Raja Yoga, Message 16
(The section ‘Attention and Interest’ now continues.)
Interest develops attention. It is difficult to fix the mind on an uninteresting object. When a professor is lecturing, when the subject is abstract and metaphysical many people leave the hall quietly because they cannot attend to a subject which is not interesting; but if the same professor sings and tells some interesting and thrilling stories, all people hear him with rapt attention. There is pin-drop silence. Lecturers should know the art of attracting the minds of the hearers. They will have to change the tone to talk with force and emphasis. They will have to watch the audience and see whether they are attentive or not. They will have to change the subject matter for a short while and bring in some nice stories and suitable illustrations. They will have to look at the hearers directly in their eyes. So many things are necessary if one wants to become a successful lecturer, and wants to make the hearers attentive.
Napoleon, Gladstone, Arjuna and Jnanadeva all had wonderful powers of attention. They could fix their minds on any object. All scientists and occultists possess attention to a remarkable degree. They cultivate it by patient, regular and systematic practice. A judge and surgeon can get positive success in their respective professions only if they are endowed with the power of attention to a high degree.
When you do any work, plunge yourself in it. Forget yourself. Lose the self. Concentrate upon the work. Shut out all other thoughts. When you do one thing do not think of any other thing. When you study one book do not think of any other book. Fix the mind there steadily like the arrow-maker who had no consciousness of his surroundings.
Eminent scientists are so busy and attentive in their experiments and researches in their laboratories that they forget to take food even for days together. Once a scientist was very busy at his work. His wife, who was living in another district, had a serious calamity. She came running up to him in the laboratory, with profuse tears in her eyes. Strange to say, the scientist was not a bit agitated. He was so very attentive to his work that he even forgot that she was his own wife! He said: "Madam! Weep for some more time. Let me make chemical analysis of your tears."
Once some gentleman invited Sir Isaac Newton for dinner. Newton repaired to his host's bungalow and took his seat in the drawing room. The gentleman forgot all about Newton, took his dinner and proceeded to his office. Newton was musing within himself very absorbedly on some important point of science. He did not stir from his seat. He forgot all about his dinner and remained in the same chair like a statue for a long time. The next morning the host saw Newton in the drawing room and then only remembered having invited him for dinner. He felt sorry for his forgetfulness and apologised to Sir Isaac in a meek voice. What wonderful power of attention Sir Isaac Newton had! All geniuses possess this power to an infinite degree.
When a great misfortune has befallen you, or when you pass in review a certain course of conduct in order to find out the cause of the failure, it may take possession of your mind to such a degree that no effort of the will can make you cease from thinking over it. An article has to be written, a book is in the process of preparation; the work is carried on even if there is loss of sleep and you are unable to tear yourself away from it. The attention which began voluntarily has taken entire hold of the field of consciousness.
If you possess strong power of attention, anything that the mind receives will be deeply impressed. Only an attentive man can develop his will. A mixture of attention, application and interest can work wonders. There is no doubt of this. A man of ordinary intellect with highly developed attention can turn over more work than a highly intellectual man who has poor attention.
If you attend to one thing at a time you will get profound knowledge of that subject in its various aspects. The ordinary untrained man of the world generally attends to several things at a time. He allows many things to enter the gates of his mental factory. That is the reason why he has a clouded or turbid mind. There is no clarity of thought. He cannot do the process of analysis and synthesis. He is bewildered. He cannot express his ideas clearly, whereas the disciplined man can attend to a subject exclusively as long as he likes. He extracts full and detailed information about one subject or object and then takes up another. Attention is an important faculty of a yogi.
Every little act demands concentration and your whole-hearted attention. If you want to pass a thread through the eye of the needle you must remove all fibres that are disjointed. Then you must make it a single fibre and with great care and one-pointed thought, pass the thread into the needle.
When you climb a mountain, or go down a steep descent, you will have to be very careful, otherwise you will slip and fall into the deep abyss below. When you ride on a bicycle, if you talk to your friend on the road a motor car might dash against you from behind. If you are a bit absent-minded when you walk on the road you will trip against a stone and fall down. A careless barber will cut the nose of his customer. A careless washerman will burn the clothes of his master. A sleepy aspirant will dash his head against the wall or fall down prostrate on the ground.
Therefore, you must develop attention. Attention leads to concentration.
When you take up any work, apply your whole heart, full mind and soul to the work. Do it with perfect concentration. What another can do in six hours, you can turn out within half an hour, smoothly and in a methodical and orderly manner. This is yoga activity. You will be taken as an accomplished yogi. Even when you study, study the subject with perfect concentration. Do not allow the mind to wander. You must shut out all external sounds. Fix the gaze at one point. Do not allow the eyes to wander. When you study one subject do not think of a movie or sweetmeats or a friend. The whole world must be dead to you for the time being. Such must the nature of your concentration. It will come to you after some steady and constant endeavours.
Be not troubled. Be not discouraged. There will be some delay. Wait coolly and patiently. Rome was not built in a day. It is all a question of time. Do not leave the practice even for a day, even when you are sick. In your failure lies the secret of your success, and in your weakness the secret of your strength. Plod on. Push on. Gird up your loins. Nil desperandum. Be bold. March on courageously. Be cheerful. A brilliant future is awaiting thee.
Practise. Feel. Rejoice. Become a yogi or world figure. Be sincere and earnest. Rise up. Awake. Thy light has come. O my dear children of Light and Immortality. It is 3.30 a.m., brahmamuhurta. This is the best time to practise concentration on Atman, memory and will-culture, and to catch hold of the mind. Sit in your favourite meditation posture and do vigorous practice now. May success and divine glory attend on thee. Melt the bubble mind in Brahman, the ocean of knowledge, and enjoy supreme bliss.
