12. One soon becomes that on which he constantly meditates with great intensity in accordance with the illustration of the wasp and the worm.

The illustration of the Bhramara and the Kita is taken to explain the method of Vedantic Meditation. Even as the worm due to its fear from the sting of the wasp constantly meditates on the form of the wasp knowing not when the dreaded creature will come, and thus through self-hypnotisation becomes possessed of the form of the wasp itself, the spiritual aspirant, through unbroken meditation on the Eternal Brahman, possessed of immeasurable love for It, and not knowing when that blessed experience will take place, transforms himself into the being of Brahman Itself by thereby expanding himself to Infinite Existence and transcending individual life.

The feeling cultivated in this method of meditation is "Aham Brahma Asmi" - "I am Brahman," called the Anusandhana Mahavakya. The transformation of consciousness which takes place during this positive meditation is twofold. The first one is a feeling of "I am the Absolute Brahman" where the entire universe appears as the one mass of Supreme Intelligence and the meditator feels his being the centre of universal consciousness. This is the subjective method of approach where the "Infinite I" remains as an absolute individual. This is the step to another greater experience.

The second method is the objective approach where the affirmation takes the form of "Sarvam Khalu Idam Brahma" - "All this, indeed, is Brahman." The absolute transformation of consciousness which occurs here is of the highest type, where even the Brahmakara-Vritti generated by the meditation on "Aham Brahma Asmi" is transcended, and only "Asti-Bhati-Priya" remains. Mere "Be-ness" is the most exalted ultimate Truth of all truths. In this absolute meditation, even the consciousness of the "infinite I" is contradicted by the more expanded Experience of mere "Sat-Chit-Ananda" or "Existence-Knowledge-Bliss." The subjective melts itself into the objective and they both unite to excel as the Great Reality.

This method of Meditation is the highest step taken by the individual to dissolve finitude in the Infinite Existence.

13, 14, 15. Negate the five sheaths. Control the senses. Sit quietly. Meditate always "I am Sat-Chit-Ananda Swayamprakasha Brahman" which is the substratum for these five sheaths and the whole world. Keep up the Brahma-Bhava while walking, eating and bathing.

The method of meditation on Brahman always proceeds along two lines, the negative denial and the positive assertion. The not-self should be denied its reality and the true Self should be affirmed its existence.

The five sheaths of the body are the walls of the prison in which Consciousness is locked up. The "neti-neti" or the "not this, not this" method is employed in negating the sheaths one by one. The physical body is characterised by Tamas and is cut off by death. Hence, the body cannot be Brahman. The vital sheath is filled with Rajas and is Jada or insentient. It has no consciousness and therefore, it cannot be Brahman. The mental sheath is fickle and is constantly changing. It is an organ of cognition and Brahman cannot be of that nature. The intellectual sheath is full of distraction and is reduced to insentiency in sleep. Brahman cannot be the intellect. The causal sheath is the bosom of ignorance and it knows nothing at all inside or outside. Brahman which is absolute consciousness cannot be the causal sheath.

When the five sheaths are understood to be not the Reality the senses which form members in these sheaths are also swept away from all consideration. The sheaths of the body are not the Truth; the senses are not the Truth; then what is man after all? The personality of the human being is denied completely and he feels that he is the all-pervading Atman.

Convinced thus, let the aspirant sit in a corner secluded from the distractions of life. He must meditate on the Bhava "I am the Satchidananda, the Self-luminous Absolute" which is the Reality of all the sheaths and the senses and this entire world.

The Brahma-Bhava should be kept up when doing work and carrying on the activity of life. The life of the individual is one of involuntary action. Thinking and breathing are real actions which is very hard to control and stop. Hence the aspirant should practise the feeling of the Oneness of Brahman in all names, forms and actions, for "verily, the one Brahman appears in as many names, forms and actions." Advaita Bhava should be a constant habit of the mind.

16. You should ever be engaged in enquiry of Brahman, till you get Brahma-Jnana. You should practise right conduct also. You should have association with the sages.

The enquiry of the One Brahman is the sole duty of the aspirant who wishes to become the Absolute. The practice of Sadhana is not "one" of the duties of man, but the "only" duty for which he is born. The finitude of the self is the common disease in all human beings, and so, the end which the individual should direct his activities to should be nothing short of Brahman-Realization.

