SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS SWAMI YATISWARANANDA
CONTENTS PAGE
1. Overcoming Obstacles in Spiritual Life - 1
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2. Overcoming Obstacles in Spiritual Life – 2
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3. How to Become Spiritually Awakened
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4. Essentials of Meditative Life
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Overcoming Obstacles in Spiritual Life Part 1 Swami Yatiswarananda (1889 - 1966) was a disciple of Swami Brahmananda. He spent seven years teaching Vedanta in Europe, where he founded an ashram in Switzerland, though he lectured on Vedanta from Madrid to Warsaw. He left Europe as the Second World War forced a closure to the European Vedanta work. The swami then spent ten years teaching Vedanta in the United States, returning to India to head several Centers, eventually becoming Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. Swami Yatiswarananda was famed for his meditative life and spiritual attainment. His book, Meditation and Spiritual Life, a compilation of his class talks, is considered one of the finest compendiums on spiritual life. The article below was taken from the Jan-Feb 1959 Vedanta in the West. What Are the Obstacles? In spiritual life, we use the word “obstacles� with reference to both the inner and the outer world, to physical and subtle objects, and to conditions and situations which stand in the way of our spiritual progress.In general, there are obstacles of various kinds producing misery, or duhkha of various types. In the Sankhya Sutras, Kapila mentions duhkhas of three types: adhyatmika or that caused within ourselves -in the body by illness and unhealthy living, and the mind by evil desires, anger, greed, folly, pride, envy, etc.: adhibhautika or that caused by other living beings such as beasts, thieves, and evil-minded persons; and the adhidaivika or the misery brought about by natural phenomena such as extremes of temperature, floods and storms, earthquakes, pestilences, etc. These may act as hindrances to spiritual life. And we are affected by our troubles all the more when we are not well inwardly. We are all born with subtle impressions and tendencies brought from previous lives and we also acquire new ones in our present life. While good tendencies help,
evil ones obstruct our spiritual progress. There are different kinds of obstacles, and we come across them in the different stages of our spiritual life. Spiritual life is like a stream and should move towards the ocean of Sat-Chit-Ananda or Infinite Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, call it Godhead, Brahman, the Lord, Allah, or Tao, as you please. Sometimes the spiritual current does not move at all; sometimes it moves for a time and stops; sometimes it tends to move in wrong directions. The task in our spiritual life is to make this current move; move in the right direction and move steadily till the goal is reached. Obstacles are Inevitable but Can Be Overcome This is the ideal. But in actual life, there is no such thing as movement in a straight line. There are ups and downs, breaks or stops, in the movement. Obstacles continue to confront us till we have known God’s grace and attain the peace and blessedness that come from divine realization. Until then, however, we have to persist steadily in our spiritual practices; we have to continue the struggle however insurmountable the obstacles may seem for the time being. This is a matter of actual experience for many spiritual aspirants. A young man was once asked about this spiritual progress by Swami Brahmananda, his teacher. He said, “Not very well, Maharaj; my mind is restless. I have no taste for spiritual practices yet. There seems to be an obstacle inside me. I feel so unhappy. I must have been born with evil tendencies and these stands in the way of my spiritual progress.” To this the Swami replied: “My boy, you must not talk like that. Try to practice japa (chanting the Lord’s name) at dead of night; if that is not possible, do it during the early hours of the morning. Waste no more of your valuable time. Lose yourself in prayer and meditation; otherwise, how can the door to spiritual truth be opened? The aspirant should first learn about the spiritual path from some great soul and then follow it methodically. If the person proceeds haphazardly he or she cannot make much progress, and if the person gives up entirely, the effort to begin again will be twice as difficult. But no effort is wasted. Lust, greed, anger, all gradually leaves one who practices
spiritual disciplines.” When the young man said, “My mind is restless,” he was not speaking of ordinary restlessness and unhappiness. Having made some substantial progress in spiritual life, he found inner obstacles standing in the way and these were making further advance difficult. The question may be asked; how do I know the mind of the young man? I know it because the young man was none other than me. There is restlessness and restlessness - that of the worldly man hankering for the pleasures of the world; and of the spiritual seeker yearning for progress, wanting to move from a lower plan of consciousness to a higher one. Spiritual life is a twofold movement, one of which may be represented as vertical and the other as horizontal. We have to rise higher and higher and also expand more and more in our consciousness. Most of us may not care to rise to a higher plane. We fool ourselves by thinking that we are all right where we are. We are like Pluto’s men in the cave who took the shadows to be real and were quite satisfied with the life of darkness they lived. We are quite contented with our life in the cellar. But some of us want to come out into the light and rise to a higher plane with the help of the spiritual current, which may be likened to the elevator which takes people from one floor to another. The spiritual current, when properly roused, takes us from one centre of consciousness, or chakra, to another. Sometimes we want to get into the elevator but the door does not open; this is one of the obstacles. The door opens and we get into the box but the box does not move - this is another kind of obstacle. A third one is, we move up but the door does not open. The fourth is the door opens, we get out on the floor, move about for a time, but are not able to find our way back to the elevator when we want to rise higher. Something of this kind happened to me when I spoke to Swami Brahmananda of some obstacles standing in the way of my spiritual progress. But these obstacles can be overcome. We can undergo spiritual practices, unfold the inner eye, discover the “secret stairs” and move up higher and higher.
Co-existence of Obstacles and Helps Let us not, however, imagine that life is only full of obstacles. If we come across many obstacles and hindrances, we get also many helps and aids both within us and without. It is essential that we have a correct idea, a balanced estimate, of our conditions and environments. Never should we weaken ourselves by thinking too much of our shortcomings only. If we have evil tendencies, we also have good ones - even more of the good than the evil. If we have within us such enemies of spiritual life as egotism, sensuality, greed, and anger, we have also such friends as selflessness, self-control, charity, and compassion. A great help to our moral and spiritual life is the remembering of the supreme truth that we are the Atman. We are the souls eternally in touch with the Over soul, just as a wave is in constant touch with, and is supported by, the ocean, just as a ray of light is in touch with the infinite light. And we must beware of morbid theologians who think only in terms of sin, who always speak of humanity as a bundle of sin. There is a story of a new clergyman who started talking too much of sin. One of the congregation congratulated him, “We never knew what sin was until you came!” What a compliment! All our spiritual teachers tell us that there are two opposite types of ideas working in our lives, the good and the pleasant - sreyas and preyas. We find in the Katha Upanishad: “The good is one thing; the pleasant another. Both these; serving different needs, present themselves to humanity. It goes well with the person who, of the two, takes the good; but one who chooses the pleasant misses the end. Both the good and the pleasant come to humanity. The calm one examines them well and discriminates. The calm one prefers the good to the pleasant, but the fool chooses the pleasant out of greed and avarice.” Maya, the power that has projected this phenomenal world, itself has two aspects, vidya and avidya, which may be compared to the centripetal and centrifugal forces. Vidya is that current which leads us Godward; it manifests itself as discrimination, nonattachment, devotion, and love for God. Avidya leads
us to worldliness and expresses itself as the various passions - desire for wealth, worldly ambition, work with attachment, cruelty, etc. Avidya darkens the understanding and binds the soul. Vidya tends to help us towards Self-realization and freedom. Let us choose the path of good and become purer in body and mind. This purity is essential for our spiritual growth and brings us in touch with the cosmic spiritual forces which the devotee calls the grace of God. Conditions for Spiritual Unfoldment It is necessary for us to have a clear conception of spiritual unfoldment and its relation to cosmic existence and cosmic forces. Let us try to understand its secret through the illustration of a seed. If the seed is planted in the proper bed and is kept in touch with nature - with earth, water, heat, air, and space - it grows into a plant and finally develops into a mighty tree. The seed must be kept in close touch with nature and also in the proper condition internally, for only then can it profit by earth, water, etc. The microcosm develops properly when it is in tune with the macrocosm. This is true in spiritual life also. The individual must be in tune with the cosmos. If we look within ourselves, we find that our body is a part of the ocean of matter and that cosmic energy is flowing through it and sustaining it. Our individual mind is a part of the cosmic mind, and our individual soul is a part of the cosmic soul. In order to keep the body in good health, we must follow the physical laws. When the body is kept in good condition, it remains in touch with the cosmic forces, which again help the body to maintain good health. To keep the mind in good health, we must follow the moral laws which stand for harmony and purity. This keeps the mind in contact with the cosmic mind and so in good health. Similarly, our soul must also be in a fit condition, in a state of purity and harmony, so that it may remain in direct touch with the cosmic spiritual forces. It is then that the cosmic will or the divine grace flows through the soul and assures its progress. Proper food, moral practices, and spiritual exercises remove the obstacles in body, mind, and ego, keep us in tune with the cosmic will and fit to receive divine grace.
Divine grace comes to us at first in the form of spiritual yearning and striving. As we become purer and purer, we come more and more in direct contact with the cosmic spiritual current. In spiritual life, there must be tremendous effort, but is must not be of the egocentric type. All our practices must be carried out in a spirit of prayer, self-surrender, and dedication to the Divine. In our outlook, habits, and ways of thinking, there must be a revolution. Spiritual life, if properly lived, must lead us from the egocentric to the cosmocentric position. Relation between Divine Grace and Self-Effort What we term self-effort and divine grace supplements each other. We cannot have the one without the other. Without intense and unremitting striving on our part, we can never experience divine grace. Mere prayer without corresponding effort will not bear fruit. It will be just like the man who, finding his house on fire, started praying for rain instead of trying to put the fire out through means available then and there. The proper thing is to do all we can and also to pray. A little girl’s brother used to set a trap to catch birds. Thinking this was wrong and cruel, she became very sad and wept. After some time, the mother found her happy and cheerful and was curious to know how such a change had come about. “Mommy,” the girl explained, “First I prayed that my brother may be a better boy, then I prayed that no more birds may fall into the trap, and then.” She added triumphantly, “I went out and kicked the old trap to pieces.” So, prayer is to be combined with self-effort to break old unethical habits and form new good ones. Blinded by their own narrow ideas, theologians make too much of a mystery about divine grace, which they say can be attained only by following their own pet doctrines and dogmas. But the enlightened ones speak in a different language. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” says Christ in the greatest beatitude uttered by him. This is also the ancient teaching of the sages of India: “The resplendent and pure Self, whom pure and sinless souls, free from evil or impurities, have realized as residing in the body, can be
attained by truthfulness, concentration, true knowledge, and perfect chastity.” The Supreme Reality, or God, is like the sun. It reflects itself on the pure mind. With the help of an illuminating conversation between a devotee and Sri Sarada Devi - the spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna, also known as the Holy Mother-we can clearly understand the connection between spiritual practice and divine grace. Devotee: “Mother, how does one realize God? Worship, japa, meditation - do these help one?” Mother: “None of these can help.” Devotee: “Then how does one attain to the wisdom of God?” Mother: “It is only through his grace. But one must practice meditation and japa. That removes the impurities of the mind. One must practice spiritual disciplines such as worship, and so forth. As one gets the fragrance of a flower by handling it, as one gets the fragrance of sandalwood by rubbing it against a stone, in the same way one gets spiritual awakening by constantly thinking of God. But you can realize him right now if you become free from desire.” The mind has become soiled by worldliness. Spiritual practices remove the impurities, and then just as the clear mirror reflects the shining sun in all its glory, the Divine Spirit is revealed clearly in the purified mind in a spontaneous way. Here, one point must be plainly understood. The purity attained through spiritual disciplines may be of a very high order, but it is not perfect. The spiritual seeker is established in perfect purity only after divine realization, when objects of temptation become unreal, and the Supreme Spirit remains the only reality. That is why Sri Krishna declares in the Bhagavad-Gita: “Sense objects recede from the abstinent person, but the taste for them lingers still; with the realization of the Supreme Spirit, even the taste disappears.” It is necessary for us to understand the relation of spiritual practice to divine grace and the important part they play in our lives in removing our inner obstacles. Then only can we feel enthusiastic about the disciplines, which we ordinarily undergo in a haphazard way.
