Meditation and its Utility in
Daily Life With Practical Hints
By
A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION
First Edition: 1994
Second Edition: 1996
Third Edition: 1999
(2,000 copies)
World Wide Web (WWW) Edition : 2000
WWW site: http://www.dlshq.org/
This WWW reprint is for free distribution
© The Divine Life Trust Society
Swami Premananda’s ‘Meditation Classes’ have become
very popular and there is a great demand. This booklet
will help aspirants and seekers.
Published By
THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
P.O. Shivanandanagar—249 192
Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh,
Himalayas, India.
Contents
OM
Meditation And Its Utility In Daily Life
Meditation is not for a few but is necessary for all human beings. The
inner self of a person touches the Higher Self (the Param-Tattwa) during
deep sleep daily. This unknown touch recharges the battery of man. So,
when he gets up from his sleep, he feels that he is refreshed, full of
strength and relaxed. This is a natural process for all persons alike.
If one could not sleep properly, he feels disturbed and is in a sort of
weariness. It is the experience of every man, whether he is rich or a beggar,
a literate or an illiterate, an executive or a labourer, a farmer or a
business man, a housewife or a huckster. So, every man needs peace, strength,
ability to discharge his duties and for tranquillity of mind. So, a wonderful
discovery of man is to keep his inner self in touch with the SOURCE in
a wakeful state for longer periods continuously through specific type of
systematic practices. This is called the art of meditation. And such a
person is said to be a YOGI without any discretion/distinction of caste,
creed, colour and country.
Dhyanam nirvishayam manah—That state of the mind, wherein there are no
Vishayas or sensory thoughts, is meditation.
Whether oriental or occidental, Hinduism or Mohammedanism, Buddhism or
Jainism, Christianity or Judaism, Shinto-ism or any other ‘ism’, the spiritual
purpose and meaning is to lead an individual soul to the ecstatic communion
with the Universal Divinity or ONE TRUTH, the SOURCE. A continuous flow
of perception of thought is Dhyana—Tatra pratyayaikatanata dhyanam. It
is the flow of continuous thought of one object or God or Atman or Supreme
Source—Tailadharavat. According to Raja Yoga, meditation is the seventh
rung or step in the ladder of Yoga. One cannot attain this state unless
he knows the art of “Concentration”. What is concentration?—Desa bandhas-chittasya
dharana. Concentration is fixing the mind on an external object or an internal
point continuously, without interruption or break for twelve seconds. So,
an aspirant has to develop himself in concentration, which itself is changed
into meditation, if his state of keeping the mind focused at one object/point/subject
continuously and spontaneously for 12x12=144 seconds. It is termed as ‘Dhyana’
in Sanskrit scriptures, which comes from the root ‘Dhi’. In English we
generally call it ‘intellect’ which is the basic root with different derivations
in different practices. However, ‘Buddhi’ (reasoning faculty) is said to
be directly based on this root term; yet this term is used liberally by
all systems of Yoga, which is central theme of all mystic techniques leading
one to higher levels of spiritual consciousness with profound depths of
spiritual expansion and takes one to God-realisation or Self-realisation.
Meditation may be objective, or on qualities or purely subjective or one’s
own breath. In objective meditation the Sadhaka meditates upon an idol
or picture of his Ishta devata—may be Lord Shiva, Vishnu, Rama, Krishna,
Christ, Buddha or any other god or goddess. For him, the idol is something
alive, vibrating with supreme reality, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent.
He may meditate upon the beautitude, the qualities, the activities of his
Ishta-devata. Or he may meditate upon the all-pervading pulsating Supreme
Energy which is within him and without, permeating everywhere. This is
subjective meditation. Similarly on his breath while inhaling and exhaling
with MINIMAL SILENCE. All meditations are good; what counts is the intensity
and unbroken continuity of meditation.
An aspirant has to rest his soul on the bosom of the Lord, to bathe in
the bliss of Divine ecstasy, to drown his ego in the ocean of eternity,
to draw sustenance and strength from the SOURCE to attain whatever he is
capable of achieving. A Sadhaka should meditate regularly, chew and digest
what he has learnt, to transform what he has learnt into wisdom, to apply
that wisdom to solve the problems that cross his path daily. Says F.W.
Robertson: “It is not the number of books you read, nor the variety of
sermons you hear, nor the amount of religious conversation in which you
mix, but it is the frequency and earnestness with which you meditate on
these things till the truth in them becomes your own and part of your being,
that ensures your growth.”
A sincere spiritual seeker meditates to realise the Ultimate Reality to
unravel the mystery of life and death, to understand in the bottom of his
heart, what is Truth. Once he knows Truth, he knows the Ultimate Reality,
he becomes That, and there is nothing more to know. A person who has realised
Brahman, becomes Brahman, and lives in Brahman. Knowing is being. That
is the highest state.
India has been fortunate to have produced many saints and seers who had
realised the Truth and for more or less time lived in a state of Divine
Ecstasy. Even during the past hundred years people have witnessed such
saints like Paramahamsa Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Ramatirtha,
Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi, Swami Ramdas, Swami Sivananda and several
others of world fame. Ramakrishna would while talking relapse into Samadhi
and often prayed to his Divine Mother not to draw him frequently into Her
Bosom so that he can converse with his disciple, particularly his darling
Naren later known to the world as Swami Vivekananda so that he could prepare
a band of workers to spread his message, the holy message of India. Swami
Ramatirtha was often seen in a state of ecstasy during last seven years
of life in India and United States. Swami Sivananda was another who would
often sing and dance or be just be quiet in divine ecstasy. There have
been more in India and quite a few messengers of God in other parts of
the world.