Hatha Yoga Techniques
Tratak* is one of the cleansing techniques in the light of hatha yoga philosophy. Tratak also plays a very prominent part in raja yoga and jnana yoga.
* See Volume II: Health and Hatha Yoga
Tratak is steady gazing. Write the word OM in black ink on the wall. Sit in front of the drawing. Concentrate on it with open eyes till tears come into the eyes. Then close the eyes. Visualise the picture of OM. Then open the eyes and again gaze till tears flow. Gradually increase the period. There are students who can gaze for one hour.
Instead of OM you may draw a big black dot on white paper and fix it on the wall. Gaze at this black dot on the paper. The wall will present a golden colour during tratak.
You can also do tratak on a candle flame, a bright star or the moon, on any picture of the Lord — either Krishna, Rama, Siva or Lord Jesus.
Practise tratak for one minute on the first day. Gradually increase the period every week. Don't strain the eyes.
Do it gently with ease and comfort, as long as you conveniently can. Repeat your mantra, Hari Om, Sri Ram or Gayatri during tratak. In some people who have weak eye capillaries the eyes may become red. They need not be alarmed unnecessarily as the redness of the eyes will pass off quickly.
Practise tratak for six months. Then you can take up advanced lessons in concentration and meditation. Be regular and systematic in your sadhana. If there is a break, make up the deficiency or loss on the next day.
Tratak steadies the wandering mind and removes tossing of the mind. It gives tremendous power, removes a host of ophthalmic ailments and brings siddhis.
Tratak with open eyes is followed by visualisation, which is the calling up of a clear image of anything. Tratak and visualisation help a lot in concentration.
Gaze at the picture of the Lord (your tutelary deity) for a few minutes and then close your eyes. Try to visualise the picture mentally. You will have a well-defined or clear-cut picture of the Lord. When it fades, open your eyes and gaze. Repeat the process five or six times. You will be able to mentally visualise it clearly after some months' practice.
If you find it difficult to visualise the whole picture, try to visualise any part. Try to produce even a hazy picture. By repeated practice the hazy picture will assume a well-defined, clear-cut form. If you find this difficult, fix the mind on the effulgent light in the heart and take this as the form of the Lord or Devi.
Do not bother yourself if you are not able to have perfect visualisation of the picture of the Lord with closed eyes. Continue your practice vigorously and regularly. You will succeed. What is wanted is love for the Lord.
Cultivate this more and more. Let it flow unceasingly and spontaneously. This is more important than visualisation.
Nasikagra chakra is fixing the gaze on the tip of the nose. This is also called the nasal gaze. Do not make any violent effort. Gently look at the tip of the nose. Practise for one minute in the beginning. Gradually increase the time to half an hour or more. This practice steadies the mind and develops the power of concentration. Even when you walk you can keep up this practice.
Bhrumadhya drishti is gazing at the ajna chakra, between the two eyebrows. The seat of the mind is the ajna chakra. The mind can be controlled easily if you concentrate there. In this you should direct the gaze towards the ajna chakra with closed eyes. If you practise it with open eyes it may produce headaches and foreign particles may fall into the eyes. There may be distraction of the mind also. Do not strain the eyes. Practise gently from half a minute to half an hour. There must not be the least violence in this practice. Gradually increase the period. This yoga kriya removes tossing of the mind and develops concentration.
When you practise concentration at the tip of the nose you will experience various sorts of fragrance. When you concentrate between the eyebrows you will see lights. These are experiences to give you encouragement, to push you up in the spiritual path and convince you of the existence of transcendental or super-physical things. Do not stop your sadhana now.
You can concentrate also on the heart or anahata chakra. This is the seat of emotion and feeling. A bhakta should concentrate there. He who concentrates on the heart gets great bliss.
The crown of the head or sahasrara is another centre for concentration. Some vedantins concentrate there.
Stick to one centre of concentration. Cling to it tenaciously. Never change it. The guru will select a centre of concentration for you if you are a student of faith. If you are a man of self-reliance you can select a centre for yourself.
A hatha yogi tries to concentrate his mind by having his breath controlled through pranayama. Kumbhaka or retention of breath also helps concentration. It checks the velocity of the mind and makes it move in smaller circles and ultimately curbs all its wanderings and thereby renders it fit for concentration.
The raja yogi tries to concentrate his mind by restraining the various modifications of the mind by not allowing the mind to assume various shapes of objects. He does not care for control of breath but his breath becomes necessarily controlled when his mind is concentrated.
DHYANA
"A continuous flow of perceptions (or thought) is dhyana, meditation." (III-2)
What is Meditation?
Meditation is the flow of continuous thought of one thing, of God, the Atman. It is the keeping up of one idea of God alone always, like the continuous flow of oil.
Meditation follows concentration. When persisted in and perfected it brings about the experience of super-consciousness or samadhi, the ultimate state of Self-awareness or realisation.
That state of the mind wherein there are no thoughts, is meditation. Meditation proceeds from the mind. All worldly thoughts are shut out from the mind. The mind is filled or saturated with divine thoughts, with the divine glory, the divine presence. ''Though men should perform tapas standing on one leg for a period of one thousand years, it will not, in the least, be equal to one-sixteenth part of dhyana yoga (meditation).'' Paingala Upanishad.
Meditation is the only way to attain salvation. It kills all pains, sufferings and sorrows and destroys all causes of sorrow. It gives the vision of unity and induces a sense of oneness. Meditation is a balloon or a parachute or an aeroplane that helps the aspirant to soar high into the realms of eternal bliss, everlasting peace and undying joy.
