The Yoga of Meditation

by Swami Krishnananda

The equipment with which one has to arm oneself for entering into the field of meditation is no less important than the knowledge of the art of meditation itself. Many seekers with a fund of knowledge in them of the methods of meditation often fail to achieve tangible success in their efforts due to their not being properly prepared for the task they have taken on hand. There is many a question and a problem which subconsciously, though not consciously, disturbs and agitates the mind, almost throughout the day and night of an individual, irrespective of one's position in society and the riches of which one may be possessed abundantly. The subtle anti-sympathetic vibrations set into action by anxieties and limitations of various kinds keep in suspense, if not harass the mind constantly, in a state of cold war, as it were.

Here we have to bring into consideration one's external relationships in life, such as the political, social, economic, moral, aesthetic, biological, as well as religious predilections and restrictions apart from one's own psychological make-up in general. A person politically enslaved to the core, whether by the mechanism of the State or by ill-administered systems causing nervous tension, as it would be patent in many places of the world even today, is denied the natural freedom honestly due to a human being as his birthright, and this dead-weight of the external mechanistic set-up is sure to intensely tell upon those beginners in the science of thinking. There is no doubt that a certain amount of freedom from the shackles of a rigid and overweening form of political governance is an indispensable necessity and all geniuses and culturally advanced personages of any country or nation have been those who had freedom of thinking, speaking and willing and had achieved liberation from a purely mechanised giant of State control, due to the nation's or the country's having risen above the law of the fish and the law of the jungle to the law of understanding and the law of a feeling of the significance and value and meaning of the individual in his own independent status, a status which he enjoys right from his birth, not because of the bounty or clarity that he receives from others, individually or collectively, but because of what stuff he is made of in himself, an eternal spark and a flame of a longing for larger and larger growth and expansion, a light which cannot be extinguished even by the strongest gale of time's vicissitudes. A specimen of such a free State of liberated individuals as its flowering citizens has been, to the people of India, the ideal of Rama-Rajya, an ideal which is said to have historically materialised itself in ancient times, an ideal which is the fond dream and hope of every political thinker in India, nay, of every statesman of any nation. Political freedom may not have a direct bearing on spiritual meditations, but what bearing it has on the life of an individual, who is spirit, mind and body in one, should be too obvious to call for any explanation or exegesis.

Too much eagerness to reform others in society and the world at large without self-purification and a readiness of oneself to the task is to be regarded as a major obstacle in one's efforts for spiritual perfection. Subjective urges and yearnings are to be considered well before attempting to bring order in the objective environment. First an integrated personality through manifesting a proportion in the functions of the physical, vital, mental, intellectual and spiritual levels of one's being, has to be built up for achieving good and beneficial results in any direction. To miss this point and lay stress only on external social harmony would be a serious mistake. Without Self-knowledge in an appreciable degree and a total comprehension of life, attempts at social planning are bound to fail and lead to conflict and confusion instead of the longed-for social peace and harmony.

Apart from this, man has his own social restrictions, the do's and don'ts of the community in which he is brought up, which are supposed to help and support, but which often hinder and obstruct, the growth of the individual into the higher expanses of mind and spirit. The limitations imposed on the life of a person, whether politically or socially, are intended to check the excesses in his thoughts, speeches and actions, his vagaries, extravagances, whims and fancies, as well as prejudices of various kinds, which, when given a free lease and a long rope, are likely to deprive others of their rights and needs or, sometimes, even ruin them totally. While this is the positive and healing aspect of outward control, it has its negative and deleterious side when it loses sight of the individual's good by a deification of the demand for his obedience and his subjection to the autocracy of what should otherwise be a directing and guiding principle in life. In the social life of India, particularly, there is what is known as the caste system, or the classification of people into social groups, necessitated by the need for cooperation among the specific endowments and capacities of people who have to lead a collective life for mutual good and improvement. But this very necessary provision for the ordering of groups in society can debar certain persons from the very chance of improvement and growth when the groups which form integral parts of the organisation of the society get segregated into classes of competition rather than cooperation, leading to its natural further consequences of mutual dislike, conflict and strife in various intensities. This is the travesty and distortion of the social rule for the purpose of personal advantage though leading in the end to personal ruin of which one is not, in one's ignorance, usually conscious. It is the habit of the selfish personality to take advantage of any situation in which it is placed and twist it to its own ends and convert into a vice even a universally accepted and praiseworthy virtue. Persons who are caught up in such circumstances in society need a guiding hand and an enlightening word, and the socially inflicted one, like the politically enslaved, will find that a higher advance in the field of the inner life will be almost beyond one's reach. The State and society are largely responsible for the quality and number of individuals who can venture into and succeed in the endeavours for a spiritual advancement in meditation on higher realities.