The aspirant should adopt the method of saturating his consciousness with the feeling of the Presence of Brahman in all things. In the beginning he should practise only Bhava-Advaita and not Kriya-Advaita. The feeling of oneness flooding his heart affects the mental being of others also around him and hence the individuals that are chanced to relate themselves to him get transformed into a state which is in tune with his consciousness, even in spite of their own idiosyncrasies. The aspirant after Brahman has no fear from any source. The beings of the universe are compelled by his integrating power to accede to the law of his movement towards the Absolute. The whole world supports him who walks on the path to Brahman. Brahman is the reality of everybody and hence everybody must act according to the necessities of the aspirant who expands his consciousness into Brahman.

The highest peak of meditative consciousness makes the aspirant take recourse to Kriyadvaita too, because he is no more of the world and, the fashions and the conventions of society do not attract his attention. He merges himself in a uniform consciousness which does not allow of distinction in thoughts and actions. Supreme Indifference and Silence take hold of the highest class of aspirants who glory in Self-Consciousness and do not feel the need for doing or undoing anything. For them there is nothing worth resorting to or worth avoiding.

This immaculate state is reached only after unbroken meditation which has to be practised until the dawn of Wisdom and perfect establishment in Brahman.

17, 18. Brahma-Jnana, the end of all Vedas, will dawn of itself in you, if you generate the Brahmankara-Vritti constantly from your Sattwic Antahkarana by meditating on the right significance of the Mahavakya "Aham Brahma Asmi".

The assertion "Aham Brahma Asmi" is the counterpart of the instruction "Tat Twam Asi". Both are sentences declaring the identity of the meditator and the meditated, the individual consciousness and the Absolute Consciousness. The Brahmakara-Vritti is generated through the Sattvik Antahkarana which slowly soars above the normal empirical consciousness by being impressed with the higher All-inclusive Consciousness which swallows up being and non-being in its existence.

The same meaning which was attributed to the Upadesha-Vakya is applicable to the Anusandhana-Vakya also. "Aham" and "Brahma" are the individual and the Absolute whose identity is brought out by the significance of the term "Asmi". "Asmi" and "Asti" are the two denotations of the subjective and the objective conceptions of the existence of the One Unity of the Absolute Whole. "Asmi" gives way to "Kevala Asti" or mere Being. Brahmakara-Vritti is the form taken by the mind when it is about to lose itself in Brahman. Even this Vritti is after all a psychosis, a mental transformation, though of the highest order of psychic modifications. All Vrittis should stop before the Glorious Satchidananda is realised, where the mind does not exist at all, not even the most supreme Vritti can exist there.

When the Brahmakara-Vritti is raised through meditation on Brahman, the Transcendental Knowledge will dawn of itself. The Antahkarana constituting the Manas, Buddhi, Ahamkara and Chitta should first be rendered Sattwik through training thoughts and feelings by internal Tapas which must be practised for long. Only the Sattwik mind can reflect the Brahmic Light and a struggle to experience the Absolute when the heart is clogged with desires, cravings and ambitions will not end in success. The state of Pure Sattwa is the condition of the mind where the highest expression of Brahman, namely, Ishwara, is on a level with the individual consciousness which is raised above the region of the earth. The Brahmakara Vritti is generated when the perception of the material universe as such is brought to a cessation and only the Divine Existence is beheld everywhere. This Vritti destroys all ignorance and finally destroys itself too when Brahma-Jnana reveals itself.

19, 20. 'OM' is the symbol of Brahman. It is the word of power. It is the sacred mono-syllable. It is the essence of all the Vedas. It is the boat to take you to the other shore of fearlessness and immortality. Meditate on OM with Bhava and meaning.

OM is the highest symbolical expression of the absolute nature of Brahman. OM is the source of all power and knowledge. The pronunciation of the word "OM" includes all the processes of sound-production and word-formation. Hence this word-symbol is the highest and the subtlest expression of the Shabda-Tanmatra, and is the basis of all speech, even of the Vedas. All words and languages are, thus, produced from the eternal "OM."

When the word OM is repeated with the proper Bhava in the Hrasva, Deergha and Pluta forms of sound, the whole system of the body and the mind is charged with powerful vibrations of light, purity, peace and harmony. Constant repetition of OM in the proper manner itself will cure all diseases, balance the mind and remove distraction. The subtlest and the most original manifestation in the realm of duality is the Shabda-Brahman, the form of Brahman as can be cognisable through the highly purified sense of the soul. 'A' kara, 'U' kara' 'M' kara, "Ardhamatra," "Nada," "Bindu," and "Kala" are the different stages of the expression of the sound "OM". It should start from the 'Para' state of sound origination and then it should be gradually materialised through the "Pashyanti" and the "Madhyama" to the "Vaikhari" state where the sound is actually audible to the sense of hearing.