Meditation is the royal road to attain God-head. It is the grand trunk road which takes the aspirant direct to the destination of divine consciousness. It is the mystic ladder which takes the yoga student from earth to heaven, it is the divine ladder that pushes them to the heights of asamprajnata samadhi, it is the step in the staircase of unbounded intelligence to take the aspirant to the highest storey of non-dual meditation and kaivalya mukti (liberation) of a vedantin. Without it no spiritual progress is possible. It is the aerial ropeway that allows the devotee to glide easily to the other shore of samadhi and drink the honey of love and the nectar of immortality.
Every human being has within himself various tremendous powers, potentialities, capacities and latent faculties of which he has no conception. He is a magazine of power and knowledge. As he evolves he unfolds new powers, new faculties, new qualities. He must awaken these dormant powers and faculties by the practice of meditation and yoga.
He must develop his will and control his senses and mind. He must purify himself and practise regular meditation. Then only can he become a superman or God-man; then only can he change his environment and influence others; then only can he subdue other minds, conquer internal and external nature and enter into the super-conscious state.
Just as the light is burning within the hurricane lamp, so also is the divine flame burning from time immemorial in the lamp of your heart. Close your eyes. Merge yourself within the divine flame. Plunge deep into the chambers of your heart. Meditate on this divine flame and become one with the flame of God.
If the wick within the lamp is small, the light will also be small. If the wick is big, the light also will be powerful. Similarly, if the jiva (individual soul) is pure, if he practises meditation, the manifestation or expression of the Self will be powerful. He will radiate a big light. If he is unregenerate and impure he will be like burnt up charcoal. The bigger the wick, the greater the light. Likewise, the purer the soul, the greater the expression.
Meditation is the only valuable asset for you. Success in yoga is possible only if the aspirant practises profound and constant meditation. To meditate is our foremost duty. It is for that we have taken our birth here. To concentrate, to purify, to meditate and realise our essential divine nature is our foremost duty. Realisation cuts the knots of ignorance, desire and action and gives permanent satisfaction, everlasting peace and eternal bliss.
What Happens in Meditation?
During meditation the mind becomes calm, serene and steady. The various rays of the mind are collected and focussed on the object of meditation. There will be no tossing of the mind. One idea alone occupies the mind. The whole energy of the mind is concentrated on that one idea. The senses become still. They do not function. Where there is deep concentration there is no consciousness of the body and surroundings. He who has good concentration can visualise the picture of the Lord very clearly within the twinkling of an eye.
Do not try to drive away the unimportant thoughts. The more you try the more they will return, the more they will gain strength. You will tax your energy. Fill the mind with divine thoughts. The unimportant thoughts will gradually vanish.
All mental modifications such as anger, jealousy, hatred, etc., assume subtle forms when you practise meditation. They are thinned out. They should be eradicated in toto through samadhi or blissful union with the Lord. Then only are you quite safe. Latent mental impulses will be waiting for opportunities to assume a grave and expanded form. You should be very careful and vigilant.
An aspirant says: "I am able to meditate in one posture for three hours. In the end I become senseless but I do not fall on the ground." If there is real meditation you will never become senseless, you will experience perfect awareness. This other is a negative undesirable mental state. You will have to get over this state by keeping up perfect vigilance.
Those who practise meditation will find that they are more sensitive than the people who do not meditate and because of that the strain on the physical body is enormous.
Considerable changes take place in the mind, brain and the nervous system by the practice of meditation. New nerve currents, new vibrations, new avenues, new grooves, new cells, new channels are all formed. The whole mind and nervous system are remodelled. You will develop a new heart, a new mind, new sensations, new feelings, new modes of thinking and a new view of the universe (as God in manifestation). The purifying process leads to a deeper insight into Truth. This is the action of the grace of the Lord upon the soul in meditation.
When the mind becomes steady in meditation the eyeballs also become steady. A yogi whose mind is calm will have a steady eye. There will be no winking at all. The eyes will be lustrous, red or pure white.
In the beginning of your practice you may get jerks of the hands, legs, trunk and the whole body. Sometimes the jerk is very terrible. Do not be afraid, do not be troubled. It is nothing, it can do nothing. It is due to sudden muscular contraction from influence of new nerve stimuli, when the prana becomes slow and the outward vibrations make the mind come down from its union with the Lord to the level of physical consciousness. Remember that new nerve currents are formed now owing to the purification of the nadis. The jerks will pass off after some time. At times there is tremor of the body during meditation. This is due to the prana being taken up to the brain from the trunk, etc. in the process of meditation. Do not be afraid. Do not stop the meditation. You will have to pass through all these stages. When you get these you are improving, you are progressing. Plod on and persevere. Be cheerful. Help is from within, from the Inner Ruler. These are all new sensations. Be courageous and bold. Courage is an important qualification and virtue for aspirants. Cultivate this positive quality.
When your meditation becomes deep you will lose consciousness of the body. You will feel that there is no body. You will experience immense joy. There will be mental consciousness. Some lose sensation in the legs, then in the spinal column, back, the trunk and the hands. When the sensation is lost in these parts it feels that the head is suspended in the air.
When you practise rigorous meditation, natural retention of breath without inhalation and exhalation will come by itself. When this comes you will enjoy immense peace and you will have one-pointed mind.
You will feel that will-power is radiating from you. Your consciousness will be deeper now. Thoughts of God will start the spiritual currents in the body. Do not check these currents. (If heat is produced in the head, apply butter, amalaka oil or brahmi oil. Take cold bath three times during summer. Take butter and sugar-candy.)
