regains the consciousness of the body. The mind functions, even in the state of अचेतन causing dreams but this state of thinking is unreal. The real thinking occurs only in the state of चेतन, but even in this initial stage of thinking, the mind finds itself in the cobweb of Maya - the illusion caused by worldly attachments and the body consciousness persists. During चिंतन the effect of Maya diminishes and the mind nearly forgets the body. Then comes the state ध्यान , which makes one free from the shackles of Maya, but the five senses still remain active, giving rise to emotions. These emotions cause tribulations due to their toxic effect on our thinking. Thus there exists the possibility of break in the chain of higher thinking. The मनन (meditation) however sets aside even the effect of senses. With the cessation of consciousness of the body, the worldly attachments and the senses, the mind in the state of meditation makes the reflection of the self (आत्मा) clearly visible. For the yogi only the consciousness of the self remains. During Sadhana even the feeling of the self fades away and results in consciousness of the supreme (परमात्मा).
The fusion of the self with the supreme as in samadhi does not complete the cycle and therefore the awareness of the body reappears in the form of rebirth. That is the cyclic order of the nature (प्रकृति). There however exists the point of no return i.e. मोक्ष. In this stage the creation becomes the creator. The आत्मा becomes free of the cause, causation and effect. The spiritual energy i.e. प्राण that made the body capable of functioning and the mind competent to think and strive under the influence of Maya with all the powerful five senses and played the game of ego in combination with various emotions, gets dissolved with the celestial energy and attains the ever-lasting peace.
It is however noticed that most of the thinkers fail to reach even the stage of dhyana (ध्यान) and drift back to the wandering state of chintan (चिंतन), obviously because up to this stage , the effect of Maya persists and the five senses continue to pull back the thoughts in the circle of worldly attachments.
Meditation thus becomes the first step leading to the inner harmony between the mind, body, senses, emotions and the self. According to the Upanishads meditation is the route to attain the highest knowledge, where self-realization leads to the integration of the inner self (अंतरात्मा ) and the cosmic spirit (परमात्मा ). It is also said that when बुद्दी is submerged in Atman, it transforms into the truth absolute. Here man perceives nothing but perfect bliss.
At every step leading to the evaluation of higher thinking, we notice that the management of stress leverages our intelligence and helps us in development of additional personality traits and attainment of long-lasting peace. The entire process right from the birth of a thought to meditation and thereafter reaching the state of samadhi is a sadhana. Our whole life itself should be a sadhana according to the ancient sages. Sadhana they say is a state of mind where everything becomes illuminated and intrinsically significant and gloriously existing. The world looks full of righteousness drifting away all the pains, tortures, terrors and horrors. The man is filled with compassion, with a sense of solidarity with all that is around him. He sees love as the fundamental cosmic fact. He experiences that nirvana and samsar are one and this great truth becomes his life itself.
Sadhana is the entire thinking tree that we have described above. It has its roots spread over a large area because the thoughts in the initial stage of evaluation cover a wide range. Yet the nourishment that they provide to our mind, gives us a natural upsurge of energy as the thoughts churn themselves in the various stages of चिंतन ,मनन, etc. and become purified.
We experience how the seed sprouts and goes on to become a tree, spreading its branches in all directions loaded with green leaves. Following the cycle of flowering and fruits, creation becomes the creator. We also know that too much pruning of the tree results in withering of the leaves and drying of the branches, leading the tree to its ultimate death. So is our thinking tree. If we do not allow it to spread its branches of chintan (चिंतन) and interfere with the natural gift of meditation, it dies. The mind that is devoid of चिंतन, मनन, etc. fails to get the input of the essential juice needed for its stability and the life gradually loses its charm and withers into meaninglessness and futility. If life is a sadhana then this tree of thinking has to grow in spite of all odds and seasons and reach the cycle of flowering and bearing fruits. No failure or frustration should break this sadhana.
Meditation is thus a link in the thought process. But people say that there is state of thoughtlessness in meditation. To understand this concept we have to observe the nature of thought itself. Thoughts are the fountainhead of reason and action. Action is a thought translated into an event. Thoughts do not sprout themselves. They are the result of reactions caused in the mind as our senses communicate to the mind whatever they see, hear, feel and experience. In the mind these are superimposed by the collective thoughts already existing there because of past events and experiences. They bind them within the dimensions of time and the mind provides meaning in relation to the present events. The thoughts therefore appear to have greater linkage with the past and therefore the reasoning put forth by them usually has limited scope.
In order to make sense of the confusing experiences of the phenomenal reality that the world creates around us, the human consciousness works in stages. First is imagination. Images of objects, sensation of things and icons of experiences are fed into the mind. Mind has the capacity to arrange these inputs into a meaningful pattern. Secondly, the mind uses the memory to help us to connect the past with the present. Imagination and memory construct a universe for us into a meaningful spectrum of human experiences. This is the only universe of which we are aware. Hence our reasoning works in this limited area. Yet the reasoning suffers change because the mind’s store of past events and experiences gets more material for storage in its library.