Meditation and concentration are often treated as synonymous. However,
I have drawn earlier a distinct line between concentration and meditation.
In further explanation when one brings to bear all his thought waves on
a single point or spot like a laser beam where the scattered rays of light
are concentrated, it is concentration. Every body needs concentration to
understand, assimilate and apply any information, any knowledge. When the
concentration is prolonged for 144 seconds, it is called meditation and
when extended to 144 multiplied by 144 i.e. 20736 seconds = 345.6 minutes,
it is said to reach the state of Samadhi. According to Ashtanga Yoga comprising
two main parts of Hatha Yoga—Yama, Niyama, Asana and Pranayama covers the
first one, whereas Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, is the second
part. There is no equivalent word in English language for Samadhi. Concentration
is the sixth, Meditation the seventh and Samadhi the eighth and last stage
of Yoga when the Sadhaka is united with the Supreme Being. It shows that
concentration leads to Meditation, similarly prolonged constant meditation
leads to Samadhi. In other Yogas Manana, Nididhyasana, Upasana, Chintana,
Dhyana—these terms are used in different Yogas with subtle differences
in their techniques. Manana is a sort of reflection. It is just to chew
the cud slowly and nicely. It is done through into intense practice of
Manana. Chintana is also a sort of reflection and meditation to assimilate
the thoughts in consciousness for proper and significant impression with
profound understanding. Intense meditation on the Self or Brahman or ANY
SPIRITUAL ILLUMINED PERSONALITY is termed as ‘Nididhyasana’. As Saint Francis
of Assisi did. ‘Upasana’ stands for devout meditation which is being used
in both i.e., Jnana Yoga Sadhana and Bhakti Yoga. Upasana means ‘sitting
near by’. In Jnana Yoga Sadhana the seeker has to sit near the Self or
Brahman; whereas in Bhakti Yoga a devotee has to sit by the side of God.
A keen and true regular practitioner (Sadhaka) will attain quick and sure
results, when he proceeds properly stage by stage under the guidance of
his GURU or master. The first four parts are meant to purify the mind and
keep the body strong and fit to receive and retain the power of the DIVINE.
Many moderns, however, equate Yoga with the practice of few asanas and
pranayamas. This is not sufficient for spiritual uplift. Yet, it is better
to practise asanas and pranayamas for health’s sake than not to do anything
at all. But Yoga is really first to withdraw one’s mind from the objects
of senses (pratyahara), practice concentration, prolong the period of concentration
under proper guidance to reach the stage of meditation and finally become
one, unite (Yoga to join to unite) with the Supreme Reality, the TRUTH.
Thus meditation is not meant merely for the recluse, the ascetic, the renouncer.
It is of utmost important in man’s day-to-day life. It is of immense help
to a student, a youth, an old man. A man who can meditate will become a
better manager, a better businessman, a better executive and, above all,
a better man. Conversely, if a person cannot meditate, he will lack composition,
courage and confidence to achieve his goal. Nowadays, several medical doctors
and psychologists advise to their patients suffering from nervousness,
unusual irritation, disordered mind, fear and inferiority complex and lack
of self-confidence to meditate in a specific manner along with the medical
treatment. So, the meditation is very necessary these days when man leads
a life of tension and complexity.
Every morning and evening, preferably at dawn and dusk, sit down in a comfortable
posture with your backbone straight, relax each and every limb of your
body, and then your mind, and sit unmoved, in the same pose, as long as
you can. It is always better to invoke your Guru (master) and Ishta Devata
first, when you sit for meditation for their blessings and guidance and
gratefully thank them again when you finish the meditation. Gradually,
increase the time of your meditation. It is easier to relax your limbs
of the body but not so easy to relax your mind. This process of relaxation,
stillness and body awareness will automatically reduce the speed of your
breathing, which, in turn, will help in meditation. So many thoughts will
cross your mind now and then. They may even disturb you. Do not be afraid.
Try to remain calm and watch them with equanimity. Let them come, let them
go. Do not fight to free your mind from thought waves. Try to be indifferent
to them. But do not observe these thoughts with equanimous mind. Gradually,
automatically the flitting of thoughts across the canvas of your mind will
diminish. After sometime—sooner than later—you will be absorbed in your
Ishta-Devata if your meditation is objective, or in your Being, if your
meditation is subjective. Once, you get the taste of it, believe me, you
will like to taste it more and more and more.
May God Almighty and All-merciful and the Most Revered Gurudev, help you,
THEY WILL.
Meditation Practice
I. “Silence Is The Great Revelation”—Lao-Tse
1. Scripture as the revelation of God.
2. Discover the revelation that silence brings.
3. Silence offers, one must attain silence. It is NOT EASY.
Comfortable Posture. Close eyes for 10 minutes. Observe total silence of
Heart and Mind. Describe ‘Silence’ in terms of your attempts. Experience
may infinitely be varied. You have to still the constant wandering of your
mind. To quiet and emotional turmoil. On approaching frontiers of silence
there may be PANIC and WITHDRAWAL. You may have frightening experience.