When you fix the mind, either on Sri Krishna, Lord Siva or the Atman, even for five minutes, sattva guna is infused into the mind. Subtle desires are thinned out. You feel peace and bliss during the five minutes. You can, with the subtle intellect, compare this bliss from meditation with the transitory sensual pleasures. You will find that this bliss from meditation is a million times superior to sensual pleasures. Meditate and feel this bliss. Then you will know the real value.
During meditation, when your mind is purer, you will be inspired. The mind will be composing fine poems and solving intricate problems of life. Stamp out these pure thoughts also. This is all dissipation of mental energy. Soar higher and higher in the Atman only.
Just as salt melts in water, the pure mind during meditation melts in silence in Brahman, its substratum.
The object of meditation will come before you much quicker if you practise regular meditation. You will feel as if you are covered by the object on which you meditate. It will seem as if the whole space is illumined. Sometimes you will experience the sound of ringing bells. You will feel the inner peace of the soul.
When your meditation becomes deep, you generally operate through the subtle causal body only. This becomes your normal consciousness. Yogis and bhaktas like Lord Gauranga, Tuka Ram and Tulsidas identified themselves with their causal body and had this as their normal consciousness. A bhakta, too, becomes one with Brahman. He has divine auspiciousness, yet he has a thin ethereal body. He keeps up his individuality. A whirlpool is one with the whole mass of the water. It has a separate existence also. Similar is the case with the bhakta who has a life with his causal body.
During meditation you will have no idea of time. You will not hear any sounds. You will forget your name and all sorts of relationships with others. You will have no consciousness of your body or surroundings. You will have equanimity of mind. You will not hear any sounds. There will be stoppage of up-going and down-going sensations. The consciousness of egoism will also gradually vanish. You will experience inexplicable joy and indescribable happiness. Gradually, reasoning and reflection also will cease.
After a short practice of meditation you will feel that the body gets lighter in a short time, say fifteen or thirty minutes, after you have taken your seat. You may be semi-conscious of the body also. There is a great deal of happiness owing to concentration. This happiness resulting from concentration—ananda (bliss) is quite different from sensual pleasures. You must be able to differentiate between these two pleasures through the intuitive mind rendered subtle by constant spiritual practice and meditation. Concentration and meditation have a power to sharpen the intellect. A trained intellect can comprehend subtle, philosophical, abstruse problems beautifully well. A disciplined intellect that can differentiate between the happiness derived from concentration and deep meditation, and the happiness derived from worldly pleasures, will naturally run daily to enjoy this kind of new happiness.
Such a mind will loathe sensual pleasures. There will be extreme abhorrence and positive aversion to objects. It is but natural, because this kind of happiness is more lasting, sustained, self-contained and real, as it emanates from the Atman. You can distinctly feel that the mind is moving, that it is leaving its seat in the brain, and that it is trying to go to its original abode. You know that it has left its old groove and is now passing into a new groove.
In the beginning the aspirant remains in a state of bliss for some time. He comes down. By constant practice of incessant meditation he continues to remain in that exalted state forever. Later on the body idea completely vanishes.
A sudden stroke of mystic illumination puts an end to all empirical existence altogether and the very idea or remembrance of such a thing as the world, or the narrow individuality of the spirit in this world, absolutely leaves.
Benefits of Meditation
This world is full of miseries and sufferings. If you want to get rid of the pains and afflictions of this worldly existence (samsara), you must practise meditation. Meditation is the pathway to divinity. It is the royal road to the kingdom of Brahman. It is a mysterious ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, from error to truth, from darkness to light, from pain to bliss, from restlessness to abiding peace, from ignorance to knowledge, from mortality to immortality. Meditation leads to knowledge of the Self which brings about eternal peace and supreme bliss. Meditation prepares you for the integral experiences of direct intuitive knowledge.
Truth is Brahman. Truth is Atman. Truth is quite pure and simple. You cannot realise the Truth without reflection and meditation. Be silent. Know thyself. Know That. Melt the mind in That.
The fire of meditation annihilates all foulness due to vice. Then suddenly comes knowledge of divine wisdom which directly leads to liberation or final emancipation.
Regular meditation opens the avenues of intuitional knowledge, makes the mind calm and steady, awakens an ecstatic feeling and brings the yoga student in contact with the source or the supreme Purusha. If there are doubts they are all cleared by themselves when you march on the path of dhyana yoga steadily. You will yourself feel the way to place your footstep in the next rung of the spiritual ladder. A mysterious inner voice will guide you.
If you wind a watch at night it will run smoothly for twenty-four hours. Even so, if you meditate for one or two hours in the brahmamuhurta (one and a half hours before sunrise) you can work very peacefully throughout the day. Nothing can disturb your mind. The whole system will be charged with spiritual vibrations.
Many of your doubts will be cleared by themselves during meditation. Some will have to wait for some time for the clearance of some doubts. However much the teacher explains to you, you cannot understand certain things at a certain time. You will have to evolve a little more. When you have evolved, those doubts which tormented you three years ago will become clear now.
Meditation gives a lot of spiritual strength, peace, new vigour and vitality. It is the best mental tonic. If a meditator gets irritated very often it shows he is not doing good uninterrupted meditation. There is something wrong in his spiritual practices (sadhana).
Meditation develops strong and pure thoughts. Mental images are clear-cut and well-defined. Good thoughts are well-grounded. Through clarification of ideas, confusion vanishes.
Meditation is a powerful tonic. It is a mental and nervine tonic as well. The holy vibrations penetrate all the cells of the body and cure its diseases. Those who meditate save doctor's bills. The powerful, soothing waves that arise during meditation exercise a benign influence on the mind, nerves, organs and cells of the body. The divine energy freely flows from the feet of the Lord to the different systems of the sadhaka (aspirant). Meditation itself is a panacea for all diseases. (If you are seriously ailing you can do japa and light meditation while lying on the bed.)
