MEDITATION
(It makes the blind see and the lame stride over the hills)
Dr. Ashwini Jojra is a versatile personality of Jammu region. Somehow, he asked me to write an article on meditation. My immediate reaction to the assignment was of being caught on the wrong foot as I knew the least about meditation, except for the almost regular performance of pooja since childhood, chanting of hymns daily, a little knowledge about meditation from hear-say, and participation in a five day mass course on yoga and meditation. I know little about the art and science of meditation. Although I have heard about the spiritual achievements of the Sikh Gurus, Muslim saints and peers, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of Transcendental Meditation fame, and a number of other Yogis, Sannyasins, and spiritual God men in realization of the Self and the God through meditation, but my personal experience in this regard is not adequate. However, I accepted the assignment in all humbleness with the gratitude that the assignment may have provided me an opportunity to learn something on the subject. I consulted a few dictionaries, read a few books by eminent personalities and tried to recall various incidents from my personal life that may have had some relationship with meditation.
In his autobiography “Wings of Fire” the former President of India Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam says that he had felt the intense vibrations when he entered the Shivananda Ashram to seek liberation from a spate of sorrow, depression and anxiety that had overtaken him at a particular moment in his youth days when he was in search of a job as pilot in the Indian Air Force. He says that inside the Ashram on the banks of the Ganga, a large number of Sadhus were sitting in a state of trance. He had read that these Sadhus were the people who knew things intuitively. Swami Shivananda, the spiritual head of the Ashram cleared the doubts of Mr. Kalam then and advised him to “search for the true purpose of your existence. Become one with yourself, my son! Surrender yourself to the wish of God.” I believe that intuition of the Sadhus and the “healing touch” of Swami Shivananda too might have been a result of some meditative powers gained by these “enlightened” persons. I further believe that even the discoveries and outstanding researches of the world are an outcome of meditation by the scientists over a particular aspect. My professional Guru Shri Bharat Bhushan Gupta, former Director of Agriculture, J&K Government says that meditation is the focused concentration of consciousness as well as subconscious mind which expresses itself through intuitional instinct of various degrees present in people, depending upon their stature in this field. He cites the examples of Sir Issac Newton who concentrated and meditated upon the “falling action of the apple” and propounded the classic Theory of Gravitational Pull. The double helical structure of DNA by Watson and Crick was also the result of some meditative concentration, discovered in a dream during the state of physiological sleep.
I tried to ponder over and analyze these beliefs, notions, experiments, observations and conclusions of the enlightened personalities in the field. It was a wonderful assignment that has enabled me to share with you some of the invaluable remarks on the subject.
In an article “Meditations – Experience of a Shiva Yogi” (Malini, April 2005, Vol.XII, issue XLII (1) pp 37-41) Shin Shiva Suayambhu has prescribed an upright sitting posture to enter into the Meditation phase. A systematic breathing method, alternated with smooth, relaxed and slow followed by quicker rhythms of inhaling and exhaling builds up the concentration of mind. This, complemented with a freedom to the mind and the heart to take a conscious flight to the pleasant and radiating feelings of light and the cosmos, takes one’s spirit to the zenith, up to the Gods and down into the fire of the earth. With the same consciousness then, the spirits are again brought back from all the directions like a pleasant flow of silky ray of light through the middle of the head. A pleasant feeling of milk, honey and water flowing through the throat into the seat of the body seems to create a perfect unison with the nature’s Shakti (power) and Prana (life), and the inner self breathes in this power and life. Remembering OM and the “lingam” during these moments, he says, ultimately gives the real life, oneness with God, truth and real love and eternal bliss and Moksha (the liberation). Shin Shiva Suayambhu, while emphasizing on good breathing says “Don’t think, just breathe. Be very interested in what happens. In studying breathing you should first learn to write down what you have learnt and to gain that knowledge which you can awaken in every moment, which you can remember in every moment whenever you want. Then don’t think, not knowledge but experience, - don’t think about the thing at that moment as if from a distance, it must be like jumping into the ocean.” The account very subtly underscores that meditation is a motivated orientation and punctuation in natural life processes for God realization. With practice, it becomes a part of ones existence and leads the practiser to tranquility, peace and eternal bliss.
It is true that God manifests in the shape of the creation, sustenance and destruction that we see every moment in nature, but still it continues to be perhaps the oldest unresolved mystery that the rishis, the peers, the seers, the scholars and the scientists have been trying to unravel. The quest still continues. The mystics and the yogis who claim to have perfected the art and science of meditation feel that they have discovered and realized God. Various forms, qualities and characters have been attributed by these researchers to that Formless, Quality less and Uncharacterized Creator, Destroyer and Guardian of the Universe, depending upon their perceptions and realizations, but the search is still unending.