NO REASON TO BE DISCOURAGED. Wandering thoughts are a great revelation.
Take time to EXPERIENCE this wandering mind and TYPE of wandering it indulges.
SOMETHING ENCOURAGING—awareness of mental wandering, inner turmoil and
inability to be still shows that you have small degree of silence within
you. AGAIN close your eyes, become aware of wandering mind for two minutes.
Now sense the silence that makes it possible to be aware of wanderings
of your mind.
MINIMAL SILENCE—as it grows, it reveals more and more rather it reveals
yourself to you. You will have ATTAINMENTS—like WISDOM, SERENITY, BLISS,
GOD, PRECAUTION: you shall have no talk and no discussion. Inhale and exhale
deep and slow breathing throughout. Again close your eyes for five minutes.
SEEK SILENCE. Now see your success—whether more or less. Don’t seek ANYTHING
SENSATIONAL. In fact, do not seek at all.
Limit yourself to observing. Take in everything that comes to your awareness
whether big, small, trite or ordinary. CONTENT of awareness is less important
than the quality of awareness. As quality improves, so silence deepens,
you will experience. You will discover, to your delight, that revelation
is not knowledge. It is power: a mysterious power that brings transformation.
II. Body Sensations
One must become aware of certain body sensations of which one is explicitly
not aware. To go around by yourself to become conscious of your toes, your
feet, your legs, your knees, your thighs, your buttocks, your waist, your
stomach, your chest, your shoulders, your fingers (starting from the tips),
your forearms, your elbow, your arms, your full back, then again your shoulders,
your neck, your chin, your lips, your nose, your cheeks, your ears, your
eyes, your forehead, your head, upper side of your head and backside of
your head. Do not dwell for more than two or three seconds on each part
of your body. REPEAT it again and again for five minutes. This act of yours
brings a sense of relaxedness. BIGGEST ENEMIES: Nervous tension, living
too much in head i.e., to remain conscious of the thinking and imagination
and to remain conscious far too little of the activities of the senses.
It is a must to remain in the PRESENT and not in past and future. One must
master this technique of sense awareness. One must learn to get out of
the area of thinking and imagination and move into the area from Head to
Heart i.e., feeling, sensing, loving and intuiting where contemplation
takes birth, prayer becomes transforming power and a source of delight
and peace. A few of you may feel an increase in Tension. Note what part
of your body is tense and see exactly what the tension feels like. Become
aware of the fact you are tensing and note exactly how you are doing this.
Note means not to reflect but to feel and sense. You pick up no sensation.
Why? Your sensibility has been dead from so much living in head. Our skin
is covered with trillions (3 Powers of a million) of bio-chemical reactions—that
we call sensations and you are finding it hard to pick up even a few of
them? You have hardened yourself not to feel may be due to some emotional
hurt or conflict that you have long since forgotten. And your perception,
your awareness, power of concentration and attention are still gross and
underdeveloped. It is as a means for attaining relaxation and stillness.
GET IN TOUCH WITH SENSATIONS AGAIN AND AGAIN without naming limbs and organs
as you sense. If you notice an urge to move or to shift your posture or
position—do not give into it. Do continue this exercise for a few minutes.
You will gradually feel a certain stillness in your body. Go on with your
AWARENESS exercise and leave taking care of stillness. If you are distracted,
get back to awareness of body sensations, moving from one to another, until
your body becomes still once again, your mind quietens, you are able to
sense again stillness that brings peace and a foretaste of contemplation
and of God. HOWEVER, DO NOT explicitly rest in the stillness. Because resting
in it can be relaxing and even delightful. BUT in it there is DANGER of
mild trance or mental blankness which is not good for contemplation. It
is like a sort of self-hypnosis that has nothing to do either with the
sharpening of awareness or with contemplation. IMPORTANT: DO NOT DELIBERATELY
seek stillness or silence within you and not EXPLICITLY REST in it when
it occurs. BUT SEEK SHARPENING OF AWARENESS. In moments, stillness becomes
so powerful that all exercise and all your efforts become impossible. Then
it is no longer you who go in quest of stillness. But stillness takes possession
of you. THEN you may safely, and profitably, let go of all effort and surrender
to this overpowering stillness within you.
III. Deepening Exercise—Body Sensations
The body sensations exercise is so simple, in fact, as to prove disillusioning.
To advance in it, you have to preserve in simplicity. Resist temptation
to seek novelty, but try to seek DEPTH. You have to practise second exercise
over a long period of time. You may ask for benefits. Don’t ask. Do what
you are asked to and you will discover yourself. TRUTH is found less in
words and explanations than in action and experience. So get to work, with
faith and perseverance. Close your eyes. Repeat previous exercise of body
sensations for five to ten minutes.
NOW CHOOSE JUST ONE SMALL AREA OF YOUR FACE, PICK UP EVERY SENSATION. At
the beginning you may not feel. Continue previous exercise, then enter
in this area. Be aware of the type of sensations that emerge; itching,
pricking, burning, pulling, vibrating, throbbing, numbness....... If your
mind wanders, bring it patiently back to exercise.
