Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

7. Dhyana

(Darshan given in February 1999)

Swamiji: You should not have two thoughts.

Visitor: But I was told dhyana means 'no thinking'.

Swamiji: There is thinking, but thinking of one thing only. You become the object itself. The thing that you are meditating upon is yourself only, so that you will have no other desire.

Visitor: But actual self, that means God. Do you want to concentrate on your nose, or ego centre? I mean...

Swamiji: Meditation can be on anything. It can be low or high or whatever it is. You can meditate on this pencil if you like, and there is no low and high for that. It is a kind of psychological technique which can be applied to anything. You can meditate on a person living in London, and intensely influence that person, transfer your thought to that person, and make that person think as you are thinking here. This is a part of this nididhyasana only. Dhyana is a common thing. It can be applied to anything, not necessarily God only.

Visitor: No. But we want God only.

Swamiji: But anyhow, it applies to everybody. It is like a knife. It can cut vegetables or cut the throat of a man also. It is only a simple technique. It is a technique applicable to anything. It can be for God, and it can be for anything else also. It is a mere technique. It can be used for any purpose – for God, or for any other thing.

You can assume the form of the person in London, and that person will start thinking as you are thinking.

Visitor: For that, you must have a very powerful capacity of concentration.

Swamiji: You are in London, that's all. That is the meaning. You should not think: “I am in India.” You are in London; you are that very person.

Visitor: You become one with that person.

Swamiji: That person only. There is no 'one', and all that. Here is that person sitting – same features, same shape, same language, same intentions, everything same. You are not meditating on that. It is itself meditating. Then immediately your vibrations will touch that person. This is telepathy in one way, telepathy. You must be that thing only. You should not meditate on that, but you are that only. It is not Vandana meditating on somebody. That somebody is thinking of itself only. Such a transformation of concentration is necessary. That is a kind of samadhi. Samadhi means the object itself is contemplating itself.

Visitor: Then what is the difference between jnan and dhyan?

Swamiji: Again unnecessarily you are asking the same question. Temporary concentration for a short time is jnana, and intensely immersing oneself. There are degrees of concentration: one, two, three. Positive, comparative, superlative, you may say. Something like that.

Visitor: I'm just thinking of Sankara and Ramanuja having a dialogue. Would they...?

Swamiji: They will agree with each other on every point.

Visitor: Except?

Swamiji: No exception. Only the followers are misinterpreting them; otherwise, they are good people. They will eat on the same table. It is the interpreters that are causing trouble. They will all be laughing very nicely. They will not talk to each other because each one knows what the other knows, so what is the use? They will not talk. What to talk? Only if there is a difference you can talk, but if each one knows what the other knows, what will you talk? There must be some difference in level. If the level is the same, the water will not flow. If two tanks are there on the same level, the water will not flow at all.

[Later on]

Swamiji: Even an insect, let alone a human being. An insect also loves. If an insect is crawling, if you put your foot nearby, it will run because it loves itself. Every animal, every insect, every moth, everything runs away when you interfere with it because of self-love. This self is nothing but an indication of the presence of God in you; and this love, which is evinced in regard to one's own self, if it is magnified to the whole cosmos, it becomes God-consciousness.

So in meditation you expand your consciousness to the size of the whole universe, not thinking any particular thing. Particular things you have got in the world, a single thing or two things or a hundred things. All the things put together in the world cannot satisfy you because they are finite things. They perish. Nobody survives. So you want something which will survive always, never die, and is most blissful. That is what is called God, and that is nothing but the expanded form of you in the sense that the ocean is within every drop of the ocean. The ocean has many drops, but every drop is the ocean. So many people are there in the world, but they are all drops in the ocean of the Self, the I that you feel within yourself.

Actually, the assertion of love for one's own self so intensely is a peculiar way of asserting the love of God. “Everything is useless. I am important.” This is what everyone feels. This is only a miniature feeling of the greatness of God. If you have it, then you don't want anything else. It looks like one thing, but it is really everything. You look like one person, but you are really everything for you. Myself, myself – “Myself is most important. I won't tolerate anything to come near me.” They say like that. So you are an individualised form of God-consciousness, and God is nothing but a universalised form of your self consciousness.

This requires self-restraint. You control your sense organs, desires, emotions, and centre it in this all-pervading Being.