Once, a disciple asked the Holy Mother about the utility of spiritual practice. She replied: “Through these spiritual disciplines, the ties of past karma are cut asunder. By these disciplines the turbulence of the senseorgans is subdued.” Devotee: “Can action ever cancel action?” Mother: “Why not? If you do a good action, that will counteract your past evil action. Past sins can be counteracted by meditation, japa, and spiritual thought." It is a matter of experience that to the extent we succeed in making our mind pure through moral and spiritual struggle, we feel the flow of divine grace. Swami Brahmananda used to tell us: “To obtain God’s grace is the most important aid in spiritual life. The breeze of his grace is always blowing. Just unfurl your sail.” This means that we should keep ourselves open to the divine grace - the cosmic spiritual current - by attaining purity through the performance of regular spiritual practice. Spiritual Life - The Preparation for Receiving Divine Grace All our spiritual teachers declare unanimously that the soul in its essential nature is pure spirit. Owing to ignorance, the spirit forgets itself and becomes identified with the ego, with the mind and the senses, with attachment and aversion, with the sense objects, with the body and its functions - all products of ignorance. The Atman puts on the masks of the causal body, the subtle body, and the gross body. It is the masks that become impure, not the Atman. The ego, the mind, and the body may be defiled but the spirit ever remains pure, enlightened, and free. An illustration of Sri Ramakrishna helps us to understand this better. The body is like a vessel; the mind is like the water in it. Brahman is like the sun that is reflected in the water. The water may be impure and disturbed, but the light of the sun ever remains shining and pure. The Katha Upanishad declares: “As the sun, which forms the eye of the universe, is never defiled by the external impurities seen by the eyes, so the one Self that resides in all beings is never touched by the evils of the world.” No impurity can affect our primary nature, which ever remains
pure. It is our second nature that becomes impure, and it can and should be purified. Spiritual life is the cleansing of this second nature of ours, the cleansing of the masks - the coverings of the ego, the mind, and the body. So, there is certainly hope for every one of us. It is rightly said that even as every saint has a past, so has every sinner a future. In the BhagavadGita, Sri Krishna gives this categorical assurance: “Even the most sinful amongst people, if that person worships me, the Supreme Spirit, with unswerving devotion, must be regarded as virtuous, for that person has resolved rightly. Soon the person becomes righteous and attains eternal peace. Proclaim it boldly that my devotee is never destroyed.” “Giving up all other duties, take refuge in me alone. I will free you from all sins; grieve not.” The Lord himself removes all obstacles for the devotee who has completely surrendered to him.
The Transforming Power of Divine Grace A glorious illustration of how a most sinful person can become righteous and attain the highest illumination and peace through the grace of the Supreme Spirit is seen in the life of Girish Chandra Ghosh, the famous actor-dramatist and a great disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. According to his own statement, there was no sin that Girish did not commit. At one time he considered religion a fraud. Later, however, a great change came over him and there grew a deep yearning for spiritual light and peace. It was then that he was drawn to Sri Ramakrishna. Gradually his mind became purified, though he had to go a long way. Once the following conversation took place: Girish: “Sir, please bless me.” Master: “Have faith in the Divine Mother, and you will attain everything.” Girish: “But I am a sinner.” Master: “The wretch who constantly harps on sin becomes a sinner.” Girish: “Sir, the very ground where I sit becomes unholy.” Master: “How can you say that? Suppose a light is brought into a room that had been
dark a thousand years, does it illumine the room little by little, or in a flash?” Girish: “I have no sincerity; please grant it to me.” Master: “All right, you have faith.” Young Narendra, who later became Swami Vivekananda, was very friendly with Girish and was warned by the Master not to associate with him too much: “Girish is like a cup in which garlic is kept. You may wash it a thousand times but can never get rid of the smell altogether.” Girish heard this and felt offended. He asked the Master if the “garlic smell” would go at all. The Master assured him, “All the smell disappears when a blazing fire is lighted; if you heat the cup in the fire you will get rid of the smell,” and he declared that people would be astounded at the marvellous change that would come over Girish. The garlic smell did disappear in due course, and he became wonderfully transformed. Directed by the Master, Girish followed the path of absolute selfsurrender to the divine will - a path very few can follow. He would not promise to undergo even the simplest spiritual discipline, and was very happy when Sri Ramakrishna asked him to give “the power of attorney” and promised to assume all responsibility for his spiritual life. Girish at that time thought that the path of self-surrender was the easiest but later on realized what a most exacting thing it was. He had to practice selfsurrender every moment! As a result of this, however, he felt continually the presence of the Lord, and became a man of God. The Lord had removed all his vices - his obstacles in the spiritual path - and filled his soul with his loving, divine presence. The last time some of us saw Girish, he told us: “As I move my hand, I feel that it is not I but the Lord who is moving it.” His eyes and face were radiant with the glow of his inner illumination and unbounded love for the Lord. This is one of the most sublime illustrations of transformation brought about the divine grace, which flows into the spiritual seeker as he strives to his utmost.
Overcoming Obstacles in Spiritual Life Part 2 Some Obstacles Peculiar to Our Own Times we are now living an age of slogans. One of the much-repeated slogans is that religion is the opiate of the people and is therefore to be avoided as poison. As a result of hearing this constantly, some of us, who are not prepared to use our God-given power of reasoning, come to believe in it and lose our faith even in the true religion, which in the words of Swami Vivekananda, is really “the manifestation of the divinity already in man.” There is religion and religion. There is the religion which binds the soul to narrow doctrines and dogmas, and there is again that which awakens our spiritual consciousness, makes us feel that we are all parts of the one Eternal Being, and urges us to love and serve one another in a spirit of worship. We must overcome this obstacle created by false slogans. There is a second obstacle. It is the cheap psychological slogan: “By advocating repression or suppression of our basic instincts, religion creates conflicts or complexes which are likely to make our mind and body ill; and therefore, religion is to be avoided as a dangerous pursuit.” Let us examine this statement in terms of psychology itself. Repression is the involuntary process by which unacceptable desires or impulses are excluded from consciousness, and thus being denied direct satisfaction are left to operate in the unconscious. Suppression on the other hand is the forcible exclusion of an idea or desire from consciousness. Driven into the unconscious, it starts doing its havoc there. In both cases these underground enemies tend to produce neurosis and may affect mental and physical health adversely. There is a dangerous class of psychologists who, for the purpose of relieving a patient from nervous tension, say: “Express your instincts freely.” They even advocate a reckless moral life, thereby suggesting a means which is not only unwholesome but also greatly harmful. In trying to avoid a certain “complex,” the patient comes to form a worse “complex”
and finally may be ruined in body and mind. This is recognized by many wise and eminent psychologists. One of them, Dr. J. A. Hadfield, declares in his book Psychology and Morals: “From the point of view of cure, the advice to ‘go and express your instincts’ is only one degree more foolish than the antiquated advice which used to be given to every neurotic girl, ‘All you need is to get married.’ In actual experience, I have never known a true neurosis cured by marriage, still less by sexual libertinism. But I have personally known many neuroses precipitated by marriage; indeed, I am sometimes tempted to think that half of my patients are neurotic because they are not married and the other half because they are!” The psychological term “complex” actually means an idea or group of ideas closely bound together by a strong emotional bond. When we feel something strongly, we are dealing with a complex. The three most important complexes which play a great part in adult life are the ego, sex, and herd complexes. These parent complexes produce others, and the opposing demands of these complexes create serious conflicts in our being. Complexes by themselves are not bad. They are bad when they take the form of selfishness, sensuality, greed, intolerance, etc., and become harmful to the individual and society; they are good when they express themselves as the self-sacrificing spirit of the parents, patriots, social workers, and promote the welfare of the individual as well as of society.
The Need for Perfect Sublimation The Hindu socio-religious scheme recognizes all normal desires for wealth, progeny, and social position, and at first tries to take most men and women along the path of worldly achievement. Here great stress is laid on the householder’s life, in which desires are sublimated through the fulfilment of duties to the family and to society, and are directed, to the Supreme Spirit through prayer, worship, and meditation. Some eminent Western psychologists stress the sublimation of the instincts through socialization. Thus, Edward A. Strecker and Kenneth E. Appel say: “In sublimation, energy that might be used exclusively in carrying out primitive impulses is directed wholly or in part into more socially useful
activities. Not only for the development and preservation of society but also for the individual himself.” Professor H. A. Overstreet declares: “Sublimation then is the lot of all of us. Nay, it should be our privilege. The object of all civilized life, married or unmarried must be to find its great sublimated interest.” Hindu spiritual teachers speak not only of socialization but also of spiritualization of our instincts, which they advocate as a step towards Self-realization or divine communion-the goal of spiritual life. It is significant that some leading Western psychologists are coming to realize more and more the value of religion. In the opinion of Strecker and Appel, “Education, morality, and religion are organized aids to forward sublimation,” and “A love which is not satisfied on the personal level may be fulfilled in the warmth of religious devotion or it may be requited in the practical devotion of social service.” Observes Dr. Jung, the great Swiss psychologist: “the idea of an all-powerful divine Being is present everywhere unconsciously if not consciously, because it is an archetype. I therefore consider it wiser to acknowledge the idea of God consciously”
We Are Our Own Greatest Obstacles The more we struggle and move along the spiritual path, the more do we discover that our greatest obstacles are ourselves. For our troubles, we must take the responsibility on ourselves instead of blaming others. There are biologists, psychologists, and other thinkers who attribute or trace some of our troubles to the environment, some to our ancestors, and some to the universal unconscious mind. With a view to avoiding our own responsibilities, sometime we too like to think along that line. How often do we justify ourselves by attributing all our obstacles and difficulties to outside agencies! But when we learn to analyze ourselves mercilessly, we discover that the troubles lie more with ourselves, and with ourselves. William Ernest Hocking, a great Western thinker, has remarked: “Of all animals, it is man in whom heredity counts for least and conscious building forces for most.” So why should we make too much of the family
tree or of physical ancestry? Through intelligent self-effort we can completely transform ourselves and achieve such a complete change which is not possible for any animal. We create many obstacles through our wrong thinking, wrong feeling, and wrong doing. We may hamper our spiritual progress through too much self-laudation or self-condemnation. By having the correct attitude and proper training we can get over these. Once a European gentleman came to see me. In the name of practicing mental stillness and samadhi he was inducing a kind of sleep. Thinking that he had reached the stage of Samadhi -which really is the ultimate goal of yoga -he said to me: “There must be a higher state than samadhi!� When, however, the truth was pointed out to him, he realized his mistake and got over his trouble. In the name of practicing meditation, an American was inducing a kind of dreamy state, in which his imagination would run riot with a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous, of pure and impure ideas, of images and emotions. And he was thinking that sitting for a long time in this morbid state was an achievement. He was advised to get up from his seat as soon as he felt drowsy, and to improve the quality of meditation. A lady used to condemn herself too much for emotions she had outgrown. She was advised to forget all that as a bad dream, to assert her spiritual nature, do the duties of life well, and devote a little time for prayer and meditation. She followed the instructions and a new chapter opened in her life. There is also the case of a painter who was very sceptical. Later he became convinced of the utility of spiritual practice. Following certain instructions, he became more and more spiritual in his outlook, and his painting also improved in quality. There have certainly been cases of failure, but there is no doubt that those who have been following the spiritual path sincerely are minimizing their obstacles, even getting glimpses of the spiritual idea and entering a new realm of light and peace.