IV. Thought Control
By doing previous awareness exercises, your mind may be distracted. To
deal with such situation, you shall keep your eyes half closed—resting
on an object or one spot three feet ahead of you. You are not to focus
on the object/spot. By doing this, you may have trouble with your wandering
mind. No cause for alarm. You practise control over your wandering mind
with patience and perseverance. Gradually you will succeed.
To deal with distraction of mind you may follow any of the two ways:
a) You have to follow your thoughts as a puppy in the streets follows any
pair of legs it finds in motion. It does not care for the direction where
they are moving. After some seconds, you shall make yourself aware that
you are thinking. You may say to yourself interiorly that I am thinking
......... thinking ...... thinking. By this you will be aware that thinking
process is going on.
b) The other way to overcome distraction is to observe your thoughts as
a man stationed at his window watching passers by on the street. After
doing this for a while, you shall keep yourself aware that you are thinking
.... thinking .... thinking .... You may do any of the above two exercises
for not more than five minutes. Thinking tends to stop by making yourself
aware of it. A distraction charged with strong emotion: love, fear, resentment,
sorrow—will not easily yield to this exercise. Other exercises discussed
hereinafter shall help you in that.
V. Breathing Sensations
(Become aware of sensations in various parts of your body)
Become aware of the air as it comes in and goes out through your nostrils.
Do not concentrate on the air as it enters in lungs, but limit awareness
to nostrils breath. Do not control your breathing. Don’t attempt to deepen
it. It is not breathing exercise, but breathing awareness. Whenever you
are distracted, return with vigour to your task to enable you to make you
aware of each breath. Continue this exercise for ten to fifteen minutes.
This exercise may be difficult for some of you in comparison to previous
exercises; but it is most rewarding in sharpening awareness, bringing calmness
and relaxation. HOWEVER, in attempting breathing awareness DO NOT tense
your muscles. Determination must not be confounded with nervous tension.
You may be distracted at the beginning but you must keep returning again
and again to the awareness of your breathing the mere effort involved in
doing this—will bring beneficial effects that you will gradually notice.
After developing some proficiency in this exercise move on to somewhat
difficult and more effective variant:
a) Become aware of the sensation of the air passing through your nostrils.
Feel its touch—in which part of the nostrils you feel the touch of the
air while inhaling .... and in what part of the nostrils you feel the touch
of the air while exhaling .......
b) Become aware of the warmth or coldness of the air .... its coldness
when it comes in, and its warmth when it goes out.
c) Also be aware of quantity of air that passes through one nostril is
greater than the amount that passes through other .....
d) Be sensitive and alert to the slightest, lightest touch while inhaling
and exhaling .... STAY with this awareness for ten to fifteen minutes.
In case you put in more time, you will get better results. But DO NOT stay
on breathing awareness alone for many hours over a period of more than
two or three days. Although this exercise brings you great peace and a
sense of depth and fullness that delights you but prolonged concentration
on breathing is likely to produce hallucinations or to draw out material
from the unconscious that you may not be able to control.
AWARENESS AND CONTEMPLATION AND PRAYER
Prayer means a communication with God that is carried on mainly through
the use of words and images and thoughts. Contemplation means a communication
with God that makes a minimal use of words, images and concepts altogether.
The exercise of awareness of body sensations or breathing can be termed
as communication with God. Many mystics tell us that, in addition to the
mind and heart with which we ordinarily communicate with God, we are endowed
with a mystical mind and mystical heart, a faculty which makes it possible
for us to know God directly, to grasp and INTUIT Him in His very being—apart
from all thoughts, concepts and images.
Ordinarily all our contact with God is indirect—through images and concepts.
To be able to grasp Him beyond these thoughts and images is the privilege
of this faculty—a mystical heart. In most of us this Heart lies dormant
and undeveloped. If it is awakened, it would be straining towards God and,
given a chance, would impel the whole of our being towards Him. Hence,
it needs to be developed, it needs to have the dross that surrounds it
removed so that it can be attracted towards the ETERNAL MAGNET. To be near
or discover Eternal Magnet, one is to find means of silencing the mind.
And to silence the mind is an extremely difficult task. How hard it is
to keep the mind away from thinking, which is producing thoughts in a never-ending
stream. But it is also said that one thorn is removed by another. So you
can be wise to use one thought to rid yourself of all the other thoughts
that crowd into your mind. One thought, one image, one phrase or sentence
or word that your mind can be made to fasten on. For to consciously attempt
to keep the mind in a thoughtless state, in a void, is to attempt the impossible.
The mind must have something to occupy it. The seemingly disconcerting
conclusion is that concentration on your breathing or body sensations is
very good contemplation. The awareness exercises lead to a deepening of
the prayer experiences. Now is the time to expose yourself to the Divine
Sun in SILENCE.
VI. God In My Breath
With closed eyes practise the awareness of body sensations for a while.
Then come to the awareness of your breathing as done before and stay with
this awareness for a few minutes .... Reflect now that this air that you
are breathing is charged with the Power and the PRESENCE of God. Think
of the air as of an Immense OCEAN that surrounds you .... an ocean heavily
coloured with God’s presence and God’s being .... While you draw the air
into your lungs you are drawing God in .... Be aware that you are drawing
in the Power and Presence of God each time you breathe in... Stay in this
awareness as long as you can... Notice what you feel when you become conscious
that you are drawing God in with each breath you take ......
