by Swamiji

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

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

THE COURSE BEYOND MEDITATION

Meditation has its place and importance.  By meditation alone will you be able to stabilize your mind, or consciousness, and make it still.  In that stillness, there will be the plus factors of (i) absorption (ii) unconnectedness with everything, and therefore (iii) the state of being ‘natural’.  It will be like water in its unmixed pure state, or like unobstructed moonlight in the clear sky.

Well, such a state, one may feel as blissful; another may say it is peace-full; a third may describe it as ‘freedom’ and so on.  Primarily the content of consciousness in all will be the same.  But the effects produced on the biological complex will be, in general, different.

Purity or sublimity is a factor relating to the bodily complex.  The body will differ in its biological and biochemical contents and processes.  Like wet wood giving rise to smoke on catching fire, and dry wood burning freely, again like the quality of wood determining the character and brilliance of fire and smoke, the composition of the seeker’s personality gives rise to ample difference.

But all this will not mean Self-realization, as an achievement to answer the needs of the seeker.  The seeker is an individual of the world.  Right from birth, he has been interacting with the world through his mind and intelligence.  What will remain of life if the interactional part is taken away?  It is like that of a block of stone, or a dead-body, or a body in a state of insensitivity.

So, if seeking emerges from your individuality, and that individuality is interactional by nature, then Self-realization must also mean realizing the Self even while the individual is interactive.  Or, the meditational process of absorption and stillness will be just like sleep, just another additional rest.

Sleep differs from samadhi state.  In sleep you are not aware of what is transpiring.  In samadhi, you will be conscious of the state.  But this, in itself, does not complete the knowing process, or its magnitude, both as an attainment and as a necessary felicity.

Can Self-realization demand no activity, no interaction?  In that case, why do we need such realization?  If meditational realization will be useful only as long as the meditational state lasts, then why seek it at all?  Sleep would be sufficient.  For, sleep takes away all botherations and quests completely.  The only difficulty is that when you wake up from sleep, the previous mind comes back to thrust its features – its provocations and pressures.  Do you want a somewhat similar fate with meditational state as well?  Evidently, Not!

Self is the Self.  It remains so ever and ever.  As in sleep, so in dream and so again in wakefulness, the Self suffers no diminution of any kind.  The Self alone is, in all situations.  And in its existence, there is neither any eclipse nor any doubt.  Meditation may help to discover such a Self, initially.  But the knowledge should not be limited by time or state, making the seeker say: “I know the Self only in my meditation.  When meditation breaks, my realization also goes off or tapers off.”

The Knower will be a Knower at all times.  His wisdom will shine under all conditions and states.  Does the moon ever become non-existent?  Does it die on the Newmoon (amaavaasyaa) day?  With the Sun too, this is the same.

What is the Knower’s Wisdom?  It is that he is the Self.  He is the Self, whether he remains wakeful and interactive, or dreaming.  Whether he is in sleep or in samaadhi, he remains the one great Self.  This absoluteness and wholesomeness of realization, this grand surety and confidence, is the finale of spiritual saadhana and its fruition.

Till such fruition transpires, it will be all your effort, the process leading to the goal.  May be, meditation features in these efforts well.  Let it.  But the test for meditational success is its ability to take you to this grand realization, this great confidence and surety, which will never flicker.

Naturally, the question arises:  “What are the indications that one is getting at such wholesomeness of realization?  In what manner will the Self-realizational fruition display itself?”

The question is very relevant and significant.  Bhagavad Geeta presents the subject illustriously.  Arjuna’s inquisitive mind hit upon the question with exemplary timeliness when Krishna depicted the state of yoga in the 2^nd chapter:

              Sruti-vipratipannaa te   yadaa sthaasyati nischalaa
              Samaadhaavachalaa buddhih tadaa yogam avaapsyasi

                                                                               (Geeta 2.53)

“That,” says Krishna, ‘is the state called yoga or the merger with the Self.”

Arjuna immediately asks: “How will you describe the one graced by such a state?  How will one feel in that state?  What will happen to his mind and inner functions?  Again, how will one feel and express himself when he gets awakened from such a state?  Will not the yoga-experience and enlightenment bring about a noticeable change in his attitude and vyavahaara (activity)?  If it will, then what will be the distinguishing features?”

You should not miss the emphasis of these enquiries of Arjuna.  We are discussing about the Self only for the usefulness and relevance it has to our life in the world.  I would even say, we are not so much interested in what the Self or God is, as in what the God (or Self) will be when we realize Him (It).  Our subject of interest is always God as realized by man, or Self as experienced by the human personality.  Naturally, the Knower of the Self and the knowing process are the right subject of enquiry.  If the Self were not realizable, would we ever have talked about it at all?

So, the Self-realized person is the subject of enquiry for saadhana.  You cannot become God, but you can certainly be God-realized.

Krishna first answers what the state of Self-realization is.  He pinpoints that the consciousness will be still and stable.  What more?  In that state, you will also have contentment, coming from nowhere else than your own self – from the consciousness.  Disconnection from everything and self-emerging contentment – these two features indicate Yoga or the state of Self-realization.