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(The section ‘Attention and Interest’ now continues.)
Interest develops attention. It is difficult to fix the mind on an uninteresting object. When a professor is lecturing, when the subject is abstract and metaphysical many people leave the hall quietly because they cannot attend to a subject which is not interesting; but if the same professor sings and tells some interesting and thrilling stories, all people hear him with rapt attention. There is pin-drop silence. Lecturers should know the art of attracting the minds of the hearers. They will have to change the tone to talk with force and emphasis. They will have to watch the audience and see whether they are attentive or not. They will have to change the subject matter for a short while and bring in some nice stories and suitable illustrations. They will have to look at the hearers directly in their eyes. So many things are necessary if one wants to become a successful lecturer, and wants to make the hearers attentive.
Napoleon, Gladstone, Arjuna and Jnanadeva all had wonderful powers of attention. They could fix their minds on any object. All scientists and occultists possess attention to a remarkable degree. They cultivate it by patient, regular and systematic practice. A judge and surgeon can get positive success in their respective professions only if they are endowed with the power of attention to a high degree.
When you do any work, plunge yourself in it. Forget yourself. Lose the self. Concentrate upon the work. Shut out all other thoughts. When you do one thing do not think of any other thing. When you study one book do not think of any other book. Fix the mind there steadily like the arrow-maker who had no consciousness of his surroundings.
Eminent scientists are so busy and attentive in their experiments and researches in their laboratories that they forget to take food even for days together. Once a scientist was very busy at his work. His wife, who was living in another district, had a serious calamity. She came running up to him in the laboratory, with profuse tears in her eyes. Strange to say, the scientist was not a bit agitated. He was so very attentive to his work that he even forgot that she was his own wife! He said: "Madam! Weep for some more time. Let me make chemical analysis of your tears."
Once some gentleman invited Sir Isaac Newton for dinner. Newton repaired to his host's bungalow and took his seat in the drawing room. The gentleman forgot all about Newton, took his dinner and proceeded to his office. Newton was musing within himself very absorbedly on some important point of science. He did not stir from his seat. He forgot all about his dinner and remained in the same chair like a statue for a long time. The next morning the host saw Newton in the drawing room and then only remembered having invited him for dinner. He felt sorry for his forgetfulness and apologised to Sir Isaac in a meek voice. What wonderful power of attention Sir Isaac Newton had! All geniuses possess this power to an infinite degree.
When a great misfortune has befallen you, or when you pass in review a certain course of conduct in order to find out the cause of the failure, it may take possession of your mind to such a degree that no effort of the will can make you cease from thinking over it. An article has to be written, a book is in the process of preparation; the work is carried on even if there is loss of sleep and you are unable to tear yourself away from it. The attention which began voluntarily has taken entire hold of the field of consciousness.
If you possess strong power of attention, anything that the mind receives will be deeply impressed. Only an attentive man can develop his will. A mixture of attention, application and interest can work wonders. There is no doubt of this. A man of ordinary intellect with highly developed attention can turn over more work than a highly intellectual man who has poor attention.
If you attend to one thing at a time you will get profound knowledge of that subject in its various aspects. The ordinary untrained man of the world generally attends to several things at a time. He allows many things to enter the gates of his mental factory. That is the reason why he has a clouded or turbid mind. There is no clarity of thought. He cannot do the process of analysis and synthesis. He is bewildered. He cannot express his ideas clearly, whereas the disciplined man can attend to a subject exclusively as long as he likes. He extracts full and detailed information about one subject or object and then takes up another. Attention is an important faculty of a yogi.
Every little act demands concentration and your whole-hearted attention. If you want to pass a thread through the eye of the needle you must remove all fibres that are disjointed. Then you must make it a single fibre and with great care and one-pointed thought, pass the thread into the needle.
When you climb a mountain, or go down a steep descent, you will have to be very careful, otherwise you will slip and fall into the deep abyss below. When you ride on a bicycle, if you talk to your friend on the road a motor car might dash against you from behind. If you are a bit absent-minded when you walk on the road you will trip against a stone and fall down. A careless barber will cut the nose of his customer. A careless washerman will burn the clothes of his master. A sleepy aspirant will dash his head against the wall or fall down prostrate on the ground.
Therefore, you must develop attention. Attention leads to concentration.
When you take up any work, apply your whole heart, full mind and soul to the work. Do it with perfect concentration. What another can do in six hours, you can turn out within half an hour, smoothly and in a methodical and orderly manner. This is yoga activity. You will be taken as an accomplished yogi. Even when you study, study the subject with perfect concentration. Do not allow the mind to wander. You must shut out all external sounds. Fix the gaze at one point. Do not allow the eyes to wander. When you study one subject do not think of a movie or sweetmeats or a friend. The whole world must be dead to you for the time being. Such must the nature of your concentration. It will come to you after some steady and constant endeavours.
Be not troubled. Be not discouraged. There will be some delay. Wait coolly and patiently. Rome was not built in a day. It is all a question of time. Do not leave the practice even for a day, even when you are sick. In your failure lies the secret of your success, and in your weakness the secret of your strength. Plod on. Push on. Gird up your loins. Nil desperandum. Be bold. March on courageously. Be cheerful. A brilliant future is awaiting thee.
Practise. Feel. Rejoice. Become a yogi or world figure. Be sincere and earnest. Rise up. Awake. Thy light has come. O my dear children of Light and Immortality. It is 3.30 a.m., brahmamuhurta. This is the best time to practise concentration on Atman, memory and will-culture, and to catch hold of the mind. Sit in your favourite meditation posture and do vigorous practice now. May success and divine glory attend on thee. Melt the bubble mind in Brahman, the ocean of knowledge, and enjoy supreme bliss.