ANOTHER REFLECTION
1. While you breathe in, be conscious of God’s Spirit coming into you Fill
your lungs with the divine energy he brings with Him ....
2. While you breathe out, imagine you are breathing out all your impurities
.... your fears .... your negative feelings .... Your shortcomings and
weaknesses.
3. Imagine you see your whole body becoming radiant and alive through this
process of breathing in God’s life-giving Spirit and breathing out all
your impurities ......
Stay with this awareness as long as you can without distractions.
VII. Breath—Communication With God
Devotional Prayer may here be called as ‘PRAYER’; whereas ‘Intuitional
Prayer’ may coincide roughly with CONTEMPLATION. Both type of prayers lead
to union with God. Such of them is more suited to some Sadhakas than to
others. According to time and need suitability of these Prayers may change.
Any Prayer that limits itself to the thinking mind alone is not prayer
really but! at best, a preparation for prayer. Even among Sadhakas there
is no genuine personal communication that isn’t at least in some small
degree heart communication, that does not contain some small degree of
emotion in it. If a communication, a sharing of thoughts, is entirely and
totally devoid of all emotion you can be sure the intimate, personal dimension
is lacking.
Here are some variations of the previous exercise more devotional than
intuitional. As the thought content in prayer is minimal—it will easily
move from the devotional to the intuitional, from the heart to the heart.
Become aware of your breathing for a while. Now REFLECT presence of God
in the atmosphere all around you.... Reflect His presence in the air you
are breathing—BE CONSCIOUS OF HIS PRESENCE.... Notice what you feel, when
you become conscious of His presence in the air you are breathing in and
out....
Now express yourself to God non-verbally. Frequently, express a sentiment
through a look on a gesture .... Then again by breathing. Express first
of all, a great yearning for Him without using words, even mentally, say
to Him, “MY LORD, I long for You ....” Just by the way breathe. You may
express this by breathing in deeply, by deepening your inhalation.
Now express another attitude or sentiment: ONE OF TRUST AND SURRENDER—NO
words—just through breath, “My LORD, I surrender myself entirely to you
....” You may do this by emphasising your exhalation, by breathing out
each time as if you were sighing deeply. Each time you breathe out feel
yourself letting the whole of yourself go in God’s hand.
Then, after sometime, take up other attitudes before your LORD and express
these through your breathing such as: LOVE.... CLOSENESS.... and INTIMACY
ADORATION.......... GRATITUDE.......... PRAISE.... if you are tired of
doing this, return to the beginning of this exercise and just rest peacefully
in the awareness of God all around you and in the air you are breathing
in and out.... Then, if you tend to get distracted, fall back on second
part of the exercise and express yourself to God non-verbally once more.
VIII. Stillness
Modern man is unfortunately plagued by a nervous tension that makes it
almost impossible for him to be quiet. If he actually wants to learn to
pray he must first learn to be still, to quieten himself. In fact, this
very quietness and stillness frequently becomes prayer when God manifests
Himself in the form of STILLNESS.
Repeat the exercise of becoming aware of sensations in your body—whole
body. This time start with the top of your head and end it with the tips
of your toes, omitting no part of the body. Beware of every sensation in
each part.... You may find some parts of your body completely devoid of
sensation.... Dwell on these for a few seconds—if no sensation emerges,
move on......
As you become more proficient in this exercise you will, hopefully, sharpen
your awareness to the extent that there will be no part of your body in
which you do not feel several sensations.... For the time being you must
be content to dwell briefly on the blanks and move on to the parts where
you feel more sensations—Move slowly from head to foot.... then once again,
from head to foot..... and so on for some fifteen minutes. As your awareness
sharpens you will pick up sensations that you hadn’t noticed before....
you may also pick up sensations that are extremely subtle, too subtle to
be perceived by any but a man of deep as a whole. Feel the whole of your
body as one mass of concentration and deep peace. Now become aware of yours
body as a whole. Feel the whole of your body as one mass of various types
of sensations.... Stay with this for a while, then return to the awareness
by parts, moving from head to foot.... then, once again, rest in the awareness
of your body as a whole......
Notice now the deep stillness that has come over you. Notice the complete
stillness of your body.... Do Not, however, rest in the stillness to the
extent of losing awareness of your body.... If you are getting distracted,
give yourself the occupation of moving once again from head to foot, becoming
aware of sensations in each part of your body. Then, once again, notice
the stillness in your body. If you are practising this in a group, then
at occasions, notice the stillness in the whole room.
It is very important that you do NOT move any part of your body while doing
this Sadhana. This will be difficult at first, but each time feel the urge
to move, or scratch, or fidget, become aware of this as sharply as you
can.... Don’t give in to it.... It will gradually go away and you will
become still once more........
It is extremely painful for most people to stay still. Even physically
painful and you become physically tense, spend all the time you need becoming
aware of the tension.... where you feel it, what it feels like.... and
stay with it till the tension disappears.
You may feel physical pain, rather severe pain. No matter how comfortable
the position or posture you have adopted, your body is likely to protest
against the stillness by developing aches and pains in various parts. When
this happens, a serious Sadhaka MUST RESIST the temptation to move limbs
or read just posture so as to ease the pain. Just become keenly aware of
the pain.