Obstacles- Lower and Higher There are obstacles and obstacles. There are the obstacles we create and increase by yielding to our baser instincts like lust, anger, and jealousy, and the obstacles of a Ramakrishna trying to attain the highest state of transcendental consciousness. Then Ramakrishna was initiated by his guru into the disciplines of non-dual Vedanta, with the greatest of ease he reached the penultimate stage of that path, when he found himself confronted by an insurmountable obstacle in the form of the blissful Mother of the Universe! But even this he overcame by following the instruction of his guru, and became merged in the Absolute. Illumined souls do not drop from the skies. They are no doubt born with great potentialities, but these they unfold by overcoming obstacles through intense spiritual struggles followed under the direction of competent teachers. Sri Ramakrishna would sometimes remove the obstacles of his disciples. Young Rakhal -who later on became Swami Brahmananda -was meditating. His mind became dry and restless, and all his striving was of no avail. Greatly depressed, he wanted to go to his master. But Ramakrishna himself knew the troubles of his disciple and was going to him. They met halfway, and the Master placed his hand on his disciple’s head. Rakhal became free from distractions and his soul became filled with peace and joy. When we met Swami Brahmananda, he was himself a highly illumined teacher, possessing tremendous spiritual powers. We know of many instances when the Swami enabled a number of his disciples, including some of us, to overcome their obstacles in the course of our spiritual strivings, we sometimes come to a closed door, or feel that we are in the midst of a thick cloud and are not able to see our way. In such cases the Swami would urge us to intensify our spiritual practices, and these removed the immediate obstacles. Sometimes, when we blundered greatly, he even gave us severe scolding. We felt hurt, but became more and more introspective, continued our disciplines with increased intensity, and rising above the obstacles found our way again. There were occasions
when he gave us even glimpses of the higher Reality. By his blessed touch he could raise our mind to a higher plan of consciousness for the time being.
Constant Struggle- The Only Way to Overcome Obstacles Let not anyone think that our life was made very easy that way; it was just the contrary. Real struggle for mastering the experience started from that time, leading to greater struggle than ever before. The struggle is still going on, although it may not always be outwardly manifest. But through these struggles we are progressing. Most intense were the spiritual strivings Swami Brahmananda and his brother-disciples underwent after the passing of their master. Once Vijayakrishna Goswami asked the Swami why he was practicing such intense spiritual disciplines even after Sri Ramakrishna had given him all that was necessary. The Swami replied: “I am only trying to become established in the vision of God which I received through the grace of the Master.” Most of us do not, of course, get the opportunity of having an illumined teacher to guide us. There is no doubt that it is not safe to follow the spiritual path without a proper director. If, however, we are sincere, we may, in due course, get one-at least an advanced spiritual seeker, if not an enlightened soul. Such a guide will minimize the risks in the path and help us in our progress. But when no human guide is available, we have to depend on ourselves and do the best we can, constantly praying to the Supreme Spirit, who is really the ultimate Teacher, for light and guidance. But the breeze of divine grace, as the Master and his disciples used to say, is constantly blowing. We have only to unfurl the sail. Through systematic spiritual striving we should come in touch with the divine spiritual current and move towards the goal steadily. We must be up and doing. We must remember the words of Sri Krishna: “A person should uplift themselves by their own self; so, let them not weaken this self. For this self is the friend of oneself, and this self is the enemy of oneself.” Spiritual life is a constant struggle, an indispensable part of which is the
overcoming of moral obstacles. The illumined ones and the scriptures point out the way. Thus, the Buddha says: “When people speak evil of you, thus must ye train yourselves: ‘Our heart shall be unwavering. No evil word shall we send forth. But we will abide compassionate of others’ welfare, kindly of heart, without resentment.’ And that person who thus speaks, we will suffuse with thoughts accompanied by love; and so, abide.” Christ declares: “Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them who despitefully use you.” In the ancient Hindu scripture, the Mahabharata, we find: Anger must be conquered by forgiveness. And the wicked must be conquered by honesty. The miser must be conquered by liberality. And falsehood must be conquered by truth. There are obstacles caused by tamas and rajas. Under the influence of tamas, the mind becomes full of ignorance, dull, sluggish, and deluded. When dominated by rajas, the mind becomes restless, passionate, disharmonious, and unhappy. What we need is the predominance of sattva, which brings right knowledge, goodness, harmony, cheerfulness, and happiness to the mind. The obstacles of tamas and rajas are to be removed as much as possible with the help of sattva, which itself is finally to be transcended in order to attain Self-realization.
The Way Shown by Patanjali Patanjali, the great teacher of yoga, asks us to practice yama [abstention from evil doing] and niyama [the various observances] and to reach the state of nonattachment and harmony, in which the spirit transcends its limitations, its identifications with the non-Self, and manifests itself in its true, pure nature. He speaks of the many obstacles which confront the aspirant in the various stages of spiritual struggle, and suggests means by which they can be overcome: “The obstructions to yoga are killing, falsehood, etc., whether committed, caused, or approved.” “To obstruct thoughts which are inimical to yoga, contrary thoughts should be raised.” He explains: “The tendency to harm, to lie, to steal, to live an unchaste life, and to depend upon others too much, is to be overcome by the practice
of harmlessness and love, of truth, of non-stealing, of chastity, and selfhelp or non-dependence on others. Uncleanliness is to be overcome by clean habits of the body and mind, discontentment by contentment and cheerfulness, being given to too much comfort by asceticism, desultory reading by deep study and assimilation of ideas, and egocentricity by devotion to the Supreme Spirit.” This is the first step of purification termed by others sublimation or purgation -in the spiritual path. Only after this can one take up successfully the later steps of practice such as posture, breath-control, and withdrawal of the mind from distractions, concentration, meditation, and absorption. Patanjali gives a list of the various obstacles experienced at the different stages of yoga practice. These are: Disease or disturbances in the body, languor or the feeling of helplessness in the mind, vacillation or doubt, lethargy or making no effort toward the attainment of communion, sloth or inactivity of the body and mind due to tamas, absence of nonattachment or hankering of the mind for sense objects, mistaken notions or wrong ideas, nonattainment of the goal or not reaching the state of communion, and instability or inability of the mind to remain stable having gone very close to the state of communion. Through japa and meditation these obstacles are overcome and introspection is gained. Obstacles of various kinds may come even to advanced souls. The Vedanta Sara of Sadananda speaks of four obstacles to the nirvikalpa samadhi or the highest superconscious state: torpidity or sleep, distraction or the minds occupation with nonspiritual things, attachment due to lurking desires for pleasures, and enjoyment of the bliss of spiritual visions of lower states of consciousness. The remedy prescribed is: “When the mind is torpid, rouse it; when it is distracted, bring it back to consciousness; when it becomes attached be aware of it and detach it; do not linger on the bliss of dualistic visions; be unattached to all vrittis or mental waves through the exercise of extreme discrimination.” In the Bhagavad-Gita, Sri Krishna speaks of the yogi’s controlled mind as being similar to the flame of the lamp which is sheltered from the wind and does not flicker. This ideal is spoken of by
Patanjali also at the very beginning of his Yoga Aphorisms: “Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff from taking various forms. At that time the seer rests in his own unmodified, perfectly pure state.”
Japa and Meditation -The Best Means Patanjali does not ask us to overcome the obstacles one by one. They are to be got rid of by properly following just one instruction: “Repeat the Divine Name, as indicated by Om, and meditate on the Divine Spirit.” The commentator explains the aphorism thus: “After the repetition of Om, the spiritual seeker should have recourse to meditation; after meditation, the seeker should again take to repetition. Through the perfection of repetition and meditation, the Supreme Spirit becomes manifest. All the obstacles cease to exist by virtue of devotion to the Lord, and then follow for the aspirant the perception of his or her own real nature. The aspirant comes to realize that just as the Lord is Spirit pure, blissful, and free from troubles -so also is the spirit which functions through the mind.” Swami Brahmananda used to encourage us saying: “Plunge yourself deep into the practice of japa and meditation. Now the mind is gross and feeds on gross objects. But as japa and meditation are practiced, the mind becomes subtle and learns to grasp subtle truths. Practice, practice. See for yourself if there is really a God. The veils of maya will be removed one after another; a new vision will open. Then you will see what a wonderful treasure lies within you. You will unfold your own divinity and inherit eternal happiness.” So, let us repeat the Divine Name and meditate on Him. Let the body and mind vibrate with the cosmic spiritual rhythm. Let the cosmic current sweep away all the ills of the body and all the distractions of the mind. Let our meditation on the Great Illuminator the Guru seated in our hearts -dispel all darkness and reveal to us His divine nature and also our spiritual nature, which is eternal, ever pure, ever enlightened, ever free, and ever blissful.
How to Become Spiritually Awakened Sitting at the feet of the great disciples of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, the religion that we learnt taught us not to be egocentric, but to be dedicated to the service of the Lord in man. Some words of Swami Vivekananda come to my mind always. From America, he wrote, and these were also the last lines in his reply to the Madras address, `First let us ourselves be gods and then help others to be gods.' Swamiji put this idea before us in another form: each one of us should lead our life in such a way, that we attain to our spiritual realization, freed from all bonds. Not only that, we must also be able to promote the welfare of others. The ideal is, that in the innermost core of our being, we have to realise the God-head; again, we have to experience Him as manifest in all. Out of this realization of his have come into existence all the various forms of service of the Ramakrishna Movement: Medical Service, Educational Service, Preaching and Publication. The ideal is to serve the Divine in others. Just as we ourselves try to be free we should also try to help others to be free. I would like to read to you some passages from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. A Devotee: "Sir, is it necessary to have a Guru?" Master: "Yes, many need a Guru. But a man must have faith in the Guru's words. "One should constantly repeat the name of God. The name of God is highly effective in the Kaliyuga. The practice of Yoga is not possible in this age, for the life of man depends on food. Clap your hands while repeating God's name, and the birds of your sin will fly away. "One should always seek the company of holy men. The nearer you approach the Ganges, the cooler the breeze will feel. Again, the nearer you go to a fire, the hotter the air will feel.
"But one cannot achieve anything through laziness and procrastination. People who desire worldly enjoyment say about spiritual progress: `Well, it will all happen in time. We shall realise God sometime or other.' “It is said that, in the Kaliyuga, if a man can weep for God one day and one night, he sees Him. "Feel piqued at God and say to Him: `You have created me. Now you must reveal yourself to me.' Whether you live in the world or elsewhere, always fix your mind on God. "Go forward. The wood-cutter, following the instructions of the holy man, went forward and found in the forest sandalwood and mines of silver and gold; and going still farther, he found diamonds and other precious stones. "The ignorant are like people living in a house with clay walls. There is very little light inside, and they cannot see outside at all. But those who enter the world after attaining the knowledge of God are like people living in a house made of glass. For them inside and outside are light. They can see things outside as well as inside. "Nothing exists except the One. That One is the Supreme Brahman."