But, in the path of Self-knowledge, is this state – characterized by stillness and inactivity – the all?  Not at all, says Krishna.

The yoga state has its importance and relevance in locating the Subject, the Consciousness, and in its ability to generate self-born bliss or contentment independent of any object.  But, one cannot and should not be always in this ecstasy or absorption; for, that would mean his being useless and nonfunctional.  That would not be a complement to life or the world.  The realizational worth should have much wider relevance.  It is here that Geeta presents the Sthita-dhee characteristics as distinct from the Sthita-prajna state.

Krishna’s words are quite clear and comprehensive:  A Knower in his interactional state, must be able to remain afloat in duhkha and sukha, and equally above desire, fear and hatred.  Interactions should prevail, but they must not be constricting.  Instead, they should be promotional and exhilarating.  This means, in the sphere of mind and intelligence, the impact of interactions will be entirely different – the disturbances they cause now will be replaced by the spiritual notes of sublimation and refinement.

People generally maintain that to be active in the world, is to be hindered and contaminated; and to gain peace or bliss, one has to resort to absorption.  In such absorption, interactions stand eliminated and self-generated bliss is felt.  On the contrary, the Knower, by virtue of his wisdom, allows himself to be interacting, and in the process, gets sublimated, enriched, harmonized and refined every time. What was hindering and demotional earlier, becomes promotional, elevating and enriching now.  To the peace and joy he derived during meditational spells, this now acts as a reinforcing, stabilizing and complementing feature.

Samaadhi, or meditation, is a state, characterized by time and duration.  Evidently, such a state cannot be an all-time feature, cannot be carried by you.  One enters a state as he does sleep and gets out of it.  So, the final objective cannot be in entering any such state.  With the wisdom or finding that transpires in samaadhi, the seeker must be able to live and move in the wakeful world.  He can carry with him the effects of meditation.  The effect can be only such as to adorn the intelligence and empower the mind.  This is what Krishna means through his description of a Sthita-dhee.

Interactions proceed from the mind and intellect.  The impact brought by every interaction is also in the mind and intelligence.  The body or senses come just in between.  When the effects of meditation, or meditational sublimity, begin to orient the mind and intelligence, a corresponding sublimation must also enrich the interactional process.  From narrowness, the mind should expand in width and breadth.  From shallowness and constriction, the intelligence should grow in loftiness, depth and unshakeability.  By contemplating upon the Self and by imbibing the Self’s dimensions, such a growth should surely take place. If it does not, then the contemplations and absorptions are ineffective.

If a constant linkage with the Self is kept during the non-meditational hours, the mind will feel more and more of depth and expanse; the intelligence will bring in greater and greater heights.  Both these extensions will make the inner personality loftier and abler.   In such a background, interactions will not have a depressive effect.  Instead, every interaction will stand as a challenge to, or motivation for, the constant process of sublimation and harmonization.

Usually, one finds the world to be more imposing than oneself.  He is frightened and subdued by the world. When meditational benefits begin to grace the mind and intelligence, the picture should change. The Self stands as the mother and creator of the world.  The world is but an effect and the Self is the cause.  The world is inert, and the Self is sentient.  The personality is inseparably linked with the Self, while the body stands separate in the world.  The greatness of the Self weighs more than the vastness of the world.  A formula for assimilating every kind of input from the world begins to work.  At no time, a sense of smallness or defeatism overtakes you.  Instead, every time, a greater sense of invincibility and clarity illumines the perception and vyavahaaara.

It is not that the Knower increases in his bodily size and ability.  But his inward personality grows and grows.

Think of the young prince Sri Rama, to whom Sage Vasishtha gave the spiritual tuition.  Dasaratha’s son was only 16 years old, when the instructions were given and spiritual wisdom dawned in him.  The 18-day dialogue of the palace brought such great expansion and growth in his mind and buddhi, that every time thereafter, the prince began to shine in every situation.

Right in the morning of the Coronation Day, he resolved to abandon the palace and trek to Chitrakoota, and from there to Dandakaranya to live for 14 long years.  The course to Janasthaana followed, which in turn took him to the distant Lanka, from where he again returned to Ayodhya.  In every one of these places, Rama shone with greater and greater excellence, creativity, adventure and victory, all to benefit the world and uphold righteousness.  At the same time, it was not without untold travails, risks and self-denials.  His creativity was marvelous, and equally, the need for assimilativeness and harmony also mounted at every turn of situation.

How was this possible?  Only through meditation?  Meditation only provides a key to Self-perception.  With the insight, identity, expanse and depth you derive from it, the ability and drive for interactions must steadily be on the ascent.  Equally so, the challenges and denials which this greater drive and ability necessarily bring in, must be met and harmonized with readiness, inspiration and depth.

The test is:  Does every interaction inspire and sublimate you?  Do the motivations as well as the resultant outcomes enrich you?

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