by Swamiji

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

[Appeared in Jan-Feb 1991 issue of the monthly journal ‘Vicharasetu – The Path of Introspection’]

In the letter sent to many of you – readers of Vicharasetu and some others – regarding the 6-day programme from January 5 on the occasion of the First Samadhi Day of our Mataji Sulabha Devi, it was mentioned that as part of the consecration function of the Samadhi Mandir Meditation Hall, some meditation sessions also would be held.

Generally I sit for meditation only with those who are already initiated or who seek initiation into Brahma Vidya.  Also in special cases, to impart a mantra to a student or to an afflicted person, I sit with the person in a closed room.  But that sitting is different from meditational sittings.  In the meditation aimed at Brahma Vidya, the effort will be to get into the spiritual bosom or the Self, sooner or later, as determined by the earnestness and urge of the seekers.

So to announce any meditation – session open to all who come here is rather new, and perhaps out of the way for me.  Yet, considering the special nature of the occasion, I said so, and fortunately, such sessions did take place in the Samadhi Mandir Hall for four days in the morning, just after the morning prayers.  In the background of this event, I thought I would speak something about what real meditation is and what should be its objective.

Meditational effort can be made protracted, ceremonial or spiritually complex.  That will be to bring in elements like a chosen Deity, Gurumantra, Guru-form, etc.  But in true spiritual meditation, all these complications are avoided and an entry or dip into one’s own inner structure or depth is alone sought.  The ground for making such a direct dive into the Self comes from our Upanishadic statements, Bhagavad Geeta and other vedantic texts.  In fact, the Vedantic culture is built upon such direct experiential process.

To summarise: You have a personality.  This personality has a visible bodily complex.  It has also an invisible mental complex.  Between them, the invisible mental complex is the mover and the bodily complex is the moved.  To meditate, make the body still and non-acting.  Get into the mind-level; be fixed on it.  Realize the mind-structure, mind-content and mind-substance, as you will a flower in front by seeing it through the eyes.

Here, the mind is inward and it has no color or other distinguishing features.  Yet you know that the mind is.  The power that gives you this knowledge is also inward.  Use the same inward power to delve into the mind-content, mind-substance.  Do it so gently, so lightly and softly but so attentively and well that you will have no doubt as to what the mind-substance is.  No more you will have a mere idea, but a clarity and realization, of your inner self.

The process is one of being watchful and attentive to your own within.  Close the eyes; you will see nothing.  Ears you cannot close.  Sound may come if it arises anywhere nearby, but that should not cause any disturbance; nature herself has made the ears such.  The only trouble is that the mind will think.

You will then be concerned with and agitated by the thoughts.  But why not leave the mind to its habit?  Take the thoughts to be natural to the mind, as is breathing for the lungs and nostrils.  Do not give the thoughts any ground to tense or agitate you.  This is best done by understanding the mind and its habit.  When thoughts arise, do not feel ruffled.  Leave the thoughts to their own trend, but be watchful.

Once the thoughts are not able to drag you to their content and association – for this you have to be watchful and indifferent to the effects of the thoughts – they will prove themselves useless.  In such a situation, the thoughts will themselves subside, discovering their ineffectiveness.

Thoughts have two associations – direct and allied. The thought of a mango will link you up with the mango on the tree or in the market, and then allied thoughts and imaginations about its taste and the like will follow.  The same thought, as a subject of meditation, will be a mere movement or writing on the mind-substance.  In meditation, you look at it merely as a line or letter drawn on the water of your mind.  Looked at like this, it will not drive you to any association or linkage.

Let every thought, including the thought of God, be taken like this – as a writing on the consciousness.   Once such a perception is gained, all thoughts become equal – lines and drawings on the consciousness.  A thought on mango is as much a vibrational process as a thought on God.  Both become equal in content, association and effect.

Once this new insight and a familiarity with the process are gained, the mind will be led to slowness, lightness, feebleness, and ultimately to stillness or extinction.

Mark these words: stillness or extinction.  When the mind stops, it means that the thought or vibrational process comes to a halt – the vibrational processes become extinct.  It also means that the ‘mindfulness’ becomes extinct.  You will be there; your awareness or consciousness also will be, but it will not be flickering to produce either ideas or images.

The mind knows only of two positions: either it functions and brings up ideas and images or it ceases altogether.  The first is to be mind-full and the second is to mind-less.

To treat the mind out of its mindfulness and lead it to mindlessness is something simple, natural and refreshing.  But people make it difficult for various reasons of ignorance, doubt, fear, reluctance and habit.  They do not know that there is a process like this. Even if they are told, receptivity and assimilation will be lacking.  How to avoid these hurdles and instill in oneself the favorable notes?

When I went to my Gurudeva and sought initiation, I did not have all these ideas or thoughts in mind.  I went to him as would any other zealous seeker even today, attaching all the religious and unknown vigour to the encounter.  My Gurudeva also did not say anything to correct me.  He gave me what was his characteristic transmission or initiation.  A poor and humble I also received the transmission with full faith, love, and acceptance.

To have such a Guru is itself rare, as Kathopanishad puts it: Sravanaayaapi bahubir yo na labhyah.  And even if there is one, a seeker who seeks with exclusive loyalty and receptivity is even rarer: Srinvanto-api bahavo yam na vidyuh (Katha.1.2.7).