Why Do We Not Make Progress? As in our worldly affairs so also in the world of the Spirit there must be systematic practice. We all must be able to prepare ourselves, so that we may be in the proper mood to follow the spiritual path. Many of you might know this story: Sri Ramakrishna had a great disciple, Saint Durgacharan Nag - Naga Mahashaya as he used to be called. His father was very much attached to him, and again the old man used to do a lot of `Japa'. Once when he was told, `Your father is a great devotee', Naga Mahashaya replied, `What can he achieve? He is so much attached to me. An anchored boat does not move'. There is a story behind this saying. Some drunkards, one moonlit night, took it into their heads to go on a boat ride. They went to the Ghat, hired a boat, sat at the oars and started rowing. They rowed and rowed and rowed, the whole night. Early in the
morning, when the effect of the drink was gone, to their surprise they found they had not moved an inch. `What is the matter? What is the matter!' they asked. They had forgotten to raise the anchor. I hear constant complaints from people, `We are doing our spiritual practice, but we do not make any progress'. The reply is here. At the time of your spiritual practice, are you able, at least to some extent, to free your mind from worldly matters and give your purified mind to God? That is the point. We need training in all paths. Some of you might have read Swami Vivekananda's Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Raja Yoga. Whatever path one may follow, one needs discipline, proper training of the mind and creation of the proper mood. If the mind is trained and the mood is created, one can carry on one's spiritual practice with great success. Our trouble is: in worldly matters, we may follow some method, but in spiritual affairs we are like children. I have seen grown-up people and big officials talking like children. So, an inner personality is to be built up. Many of us are persons but have no personality. We are individuals, but have no individuality. Through moral practice, through fulfilment of duties, through regular worship, a spiritualized personality is to be built up. It is then that our spiritual practice becomes fruitful. Our prayers and meditation will prove to be a source of great blessing. I repeat, in all the paths, in all of the Yogas, disciplines are necessary. If I follow Karma Yoga, my mind must be comparatively calm. I must try to be detached from the things of the world and from the fruits of my Karma. I must try to dedicate the work to God. If I follow Bhakti Yoga, I must have a great yearning for God. It is a spiritual hunger that cannot be appeased by anything in the world. Through prayer, through Japa, through meditation and ultimately through Divine contact, the spiritual seeker appeases this spiritual hunger and finds Peace and Bliss in Divine realization. Many want to follow Jnana Yoga, but the mind is to be trained so that it can follow the path of extreme self-analysis - `I am not the body; I am not the mind; I am neither the ego nor the senses; I am the spirit.' Our teachers of Jnana Yoga say: one must have perfect dispassion
for enjoyment, dislike for any future life and power to discriminate between the real and the unreal. One must have mental discipline. One must have infinite faith (Sraddha) in the Supreme Spirit. One must be able to practice concentration.
When Concentration Becomes Beneficial Let us remember one point. Many people say, `Oh! I am not able to practice concentration'. Knowing the persons, that their mind is not pure enough, I say to them `It is good that you don't have concentration'. If an impure mind gets concentrated, it becomes like a bombshell. Aren't we concentrated when we are angry, when we are full of hatred and jealousy? That concentration is no good. It is actually dangerous. So an amount of spiritual discipline is necessary. In the path of Yoga, Patanjali speaks of Yama and Niyama. You have to practise these disciplines as much as you can. One cannot be established in the spiritual life all of a sudden. Ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, aparigraha (non-dependance on others' charity) are the first disciplines; Niyama - which consists chiefly of Saucha, purity of body and mind, Santosha, contentment - has to be developed. If one is always grumbling and complaining, can one with such a mind, ever do anything successfully either in this world or in the world of the spirit? No. We must adjust to the things in this world and try to improve ourselves. Tapas: There should be an amount of austerity in life. Without rigour in spiritual practices, each generation is becoming softer than the previous one. Nothing can be achieved by these soft people. Swadhyaya: We study books. Does anything enter our mind! We hear a lecture and say it was wonderful; and when asked `What did you hear?' we would not be able to repeat anything. The words enter through one ear and pass out through the other. They are not retained. Swadhyaya means to reflect on what you study. Make it a part of your own. `Srotavyah': First you hear or read, then you have to reflect on what you have heard or read, i.e. `Mantavyah'. That is the way. When we are established in the
moral path, to some extent, then we will surely get the benefit of spiritual disciplines. Asana: You may sit like a statue for many hours; what do you get? Pretty nothing. At least there should be spiritual aspiration; then you’re sitting posture helps you in your spiritual practice. Pranayama: In the practice of Pranayama you stop your breath. What do you gain? If it is merely a physical phenomenon, a football bladder then must be a great Yogi. What do you get by it? Nothing by itself. But when the mind is greatly disciplined, when the mind is in a spiritual mood, Pranayama helps one to rise to a higher plane of consciousness. Praytyahara is detachment. From everything the mind is to be detached. When you are attending to some work you banish all other thoughts and give your mind to that particular object. If you fail to practise detachment you invite worries. When you go to sleep, and think of too many things, you don't get sleep, you suffer from insomnia and fall ill. The mind is to be detached from all things at will. Similarly, if you wish to meditate, what should you do? Detach your mind, as much as you can, from the things of the world; even from the pictures, the thoughts and the feelings that arise within you. But detachment should not create a vacuum in your mind. A vacant mind will fall asleep. Be wide awake. Take the name of the Lord and meditate on Him. Then there would not be any fear of falling asleep. Instead the mind will rise to a higher plane. Dharana: Fix your mind on some divine theme and that is Dharana. Dhyana: Fix the mind on a holy word or on a holy blissful form - that is a step to attain to what is called Dhyana or Contemplation. You remain absorbed in Divine Consciousness and that leads to the higher state, the superconscious state. But before we proceed we will ask ourselves a question and that is very vital. We identify ourselves with the body and think that we are men and women. We worship a certain Deity - Male or Female. We begin our spiritual life that way, and end also in that way; what do we gain? At
the very beginning of our spiritual life, it is essential on our part to be conscious that we are all souls. The Atman, the spiritual entity, has become bound by ego, bound by the mind, bound by the senses, bound by the body. This Atman is to be freed.
Worship of God What then is worship of God? What is the conception of God? In Europe a devotee said to me `Swami, never utter the word "God". It calls up our childhood image, viz., there is one beyond the clouds, in the Heaven, ever eager to punish those who break His laws. I cannot think of that.' I said, `All right, use the word Ishwara. I use the word Brahman.' If we wish to worship God we must feel our nearness to Him. In a way, He is the Creator, the Protector and the Destroyer. He takes things back to Himself, which we call destroying; but He is much more than that, He is the Soul of our souls, nearer than the nearest, dearer than the dearest. He comes to us as Father and Mother. He comes to us as the Guru and He comes to us also as Ista Devata - the deity chosen for worship. According to the dualistic Vedanta, and most of us should start as dualists, the soul and the oversoul - the Atman and Paramatman - are ever connected. They are ever in union; yet owing to the impurity of our mind, we become attached to the Lord's creation but not to Him. A great Western psychologist, seeing the ways of ordinary religious people, once remarked, `People do not want God. They want to use God!' They want to pray to God so that He may grant all their prayers and if He does not grant these prayers, some become sceptical and say "Oh, God does not exist, and even if He exists, He is deaf, He is blind, He does not respond". That kind of childish conception is no good. Again, you want only the good God, as if He has no other task but to grant you boons. You know, Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna worshipped the Supreme Spirit, first in the form of Kali, a representation of the Cosmic Process. Mother with one hand is creating; with another hand, she is protecting; with the third hand, She is destroying; and with the fourth hand She is
holding the decapitated head. This is the formal representation of what one of the Upanisadic seers said. The disciple asked the father `adhi hi bhagavo brahmeti', `Master, tell me about Brahman.' And the father replied: `Brahman is that out of which all things come into being, by which all things live and unto which all things go back.' In our Bhakti Sastras, we call it Ishwara, `God', and in Vedanta we call it Sat - ChitAnanda. He is Infinite Existence, He is Infinite Consciousness, He is Infinite Bliss. He dwells in our soul and is the Soul of our souls. Again, we all dwell in Him. We must feel it, at least His nearness. But even if we cannot feel it, we should try to develop the consciousness that He is nearer than the nearest, dearer than the dearest. What is it that obstructs this consciousness? Our desires stand in the way of this spiritual awareness. So, let us try to purify this mind. Here you come across a big problem. It is the impure mind that runs after the things of the world. The pure mind naturally reflects the glory of God, moves towards Him, meditates on Him, tries to feel His Divine Presence, Love and Bliss. How to purify the mind? First of all, you must avoid evil thoughts, evil feelings, evil actions, as much as you can. Entertain good thoughts, good feelings and perform good actions. That is the first step. We should always bear in mind that we are all souls, Atman. This Atman has put on a human personality, with a view to play a part in the Cosmic drama of life. Whatever be the part that is assigned to us, that part has to be played well; that means, we have to perform the duties of life and work in a spirit of detachment, as a form of service to God. But mere moral practice and the fulfilment of duties are not enough to purify the mind; we have to meditate on Him, pray to Him who is the Infinite Source of purity, of Knowledge, devotion, compassion, Love and Bliss. Here we come to the question: How to worship God, how to pray to Him? But the conception of God is too vast. I give an illustration: We are like small bubbles. The ocean is too big for our conception. So, what should we do? We find some mighty waves; let us move towards them, attach ourselves to them and in course of time we have an idea of the ocean
itself. Similarly, we start our spiritual journey with one such mountainlike wave, our Ista Devata, we just worship Him, pray to Him, and then we come to have a broader conception of life and a broader conception of Reality. The Ista Devata tells us `Look here. I may be a mighty wave; you may be a small bubble. But all of us have got the infinite ocean behind us'. When the proper time comes, He reveals to us the highest Truth.
Is A Guru Essential? Now, we read in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, a devotee asking, `Sir, is a spiritual teacher necessary?' Sri Ramakrishna replied that it is necessary for many. If there be some unique souls, born with divine consciousness, who feel the Divine presence even from their very childhood, they do not need a spiritual teacher, but all others do need. Once a devotee asked our teacher Swami Brahmananda and I have been telling many of you to read, if you have not done so, The Spiritual Teachings of Swami Brahmananda - `Maharaj, is a Guru necessary?' and the Swami smiled and said, `My boy, even if you want to be a thief, you need a teacher. How much more should there be the necessity of a teacher when you want to know the highest truth!' You know there are gangs of pickpockets; they have to pass through a tremendous discipline and training and then only one can be an expert pickpocket. In this connection, I wish to tell you a story: Girishchandra Ghosh, the actor and dramatist and a great devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, used to practice Homeopathy in his old age. Taking the name of the Master he would give medicine. He had naturally tremendous intuition to achieve success in his way of treatment. One day an elderly and very decent looking gentleman was sitting by his side, when a young man came and said, `Sir, I have lost my wrist watch on my way'. The other gentleman became inquisitive and asked, `When and where did you lose it?' He said, `Sir, I lost it at such and such an hour, at such and such a place', and the man said `You will get it back'. How could he give the assurance?