Hatha Yoga Techniques
Tratak* is one of the cleansing techniques in the light of hatha yoga philosophy. Tratak also plays a very prominent part in raja yoga and jnana yoga.
* See Volume II: Health and Hatha Yoga
Tratak is steady gazing. Write the word OM in black ink on the wall. Sit in front of the drawing. Concentrate on it with open eyes till tears come into the eyes. Then close the eyes. Visualise the picture of OM. Then open the eyes and again gaze till tears flow. Gradually increase the period. There are students who can gaze for one hour.
Instead of OM you may draw a big black dot on white paper and fix it on the wall. Gaze at this black dot on the paper. The wall will present a golden colour during tratak.
You can also do tratak on a candle flame, a bright star or the moon, on any picture of the Lord — either Krishna, Rama, Siva or Lord Jesus.
Practise tratak for one minute on the first day. Gradually increase the period every week. Don't strain the eyes.
Do it gently with ease and comfort, as long as you conveniently can. Repeat your mantra, Hari Om, Sri Ram or Gayatri during tratak. In some people who have weak eye capillaries the eyes may become red. They need not be alarmed unnecessarily as the redness of the eyes will pass off quickly.
Practise tratak for six months. Then you can take up advanced lessons in concentration and meditation. Be regular and systematic in your sadhana. If there is a break, make up the deficiency or loss on the next day.
Tratak steadies the wandering mind and removes tossing of the mind. It gives tremendous power, removes a host of ophthalmic ailments and brings siddhis.
Tratak with open eyes is followed by visualisation, which is the calling up of a clear image of anything. Tratak and visualisation help a lot in concentration.
Gaze at the picture of the Lord (your tutelary deity) for a few minutes and then close your eyes. Try to visualise the picture mentally. You will have a well-defined or clear-cut picture of the Lord. When it fades, open your eyes and gaze. Repeat the process five or six times. You will be able to mentally visualise it clearly after some months' practice.
If you find it difficult to visualise the whole picture, try to visualise any part. Try to produce even a hazy picture. By repeated practice the hazy picture will assume a well-defined, clear-cut form. If you find this difficult, fix the mind on the effulgent light in the heart and take this as the form of the Lord or Devi.
Do not bother yourself if you are not able to have perfect visualisation of the picture of the Lord with closed eyes. Continue your practice vigorously and regularly. You will succeed. What is wanted is love for the Lord.
Cultivate this more and more. Let it flow unceasingly and spontaneously. This is more important than visualisation.
Nasikagra chakra is fixing the gaze on the tip of the nose. This is also called the nasal gaze. Do not make any violent effort. Gently look at the tip of the nose. Practise for one minute in the beginning. Gradually increase the time to half an hour or more. This practice steadies the mind and develops the power of concentration. Even when you walk you can keep up this practice.
Bhrumadhya drishti is gazing at the ajna chakra, between the two eyebrows. The seat of the mind is the ajna chakra. The mind can be controlled easily if you concentrate there. In this you should direct the gaze towards the ajna chakra with closed eyes. If you practise it with open eyes it may produce headaches and foreign particles may fall into the eyes. There may be distraction of the mind also. Do not strain the eyes. Practise gently from half a minute to half an hour. There must not be the least violence in this practice. Gradually increase the period. This yoga kriya removes tossing of the mind and develops concentration.
When you practise concentration at the tip of the nose you will experience various sorts of fragrance. When you concentrate between the eyebrows you will see lights. These are experiences to give you encouragement, to push you up in the spiritual path and convince you of the existence of transcendental or super-physical things. Do not stop your sadhana now.
You can concentrate also on the heart or anahata chakra. This is the seat of emotion and feeling. A bhakta should concentrate there. He who concentrates on the heart gets great bliss.
The crown of the head or sahasrara is another centre for concentration. Some vedantins concentrate there.
Stick to one centre of concentration. Cling to it tenaciously. Never change it. The guru will select a centre of concentration for you if you are a student of faith. If you are a man of self-reliance you can select a centre for yourself.
A hatha yogi tries to concentrate his mind by having his breath controlled through pranayama. Kumbhaka or retention of breath also helps concentration. It checks the velocity of the mind and makes it move in smaller circles and ultimately curbs all its wanderings and thereby renders it fit for concentration.
The raja yogi tries to concentrate his mind by restraining the various modifications of the mind by not allowing the mind to assume various shapes of objects. He does not care for control of breath but his breath becomes necessarily controlled when his mind is concentrated.
DHYANA
"A continuous flow of perceptions (or thought) is dhyana, meditation." (III-2)
What is Meditation?
Meditation is the flow of continuous thought of one thing, of God, the Atman. It is the keeping up of one idea of God alone always, like the continuous flow of oil.
Meditation follows concentration. When persisted in and perfected it brings about the experience of super-consciousness or samadhi, the ultimate state of Self-awareness or realisation.
That state of the mind wherein there are no thoughts, is meditation. Meditation proceeds from the mind. All worldly thoughts are shut out from the mind. The mind is filled or saturated with divine thoughts, with the divine glory, the divine presence. ''Though men should perform tapas standing on one leg for a period of one thousand years, it will not, in the least, be equal to one-sixteenth part of dhyana yoga (meditation).'' Paingala Upanishad.
Meditation is the only way to attain salvation. It kills all pains, sufferings and sorrows and destroys all causes of sorrow. It gives the vision of unity and induces a sense of oneness. Meditation is a balloon or a parachute or an aeroplane that helps the aspirant to soar high into the realms of eternal bliss, everlasting peace and undying joy.
