[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
masters who practised yoga and underwent the hardships of
meditation, we will know what these hardships could be.
They never leave a person, whatever be his advance.
In the Srimad Bhagavata, a great warning is given to us:
"Apart from the great Rishi Narayana, which created being
can be said to be immune to the forces of desire? Which
created being has not been affected by the charms of the
world?" The charms of the world, the beauties of things, the
values that we see in the objective world will take action
108
against us if we do not deal with them in a proper manner.
The objects of the world are not harmless entities that are
unconnectedly stationed in some point in space. Ultimately,
everything is connected with us. They now look like
independent objects unrelated to us, but in deeper thought
we will realise that at the bottom they are connected with us
psychologically, physically and intellectually.
The object of meditation is, thus, a very interesting thing.
It is not as simple as it appears. In the beginning, it is merely
a chosen object or a concept Ishta-Devata. In the beginning,
the Ishta-Devata is only an idea in the mind with a name
associated with it. Afterwards this Ishta-Devata gets
dissociated from the name and becomes only a thought of the
mind. Later on it is separated even from the thought and
looked upon as something existing by itself, independently.
Now we go further and try to relate the object in its basic
structure with the other objects of the world, inasmuch as all
the objects are processes of the universe.
The universe is a process, and not an existing stable
object. That is why it is called samsara in Sanskrit. Samsara is
a processional movement of forces. Samsara moves; it does
not simply exist like a stable mountain, unrelated and
unconnected to the passage of time. Everything is a
movement from one end of things to another end, together
with which we also move. The whole universe evolves from
stage to stage until it comes to the Self-realisation of itself. It
is the calling of God which is called evolution ultimately. The
Absolute, or the Supreme Principle, summons every objective
phenomenon to itself. The world cannot rest in itself because
it has isolated itself from its centre. The movement of all
things to their original universal centre is evolution, whether
it is organic evolution or inorganic evolution. The world is
restless merely because of the fact that it has turned away
from its centre. And meditation is an attempt to move
towards the centre.
While by the force of the movement of evolution we are
dragged towards the centre and we may be taken to the
centre one day or the other, yoga is a consciously directed
109
deliberate process of compressing the process of evolution
into a lesser number of years and going through all these
requisite experiences in a compressed period of time. We
may be able to experience ages of our life in one span of life
itself, provided the meditation is strong enough. Examples
are given, such as the piercing of the layers of lotus petals.
We may have one thousand petals kept one over the other,
but to pierce through these petals with a needle, how much
time would it take? One thousand petals kept one over the
other can be pierced by a needle in no time, yet the needle
has passed gradually from one petal to another. It is not an
instantaneous action of the needle, but a gradual process. So,
even if we compress all our lives into a single life by the
power of meditation, we pass through experiences one after
another, though they may look like a sudden and
instantaneous activity of the mind bringing about all these
experiences.
The power of meditation entirely depends upon the
clarity of our concept of the object and the purpose for which
we meditate. At least these two factors should be clear to the
mind. Why do we meditate, and what is it on which we are to
meditate? Why have we chosen this particular object for
meditation in contrast with the other things that could have
been chosen? This is the specification of the Ishta Devata, or
the chosen ideal. When we have chosen the ideal, we must be
clear about it wholly, comprehensively, so that the mind may
not be in need of taking to another recourse afterwards.
When we have chosen an object, we have chosen it forever,
because ultimately it matters little what we have chosen. As I
mentioned, any object is as good as any other object because
all objects are compressed locations of universal forces and,
therefore, through that particular object we can enter the
universal, whatever that object be. Hence, it is no use
bothering too much about the necessity to change the object
of concentration or meditation once it has been chosen,
especially when it has been given to us in initiation by our
Guru or by an adept.
110
Also, it must be clear as to why we meditate. The why is
answered by the mumukshutva aspect of the aspiration. It is
for the liberation of the spirit that we practice meditation,
and not merely to acquire powers. The purpose of meditation
is not merely to attain some peace of mind socially, as many
people think. It is not the attainment of social peace that is
the purpose of meditation, though that will also be a
consequence which will come upon us when we advance in
meditation.
The meditator is not an individual, isolated from the
other related factors in the world. We become more and
more aware of our internal relationship with others when we
go deeper and deeper into meditation. It is something like
going deeper into the ocean. The deeper we go, the more we
realise the oneness of waters. Likewise, when we go
profoundly into the object of meditation, we get related to
the object in such a way that we will not know whether the
object is meditating on us, or we are meditating on the
object. This is beautifully described in one sutra of Patanjiali:
kc %2Å‚G av[ tte% abhijatasya iva maG e% grah%2Å‚t[ grahaG a grhyec u
tatstha tadañjanat sampatti% (1.41). He calls this samapatti,
or achievement. Meditational achievement is that grand state
of consciousness or experience in which we go above the
notion of a pure meditator standing isolated from the object
of meditation.
But the consciousness of the meditator influences the
object to such an extent that the object assumes a form of
consciousness itself. As it is also said, it is something like a
red-hot iron ball. When an iron ball is heated red hot, it
becomes fire itself for all practical purposes. The fire is the
consciousness; the iron ball is the object. When the object is
heated by consciousness in meditation, the object assumes
the form of consciousness, gets charged with it, and we do
not know whether the object is meditating on the subject or
the subject is thinking of the object. One is reflected in the
other. It is like two crystals brought near each other, each
crystal reflecting in the other. When two crystals are
mutually reflected, we do not know which is reflected in
111
what. In some temples an image is kept between two mirrors
so that an illusion is created that there are infinite images on
either side. It is mutual reflection of images. One image is
reflected in the other, so that there is an idea of infinity, as it
were. Likewise, the consciousness that is meditating charges
the object with such intensity that the object assumes a
conscious status, reflecting the subject in itself, while at the
same time the object is also being reflected in consciousness.
And here we are mutually related with the objective
world. This is also because of the fact that in this stage of
mutual reflection of the object and the subject, the world
forces have come together in a meeting, as it were, to
collaborate with the liberation of the forces of the object, and
the object becomes the whole cosmos. It is not that we are
meditating only on an image or a small idol in our temple or
house. We have now come to a stage where the universal
forces have come to the location of our vigraha, or image;
and having liberated the forces constituting that object, they
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]