Your awareness may wholly be absorbed by the acute pain. You may start
sweating, may be profusely. Your mind may think that you are going to faint
with pain; at such moment firmly decide Not to fight it, Not to run away
from it, Not to desire to alleviate it, but to become aware of it, to identify
with it. Then you may see that the pain sensation is broken into its component
parts and you may be surprised to discover that it is composed of many
sensations viz., intense burning sensation a pulling and tugging, a sharp,
shooting sensation which may merge every now and then.... and a point which
may keep moving from one place to another.... This point you may identify
as pain.... As you will keep up this exercise, you shall find that you
are bearing the pain quite well—i.e., pain without suffering.
Every Sadhaka has to experience some types of pains, as indicated above,
until his body becomes accustomed to remaining perfectly still. Deal with
the pain through awareness. When your body finally does become still, you
will have a rich reward in the QUIET BLISS that this stillness will bring
you. The temptation to scratch is another frequent temptation with beginners.
This is because, as their awareness of their body sensations sharpens,
they become aware of itching and pricking sensations that were there all
along but were hidden to awareness because of the psycho-physical hardening
that most of us submit our bodies to and because of the grossness of their
awareness. A Sadhaka must resist such temptations during awareness Sadhana.
IX. Body Prayer
(A devotional variant of the body sensation)
First quieten yourself through the awareness of sensations in various parts
of your body.... Sharpen your awareness by picking up even the subtlest
sensations, Not just the gross and evident ones.... Keep your hands on
knees. Now very gently move your hands and fingers so that your hands come
to rest on your lap, palms facing upwards, fingers joined together....
The movement must be very, very slow.... like the opening of the petals
of a flower.... And while the movement is going on BE AWARE OF each part
of it.
Once your hands are resting on your lap, palms facing upwards, become aware
of the sensations in palms.... Then become aware of the gesture itself,
this is a gesture of prayer to God.... What meaning does this gesture have
for you? What are you saying to God through it? Say without words, merely
identifying with the gesture... It may give you some taste of the kind
of prayer you can make with your body....
When you pray with your body you give power and body to your prayer. People
fail to attend to their body in prayer; they fail to take their bodies
along with them into the holy temple of God. When they themselves visit
temples or places of worship, they stand or sit in the presence of God,
but they are carelessly slouched in their seat or standing in a very slovenly
fashion.... They are still not gripped by the living presence of the Lord.
Therefore, a devotee of the Lord should try to understand the meaning and
purpose of ‘Body Prayer’. The ‘gestures’ suggested are merely samples.
A ‘devotee’ may invent his own gestures to express his ‘Love’, ‘Praise’,
‘Adoration’, ‘Surrender’, ‘Gratitude’....
Close your eyes. Quieten yourself through one of your awareness exercises.
FEEL you are in the presence of God in a very devout way, hands devoutly
joined in front of you, slowly raise your face upwards towards God....
Let your eyes continue to be closed.... What are you saying to God through
your upturned face? Stay with that sentiment or communication for a few
moments.... Then become as fully aware as possible of the position of your
face.... of the sensations on your face.... After a few moments ask yourself
once again what you are expressing to God through your upturned face and
stay with that for a while....
X. The Touch of God
This is a devotional variant to the exercises on body sensations that you
will find helpful if you have reservations about calling the body sensation
exercises true prayer or contemplation. Repeat one of the body sensation
exercises. Take some time to experience as many and as subtle sensations
as you can in various parts of your body......
Now make the REFLECTION: Every sensation I feel, no matter how light and
subtle is the result of a bio-chemical reaction that could not exist except
for God’s Almighty Power.... FEEL God’s power at work in the production
of every single sensation.... Feel HIM touching you in each of those sensations
that HE is producing.... Feel the touch of God in different parts of your
body: rough, smooth, pleasurable, painful....
The experience of God need not be something sensational or out of the ordinary,
unless your devotion and Divine Love is developed. There is, no doubt,
an experience of God that is different from the ordinary run of experiences
that we are accustomed to: there is the deep silence that I spoke of earlier,
the glowing darkness, the emptiness that brings fulfilment.
There are sudden, unaccountable flashes of Eternity or of the infinite
that comes to us when we least expect them, in the midst of our work. One
needs to do so little, really, to experience God. All one needs to do is
quieten oneself, become still—and become aware of the feel of your hand.
Beware of the sensations in your hand.... There you have God, living and
working in you, touching you, intensely near you.... Feel HIM.... Experience
HIM. Most of the devotees look upon an experience like this as far too
pedestrian. Surely there is more to the experience of God than just the
simple feel of the sensations of one’s right hand. This needs a long explanation
to know the reality—Yet, you are assured that these simple and humble exercises
shall help you a lot to march towards that reality.
We forget all too easily that one of the big lessons of incarnations is
that God is found in the ordinary also. Do you wish to see God? Look at
the fact next to you. You want to hear him? Listen to the cry of a baby,
the loud laughter of a simple party, the wind rustling in the trees. Or
just quieten yourself, become aware of the sensations in your body, sense
HIS ALMIGHTY POWER at work in you and feel how near He is to you.
XI. Concentration
(This is an exercise in pure awareness)
Choose one sense object for a basic object of attention. It is suggested
that you choose either the sensations in one part of your body of your
breathing or the sounds around you.
Focus your attention on this object, but do so in such a way that if your
attention shifts to something else you are immediately aware of the shift.
