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PERCEPTIONS
Eternal India
encyclopedia
THE MAN, THE MIND AND MEDITATION
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.
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.