It is also said that religion cannot be taught to hungry-stomachs, a great truth with much meaning. Reality manifests itself in degrees and even the physical plane is a degree of its expansion. It is not that one can jump to the skies of the spirit, from the body that is lumbering on the earth, without adequate preparations. Food, clothing and shelter, the creature comforts of the human being, are at least in their minimum proportions, a necessity, and while these are absolutely essential, one should have the opportunities to acquire them with a sense of freedom from attachment and anxiety. Too much of them cause attachment and too little anxiety. Hence beginners in the Yoga of meditation should strike a middle course of choosing a harmless and yet morally justifiable means of making their ends meet either by service of some kind or production in their own individual capacities, to the extent permissible and possible. Too high an idealism completely bereft of the realistic touch in it will be a stumbling block, leading to failure in the end, while, at the same time, too much concern for material comforts without the soaring idealism of spirituality will lead to a fall from one's aim. The Madhyama Marga or the middle path usually spoken of as the one chosen by the Buddha is a good example of avoiding extremes in any course of action and tuning the string dexterously to produce from it the most beautiful music of the harmony of life. This dexterousness is called Kausala, and the harmony is called Samatva, in the language of the Bhagavadgita, two terms which have a wide connotation, applicable to all levels of life. The maintenance of the body in a perfectly healthy condition is a necessity, though the intention behind it is to transcend its demands and limitations, stage by stage, by self-restraint in a moderate manner, gradually practised.

Intimately connected with this aspect of the seeker's life is the moral aspect of his personal and social life. The economic needs of a person are generally linked up with the processes he employs in accepting material and intellectual provision from society. In the case of the ordinary man of the world, his need is likely to become a greed which can slowly grow into an obsession and passion, sunk into which he becomes an exploiter and a hoarder, the principle being of taking more than giving. But, the policy of the spiritual seeker, even when he cannot rise above being an economic unit of human society, is not to take more than what he does give, because it is only in this way that he can avoid reactions from Nature, which are known as the nemesis of Karma. Nature always maintains a balance in all its levels and it cannot brook any interference with this law. Whoever meddles with Nature's law of balance, physically, mentally, morally or spiritually, will receive a rebuff from Nature, and this rebuff is man's suffering in life. It is maintained by moralists that the ideal rule of conduct is to treat others as ends-in-themselves instead of as means to ulterior ends, for no one would like to be treated as an instrument or a tool in bringing satisfaction to another. This is the character of one's being an end-in-itself and not a means, a character which discloses the truth that each one is an end and not a means and to treat everyone in this capacity is the essence of treating another as one's own Self, because one's own Self is an end-in-itself This is also the reason behind the teaching: 'Do unto others as you would be done by', or, as the Mahabharata puts it: 'One should not mete out to others what is contrary to one's own Self.' This, then, is the great law of morality in the world, and this also is the way of extricating oneself from the clutches of the law of Karma. This is also the law of what is known as Yajna or sacrifice, described in a most poetic and epic style in the Purusha Sukta of the Veda and the 3rd and 4th Chapters of the Bhagavadgita, sacrifice in its cosmic and individual significances. Sacrifice is life, for sacrifice is cooperation, cooperation is harmony and harmony is a reflection of True Being.

A very pertinent but much neglected aspect of the spiritual search is the observance of strict continence in the mind and the senses. This discipline has been called Brahmacharya, an extremely subtle device to ensure the strength and growth of one's personality as well as the full flowering of life into a conscious realisation of the Supreme Spirit in one's practical life. Modern man with his dissipated energies has not the education or the time to give attention to this moral, vital and vulnerable part of his life which, when not guarded with great understanding and care, may ultimately mean his ruin in body, mind and soul. The desultory and morbid cravings of the human heart, which characterise modern society in general, tend to disintegrate the vital spirits of the personality, a reason for their being no peace either in oneself or in the family and society. Nothing can be considered more salutary and necessary than self-control, which is the meaning of Brahmacharya, to perpetuate human health and good-will, mutual participation in a common good cause and spiritual force and lustre in the entire human nature.