Let us suppose you have chosen for your basic object of attention your
breathing. Well, then, concentrate on your breathing.... It is quite likely
that after a while your attention will move to something else—a thought,
a sound, a feeling.... Now provided you are aware of this shift of attention
to something else, this shift is not to be counted as a distraction. It
is important, however, that you be aware of the shift while the shift is
taking place or immediately after it has taken place. Count it a distraction
only if you become aware of the shift long after it has taken place.
Suppose you choose breathing as your basic object of attention. Then your
exercise will possibly go something like this:—
“I am breathing.... I am breathing.... Now I am thinking.... thinking....
thinking.... Now I am listening to a sound.... listening.... listening....
Now I am irritated.... irritated. Now I feel bored.... bored.... bored....”
In this exercise, the wandering of the mind is not considered a distraction
provided you are aware that your attention is shifting to some other object....
Once you have become aware of this shift, stay with the new object (thinking,
listening, feeling....) for a while, then return to the basic object of
your attention (breathing).... your skill in self-awareness may become
so great that you will not only become aware of the shift of your attention
on to some object, but even of the desire to shift, the impulse in you
to shift on to something else. As when you want to move your hand you will
first become conscious of the desire arising within you to move the hand,
your consent to this desire, your carrying out of this desire, the very
first stirring of your hand.... All of which activities are performed in
an infinitesimal fraction of a second and so we find it impossible to distinguish
one from the other until the silence and stillness within us has become
almost total and our awareness has acquired razor edge sharpness. Self-awareness
is a powerful means for increasing in love of God and of neighbour. The
self-awareness heightens the love. The love, when it is genuine, fosters
deeper self-awareness.
Do not go in search of abstruse means for developing your self-awareness.
Begin with humble things like the awareness of the feel of your body or
awareness of the things around you and then more on to exercises like the
ones which are suggested here and it won’t be long before you notice the
fruits of peacefulness and love that heightened self-awareness brings with
it.
XII. Finding God In All Things
(This is a recapitulation of most of the previous exercises)
Do any of the awareness exercises that have preceded. Take your body sensation,
for instance, as the focus of your attention.... Observe not only the sensations
that yield themselves readily to your awareness, the grosser sensations
but also the subtler ones.... If possible, do not give the sensations any
names (burning, numbness, pricking, itching, cold.... ). Just feel the
sensations without putting a label on to them....
Do the same with sounds.... Capture as many of them as possible.... Do
not try to identify the source of the sounds. Listen to the sounds without
putting a label on to them.
As you proceed with this exercise you will notice a great peacefulness
coming upon you, a deep silence.... Now become aware, briefly, of this
peacefulness and silence......
Feel how good it is to be here now. To have nothing to do. To just be.
Be.
For those who are more devotionally inclined. Do the previous exercise
until you sense the peacefulness that comes with it....
Become aware, for a brief while, of that peacefulness and silence....
Now express yourself to God non-verbally. Imagine that you are dumb and
you can only communicate with your eyes and your breathing. Say to the
Lord, non-verbally, “Lord, it is good to be here with you.” Or, do not
communicate with the Lord at all. Just rest in His presence.
Also, for the devotionally inclined, a rudimentary exercise in finding
God in all things.
Return to the world of the senses.... Become as keenly aware as possible
of the air you breathe.... of the sounds around you.... of the sensations
you feel in your body.... Sense God in the air, the sounds, the sensations.
Rest in this whole world of the senses. Rest in God.... Surrender to this
whole world of the senses (sounds, tactile sensations, colours....) ......
...... Surrender to God ......
Individual’s Uplift And World Welfare
The Divine Life ideal offers a panacea for all the social and political
ills of the modern world. The three fundamentals of Divine Life—Serve,
Love, Give—are the pillars upon which an individual can stand and uplift
himself and the brotherhood of man can be built. Thus the life in this
world can become more fearless and happy as well as purposeful.
If one tries to observe people, one may see there three types of persons—extroverts,
introverts and ambiverts. Extroverts are persons whose mind always goes
outwards. They become slaves of their senses. They are after money, pleasure
and passion, position and power, honour and acclaim. They are bound with
the conditions and circumstances and the circumference of life. Naturally,
their pursuit is of the outer and they forget the purpose and destination
of human life.
Introverts are those persons who are reflective and contemplative and long
to study their inner realm, the inner universe hidden within. Goethe called
it as “Man’s inner universe”. They renounce pleasure and position, keeping
themselves aloof—away from acclaim and honour. The charm of the world is
such that one may find only a few who are introverts. Ambivert is a person
who does not cut himself from the outer, but lives in the ‘inner’ and makes
the outer a vehicle of the inner. He dedicates his life in selfless service
of humanity and places his life as an offering at the altar of the Great
Creator of the universe the Lord. Such a person realises the sanctity of
service, seeking nothing for himself, keeping ablaze the Divinity within.
They are the embodiments of humility and compassion and love pure and simple
at heart. But without becoming introvert it is not possible for anyone
to become ambivert. And such a person is called sadhaka in its real perspective.
In fact, man is an inborn sadhaka, but fails to recognise the same due
to misconceptions, misunderstandings, arrogance and vanity.