Because, the fine-looking gentleman was one of the leaders of the pickpockets, one of their Gurus. I give you another instance. You want to learn Astronomy; you take a book and try to understand it; you get precious nothing! But the Astronomer says something astounding. Every day you see the sun rising and setting and here comes a man who says the sun never rises; the sun never sets; it is all due to the movement of the earth. If we believe our sense perception fully, we do not pay any heed to him. But if we do not, we have to go to him, study under him, make experiments, and then we really convince ourselves what we have seen is an illusion and it is just the truth that the sun never moves, the earth moves. A spiritual teacher also comes and says something astounding. We are all conscious of our body. We think we are all men and women but the spiritual teacher says that we are the Spirit, distinct from the body and distinct from the mind and distinct from the ego. But if you think as many think, `He is a cheat', Lord bless you! But if you doubt sometimes, `Am I this mass of flesh, this mass of filth or is there something living in me, something living in everybody?' If you start thinking like that, your spiritual life begins. I go to a teacher who has been following the spiritual path all his life, has attained illumination, has come to possess a tremendous sympathy, love, compassion and kindness. I sit at his feet, learn from him something of spiritual disciplines and do my spiritual practices regularly. As my mind becomes purer and purer, I get something in the domain of the spirit and my Ista Devata becomes living. I feel within me a presence that permeates my being, a presence that permeates everybody. I will tell you a story. In the Upanisads we come across `Narada Sanatkumara Samvada', a discourse between Narada and Sanatkumara. Saints are not born perfect; they have to manifest their perfection. Through sadhana they unfold their potentiality. Saints and sages do not drop from the sky. Narada had his period of true studentship, studied all branches of learning, and studied the scriptures, sciences and arts. But having mastered the subjects, he found something
was lacking in him. He had studied many things but had not known himself. We all are quite content to read and know of the outer world but we forget to know even a bit of ourselves. It is most unscientific. A great Western physicist has said `That to which Truth matters must have a place in reality, whatever be the definition of reality'. Without some knowledge about the subject, education is incomplete. Our world is full of half-educated people, of those who don't know themselves, who don't know anything of the higher Reality, but pose to be teachers or saviors of the world. Such persons are about to destroy the world. Now, let us come back to the anecdote: `Narada felt "I am not an Atmavit".' He felt a deep pain. He says, `Soham bhagavo sochami - (I, who have not known the Reality in me, am in great sorrow). Please remove my sorrow. Take this sorrow away from me. Give me peace.' The Guru listened to him with infinite tenderness, took him step by step, helped him to have a finer and finer mind and ultimately revealed to him the Truth. `Yo vai bhuma tat sukham nalpe sukhamasti ` That alone which is infinite is bliss. There is no Bliss in the finite.' How to Purify Our Minds Our trouble is that our soul longs for infinite joy, infinite love, and infinite bliss. But we want, we try to find that in the finite and if we don't succeed we feel frustrated. The Guru said, `If you want real joy, unbounded joy, you have to reach the Infinite'. So, the question was: What is meant by the Infinite? It is that which is everywhere - above, below, to the right and to the left. But how to reach it? Here the great ancient teacher Sanat-Kumara gives us in a nutshell the whole course of spiritual discipline. "Food should be pure. When food is pure, our nature becomes pure, and when nature becomes pure, mind becomes pure, and when the mind becomes pure, we remember our spiritual nature. Gradually we are established in spiritual consciousness and that is emancipation. That is freedom when the Self-Consciousness (Divine) has
dawned, when we have realised the Infinite Spirit. Once that is done, one feels oneself one with the Infinite Spirit, and all bonds drop off. Let us now try to understand the meaning of ahara: ahara is what we take. Does it mean pure food? Pure Sattvic food? Pure vegetarian food? How far does it help? It helps a little; but unless you know how to purify the mind, nothing happens. There are plenty of wicked people who are vegetarians. What type of vegetarians are they? Lord bless them! You feed a poisonous snake with the purest of milk. It will manufacture poison, won't it? So, something of our poisonous nature is to be discarded. Therefore, Shankara observes: `All right! You take pure food, but that is for the nourishment of the body. But the food that you take through the eye, through the ear, through the senses and the mind, all that food also should be pure. Then, your nature becomes pure, the subtle body becomes pure, and then comes illumination.' Some of you might have seen the three Japanese monkeys; you know, one monkey is closing both the ears, another both the eyes and another the mouth. During my stay in Europe, in Switzerland, I came across a stone carving on the beach of the lake on which Geneva is situated. It was in a small town. There also there were the three monkeys, but with this difference, one had only one eye closed, another had only one ear closed and the third had half of the mouth closed. I was taken aback for a moment. I thought: `What is this?' Then came in a flash. I understood the meaning, `don’t see what is bad; see what is good. Don't hear what is bad; hear what is good. Don't say what is bad; say what is good.' First I thought it was an original idea. Then my mind turned to the Upanisads. There is a text, a peace chant: `Let us see what is "Bhadra" - good. Let us hear what is "Bhadra". Let us sing the glory of the Divine Spirit.' That is to be done. And, when you have done that, to some extent, the mind becomes pure. Make the best use of your vocal organ. You may make bad use of it saying some awful things. Don't do it. Take the name of the Lord - any Name that appeals to you. Meditate on any aspect that appeals to you with an amount of devotion. After some time, you will find, your mind is becoming pure. The Divine
Name, the Divine Form, uplifts you. Later on, you may even have a glimpse of your Ista Devata, a glimpse even of the universal Spirit.
What Is Japa And Where Is One to Meditate? The Infinite Spirit is there but we cannot reach it. We must follow a path that helps us to reach That, higher and higher, step by step. I want to reach the snow-capped mountains; can I jump and reach it all at once? No. Swami Brahmananda says in his Spiritual Teachings: `You want to reach the roof. Do you jump to the roof? No. If you do, you fall down and break your legs. Go step by step.' So Japa, as the Master has been saying, is one of the most efficient means. But Japa is not to be done like a parrot. As you repeat the Divine Name, do the Artha-Bhavana. What is ArthaBhavana? Dwelling on the meaning. First of all, let us think of the Luminous, Blissful Form of the Lord, i.e. the Ista Devata. Then think of Him as an embodiment of Infinite Purity, Knowledge, Devotion, Compassion, Love and Bliss. Then think He is no other than the Paramatman - the all-pervading Spirit dwelling in all beings. We are asked to meditate in the `Lotus of the Heart'. Where is this Heart? Is it the physiological heart? We cannot do anything there. It is the consciousness that is in the Heart, the consciousness that permeates my entire body and mind. It is the consciousness of the Atman, the consciousness of the Paramatman. We have to meditate in this Chidakasa. We have to think of ourselves as the devotee, and think of the Ista Devata as the manifestation of Paramatman. Swami Brahmananda used to tell us, "As you do your spiritual practices, you understand what is meant by the word `Heart'. First you may think of it as the `Mahakasa', external space; later, you may think of it as the cosmomental world." The real heart is in the Chidakasa, in the realm of pure consciousness. In that, the soul, the unit of consciousness, is eternally united with the Infinite Spirit. So you have to meditate on the Ista Devata in the inner world. It is good to have a picture. Gaze at the
picture; watch the picture. But it is much better to install your picture, the Holy form, in your inner world. Then you are not to depend on anything outside. Whenever you want, look within where you’re Ista Devata is seated, and pray to Him. Repeat His Divine Name; meditate on Him; first, it may be on His Form, then on His attributes, next on His infinite nature. That is how one is to progress. Let us go back again to the Yoga aphorism of Patanjali, already referred to, wherein he tells us how to do japa. Now if I repeat the Lord's name and meditate on Him, what will happen to me? The Teacher says, "Think of the meaning - the contents, the connotation of the word." What happens if we do that? Obstacles are removed and new spiritual consciousness awakens. Now with the help of Japa and simple Dhyana, obstacles are removed. Psychologists have explained this in a remarkable way. We are always manufacturing worries and anxieties, always manufacturing evil thoughts. These evil thoughts sicken our mind and sicken our body. The more we think of holy thoughts, the more we repeat the holy harmonious sound and the more we meditate on the blissful Form of the Lord, the more the mind is set in abundant harmony. Illnesses, self-created, selfmanufactured, drop off. Then harmony is established in the mind this harmony reflects itself on the body. So, to some extent physical health and mental health improve with the repetition of the Divine Name and we come to know the power of the Divine Name. With the power of meditating on the holy Form, a new spiritual consciousness that was lying hidden, that was potential, manifests itself. Then we discover that we are not just these personalities but we are all souls; and the Ista Devata is no other than the Paramatman, the source of all Peace, source of all Bliss, the source of all Love. Such is the power of the Divine Name.What is Dhyana? We talk of meditation. You say `I am meditating'. What are you meditating on? Going on brooding over something or other? That is not what is implied by the word Dhyana. Dhyana is: when as you think of the Lord, you become absorbed in the Divine thought. But this absorption would not come all of a sudden. The
Japa we do is a step towards that. Repeat the Divine Name, think of Him, and the mind becomes a little calm. Even the sound drops off. You can go on thinking of Him. Then, when God or the Ista Devata becomes more real than the things of the world, naturally the mind gets absorbed and you gradually get a taste of the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss. He may come to us in the form of the Ista Devata; as the Supreme Spirit, as Sat-Chit-Ananda, i.e. Infinite Consciousness, Infinite Love, Infinite Bliss. This is what happens if you undergo regular spiritual practice. In the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the Master has said, `You must have spiritual yearning'. Spiritual yearning is like hunger. When people ask me `Why should I meditate?' I say in return, `Why should you? Don't do it.' But if you had the yearning born in you, you would have come to know what spiritual hunger is. Then you could not but think of God, you could not but pray to Him, you could not but take his Divine Name and think of His glory. This hunger is to be awakened. This hunger is to be maintained. That becomes possible if you do your spiritual practice regularly. You feel the body with material food; you feed the mind through study, with thoughts. But you actually starve the soul in the midst of plenty. Do you not feel starved? The soul yearns for the Infinite Spirit; it yearns to realise the Divine Presence, Love and Bliss infinite, and we do not satisfy the yearning. But when that is done, a new life starts. The Master has also said that holy company is necessary, company of those who are following the spiritual path, who help in strengthening us in the spiritual path, who reflect something of the Divine Glory, which we also wish to realise. That is necessary.