Meditation is the royal road to attain God-head. It is the grand trunk road which takes the aspirant direct to the destination of divine consciousness. It is the mystic ladder which takes the yoga student from earth to heaven, it is the divine ladder that pushes them to the heights of asamprajnata samadhi, it is the step in the staircase of unbounded intelligence to take the aspirant to the highest storey of non-dual meditation and kaivalya mukti (liberation) of a vedantin. Without it no spiritual progress is possible. It is the aerial ropeway that allows the devotee to glide easily to the other shore of samadhi and drink the honey of love and the nectar of immortality.
Every human being has within himself various tremendous powers, potentialities, capacities and latent faculties of which he has no conception. He is a magazine of power and knowledge. As he evolves he unfolds new powers, new faculties, new qualities. He must awaken these dormant powers and faculties by the practice of meditation and yoga.
He must develop his will and control his senses and mind. He must purify himself and practise regular meditation. Then only can he become a superman or God-man; then only can he change his environment and influence others; then only can he subdue other minds, conquer internal and external nature and enter into the super-conscious state.
Just as the light is burning within the hurricane lamp, so also is the divine flame burning from time immemorial in the lamp of your heart. Close your eyes. Merge yourself within the divine flame. Plunge deep into the chambers of your heart. Meditate on this divine flame and become one with the flame of God.
If the wick within the lamp is small, the light will also be small. If the wick is big, the light also will be powerful. Similarly, if the jiva (individual soul) is pure, if he practises meditation, the manifestation or expression of the Self will be powerful. He will radiate a big light. If he is unregenerate and impure he will be like burnt up charcoal. The bigger the wick, the greater the light. Likewise, the purer the soul, the greater the expression.
Meditation is the only valuable asset for you. Success in yoga is possible only if the aspirant practises profound and constant meditation. To meditate is our foremost duty. It is for that we have taken our birth here. To concentrate, to purify, to meditate and realise our essential divine nature is our foremost duty. Realisation cuts the knots of ignorance, desire and action and gives permanent satisfaction, everlasting peace and eternal bliss.
What Happens in Meditation?
During meditation the mind becomes calm, serene and steady. The various rays of the mind are collected and focussed on the object of meditation. There will be no tossing of the mind. One idea alone occupies the mind. The whole energy of the mind is concentrated on that one idea. The senses become still. They do not function. Where there is deep concentration there is no consciousness of the body and surroundings. He who has good concentration can visualise the picture of the Lord very clearly within the twinkling of an eye.
Do not try to drive away the unimportant thoughts. The more you try the more they will return, the more they will gain strength. You will tax your energy. Fill the mind with divine thoughts. The unimportant thoughts will gradually vanish.
All mental modifications such as anger, jealousy, hatred, etc., assume subtle forms when you practise meditation. They are thinned out. They should be eradicated in toto through samadhi or blissful union with the Lord. Then only are you quite safe. Latent mental impulses will be waiting for opportunities to assume a grave and expanded form. You should be very careful and vigilant.
An aspirant says: "I am able to meditate in one posture for three hours. In the end I become senseless but I do not fall on the ground." If there is real meditation you will never become senseless, you will experience perfect awareness. This other is a negative undesirable mental state. You will have to get over this state by keeping up perfect vigilance.
Those who practise meditation will find that they are more sensitive than the people who do not meditate and because of that the strain on the physical body is enormous.
Considerable changes take place in the mind, brain and the nervous system by the practice of meditation. New nerve currents, new vibrations, new avenues, new grooves, new cells, new channels are all formed. The whole mind and nervous system are remodelled. You will develop a new heart, a new mind, new sensations, new feelings, new modes of thinking and a new view of the universe (as God in manifestation). The purifying process leads to a deeper insight into Truth. This is the action of the grace of the Lord upon the soul in meditation.
When the mind becomes steady in meditation the eyeballs also become steady. A yogi whose mind is calm will have a steady eye. There will be no winking at all. The eyes will be lustrous, red or pure white.
In the beginning of your practice you may get jerks of the hands, legs, trunk and the whole body. Sometimes the jerk is very terrible. Do not be afraid, do not be troubled. It is nothing, it can do nothing. It is due to sudden muscular contraction from influence of new nerve stimuli, when the prana becomes slow and the outward vibrations make the mind come down from its union with the Lord to the level of physical consciousness. Remember that new nerve currents are formed now owing to the purification of the nadis. The jerks will pass off after some time. At times there is tremor of the body during meditation. This is due to the prana being taken up to the brain from the trunk, etc. in the process of meditation. Do not be afraid. Do not stop the meditation. You will have to pass through all these stages. When you get these you are improving, you are progressing. Plod on and persevere. Be cheerful. Help is from within, from the Inner Ruler. These are all new sensations. Be courageous and bold. Courage is an important qualification and virtue for aspirants. Cultivate this positive quality.
When your meditation becomes deep you will lose consciousness of the body. You will feel that there is no body. You will experience immense joy. There will be mental consciousness. Some lose sensation in the legs, then in the spinal column, back, the trunk and the hands. When the sensation is lost in these parts it feels that the head is suspended in the air.
When you practise rigorous meditation, natural retention of breath without inhalation and exhalation will come by itself. When this comes you will enjoy immense peace and you will have one-pointed mind.
You will feel that will-power is radiating from you. Your consciousness will be deeper now. Thoughts of God will start the spiritual currents in the body. Do not check these currents. (If heat is produced in the head, apply butter, amalaka oil or brahmi oil. Take cold bath three times during summer. Take butter and sugar-candy.)
When you fix the mind, either on Sri Krishna, Lord Siva or the Atman, even for five minutes, sattva guna is infused into the mind. Subtle desires are thinned out. You feel peace and bliss during the five minutes. You can, with the subtle intellect, compare this bliss from meditation with the transitory sensual pleasures. You will find that this bliss from meditation is a million times superior to sensual pleasures. Meditate and feel this bliss. Then you will know the real value.
