Eternal India Encyclopedia

PERCEPTIONS

Eternal India encyclopedia

THE MAN, THE MIND AND MEDITATION

Concentration, the sixth limb of yoga, has been defined by Patanjali as "holding the mind within a centre of spiritual con- sciousness body or outside it". There are different forms of concentration. Patanjali suggests some simple forms that can be ac- quired by everyone. "The repetition of the word OM with meditation upon its mean- ing". "Concentration may also be obtained by fixing the mind upon the Inner Light which is beyond sorrow". The ancient yogis believed that there was a centre of spiritual consciousness between the abdomen and the thorax in the form of a lotus which shone with an inner light. It would be revealed in deep meditation. It was beyond sorrow since those who saw it were filled with an extraordinary sense of peace and joy. The Chandogya Upanishad says: "Within the city of Brahman which is the body, there is the heart and within the heart there is a little house. This house has the shape of a lotus. Though old age comes to the body, the lotus of the heart does not grow old. It does not die with the death of the body." Patanjali mentions other forms of con- centration. One may concentrate on the heart of an illumined soul that is free from passion on any divine form or symbol that appeals to one as good. The seventh limb of yoga is meditation which is prolonged concentration. "Medita- tion ( dhyaana ) is an unbroken form of thought towards the object of concentra- tion." The final stage of meditation is sa- maadhi, absorption. This is the last, the eighth stage of yoga. Patanjali says that concentration, meditation and absorption are more direct aids to spiritual experience than the five limbs previously described. When you sit for meditation, recite a few shlokas on the glory of God, so that the thoughts that are scattered could be col- lected. Then gradually, while doing Japam, draw before the mind's eye the Form which that name represents. When your mind wanders away from the recital of the name, take it on to the picture of the Form. When it wanders from the picture, lead it on to the name. Let it dwell either on that sweetness or on this. Treated thus it can be easily tamed.

The imaginary picture you have drawn will get transmuted into the Bhaava- chithram, or the emotional picture, dear to the heart and fixed in the memory; gradually, it will become the Saakshaathkaarachithra when the Lord assumes that Form in order to fulfil your desire. This saadhana is called Japasahithadhyana. This is the very first step in spiritual discipline. Set aside a few minutes every day at first for this, and later, go on extending the time, as and when you feel the bliss that you can get. Let it be in the hours before dawn. This is preferable, because the body is refreshed after sleep and the peregrinations of daytime have net impinged on you. Have a lamp, with an open flame, steady and straight, or a candle before you. Sit in the padmaasana posture or any other comfortable aasana, in front of a candle. Look on the flame steadily, for some time, and closing your eyes, try to feel the flame inside you, between your eyebrows; let it slide down into the lotus of your heart, illu- mining the path. When it enters the heart, imagine that the petals of the lotus open out one by one, bathing every thought, feeling and emotion in the Light and so removing darkness from them. There is no space for darkness to hide. The light of the flame becomes wider and brighter. Let it pervade your limbs; now, those limbs can no more deal in dark suspicious wicked activities; they have become instruments of Light, and Love. Let the Light reach up to the tongue; falsehood desires that infest them, leading you into perverse sights and puerile con- versation. Let your head be surcharged with Light in you, more and more intensely; let it shine all around you, and let the Light spread from you, in ever widening circles, taking in your loved ones, your kith and kin, your friends and companions; nay your ene- mies and rivals-strangers, all men and women, where ever they are, all living beings, the entire World. ,, Since the Light illumines all the senses everyday, so deeply and so systematically, a time will soon come when you can no more relish dark and evil sight, yearn for dark and sinister tales, crave for low harmful dead- ening toxic food and drink, handle dirty de- meaning things, approach places of ill-fame and injury, or frame evil designs against any one anytime. Stay on in that thrill, witness that Form in the all-pervasive Light. For, Light is God; God is Light.

The mind (chitha), according to Patanjali, is made up of three components : manas, buddhi and ahankaara. Manas is the recording faculty which receives impres- sions gathered by the senses from the out- side world. Buddhi is the discriminative faculty which classifies these impressions and reacts to them. Ahankaara is the ego- sense which claims these impressions for its own and stores them as individual knowledge. When an event or object in the external world impinges on the senses, a thought-wave is raised in the mind. Patanjali, the father of yoga philosophy, has defined yoga as the control of the thought waves of the mind. Patanjali has classified thought waves into painful waves and not painful waves. The painful waves have to be overcome by raising waves which are not painful. Thoughts of anger, desire and delusion, must be countered by thoughts of love, gen- erosity and truth. Only when the painful waves have been stilled, can we proceed to the next stage, that of stilling the not painful waves which we have created. The eight ethical and spiritual disci- plines, which Patanjali prescribed for con- trolling the mind are (1) Yama, cultivation of moral habits, (2) Niyama, acquiring regular habits of study and worship, (3) Aasana, sitting quietly in order to achieve tranquil- lity, (4) Praanayaama, breathing exercises in order to gain control of the mind, (5) Pratyahaara, freeing the mind from the power of the senses, (6) Dharma, (7) Dhyaana, meditation and (8) Samaadhi, ris- ing to the super-conscious state.