Follow the Right Path: Begin from the Beginning Again the Master said, `One must follow the right path.' Suppose I am thrown in the wilderness. If I follow one path, what happens? I enter the wilderness more and more. If I follow another path, I come out of it. I am reminded of an American story. A motorist was driving at break-neck speed. He wanted to reach a certain place. He asked a schoolboy who had studied a little geography: `My son, if I go this way, shall I be able to
reach the place?' `Yes Sir,' said the boy, `You will reach it.' `How far is it this way?' asked the motorist. `Sir, you will have to go 25,000 miles,' replied the boy. `If I go the other way?' `Then only two miles was the answer. Do you follow the idea? By one path, you have to come around the world to reach the place. If you go the other way just two miles. Through proper mood, through proper attitude, if you follow the proper directions you reach the goal soon, progress is quickened. A tremendous change takes place within you. But don't try to quicken your steps too much. Go slow, but with determination, along the right path. Gradually you shall reach the highest truth. But, as I said in that illustration of climbing the snow-capped mountain, proceed step by step. So in our spiritual practice, first comes `Pratima Puja', i.e. worshipping the Lord in some aspect with the help of a form, a symbol, a picture, or an image. Next, the repetition of the Lord's Name, thinking of Him and singing of His glory. Later on, as I said, the mind gets a little absorbed; you feel the Divine presence. That is Dhyana, and Dhyana leads to the highest goal, the highest realization. In order to move, we should proceed step by step. So, the Master says, `Go forward, step by step; from the sandalwood, come to the silver mine, come to the gold mine and then come to the diamond mine'. Similarly, if we sincerely follow the spiritual path and begin from the beginning, we will reach the Truth. But, if we begin from the end, we reach nowhere. Some want to practise Advaita sadhana. I tell them, `I know nothing of Advaita sadhana: go to some other teacher.' But if you want to begin from the beginning, I can tell you something of it. So, first of all, begin with the form-aspect. I have body consciousness; I am an embodied being. I am a person amongst persons. How can I think of the Infinite Spirit? I can't. So, let me begin as Maruti said. Hanuman was asked by Sri Rama `How do you think of Me?' Hanuman said: `Lord, when I consider myself as a personality, as an embodied being, I think of myself as Your servant and You as my Master; and Lord, when I think, I am a soul distinct from the body and mind, I consider myself as a part and You as the whole. But at other
moments, my Lord, when I rise above all limitations I think You are myself and I am Thyself.' So, let us begin from the beginning. Sri Ramakrishna is very practical. He speaks to us of three types of ananda: vishayananda i.e. the ananda that comes to us through the contact of the senses with the sense objects; bhajanananda, the ananda that comes to us through bhajana, through Japa, through Dhyana; and then finally comes brahmananda as the result of the realisation of the Infinite Spirit. In spiritual life let us have as much bhajanananda as we can. It is within the reach of all of us. The ananda that comes to us through Japa, through Dhyana of the Blissful Form of the Lord - let us have that. And as we have it, let us try to share this Ananda with our fellow spiritual seekers. That is why, when devotees with such a spiritual outlook meet together, they repeat the Lord's Name, sing His glory. At least for the time being they forget the troubles of the world. The mind is transported to a higher plane, something of the ananda of the Supreme Being, something of the peace of the Supreme Spirit comes into our soul, but as I said, we should not stop with that. Our great teachers used to tell us always, `as you advance, you help others to advance.' One who is illumined can alone be the real teacher; but in order to be of service to others one need not be at the beginning fully illumined. Now, I may be a student of a senior class and when teachers are lacking I can take one of the lower classes, I can be of service to those who are in the lower class. Let us not wait for fullest illumination. At every stage, it is possible for us to be of service to our fellow beings. The highest ideal, as Swami Vivekananda has said, is this: First let us ourselves be gods and then help others to be gods. If we advance to some extent, we can help others also to advance. Here comes the ideal: `To work for our own illumination and spiritual emancipation and at the same time to render service to others.' As we improve, we also help others to improve. There is a wonderful prayer. We have it in the Universal Prayers: `Let the wicked become virtuous and the virtuous attain peace - tranquillity. Let the peaceful and tranquil attain illumination and freedom. Let the free help others to become free.' Let us
do it in our own humble way. As we do our spiritual practices, as we progress in our spiritual path, let us try to be of service to others. So, my own individual spiritual practice and service to others - these are the twofold ways which will help me to attain inner purity, which will help me to attain Divine Presence, Divine Love, Divine Bliss. There is the whole of this ideal before us, and let us proceed, each one in one's own way, towards this truth, step by step; let us be sure of every inch of the ground. And as we do our spiritual practice, let us not be egocentric. Let us offer all the fruits of our labour to the Supreme Spirit. Sri Ramakrishna has said, `If we move towards God one step, He comes towards us ten steps'. It is a fact to be realized in the world of Spirit. So, proceed. The Lord will protect you. The Lord will guide you. The Lord, the Supreme Spirit, will fill your heart with Divine Presence, Purity, Love and Bliss. Let us all offer our salutations to the Supreme Spirit, who dwells in the hearts of us all. He is the Supreme Principle of Existence, the Supreme Reality, the Supreme Light and the Supreme Self. Out of this infinite, allpervading Spirit we all have come into being; in that we rest and unto that we return. Let us for a few moments meditate on the Infinite Spirit. Let us do it each in his own way. Let us try to feel something of the Divine Presence, Divine Love, and Divine Bliss. May the All-pervading, All-Blissful Divine Spirit, the Soul of our souls protect us all. May He guide us all. May He nourish us all. May He bless us all. May the teachings that we learn become fruitful and forceful through His Grace. May peace and harmony dwell amongst us all. Om Shantih, Om Shantih, Om Shantih. Oh! Lord, all spiritual paths are like streams leading to Thee, the one ocean of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. Thou art our Mother. Thou art our Father. Thou art our Friend. Thou art our Comrade. Thou art our Knowledge. Thou art our Wealth. Thou are Oh Lord! Our all in all. From unreality lead us to Reality. From darkness lead us to Light. From death, lead us to Immortality and Bliss. Reach us
through and through - Oh Lord! May we find Thee in our heart of hearts; May we discover Thee in all our fellow beings. May we love Thee and serve Thee in all. May we thus realize the highest goal of human life.
Essentials of Meditative Life Prayers & Meditations Let us offer our salutations to the all-pervading, all-blissful divine Spirit who dwells in the hearts of us all. He is the Lord of the past, present and future. By realizing Him, one goes beyond fear and attains to peace. He is the supreme Principle of existence, the supreme Reality, the supreme Light and the supreme Self. Out of Him, the all-pervading, all-blissful divine Spirit, we all have come into being, in Him we live, to Him we return. OM Shantih, Shantih, Shantih. Let us for a few moments sit quiet, relaxing our body and mind. Let us offer our salutations to the Supreme, all-pervading Spirit. May He guide our understanding. Let us offer our salutations also to all the great teachers and saints of the world; teachers and saints whose teachings we all have inherited. May they inspire us with love for the Truth. The supreme Spirit is the Source of all purity. Let us breathe in vibrations of purity; let them destroy all our impurities; let us breathe out vibrations of purity. Let us breathe in vibrations of strength, let them destroy all our weaknesses; let us breathe out vibrations of strength. Let us breathe in vibrations of peace, let the vibrations destroy all our restlessness; let us breathe out vibrations of Peace. Let us send forth currents of Purity, Strength and Peace to all our fellow-beings-to the east, to the west, to the north, to the south. Let us be at peace with ourselves, at peace with the whole world. Let us now take up the position of the Witness or the Spectator and draw our mind from all distractions, from sounds and other troubles. Let us detach ourselves also from all the thoughts, pictures and feelings that rise within. Let us be wide awake. Our body is the divine temple. Let us focus our consciousness in the sanctuary of our heart and there feel that our soul is like a little sphere of light and this little sphere of light is part of the infinite Spirit shining everywhere. The infinite Being is immanent in the sun, moon, stars and
planets. The infinite Spirit shines in all beings. The Spirit is immanent in our eyes, ears, in all our senses. The divine Spirit shines in our mind. It shines in our heart. Let us all feel the contact. The monist meditates on the Supreme Spirit as Sat-CitAnanda-Infinite Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. The devotee worships the same being in various aspects as God the Father, God the Mother, God the Friend, God the Beloved. The infinite Spirit manifests itself as the great gods and goddesses. He again comes down on earth, as it were, in the form of the divine Incarnation for blessing mankind. We may select any theme we please, for our meditation, but as we meditate, let us all feel that both the worshipper and the worshipped are drowned in the one Sat-Cit-Ananda – Infinite Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. It is really the one infinite Being that manifests itself in one aspect as the devotee, in the other aspect as the Deity. Let us feel the divine contact in our heart of hearts, and may the divine Presence soothe our nerves, calm our minds, and quiet our hearts. May the divine Spirit guide our understanding and enlighten our consciousness. Let us for a few moments meditate on the all-pervading, All-blissful Spirit in any aspect we please, in any way we please. But let us by all means feel the divine contact. Post-meditation chant May the all-pervading, all-blissful Divine Spirit, the Soul of our souls. Protect us all. May He guide us all, may He nourish us all. May the teachings we learn become forceful and fruitful through His grace. May Peace and Harmony dwell amongst us all. OM Shantih, Shantih, Shantihi. O Lord, Thou art the All-Pervading, Divine Spirit, the goal of all spiritual paths. - Thou art our Mother. Thou art our Father. Thou art our Friend. Thou art our Companion. Thou art our knowledge. Thou art our wealth. Thou art our all-inall.
From the unreal lead, us to the Real. From darkness, lead us to Light. From death, lead us to Immortality. Reach us through and through our soul and evermore bless us all with Thy inspiring presence. May we find Thee in the heart of our hearts. May we find Thee in all our fellow-beings. May we love Thee and serve Thee in all. May the world be peaceful. May all be free from danger. May all realize what is good. May all be actuated by noble thoughts. May all be happy everywhere. Om, Shantih, Shantih, Shantih.
Essentials of Meditative Life The Path before us First of all, it is essential on our part to hold before us the spiritual ideal clearly. According to the ancient school of thought known as the Sankhya, there are only two types of entities - the Purusha or the soul which is of the nature of pure consciousness, and the Prakriti or Nature. Vedanta calls the soul of man, the Atman and says that all souls are parts of an infinite, all-pervading supreme Spirit called Paramatman or Brahman. Hence Self-realization in Vedanta means Godrealization. Those of us who believe in the existence of the Atman or the soul and the Paramatman, the Soul of our souls, aspire to have our union with Him, within us and in all beings. Realization of the all-pervading Divine is the goal of our spiritual life. When as students, we approached the great disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, they placed before us the ideal of Self-realization. But by Self-realization they did not mean anything exclusive. They told us clearly that the more you approach your higher Self, the more you experience the supreme Spirit and the more you feel He is manifest in all. And then what follows is, you feel like serving the Lord in all. But, before that, we must try to follow the spiritual path through
prayer and worship, get some clear conception of one’s own soul and the nature of the Deity who dwells in everyone. Now, since this is the ideal, the question arises: What path should we follow? And here too they placed before us the twofold ideal of salvation and service. Work and worship should go hand in hand. Work is to be performed in the spirit of serving the Lord who dwells in all beings. We perform activities of various kinds, but we do not know how to do it, how to perform our duties, how to engage ourselves in various activities for our spiritual benefit. Work has to be done at first in a spirit of duty. Duty must be performed under all circumstances and then, as we advance, we feel we have to offer all the fruits of our work to the supreme Spirit who is the presiding deity of all forms of activities. Then there comes a time when we ask; why should we work? The answer too then wells up within us: for pleasing the Lord. And there may yet come a time when we feel the divine presence permeating and interpenetrating us. Then we just become channels for the flow of divine power -the divine power that works for the good of mankind.
Be spiritually hungry Just as work is to be done in the proper spirit, so also worship is to be performed in the right manner. All of us have to perform work of some kind or other. Work is compulsory, but the trouble is, worship is optional! Most of us do not feel inclined to do any worship, or Japa [repetition of holy name] or meditation, and that is the pity of it. If we are hungry spiritually, we would like to take spiritual food. We feed our bodies; we should feed the body with good healthy food. We feed our minds through our studies-the ideas should be good. Similarly, we should feed the soul. How to do it? Through the practice of worship, Japa, meditation. There is a parable of Sri Ramakrishna: A child was going to bed and said, ‘Mummy, if I feel hungry, please wake me up,’ and the mother said, ‘I need not do that. Your hunger itself will wake you up.’ 1 There comes a time in the course of the evolution of the soul when we become spiritually hungry and wake up from our age-long slumber. But
then, mere waking up is not enough. We must be up and doing. I am reminded of a remarkable saying of the Holy Mother. She said, ‘The room may contain different kinds of food-stuff, but one must cook them. He who cooks earlier gets his meals earlier too.’ 2 Many of us are lazy, we do not want to cook at the proper time; may be, we want to cook but late in the evening; and some are so lazy that they would rather starve than cook their food! Naturally, they cannot get much out of spiritual life and they feel miserable.