I have a characteristic simpleness, eagerness and also perhaps a little anxiety.  Although I can either ask the seeker to wait and test his patience and mumukshutva, or rip open the doors of the Inner Being without much of waiting and testing, I have always felt: Why test? What for? Will not fire follow its own rule of burning only the dry wood?  For the wet ones, it will first make them emit smoke to become dry and then burn off.   Let the truth be told, passed on or transfused.  The dry will catch fire, the wet will have to wait.  Even then, let me undo the labyrinth, let the earnest seekers benefit.

Thus, for years now, I have been transfusing or transmitting the sublime touch of that great Cosmic Current, which has created this cosmos, formulated our body, which rules over the body, mind, intelligence and the like.  Sitting with me, what the seekers get is a transfusion.  I do this with the sublimity of the mind, with the power of words, which means the power of the spirit. 

Thoughts have a power far greater than all known powers of the world.  Thought is the first and the last creator in the universe.  This thought I set around, and all the majesty and sublimity that is behind and beneath it naturally permeates around. The only other factor needed is the attunement or receptivity of the initiates, seekers.  When I sit with you, I do so as a devout link of the celebrated ancient lineage – beginning from Angiras of Mundakopanishad, passing through Saunaka and the rest.  But the communion is more facile when there is attunement between me and those around. 

So, I do not want you to feel tense or resistant.  I want you to be simple like a child before the mother, confident like a devotee before his Lord, reliant and hearty as before a beloved.  Only then the best and most edifying spell can follow. 

Dear souls, the passage from mindfulness to mindlessness is thus not something difficult, unpleasant, protracted or circuitous.  The mind will naturally pass over to mindlessness as it rises from sleep to wakefulness.  But you must want this blessed fruition, and that too earnestly, eagerly and exclusively.  Mentally one should lie prostrate before the Lord of the mind as he will before God or idol.

The process is first psychological and then equally biological.  The blood-flow to the brain will become more and to an extent exclusive.  Some areas of the brain, which are otherwise not stimulated, will get stimulated.  That will bring in corresponding experiences or realizations.  These realizations can vary from different bodily sensations to something transcendental in the way of self-generated bliss, the source of which is inside the body but not the body.

It is the birthright of everyone to get a direct touch of the Self, to be graced by its sublimity.  But seldom one gives himself to that legacy or fortune.

I have meant this Meditation Hall to be a place for receiving such an enlivening touch in the hands of one’s own Self.  I would have liked the hall to be sound-proof.  I do not know whether it can be made so even now.  Very near to it, touching the Ashram- compound, runs the road which will be metalled soon to allow public transport.  But otherwise the Hall is located well, as the crest-jewel of the Ashram-complex.  Aroop, Deepa and Nirupamananda have given it a look of sublimity and serenity within the facilities available.  I have also constantly imbued it with the intent that is spoken of here.  Let the best come of it. 

Dear seekers, the path is relaxational and absorptional.   This is not at all a straining or difficult entry.  As Krishna emphasizes – it is susukham kartum avyayam: pleasant to practice and undying, always enlivening.  The same mind or thoughts which fill you now will also stop – leaving you to the embrace of your Self, the pure consciousness.  It is because of this ability that human life survives in spite of all the stress, strain and commotion.  When there is a severe blow or shock, nature instantly takes the mind of the sufferer away; unconsciousness dawns.  Cannot then the same measure be cultured in a conscious background? 

Does Sadhana End with Meditation?

The course from mindfulness to mindlessness through a meditational process of absorption is thus easy. BUT, is that all in spiritual saadhana, which aims at integrating and refining one’s personality, thereby radiating all the spiritual and allied brilliance spontaneously?  Are the ecstasy and the transcendental blissful experiences gained during meditation the be-all and end-all of spiritual life?

The answer is a clear and full ‘NO’.  Spiritual saadhana has much more ground to cover than mere meditation can achieve.

Think of Krishna’s gospel to Arjuna in Kurukshetra.  Did Arjuna meditate in the Warfield?  He was trembling in doubt, delusion and fear.  All these were removed from his mind by instituting right inspiration and clarity.

Think of Uddhava.  When Krishna instructed him to leave Dwaraka for Badarikasrama, keeping Him in mind and looking at everything as Godly, Uddhava confessed that he was unable to get rid of his strong mental fetters of attachment to his friends and relations.  The path of spiritual detachment and elevation was not easy of reach.  Was it through meditation that Uddhava got rid of his mental fetters? Or, he listened to Krishna – a protracted lesson – and imbibed the right insight, clarity and inspiration?

Meditation may quieten the mind and its agitational state.  It may take you to the inmost level of your being and bestow peace.  But once the mind returns, the habits and responses fostered by it all along will again tend to overtake.  The saadhaka has to contend these and ensure that the mind is reformed, refined, sublimated and ultimately divinized.  This path of purification and reformation is far longer, deeper and subtler, and much more rewarding and enriching than a few hours of meditation.  The real saadhana consists in this self-ennobling and self-sublimating process.  Here comes the role of wisdom and its refining influence on mind, intelligence, and whatever proceed from these two.

*  *  *