Reasoning therefore also differs from person to person. Discussions, dialogues, debates and talks on works of art and literature during ‘satsung’ not only help in updating ones mind but also in bringing it into a uniform higher level due to interactions with the thoughts of more learned people participating in the ‘satsung’. In fact, while forcing the others to accept our reasoning, we feed the mind of others by transporting thoughts from our mind-stores. The company of intellectuals or ‘satsung’ is a very effective media for updating and raising the mind level of a large group of people at a time.
Coming back to the nature of thoughts, we find that some thoughts leave some residue or memory, which in turn forms the basis of our next thoughts. They also breed sorrow and conflict. Actions, which have been goaded by such thoughts, also leave some residue or memory. They also breed self-contempt and repentance. These actions in turn form the basis of our next action and are termed as ‘revenges’. Actions that are also sprouted by sorrow, fear and despair have the tendency to breed a mushroom of sorrows, stress and self- humiliations.
The thoughts that are born out of the inner self, or aim at the spiritual awakening, leave no residue. They disappear once their purpose is fulfilled. The thoughts that leave no residue or memory reside in the present only and provide the real peace of mind. Even after departure, the void created gets filled up with bliss. This actually is the state of thoughtlessness and meditation ensures it.
Meditation is more than a posture. It embraces the whole of the person, including his graceful attitude, kindness in look and speech along with helpful deeds and calming touch. It is a pious use of our senses and communication of virtues through the media of emotions. It keeps away the miseries of past and fears of the future and thereby makes the present cheerful.
Like the concept of God and religion, which spurned the world to create new forms of Gods and new doctrines of religion, the art of meditation originated by the Hindus gave birth to numerous ways of practicing meditation. For example we have the ‘Acem’ meditation from Norway. The basic technique of this meditation had originated in India and is very similar to ‘Japa’ meditation except that in place of meaningful ‘mantras’, a meaningless ‘dedicational’ sound is repeated with ease and without concentration comfortably sitting on a chair, sofa or bed. Then we have the transcendental meditation of Mahesh Yogi. This is being practiced with respect in almost the entire world and supported by many scientific studies.
Today we have many preachers who suggest various methods to delve deep into the self and unravel the sovereign secrets of God. They suggest austere penance, self-designed worship in ambrosial hours, recitation of hymns and mantras, acts of charity and many other rites and rituals including even sacrifices. But Mundak Upanishad clearly states that such things do not help a devotee. What we actually require is a relationship between mind and body.
There is curious relationship between mind and body. Studies have demonstrated that human beings can manipulate their electroence phalograms (EEGS) __small electrical impulses produced by the brain__ by changing their excitation levels. The experiments have shown that a person in relaxed state viewing alpha waves in an oscilloscope can alter those waves by becoming more alert and attentive. Like wise, a person whose heart rate is displayed can see it decreasing with the release of tensions. Even behavior can be manipulated to relax the heart muscles and change blood pressure. This is a biofeedback technique and specialists have used it in patients who had heart attacks by teaching them to decrease anxiety and fear of future, which obviously is the major obstacle to their physical recovery.
This biofeedback __ i.e. the technique by which individual can monitor and learn to control the involuntary activity of certain organs and bodily functions __ is the basis of yogo and sadhana. These novel methods encourage the individual to recognize the single fact of life that he and only he has the wherewithal to influence whatever happens in his physical body. This feedback is presented visually via an oscilloscope of breathing, or through earphones activated by synchronizing ‘ japa’ with ‘Om’. A fine-tuning in this method can bridge the gap between mind and body. Age is no criterion for use and success of this method. The most ideal subjects are the children because this does not require any extra intelligence __ motivation is all that is needed for its success.
What is the best place for meditation? According to Osho the place has to be a sacred one __ the place where meditation has been practiced over many years and has therefore automatically has acquired certain powers. He said that such place gets charged with the energy and vibrations from the peaceful thoughts of the old saints and seers. Depending on the intensity of meditators, the sanctity and power of a particular place thus remains charged exuding powerful vibrations for thousands of years. If what Osho says is correct and true, then the best place to meditate is one’s own house because this house of yours will get charged with your energy and enlighten your family members, who in turn will meditate and keep your powers alive with, of course, the extra energy added by them through their meditation. The Hindus therefore thought of having a puja ghar in every house for the elders to meditate and for other members of the family to join in ‘bhajan’, ‘kirtan’, ‘arti’ and ‘havan’ and thereby get them enlightened. In the combined family system of the Hindus, the ancestral house was a place of pilgrimage and was retained for years and seldom sold out.
For meditation, the whole atmosphere and surroundings have to remain full of life-energy and life-energy reaches its peak where love exists. The purest form of love is of the mother followed by the love one gets from his beloved wife (or husband) and the perpetual love showered by the children who enjoy their life under the loving shadow of the family. Which other place can be more sacred?