From the start in the "Para" to the finis in the "Vaikhari," the chanting of OM has got an equilibrating character and so powerfully spiritualises the being of the chanter. There is an occasion for the automatic Kumbhaka state of the Prana and the stability of thought during OM-chanting and hence the feeling of OM prepares the ground for the highest Nirguna Meditation where the absolute character of the object of meditation is conceived of and affirmed. OM is an absolute sound and is not of the distracting type of sound produced by speech. Chanting OM leads the mind to the common Ground of the Self where absolute harmony reigns supreme.

21. You should make Brahma-Vichara habitual in you by constant practice. Then only your mind will be under your perfect control. All the impurities of the mind will be washed away by Brahma-Vichara.

Brahma-Vichara should be the habit of every aspirant in his life. It is his identification with some particular aspect of the Infinite Whole that is his individuality. The life of circumscribed isolation and suffering is the fruit of affirming the Self to be something, for the moment one affirms something, the other aspects of the Absolute Whole are denied their unified existence and are neglected and treated as the not-self. The Whole can never be separated into parts and therefore there is a desire in every self to obtain the not-self. The number of these not-selves runs up to infinity and the self wants to have the entirety of things regarded as not-self. This possession of infinite things requites the self to pass through several births and deaths. Hence, the desire for the Infinite being uncontrollable, the state of Samsara will have to be continued till infinite objects are obtained, i.e., till the realization of the Infinite Whole as one's own Self is achieved.

How, then, is to cease from self-affirmation? The constant Vichara on the nature of Brahman as constituting all, even the not-self which is ignored and the self which is asserted, the earth and the heaven, and body, mind and soul, will negate the belief in parts and make the aspirant look on all beings with an equal eye. If at any time the aspirant is unable to deny his individuality, and it the self asserts itself persistently, then he should also affirm simultaneously that he is also all those that are denied as not-self, and thus be true to the Absolute Nature.

This sort of Brahmavichara will wash away all sins and impurities and the aspirant will be liberated from bondage even in this very life. He becomes a Jivanmukta.

22. Enquire unceasingly: "Who am I? Whence came this universe? How did birth and death come? What is bondage?" You will be able to attain the imperishable abode of eternal bliss.

Constant enquiries into the essential nature of the universe and Samsara, their origin, their unreality, the cause of birth and death, the nature of bondage and freedom from pain, will thin out the mind in due course.

Who is the Jiva? The Jiva cannot be truly an individual, for individuality is perishable. But the essence of the Jiva persists to exist. The sheaths of the body merge into their original elements. Earth merges in water, water in fire, fire in air, air in space, space in Mula-Prakriti, and Mula-Prakriti in Brahman. The elements of the body equally dissolve themselves. Hence all the effects are transient, only the eternal is true. The Jiva should cease from being too much occupied with a part of the whole and begin to cling to the Whole. The bodies are sustained only by the thoughts of them, and when the individual withdraws the thoughts, feelings and interests from the bodies, they can no longer be felt to be an item of Pure Consciousness.

Whence came this universe? The universe must either be a creation of the Absolute or of the Cosmic mind or of the individual mind. The Absolute does not create any universe, because the Absolute is secondless and unchangeable. The Cosmic mind must have projected the universe out of the stuff of its consciousness. But, then, how is it that the change in subjective consciousness changes the appearance of the forms of the objects? When the imaginative mind changes its mode of thinking, the object of its perception appears to exist only in relation to the subjective consciousness. Moreover, when the Jnani's mind rises high into the transcendental region, the universe vanishes from his view. Hence, the universe may be a creation of the subjective individual.

But, then, again, when the individual becomes a Jnani and when it realises the Infinite Being, the world still exists for the other individuals who have not realised the Truth. Hence the world cannot be the creation of the subjective imagination. It must have an objective reality. Thus, we come to the dilemma that the subjective and the objective aspects of consciousness are both creators as well as not creators of the universe. But the truth seems to be that both are partly true and partly incorrect. The universe is the production of the collective totality of all the individual minds put together. This totality is termed the cosmic Mind. When the individual realises Brahman, the world vanishes to it, for the nature of Brahman is contrary to that of the world. But the world exists to other individuals even after the Self-realization of an individual, for the world is sustained by the mental forces of the remaining individuals.

Thus the loss of an individual through its Self-realization must effect a great change in the universal force of creativity. The universe is thus the construction of thoughts that are interrelated. Birth and death are of such cause, individuality is due to such reason, as is the nature of the creation of the universe.