Meditation

(Based on Swami Paramarthananda’s Sivarathri talk 2019)

Meditation is a mental conditioning programme. The primary purpose of meditation is to develop the skill to control the mind which is a powerful instrument. An instrument is an instrument only when it is under one’s command. The capacity to control the mind is called manonigraha. All forms of spiritual practices require that mind functions as one’s instrument under one’s control.  We can classify all forms of meditation into five types as follows:

1. Relaxation meditation. – This is for relaxing the mind in particular and relaxing all the other parts of the body as well.  This can be also called as de-stressing meditation.

2. Focussing meditation – This is for developing mind’s ability to focus on any subject, material or spiritual, for a length of time

3. Expansion meditation - in this meditation one learns to expand the mind to visualize the totality of creation.  This can be called also as Viswarupa dhyanam, as the Universe is meditated upon as the form of the Lord.

4. Value meditation – In this meditation one tries to bring about a total inner transformation by changing the thought pattern.  This is also called Transformation meditation

5. Vedantic meditation –  This is for for internalizing the acquired Athma Jnanam, removing the viparitha bhavana. This meditation is called Nitidyasanam and is practiced after acquiring doubt-free Jnanam through Sravanam and Mananam.

Whatever be the form of meditation, success in meditation is dependant on mind management. Mind being a subtle organ it is not easy to control it.  Arjuna in chapter 6 of Gita which deals with Vedantic meditation complains to Lord Krishna with these words

“Chanchalam hi manah krishna pramaathi balavad dridham I

Tasyaaham nigraham manye vaayoriva sudushkaram.II 34II

The mind is restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate. O Krishna! I consider it as difficult to control as to control the wind.

Lord Krishna while replying agreed with him and added “Abhyaasena tu kaunteya vairaagyena cha grihyate.( Arjuna, it is brought under control through practice and dispassion)”. Through the practice of karma yoga one acquires dispassion. To practice mind management one should understand the mind. Mind is flow of thoughts and mind management can be interpreted as thought management.   One’s thoughts can be classified in two groups

1.     Voluntary thoughts – thoughts which are deliberate and will-backed

2.     Involuntary thoughts – thoughts that occur without one’s intention, which are not will-backed

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The process of meditation involves two steps

1.     Displacement of involuntary thoughts at will

2.     Maintenanace of voluntary thoughts for a considerable length of time of our choice.

Sri Ramana Maharishi in his Upadesa saar (verse 9) says that wandering thoughts of mind can be controlled through pranayama.

Vaayurodhanaath leeyathe manahI

Jaala pakshivad rodhasaadhanamII

By control of breath, the thoughts in the wandering mind subside. This is like a fluttering bird being trapped in a cage.

By regulating the breath, the mind becomes like a caged bird – it cannot wander.  According to scriptures prana is born out of the rajo guna of panchabhuthas and mind is born out of the satva guna of panchabhuthas. So they are linked together like the branches of a tree.  Sri Ramana Maharishi says that since both are connected to each other, if you regulate one the other automatically gets regulated. So through pranayama one regulates the breath directly and the mind indirectly. And In Ashtanga yoga of Patanjali maharishi, pranayama is given as one of the eight limbs and this step is before Dhyana, which is another name for meditation.

All forms of spiritual practice require that a sadhaka should develop manonigraha and keep the mind under one’s control and this is achieved through meditation.  All such meditations entertain thoughts centering on Bhagawan to the exclusion of all other thoughts. Manasa puja, manasa parayanam and manasa japa are all various forms of meditation only.  While in Puja, the whole routine is meditated upon, a sthuthi and a mantra are meditated upon in parayanam and Japa respectively. 