For human beings living is a complex process. This is so because they have to exercise their own choices and preferences in order to take up roles and change the course of life. For them every event has a meaning __positive, negative and frozen. The events that have positive or negative meaning become experiences whereas those, which are assigned frozen meaning, cause feelings of meaninglessness and futility and the life starts losing its identity. Thus there is a need to constantly examine one’s mental model and develop the ability to dissolve frozen meanings. There is a need to discard all that does not add to our wholesomeness and well being. There is a need to create an atmosphere of awareness by constantly redefining and renewing the path of life. There is a need to break boundaries and give meaning even to the frozen aspects of life. There is a need to penetrate each layer of doubt that lies beneath the surfaces.
The positive and negative meanings of events help us to come out of the trails and tribulations. They give us the glimpses of what to think and act, telling us also our limitations. Deep thinking can reveal the positive or negative aspects of even frozen meanings. But that alone is not enough. The search of positive and negative meanings of all the events of life built up a real treasure of experiences. Each experience, the Hindu philosophers said, is a source of awareness __ so that we do not look back either in anger or in repentance or in fear and doubts. They lead us from darkness to light.
We assume that we have unending supply of mental energy, but not physical energy. When we are physically tired we need rest __ sometimes to catch breath. Why don’t we apply the same principle to our mental energy? Why can’t we give ourselves a break while dealing with life’s stresses and wait a while to catch our breath before we are totally crushed.
There are occasions when we deal with disagreements with our loved ones; we fear about things going absurd; we worry about our tasks for no reason; the pain of loss no matter how great or small causes total breakdown; resentment at being treated unfairly or unjustly crushes us; vanishing of hopes completely makes us nervous. All these drain our metal energy__ we feel tired, depressed, disinterested, unenthusiastic, absent-minded and even accident-prone. To get rid of this we need to acknowledge what is going on in our lives and make some allowance every now and then. This is a kind of ‘yogic’ way of regaining mental energy. Generally, we can cope with the stresses, but there are occasions when the intensity of what we are coping with is too great or when we are facing several situations simultaneously and feel run down. It is at such times that we need to learn not to get angry with ourselves or blame God. We have to make ourselves more reasonable with ourselves and be more realistic in our approach to life-problems. The shadow of negative thoughts should not dull the brightness of positive thoughts. Allowing the light to guide us is a kind of yoga and this yoga demands more concentration and is a part of sadhana.
Negative thoughts are often ego-dominated and desire-oriented. Ego is aggresive all the time. It feels hurt all the time and goes on breeding negative thoughts. In fact, behind every negative thought there is venom of ego. The mind gets so poisioned that it fails to think properly and often becomes a victim of meloncoly, self-pity and anger.
Desire-oriented thoughts always move around success and failure stresses and breed anger whenever failures become apparant. Anger is one of the imperfections of mind. It is madness, however short-lived. Fury and anger carry the mind away from the self. It is true that anger is never without reason, but it is seldom backed by a good reason.
By controlling anger, one can avoid the remorse of a lifetime. In moments of anger i.e. when someone hurts you, humiliates you or insults you, the man who has control over his mind and thereby on his emotions, can resort to silence and then find way to forgive him. It is easy to get angry, but it is difficult to forgive. Anger breeds hate and forgiveness nourishes love. Forgiveness does not mean giving in, but it means to let go. Once we forgive, we are no longer emotionally handcuffed to the person who had hurt us. Because of our silence, the scorner cannot use our mouth as a trap and because of forgiveness he becomes powerless and we are therefore able to reclaim our power. In any situation, it does not matter whether or not someone deserves forgiveness. Controlling anger is also an act of making ourself ego-free. It is comparetively easier to have control over the senses and ward off anger, hatred etc. if there exists an atmosphere condusivetogerminate love. Love means seeing the same self in all the beings. It is an act of widenning the realm of the self till it covers the entire universe and puts us with the almighty
Medically it is observed that ego and anger causes hypertension and related diseases. Negative feelings like anger, shame and sadness that cause stress are also linked to high blood pressure and susceptibility to other diseases. The Hindus have therefore laid stress on controlling temper and refrain from arousing anger even in others. They have however not put anger in the category of vices. They declared that anger is not a vice but it can surely lead one to commit sins.
Ego and anger quickly bring in frustration and become a deep-seated meloncoly that drains off the mental as well as the physical energy. The remedy lies in controlling ego and bringing the inner self in the total command of the thoughts through meditation.
Meditation or sadhana are not forced endeavour to attain tranquility, but are the media through which the mind discovers the flow of tranquility.
Know that meditation too can be an act of nourishing ego for spiritual desire also feeds ego. Sadhana and siddhi can bring in flooding desires, for ego is a defient warrier and quickly builts up an army of superiority complex.
It is through sheer ignorance the mind often enters the चक्रव्यूह of sadhna and siddhi and then fails to find a way out of it and fails to proceed on to a still more glorious path.
The entire time and energy gets lost in this चक्रव्यूह and glory of consciousness radiating from the self gets nibbed in the bud forever. The ultimate remedy lies in attaining the state where only real prevails and even the unreal displays only its real part.
When we meet a person we meet his soul and not his unreal --- the misleading glamour of his physical existance.
(Note: This article is based on the thoughts appearing in my book "The Seven Wonders of Hindu Philosophy.)