What Brahmananda taught When we try to sit quietly and do some form of mental worship, some form of Japa or meditation, at first we come across many obstacles. This is only natural, as Swami Brahmananda used to tell us. Here let me do a little reading from the Eternal Companion, the book which contains the spiritual teachings of the Swami. He says: Practice Japa and meditation regularly. Do not miss even one day. The mind is like a spoiled child always restless. Try repeatedly to steady it, by fixing it on the Chosen Ideal, and at last you will become absorbed in Him. If you continue your practice for two or three years, you will begin to feel an unspeakable joy and the mind will become steady. In the beginning the practice of Japa and meditation seems dry. It is like taking bitter medicine. You must forcibly pour the thought of God into your mind, and then as you persist, you will be flooded with joy. What a terrible ordeal the student undergoes to pass his examination. To realize God is a far easier task! Call on Him sincerely with a tranquil heart. The disciple to whom he was speaking said, ‘At times I feel that with all my struggle I am making no progress. It all seems unreal. Despair takes hold of me.’ The Swami gave him hope: No, no. There is no cause for despair. The effect of meditation is inevitable. You are bound to get results if you practice Japa with devotion, or even without it, for devotion will follow. Continue your practice regularly for a little longer. You will find peace. One’s health also is improved if one meditates. Meditation in the primary stage is like
waging a war with the mind. With effort the restless mind has to be brought under control and placed at the feet of the Lord. But in the beginning, take care that you do not overtax your brain. Go slowly, and then gradually intensify your effort. Through regular practice, the mind will become steady and meditation will be easier. You will no longer feel any strain even while sitting for long hours in contemplation. Just as after a deep sleep a man feels refreshed in body and mind, so will you feel refreshed after meditation and there will follow an intense experience of happiness. The body and mind are closely related. When the body is disturbed, the mind also becomes disturbed. Therefore, particular care must be given to the diet in order to keep the body healthy Meditation is not such an easy matter. When you have eaten too much, the mind becomes restless. Also, unless you keep lust, anger, greed and such other passions under control, the mind will remain unsteady. How can you meditate with an unsteady mind? Unless you meditate, you cannot control the mind and unless the mind is controlled, you cannot meditate. But if you think, ‘First let me control the mind and then I shall meditate,’ you will never succeed. You must steady your mind and meditate at the same time. As you sit down to meditate, think of the cravings of the mind as mere dreams. See them as unreal. They can never attach themselves to the mind. Feel that you are pure. In this way purity will gradually fill your mind. If you wish to realize God, practice the spiritual disciplines with patience and perseverance, In due course you will be enlightened. When the Supreme Being is realized, the illumined soul attains peace and blessedness and shares this peace and blessedness with his fellow-beings. That is the ideal the Swami held before us, and he placed before us also the practice which we should follow with a view to realizing the ideal.
Early stages As I said, when you wish to sit quietly, many types of disturbances arise in the mind. Sometimes, when you are not sitting for meditation, you may feel an amount of calmness; but the moment you sit for meditation, your
mind becomes turbulent. Not only that. The body may start aching; our senses again may start running riot, and no end of wild thoughts start rising in the mind. And Japa and meditation become a great struggle, but this struggle has to be gone through. The mystics of all religions place before us the ideal of attaining a basic minimum of purity, first of all purity of the body, purity of the senses, purity of the mind, and also purity of the ego. The body may be suffering from some disease and so the different organs of the body may not coordinate or function properly. Our senses are all outgoing, eager to come in touch with sense objects. Our mind is swayed by past impressions, and then again, there is another type of conflict in our mind: our thinking goes one way, feeling goes another way, and will goes a third way, and besides that, our ego is perverse. The ego is like a bubble but the little bubble thinks of itself too much. It forgets the other bubbles; it forgets even the ocean, and wants to grow. What happens? The bubble bursts. And this actually happens with many human beings, now, let us not be terrified by all these troubles that appear before us. In the Bhagavad-Gita, we find Arjuna complaining to the Lord: ‘You speak of mental control, you speak of self-realization. But I find my mind is most turbulent: I cannot control it.’ The master recognized the difficulty of the student, and with great sympathy and love said: ‘Yes, what you say is right, but by following the proper means, through the practice of detachment and constant meditation, this turbulent mind - which appears to be uncontrollable- can be controlled. Eventually one comes into touch with the supreme Spirit, the Soul of our souls, and the Soul of the universe.
Don’t complain about environment Let us first of all note that we often complain too much about our environment. We really do not want to do anything except always complain about the environment. Suppose we change the environmentwell, the same complaint will be there. We do not find anywhere an ideal environment: such a thing does not exist. You make This plea: ‘Environment is not favourable, how can I practice meditation?’ Well,
right here you have to practice meditation. Do you not try to sleep in the midst of the most troublesome environment? Similarly, you have to try to practice meditation whatever be the nature of the environment. How? By withdrawing yourself from all outside disturbances, just as you do before you sleep; this can be done by practice. Then again, we have our physical troubles. May be the body is having some trouble. Many a time we hear complaints like: ‘Ah, Swamiji, when I sit for meditation I get a headache.’ Well, for some people meditation itself is a headache! Anyway, try to be healthy. That is why Bhagavan Sri Krishna says in the chapter on the Yoga of Meditation in the Gita: ‘Yoga is easy and destroys sorrow for a man who is regulated and moderate in his food, recreation, work, sleep and wakefulness.’ One should follow the middle path avoiding the extremes. This gives the spiritual seeker strength and vigour to follow the spiritual path.
Train the body first Some form of discipline is to be practiced so that our body may be trained to some extent. Then the senses are to be trained and also the mind. Not only that, the ego should also be trained. How do you train the body? Take care of your food: avoid overeating and select the food that agrees with you and conduces to the harmony of the body. Many people think eating food is the greatest exercise for the stomach! This is not enough. Apart from eating healthy food, you must also have some exercise of all the limbs, specially some exercise of the stomach, so that your digestion, assimilation, and evacuation can be as good as possible. These are the rules, primary rules, that are to be followed. Our ancient teachers said: ‘The first duty is to take care of the body which is the means for the pursuit of spiritual life.’ I see sometimes weaklings come and say ‘I want to forget my body.’ What bodies have they got? A mass of flesh and bones! Develop the body properly. You can never forget the body if it is not in a healthy condition.
Moral discipline The teacher of Yoga, Patañjali, is unwilling to give any instruction on asana or posture unless and until the spiritual seeker is to some extent established in what he calls Yama and Niyama. The spiritual seeker should practice nonviolence, should tell the truth, should not be greedy, should practice continence as much as possible, and should not depend on others helplessly. This is what he calls Yama. And even that is not enough. He says that one should practice an amount of purity, external and internal. One should try to be contented, adjusted to one’s own environment as much as possible. One should practice the three-fold discipline- of the body, of speech, and of the mind. Further, one should study the scriptures and assimilate the ideas. Even that is not enough; egocentric activity is no good. One must try to surrender oneself completely to the supreme Spirit, who, as the devotee later on discovers, is the Soul of his soul. All these come under Niyama. Swami Brahmananda used to tell us, ‘“I will conquer lust, I will conquer anger and greed”, if that is your approach, you can never conquer them; but if you can fix your mind on God, the passions will leave you of themselves,’ ‘You can never be fully established in morality unless you believe in God.’ By God he did not mean any extra-cosmic Being. In the beginning, we may think of God as a Being or Power who has brought this world into being, who sustains it, and who takes it back. As we progress, we find that the Power which we thought was outside is not only a Power, but also a Presence within, and advancing further the spiritual seeker sees, feels, the presence of the Divine in all.
Cultivate mental harmony Sometimes people come and say, ‘Swami, I want to forget everything including my mind.’ What sort of mind have they got? Swami Vivekananda used to have a pun on the word ‘mind’. In Bengali, we call it ‘mon’. Now, ‘mon’ also means ‘a maund’ i.e., 80 lbs. And so, the great Swami used to ask the youngsters who went to him: “Has your mind got the weight of 80 pounds or only a ‘chatak’ (two ounces)? What sort of
mind has you?� The mind is to be developed. Will is to be developed. Thoughts and feelings are to be developed. Then only the question of transcending the mind comes. It is a difficult task but if there is spiritual aspiration, all this becomes easy. Where there is a will, there is a way. When you want to pass an examination (especially in India where every young man, instead of struggling for knowledge, is over-anxious to get some appointment to maintain himself and his family), what an amount of trouble you take! That is because you have an ideal to strive for. In spiritual life, also if we keep the spiritual ideal living and bright before us, everything becomes easy. All the trouble that we take would be worth taking. Let us remind ourselves of the wonderful analogy we have in the Katha Upanishad. The Upanishad says that the body is like a chariot, senses are like horses, the mind is like the rein, intellect is like the charioteer, and the Atman is the master of the chariot. As the chariot moves, if some of the wheels come off and roll away, can it proceed? Horses have become restive, turbulent. In order to control the horses, you have to hold your reins tight. And the master of the chariot must ask the charioteer to be wide awake. But what usually hap- pens is: the master goes to sleep, the charioteer becomes drunk, the reins become slack, and then the horses start running wild; fortunately, there is no great disaster. So, before any disaster comes, let us be wide awake: let the master of the chariot be wide awake. Let him ask the charioteer to be alert and, with the help of the mind, control the senses, direct the senses along the right path. Then the chariot will move properly. But let us remember, none of us can suddenly attain perfection in spiritual disciplines. A certain minimum progress is necessary so that our body, mind and the senses are in a harmonious state. And the ego, the perverse ego, should be in a mood to come into touch with the cosmic will that lies behind our little will. When to some extent we have become established -remember, to some extent-in bringing about harmony first in the body, then in the mind and the senses, and when we have succeeded in awakening the spiritual aspiration - when we have done all this to some extent, then we may start
with asana (posture) which is the actual first step in the path of meditation.
Posture (Asana) Remember, it is only after the practice of Yama and Niyama to some extent that Patañjali, the teacher of Yoga, asks us to sit in a certain posture. What is the posture that we should choose? The definition is: ‘Posture is that which is firm and pleasant.’ Select that posture in which you can sit steadily and in which you feel at ease. Someone may ask: ‘May I lie down?’ Well, you may lie down, and practice it as an Asana, but you take an amount of risk: that posture is usually associated with sleep. By lying down and trying to practice meditation, you may not progress at all. You may have a little good nap and that may refresh you but will make you spiritually dull. ‘Worship is possible in a sitting posture’- that is what Vyasa says. Sitting posture is better, but take care that it is a relaxed posture in which you feel relaxed in body and also in mind. If you wish to practice Yogasanas as an exercise, you may do that some other time. But when you sit for meditation you should sit firm but relaxed in body and mind.
Pray for all After sitting, remember the Lord. He is our Ideal, He is the indwelling Spirit. He is inside and outside. You may chant a prayer. Be a little musical. Let your mind, your senses and the body vibrate with a little spiritual vibration. Then salute the Supreme Being. One great danger in spiritual life, when we follow a particular path, is that we are likely to be very fanatical. So, it is very good to salute not only the Supreme Spirit, but also the great Teachers and saints of your country and of all countries of the world. What happens then? The mind becomes broad. Another danger in spiritual life is to be extremely selfish. Many a time, I have found that at least in the beginning of spiritual life, spiritual seekers think too much of themselves. They forget the others. So, it is good to pray not only for one’s own welfare but also for the welfare of all. Just as you
aspire after peace, you want to attain purity, you want to attain illumination, so also pray for peace, purity and enlightenment for everybody, and ‘Let all people move towards the Supreme Being. Let all people become pure. Let all people become illumined.’ This kind of prayer has a broadening effect on our mind. You will be astonished to see how quickly this kind of prayer soothes your nerves and calms your mind. Besides expanding our consciousness to some extent, this kind of prayer and salutation greatly helps us in the practice of meditation.
