IS MEDITATION
NECESSARY ?
Question : Is Meditation
necessary as a spiritual practice?
Sage TGN :
The categorical
answer to your question is, “No, Meditation is not necessary for the purpose of
the Enlightment of Consciousness, although it could
serve a very preliminary function of helping to purify the mind”.
Now
I shall proceed to explain the answer in some detail, so that the matter which
has been agitating seekers for far too long may be settled once and for all.
Meditation
is a mental practice, even as puja is physical
and japa vocal. Mind, as you know, is only a
projection of the life-energy drawing in imprints of deeds through the senses
and desires generated by itself. Even while engaged in
this continuous process during every minute of your waking hours, Mind is
simultaneously reflecting those imprints as thoughts. When you are sleeping,
the said reflecting is in the form of dreams.
Novice-meditators know (to their cost!) that when they sit
down to meditate, their Mind brings up a hundred thousand worldly thoughts in
rapid and restless succession. Exalted souls like Thayumanavar
also underwent this misery which had the effect of reducing them to despair in
the early stages of their spiritual life. Tiruvalluvar,
that precise diagnostician, hit the nail on the head when he said (in Kural No. 337) that people are not sure whether they would
be alive at the next moment but their thoughts and desires are many millions in
number!
Mind
is your sixth sense (the other five being those of touch, sound, sight, taste
and smell) and it is the Mind wallowing in the world-process that is in a state
of unabated agitation. In reflecting imprints it is taking shape and quality
all the time, rendering concentration on any one topic impossible for you. This
problem is universal and plagues all age-groups from High School students
preparing for their examinations to adults like you who seek to know the
purpose of life.
In
order to obtain concentration of Mind one has to release its multi-pointed
grips on world-objects in the first instance. This preliminary process of
withdrawal of the Mind is known in Patanjali-Yoga
as pratyahara. It is an arduous process and
may take years of practice in the syllabus of hata-yoga.
The withdrawn Mind is next coaxed and coerced to settle on one point at will;
and this the second stage is called dharana. The object of concentration could be your
favourite deity (ishta-devata) or a mantra.
This is done since the Mind has not been habituated to be without a thought and
so would not know what to do with itself, if it is deprived of its raison d’etre, its pillar and prop.
After
the Mind becomes disciplined in dharana, it is
placed on its own source, namely the life-energy. This is the beginning of
Meditation or dhyana – not Meditation itself
in entirety. You would observe that what has been popularised as Transcendental
Meditation (TM) is only dharana and not
full-fledged dhyana in the correct sense of
the term.
As
I said, the Mind, formless in its native state, takes the shape and quality of
what it settles on. In dhyana, the Mind is
focussed on the energy-particles constituting life and so becomes subtle, for
that is the characteristic of the basic energy-particle akash
which is the first of the five physical division (pancha-boothams).
The Mind thus rendered extremely subtle is now able to travel up to and
experience the Source and Origin of the life-energy itself which is the
Absolute beyond Which and other than Which there is naught else. That is, the
Mind becomes co-equal (or samam in Tamil) with
Adhi or the Beginning. This is the state of Samadhi which has to be an experience and not mere
intellection. It is here that Meditation becomes complete.
In
the early stages, fleeting Samadhi would come to be
experienced, as indicated by a sense of Bliss (Anandham)
that is all-too-brief in duration. In due course it could lead to nirvikalpa Samadhi
during which consciousness of world objects would not be present. This again is
an interim stage.
Through
assiduous application the Bliss can be retained with Awareness for 24 hours of
the day. This is sahaja-samadhi which does not
interfere with the discharge of your worldly duties and responsibilities.
Unfailing Virtue will inform all your activities here.
In
my method I am guiding you to an intellectual understanding of this culminating
state of Consciousness in the first instance, and then persuading you to apply
plus-and-minus corrections to your mode of living so that it may be brought
into consonance with the purpose of life which is Liberation sans phrase.
You can practise my method without fanfare and unobtrusively wherever you
happen to be – whether at home or place of work. Progress will be steady and
sure, as sincere and diligent practitioners have discovered for themselves.
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