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The importance of Japa can be seen from Lord Krishna’s words in Gita (10-25) “Yajnaanaam japayajno’smi (Among Yajnas I am Japa Yajna)”.  In Japa dhyana a Mantra on Ishta Devata is chosen for chanting.  Sandilya states in Sandilya Upanishad, "The Vaikhari Japa (loud pronunciation) gives the reward as stated in the Vedas; while the Upamsu Japa (whispering or humming which cannot be heard by any one) gives a reward a thousand times more than the Vaikhari; the Manasic Japa gives a reward a crore of times more than the Vaikhari".  Sri Ramana Maharishi also observes in Upadesa Saar(verse 6) that Japa Dhyanam is superior to the other two in achieving manonigraha; “Chittajam japa dhyaanam uttamam (best of all is silent, mental japa).  Nama and Rupa are inseparable. So when one thinks of the name of Lord in Japa, His form comes before the mental eye and vice versa, when the chanting is done mindfully and not mechanically.  So when one does Japa of Om Namasivaya or Om namo Narayana, or Hare Rama etc., the form of Siva or Vishnu or Rama will come before one’s mind. One focusses on the form at start and shifts the focus to Mantra itself slowly.  Mantra by itself is powerful as it represents Divine power manifesting in sound body.  So the chanting itself is beneficial and doing it as Manasa Japa empowers one with manonigraha and also endows one with Divine Grace, thus helping one in receiving the Jnanam, retaining the Jnanam and reaping the benefit of Jnanam. Japa Dhyanam is done after Pranayama as thoughts get displaced in Pranayama and they can be replaced with the Mantra of one’s choice in Japa Dhyanam.  With the mind control skills developed in Japa Dhyanam one can achieve manonigraha effortlessly and stay absorbed in the Mantra, and this will lead to Samadhi state, the climax of meditation.

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Jivan Mukthi

(Based on Swami Paramarthananda’s Gurupurnima talk 2019)

Jivanmukthi  is a concept unique to Advaita Vedanta.  The person who has realized through Athma Jnanam the oneness of his Self with Brahman and shed his dehathma buddhi is considered a liberated person, while living and his state is called Jivanmukthi.   Liiberation as per Advaita Vedanta is not the attainment of some new state in some other world after the end of the present life, but it is the realisation, through Athma Jnanam in this life itself, of what one has always been, namely Brahman, by the removal of the wrong notion that one is the body-mind complex,  So in the state of Jivanmukthi, a Jivanmuktha lives enjoying infinite happiness and peace at all times with the wrong identification, as self with the body, mind and senses, removed and freed from the mistaken notion of bondage, until his prarabhdha karma is exhausted.

Prarabhdha karma is one of the three karmas, agami, sanchita and prarabhdha, that is generated by one’s actions with the sense of doership.   Agami karmas  are the unfructified karmas of present birth;  sanchita karma, the accumulated karmas over previous births and  prarabhdha karma, that part of the sanchita karma that comes to fruition at the time of one's birth.  Prarabhdha Karma determines जातिः (Jathihi),  environments of birth,आयुः (aayuh), lifespan, भोगाः (bhoghah),  experiences of life as per sutra 13 of Sadhana pada of Patanjali Yoga Sutra.  For a Jivanmuktha, on giving up the Ahamkara ‘I’ and shedding the sense of doership (karthrutva bhava) and enjoyership (bhokthruthva bhava), agami karma is annihilated, sanchita karma is liquidated and no further karma accrues as he acts thereafter without sense of doership.  As Lord Krishna observes in Gita (4-37) “Jnanaagnih sarvakarmaani bhasmasaat kurute”.( The fire of Jnanam reduces all karmas to ashes). 