In conventional scientific methods, experiments can be repeated with the same results by the experimenter, but the seeker of God and His mysteries continues to struggle through scientific methods as well as spiritual techniques because scientific methods may not yield results in the life time of an individual whereas the yogis, the believers and seers, rishis, etc. have faith and contentment in their own or imbibed methods of search which rely not on the visible aspects of nature but the subtle feelings and conscience of inner self.
In Thesaurus English (U.S.), meditation refers to thought, consideration, deliberation, contemplation, reflection, rumination, cogitation, musings, ponderings. The Indian meaning of Meditation is much deeper. It is linked to an individual human’s search for GOD and the SELF through constant deliberation of thoughts for any specific period of time, by simply ignoring the distractions of nature during the process. In other words, meditation may be defined as the collective indulgence of mind and the soul to analyze and understand the abstract nature in convergence with realities of the universe to realize and experience the ultimate Truth of God and get liberated from the fear of death and bonds of ego. The seekers adopt different paths, postures and methods to realize this Truth. It seems that the path, posture and method, adopted by the seeker, generally depends upon one’s faith. But newer and innovative routes have also been adopted by ascetics. Thus, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Yogananda Paramahansa, Bhagwan Rajneesh-the Osho, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, and so many world acclaimed saints and peers of modern times, besides the founders and followers of old and the new religions and sects, practiced meditation and rose to incomparable spiritual heights.
Meditation is said to take a man or a woman to the state of spiritual bliss from where no return is sought, but return one must in ones lifetime and meditation provides the ways and means of that return as well. It is said that the performers achieve cosmic consciousness only through a regular practice of meditation. The breath plays the key role in this process. Meditation relaxes the body, mind and soul. It charges a person with cosmic energy and enables one to be in complete harmony with God.
One may enter into the state of meditation through music or solitude. One may enter into the state of meditation through service to the poor and surrender to His will. One may enter into a state of meditation through various Aasanas or Karma. But if one doesn’t enter into the domain of Bhakti – the total devotion and dedication to the God’s will, the quest for peace may never cease and the one may never attain the state of satisfaction and ultimate liberation, i.e., the Nirvana and the Moksha which is the ultimate goal of the seeker.
Dr.D.S.Mishra in his comparative study of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri (Poetry and Philosophy in Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri) says that Savitri was devoted to the Yoga of meditation. “A devotee of meditation is one who realizes one’s soul and experiences Supreme Bliss. The Gita says:
For supreme happiness comes to the Yogin whose mind is peaceful, whose passions are at rest, who is stainless and has become one with God”
A few very important extracts from a passage in the book say “Psychologically, yoga is the process of the progressive surrender of the ego to Beyond Ego. Certainly, it is not an easy sadhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and an unflinching patience. It has three stages of progress:
1. The ego must attempt to enter into contact with the Divine.
2. The whole lower nature must be prepared by the divine working to receive and become one with the higher nature.
3. The Divine must transform the ego into Beyond Ego.
The divine strength, in fact, substitutes itself for our weaknesses and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It makes the blind see and the lame stride over the hills.
A sadhaka of the Integral Yoga is supposed to follow mainly three disciplines:
1. He must aspire that his in-most soul should come in the forefront to guide his mind, life and body.
2. He must become aware of the Cosmic Being and seek a unison with all the plains of consciousness up to Overmind.
3. He must gain contact with the transcendent Divine. Moreover, he must constantly desire for the Divine, reject all that is contrary to the Divine and offer all of himself unconditionally to the Divine.
But the question is: How should one start this yoga?
Meditation and concentration are said to be the most useful techniques of the Integral Yoga. There are two centres for concentration: heart and mind. Concentration in heart leads to an inward opening and finally to the realization of the soul. But the concentration in mind silences restlessness and opens inner, deeper mind which is capable of receiving eternal peace and knowledge.”
Through the symbol of Savitri Dr. Mishra conveys that “men are not essentially a heap of broken images, they are really the sons of God, amritasya patrah. Of course, at this stage of evolution, they are certainly the victims of fate. Nonetheless, they are free to mould their destiny by the strength of their soul. They have a divine spark, a psychic being, within themselves. If they bring it to the fore to govern their mind, life and body, they will be able to attain knowledge, power and bliss and to divinize their physical life. To discover their soul, they must reject the temptations of the lower nature and surrender themselves to divine mother.”
Therefore, one must concentrate and meditate for some significant minutes during the day on physical and abstract issues so that efforts become a routine, burdens become the duty and the life becomes easy for the service of the self, society, the mankind and undoubtedly, the God.