During meditation, when your mind is purer, you will be inspired. The mind will be composing fine poems and solving intricate problems of life. Stamp out these pure thoughts also. This is all dissipation of mental energy. Soar higher and higher in the Atman only.
Just as salt melts in water, the pure mind during meditation melts in silence in Brahman, its substratum.
The object of meditation will come before you much quicker if you practise regular meditation. You will feel as if you are covered by the object on which you meditate. It will seem as if the whole space is illumined. Sometimes you will experience the sound of ringing bells. You will feel the inner peace of the soul.
When your meditation becomes deep, you generally operate through the subtle causal body only. This becomes your normal consciousness. Yogis and bhaktas like Lord Gauranga, Tuka Ram and Tulsidas identified themselves with their causal body and had this as their normal consciousness. A bhakta, too, becomes one with Brahman. He has divine auspiciousness, yet he has a thin ethereal body. He keeps up his individuality. A whirlpool is one with the whole mass of the water. It has a separate existence also. Similar is the case with the bhakta who has a life with his causal body.
During meditation you will have no idea of time. You will not hear any sounds. You will forget your name and all sorts of relationships with others. You will have no consciousness of your body or surroundings. You will have equanimity of mind. You will not hear any sounds. There will be stoppage of up-going and down-going sensations. The consciousness of egoism will also gradually vanish. You will experience inexplicable joy and indescribable happiness. Gradually, reasoning and reflection also will cease.
After a short practice of meditation you will feel that the body gets lighter in a short time, say fifteen or thirty minutes, after you have taken your seat. You may be semi-conscious of the body also. There is a great deal of happiness owing to concentration. This happiness resulting from concentration—ananda (bliss) is quite different from sensual pleasures. You must be able to differentiate between these two pleasures through the intuitive mind rendered subtle by constant spiritual practice and meditation. Concentration and meditation have a power to sharpen the intellect. A trained intellect can comprehend subtle, philosophical, abstruse problems beautifully well. A disciplined intellect that can differentiate between the happiness derived from concentration and deep meditation, and the happiness derived from worldly pleasures, will naturally run daily to enjoy this kind of new happiness.
Such a mind will loathe sensual pleasures. There will be extreme abhorrence and positive aversion to objects. It is but natural, because this kind of happiness is more lasting, sustained, self-contained and real, as it emanates from the Atman. You can distinctly feel that the mind is moving, that it is leaving its seat in the brain, and that it is trying to go to its original abode. You know that it has left its old groove and is now passing into a new groove.
In the beginning the aspirant remains in a state of bliss for some time. He comes down. By constant practice of incessant meditation he continues to remain in that exalted state forever. Later on the body idea completely vanishes.
A sudden stroke of mystic illumination puts an end to all empirical existence altogether and the very idea or remembrance of such a thing as the world, or the narrow individuality of the spirit in this world, absolutely leaves.
Benefits of Meditation
This world is full of miseries and sufferings. If you want to get rid of the pains and afflictions of this worldly existence (samsara), you must practise meditation. Meditation is the pathway to divinity. It is the royal road to the kingdom of Brahman. It is a mysterious ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, from error to truth, from darkness to light, from pain to bliss, from restlessness to abiding peace, from ignorance to knowledge, from mortality to immortality. Meditation leads to knowledge of the Self which brings about eternal peace and supreme bliss. Meditation prepares you for the integral experiences of direct intuitive knowledge.
Truth is Brahman. Truth is Atman. Truth is quite pure and simple. You cannot realise the Truth without reflection and meditation. Be silent. Know thyself. Know That. Melt the mind in That.
The fire of meditation annihilates all foulness due to vice. Then suddenly comes knowledge of divine wisdom which directly leads to liberation or final emancipation.
Regular meditation opens the avenues of intuitional knowledge, makes the mind calm and steady, awakens an ecstatic feeling and brings the yoga student in contact with the source or the supreme Purusha. If there are doubts they are all cleared by themselves when you march on the path of dhyana yoga steadily. You will yourself feel the way to place your footstep in the next rung of the spiritual ladder. A mysterious inner voice will guide you.
If you wind a watch at night it will run smoothly for twenty-four hours. Even so, if you meditate for one or two hours in the brahmamuhurta (one and a half hours before sunrise) you can work very peacefully throughout the day. Nothing can disturb your mind. The whole system will be charged with spiritual vibrations.
Many of your doubts will be cleared by themselves during meditation. Some will have to wait for some time for the clearance of some doubts. However much the teacher explains to you, you cannot understand certain things at a certain time. You will have to evolve a little more. When you have evolved, those doubts which tormented you three years ago will become clear now.
Meditation gives a lot of spiritual strength, peace, new vigour and vitality. It is the best mental tonic. If a meditator gets irritated very often it shows he is not doing good uninterrupted meditation. There is something wrong in his spiritual practices (sadhana).
Meditation develops strong and pure thoughts. Mental images are clear-cut and well-defined. Good thoughts are well-grounded. Through clarification of ideas, confusion vanishes.
Meditation is a powerful tonic. It is a mental and nervine tonic as well. The holy vibrations penetrate all the cells of the body and cure its diseases. Those who meditate save doctor's bills. The powerful, soothing waves that arise during meditation exercise a benign influence on the mind, nerves, organs and cells of the body. The divine energy freely flows from the feet of the Lord to the different systems of the sadhaka (aspirant). Meditation itself is a panacea for all diseases. (If you are seriously ailing you can do japa and light meditation while lying on the bed.)
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