But this does not apply to the prarabdha karma which is like the arrow that has left the bow shot at a target that cannot be got back or arrested in its movement but has to exhaust itself, by reaching the target. So a Jivanmuktha stays in the body and continues living in the world until the prarabhdha karma is exhausted. This we can say is a good and a bad news. It is good news because a Jivanmuktha stays alive as Jnani, blessing people with his knowledge and service and inspiring sadhakas through his teaching and personal example.  The bad news is his body has to suffer out the bad prarabhdha. I say his body because he does not view the body as himself any longer.  The balance of prarabdha karma does not affect Jivanmuktha mentally, as he does not identify himself with his body/mind.  He has internalised the knowledge “Brahma Satyam, Jagan Mithya, Jiva Brahmaiva na para” (Brahman is Sathyam, the world is mithya and Jiva is none other than Brahman)” and has the perspective that this world of variety other than his Real Self is only an appearance supported by Brahman and his Real Self is not different from Brahman. This we can see from the lives of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Sri Ramana Maharishi who viewed their body afflictions in a detached manner as something affecting the body only and not themselves. The assimilation of Brahma jnanam and attaining such a perspective is called Mithyatva darsanam.  The Jivanmukthas who continue to stay in society and interact with people have the Mithyatva darsanam that dilutes the impact of prarabhdha rendering it insignificant like the aerial view of mountains.

Acharyas who came after Adhi sankara highlight a second method of countering Prarabhdha which is discussed in Swami Vidyaranya’s work “Jivanmukthiviveka”. A Jivanmuktha Jnani who prefers to live in solitude with minimum contact with the world for body’s basic needs only, has this approach to neutralise the impact of prarabhdha in the mind.  Normally Nitidyasanam, Vedantic meditation, is practiced for removing viparitha bhavana, wrong notions and misconceptions regarding self in the mind.  But In this second method it is also used as a source of happiness, Nitidyasana sukham.  In Nitidyasanam one meditates on the teaching of Vedanta that focusses on Jiva Brahma Ikyam to internalise the teaching that one is not a samsari jiva subject to limitations but the infinite Brahman which is Sat,Chit, Aananda. This new understanding of one’s own Self is portrayed in Kaivalya Upanishad(1-1-14) as follows;

Puratraye kridati yasca jivaḥ tatasthu jatam sakalam vicitram I

Aadharamanandamakhandabodham, yasmin layam yati puratrayam ca II 14 II

All this diversity is born out of jiva alone which sports in the three worlds of experience (waking, dream and deep sleep).  Moreover, these three worlds resolve into the jiva which is indivisible consciousness and aananda, the substratum (of all).

When this Jivanmuktha Jnani contemplates on his Aananda swarupa in Nitidyasanam, his mind is filled with experiential happiness, which is far, far superior to vishayananda, that comes from contact with anathma.  The Prathibimba Aananda he enjoys is from contact with Bimba Aananda itself as he is, as described in Gita (2-55), “Aatmanyevaatmanaa tushtah” (happy in the Self by the Self).  From this happy state no worldly problem or sorrow can shake him or move him to grief as pointed out in Gita (6-22), “Yasmin sthito na duhkhena gurunaapi vichaalyate” (wherein established, he is not moved even by heavy sorrow).  This Nithidyasana sukham, the Jnani uses to dilute the impact of prarabhda.  Rather he feels thankful to prarabhda for this life as a Jeevanmuktha Jnani that he is enjoying, with the reflection as described in the Kaivalya Upanishad (1-1-19):

Mayyeva sakalaṁ jataṁ, mayi sarvaṁ pratisthitam I

Mayi sarvaṁ layam yati, tad brahmadvayamasmyaham II

Everything is born in me alone; everything is based on me alone; everything resolves into me alone. I am that nondual Brahman.

This Nitidyasana sukham is also called by various other names such as Jivanmukthi sukham, Jnananda, Yogananda and Athmananda.

So while a Jivanmuktha Jnani serving the world staying in public life dilutes the impact of prarabhdha through mithyatva darsanam, the withdrawn Jivanmuktha Jnani dilutes it through Jivanmukthi sukham.  When prarabhdha is exhausted, the Jivanmuktha of either type attains Videhamukthi.  In Videhamukthi freed from the earthly existence in the body, a Jivanmuktha becomes one with Brahman, like the space in the pot becoming one with the open space, when the pot is broken. As the subtle body is also dissolved at that time, he is freed from the cycle of birth and death as well.

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