Significance of breathing At this stage a little practice of rhythmic breathing is very helpful. Take a deep breath, and slowly breathe out. You need not hold the breath or close the nostrils. Just breathe in and breathe out in a steady, regulated way through both the nostrils. But give suggestions to the mind: ‘I am breathing in purity, strength and peace.’ The infinite Being is the source of all peace. As a matter of fact, in spiritual life, we cannot have enough of purity, enough of strength and peace; the more we get, the better. Fill yourselves with the divine purity, divine strength and divine peace. Breathe out purity. Send forth currents of purity to everybody. Have sympathy for all; be friendly towards all. You will be surprised to find how easy it will be for you to rise to higher planes of consciousness if you have succeeded in culturing this mood because when we are in this mood, it is easy to detach our senses from their objects.
Spiritualize desires The senses want to come into touch with the outer world. Control the senses; give the senses an inward turn as the Upanisadic seers did. Spiritualize the activities of the senses. As the Vedic prayer goes: ‘O Gods, may we hear with our ears what is auspicious. O Ye adorable ones, may we see with our eyes what is auspicious.’ Hear what is good; speak what is good; see what is good. Give a good direction to the senses. Let them be spiritualized. Next comes the mind which is always trying to run riot. How to calm the mind? All kinds of desires and passions create troubles to the mind. Cultivate the spiritual mood, a little of the mood of
expanded consciousness. Think that these distractions are illusory and dreamlike. Tell yourself: ‘Don’t be afraid of lust, anger, greed, infatuation, pride and malice. Don’t be afraid at all.’ Spiritualize them. Yearn to have the divine communion. Get angry with your anger; get angry with all that stands in your way - not with people. Crave the Supreme Being who is the greatest wealth, if you want to feel proud, feel proud thinking you are a child of God, and so on. Then what happens? All our desires are given a spiritual turn. They no longer trouble us; they may even be of help to us in spiritual life. There is a wrong conception prevailing among a section of people. Some shallow psychologists say to spiritual aspirants: ‘You are all suppressing or repressing your emotions.’ We do not do anything of that kind. We want to store up the energy of our senses and the mind. We want to direct this energy along the spiritual path. We want to sing the glory of the Lord. We want to visualize the form of the Supreme Being. We want to direct our senses inwardly so that there comes a time in the life of the spiritual seeker when he comes to develop new eyes for seeing the Invisible, new ears for hearing the divine Voice, or ‘the music of the spheres’ and enjoy the fun of all that is going on eternally. One is able to play with the divine Being; but all this is only on the way. We have to go further.
The temple of the Divine In the well-known Katha Upanisad analogy already referred to, the body is likened to a chariot. Another analogy is that the body is a temple of which the region of the heart is the sanctum sanctorum. This is a grand conception. In this temple, you find there is the devotee and also there is the Deity. You must be able to bring about the union of the two. But this temple is a very peculiar temple. Our little physical body is permeated and interpenetrated by our mental body or the subtle body. The subtle body again is interpenetrated and permeated by the Jivatman [individual soul], and the Jivatman is part of the Paramatman [supreme Soul]. And as we succeed in making the body, subtle body, the senses, and the mind harmonious, we become more and more conscious of the divine light that
shines within. So, we enter the sanctuary of the ‘heart’; find that the ‘heart’ is filled with the light of the Atman and this light is a part of the Paramatman.
How to meditate If you want to follow the formless meditation, merge your body, mind, the whole world and everything into God. Think: ‘I am a little sphere of light, and the Supreme Being is the infinite sphere of light, shining everywhere.’ But so long as we have body-consciousness and too much of the sense of personality, we cannot practice this type of meditation. So, now think that your soul is putting on a pure subtle body (i.e. mental body), and a pure physical body, and the Infinite Spirit takes the form of the Ishta Devata, the divine Ideal we worship. Now visualize: In the infinite divine Light, which is also infinite Love and infinite Bliss, we have the devotee and we have the Deity who is the embodiment of infinite Light, infinite Love and Bliss, Repeat some appropriate divine Name (Mantra) and meditate on Him. First of all, meditate on the blissful luminous divine form of the Ishta Devata. Then meditate on His infinite purity, His infinite love, His infinite compassion. Finally, meditate on His infinite consciousness in which He is, as it were, drowned. What happens? As one goes on repeating the divine Name and meditating on the divine Being, moving from one aspect to another, a remarkable change takes place. Through moral practice we succeed, as I said, in establishing an amount of harmony; but the harmony that is established by meditating on the Lord, is of a superior kind. When real harmony is established in our mind, in our soul, in a spontaneous way, we feel we are in touch with the cosmic harmony. Even our body is a part of the cosmic body, Virat-Purusha. Our mind is part of the cosmic Mind the Hiranyagarbha. Our soul is part of the cosmic Spirit- the Ishvara. Many who practice spiritual discipline and meditation attain to this state of consciousness. If we follow the way of Japa and meditation correctly, we are sure to be blessed with some form of divine vision, some form of divine experience. That increases our faith and makes our mind steady in
the path of meditation. Our mind wants to run away from the object of meditation. But through the practice of moral culture, we should succeed in minimizing these disturbances of the mind. And further, as we do our Japa and meditation we are giving the mind a certain theme. That is, the divine Name we repeat and the divine Form we visualize. All these serve to focus the mind and hold our attention within. We must think of Him with a little love in our heart. When there is some love and devotion in our heart for the Chosen Ideal, it becomes easy for us to follow the path of Japa and meditation. And what Japa and meditation do is this: they keep the mind engaged. They hold it within. The Name, the divine Form, and the idea, along with love for God keep the mind concentrated within. When our interest in the object of meditation becomes greater than our interest in outside things, the object of meditation becomes a reality more and more. The mind at least for a little while dwells on the supreme Spirit, dwells on the divine blissful Form, and dwells on the noble attributes. Then comes the time when one feels the divine Presence. In the lives of spiritual seekers, we find that at this stage many are blessed with the spiritual vision of the divine Form. The divine Being manifests Himself in some aspect or other; then He becomes the Guru.
The Guru is within Our teachers tell us that the Guru is within. We may take the help of an outside teacher at the beginning of our spiritual life, but as we advance, we find the real Guru is inside and we must place ourselves at the feet of the divine Guru within. He takes the disciple step by step from lower rungs of spiritual experience to higher and higher rungs. That is what happened to the saints, the saints we have met. If we know how to tune our minds properly we can ‘hear’ the experiences of saints, their songs, the outpouring of their hearts, the expression of their spiritual realizations, their instructions. These experiences actually take place. If we sincerely follow this spiritual path, after having fulfilled some of the conditions, we are sure to get some spiritual results.
Self-surrender to the Lord The results of meditation are sure to follow, but as we go on with our Japa and meditation, let us not look for the results too much. Results will come by themselves. By being overanxious about the results, we will be forgetting to do our spiritual practice properly, and here comes the most important question of self-surrender. Patañjali, the Yoga teacher, says, ‘By sacrificing all to lshvara comes Samadhi’. Surrender yourself completely; offer all the fruits of your labor, of your spiritual practice, to the Supreme Being. Learn to connect your little ‘will’ to the ‘divine will’, and then a miracle takes place. That Truth that Reality which shines within, which also shines outside in all beings, reveals Itself in all Its glory, and then there comes the communion between the soul and the Oversoul. Swami Vivekananda has given us a definition of religion; it is ‘the eternal relation between the eternal soul and the eternal God,’ But in order to realize this, we have to practice various disciplines with singleminded devotion.
Cultivate a definite attitude Here comes a very important question of finding out where you stand. Find out with what attitude you have to approach the Supreme Being. Very few of us are competent to approach the Supreme Being as the Soul of our souls. We are like children. We want to depend on the divine being, just as a child depends on the father or the mother. We need a friend, we need a life’s companion, and we need one who would love us, whom we can make the centre of our love, the centre of our emotion. Now the Lord is there; He is manifest in these countless divine Forms and relations. Take up anyone of them. In our study of the various sects of Hinduism we find that the devotee begins spiritual life with the worship of God as the Master, as the Father, as the Mother or even as the divine Child. There are devotees who would like to love the Lord as ChildKrishna, or Child-Rama. Other devotees would like to worship the Mother of the Universe, in Her different aspects as Durga, Kali, Uma, or Kumari. Through all these forms of worship or meditation the mind and
heart become pure. As has already been said, the purity that we attain through the practice of morals is not enough. We want a higher type of purity, the purity that enables the soul to detach itself not only from the body, the senses, and the mind, but also from the little ego -the last bondage that the soul has to overcome-and this is possible only in the higher type of worship or meditation we have described above.
One Self in all The union between the Atman and the Paramatman is to be brought about, and as the supreme Being, the supreme Teacher, reveals His glory, the devotee realizes that the God he has been worshipping is not only inside but is also manifest in all. And then begins a new life, a fuller life. As Bhagavan Sri Krishna says in the Gita: ‘With the heart concentrated by Yoga with the eye of evenness for all things, he beholds the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self.’ Now the devotee realizes that the Atman that is inside is also outside, and seeing the Lord manifest in all, he worships Him in everyone.
For one’s salvation and world’s welfare Now, here is a point to understand. Even long before we attain this higher spiritual experience, even when we are worshipping only the personal aspect of God, something of this higher universal attitude must be cultivated; If I approach God, looking upon Him as the Master, and myself as the servant, let me not at the same time, forget my fellow beings. We are all servants of the supreme Spirit. If we look upon God as our Father or Mother, and then let us look upon our fellow- beings as children of the same God. If we are bold enough to think of God as the Soul of our souls, then let us remember, we are all fellow-souls eternally connected with the supreme Spirit and, through our connection with the supreme Spirit, connected with one another. Then our life takes a new turn. The great ones who told us, ‘Work and worship should go hand in hand,’ told us also, ‘Hold this ideal before you: “For one’s own salvation and for the good of the world”.’ You have to strive for your own spiritual
illumination or spiritual freedom. At the same time, strive to promote the welfare of all. The illumined soul alone can see God in everyone and his service is spontaneous. But those of us who are still in ignorance must strongly imagine that we are all connected with one another through the divine Spirit and, as we try to promote our own welfare, let us also try to promote the welfare of all. Here, the instruction we received, ‘Work and worship should go hand in hand’, comes to have a new meaning. As we progress in meditation, as we try to grow inwardly, we should work not only for the members of our family but also for the welfare of others. What a beautiful order would have been in the world if this were practiced! If each of us thought of others as he would think of himself, we would surely get much more. Ordinarily in a selfish mood, we think, ‘Well, I am interested only in myself.’ But when the outlook broadens, we feel we are all parts of a greater Whole, and then we feel great kinship and nearness with everybody. And when everybody tries to apply the ideal of ‘work and worship’ in actual life with this outlook, our lives will become sweeter and fruitful, and spiritual awareness will be an accomplished fact. And as we do our spiritual practice and service let us not be egocentric. Let us offer all the fruits of our labour to the supreme Spirit. Sri Ramakrishna has said, ‘If we move towards God one step, He comes towards us ten steps.’ It is a fact to be realized in the world of Spirit. So, proceed. May the supreme Spirit ever protect and guide you, and fill your heart with His Divine Presence, Purity, Love and Bliss!