Holistic View
“There is a common tendency to isolate spiritual principles from politics,
especially in these days of great intellectual power. Dreamers and visionaries
are often brushed aside as people with their heads in the clouds”, out
of touch with stark realities. In so many ways man has become wedded to
the doctrine of self-salvation, self-achievement and self-dependence that
in the resultant excitement of great material achievements he is in danger
of forgetting the eternal truths upon which this entire universe exists
and its future heritage depends.
The bad habit of complaining against others, the conditions and slackness
in sincere attempts, and a lack of love for himself and humanity—and man
becomes a prey of vanity which subsists on false values. Man generally
thinks falsely that he is unblemished and superior to others and that others
are blemished and inferior. The inevitable consequence is that he gets
a perverted vision and loses the capacity for seeing and accepting Truth.
If a man develops an attitude of selfishness, he is liable to poison every
good sight and tie. But, if his attitude becomes one of helpfulness and
understanding, he shall beautify every tie—foes will turn into friends,
problems will have their solutions and man will have his salvation. Unfortunately,
man thinks his gain in the loss of others, his progress in another’s downfall
and his happiness in another’s unhappiness. It is a tremendous mistake
and a dangerous trend born out of indiscrimination and selfishness.
The inspired visions of saints, mystics and leaders in the religious education,
social, economic and artistic scene of every country have truly reflected
the true aspirations of the people. From these visions was born the practical
reality of everything which is recognised to be good in their way of life.
And of course, everything that is discordant or bad is the outward result
of individual and collective negative or evil thinking or beliefs.
One of the greatest saints of the present day Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj
has placed before the world the ‘Divine Life’ gospel for the uplift of
the individual and attainment of divinity in the end which can be summed
up in six succinct words, “Serve, Love. Give, Purify, Meditate, Realise.”
The physical frame of a man owes much to the world because it is made of
the same five elements of which this world is composed. One has, therefore,
to serve one and all without any distinction whatsoever and without any
expectation of return or reward so that he may clear out his debt towards
the world. One must properly understand that the acquired wealth and power
are not his own but are the ‘trust’ of the poor and weak. In the right
use of things lies the key which consists in the service of others. Service
and sacrifice, hence, are the acme of duty and dutifulness. When a duty
is performed as a duty for duty’s sake, it becomes the source of salvation
and not the bondage of attachment. But he should not have the idea of doership.
Hence the service and performance of duty with a feeling of responsibility
and pure heart without expectations, which is prompted by an inner sense
of fellowship and unity, reduces attachment and destroys the sense of doership
and thus liberates the man.
Love is light, life, eternity. There is nothing else to achieve in this
world but love. In love consists the perfection of human life. All impurities
are rooted in the craving for the pleasure of the senses, but love is not
there. Love is the nature of the beloved and the life of the lover. One
must know that faith and Love go together, because in the sense of unity
resides Love and in the ending of desire is the dawn of Love. Man has sincerely
to understand that the outer form of action warranted by a given situation
generally makes little difference to the Love and sympathy in one’s inner
attitude. The man has to learn a great lesson that he has to love even
a sinner, while hating the sin. A man, who is an inborn sadhaka, must learn
the lesson of forgiveness even without asking for the same from the person
who has done something wrong. Thus only the impurities of man’s mind can
be washed off. Of course, it requires great moral strength to seek forgiveness
for one’s own past wrong actions. Only one who is truly repentant and who
has realised that any satisfaction of the senses derived from evil propensities
is bound to reap a harvest of evil and sorrow.
Man should not be confounded with a seeming contradiction between forgiveness
and justice. Man’s sense of justice is distorted, on account of the limitations
of his ego, his reactions are perverted. Strictly speaking, in one sense,
man can do justice only to himself because he can understand his own mind
and not of others. As a man and as a sadhaka one should, therefore, refrain
from judging others; and also one should be forgiving others in so far
one feels wronged by others. When the mind is devoid of hate, a long step
is taken by man towards recovery. Love is the tremendous curative force
for an individual and for the society. So the great Master emphasised greatly
this love factor and preached in practice—Love all, hate none. God is in
all, do not hurt Him.
The urge to give happiness to others helps man to destroy his own craving
for pleasure. The desire for pleasure is the cause of frustration; giving
and sharing what you have and serving others with compassion consumes the
craving for pleasure. He warned an aspirant that generosity motivated by
attachment, and renunciation caused by anger are fruitless. The truth is
that the supreme giver is ours, but all the things He gives are His. Therefore,
man should learn the lesson of giving and giving with happiness all the
good that he possesses and not think that by giving he will lose. In fact
he will gain something which is Divine and Eternal.
If the three mottos above—Serve, Love and Give—are properly understood
and practised by man in his day-to-day life, he will find that his heart
has become purified and he is living in a higher stage and better society.
In fact, in the renunciation of one’s rights and protection of rights of
the others lies the secret of attainment. His mind becomes purified and
then alone he is in a position to meditate and realise.
This is the gospel of Divine life which is the need of the hour, and if
we follow this, we shall be serving this world in a better way on its upward
march. Then alone can there be ‘Ramarajya’.
Let us march on this path with confidence and faith, with sincerity and
strength, with devotion and dedication. May God and Gurudev bless you!
Radiate to all thoughts of love and goodness. Never look into the faults
and defects of others. Always appreciate the good in others. Overlook their
weakness. Pray for the one who wishes to harm you. Bear insult and injury.
Be good and do good.
—Swami Sivananda
