Vedantham : ( 07/11/2012. )

31/12/2017 10.The Stages of Samadhi-3. What are these three features that go to constitute the object of thought? The object as such is something by itself. It maintains an existence of its own. It has a status which it maintains, as every one of us may be said to have a status of our own. We are something, in spite of there being no relationship of ours with anything whatsoever. When we are bereft of connection with everything, deprived of every possession, and reduced to the condition of a practical nothing in terms of external relationship, we may still be something in ourselves. Minus all external relations, we do not become a nothing. It is impossible for us to conceive that we can be a nothing at any time, under any circumstances. When we are rid of every possession and there is nothing that we can call our own, and there is nothing with which we can establish any kind of contact or relation either externally or internally, we are reduced to a barest minimum of what w...

23/12/2017 Chapter 10: The Stages of Samadhi -2. 2.1 Intense awareness may look like no awareness at all. Hence, the absence of any kind of consciousness may look like a state of intense concentration of mind. 2.2 This is known as stabdha avastha, or the cessation of all activity of the mind. But cessation of activity need not necessarily be associated with a consciousness of that cessation of activity. 2.3 We are not conscious that we are not active in the state of sleep. We are not active in sleep, but we are not conscious that we are not active. 2.4 This is a very important demarcating point. The essential behind any worthwhile state of concentration of mind is the kind of awareness that is maintained. 2.5 Now we come to the point of the pre-eminent method prescribed by Patanjali, on which he does not expatiate too much, nor does he seem to enter into great detail about it, though this is the central point of his system of meditation. 2.6 Whatever be the objec...

16/12/2017 Chapter 10: The Stages of Samadhi -1. 1.1 In the specialised system of meditation, as we have it in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, there is a novel and very interesting method prescribed for every student, which may be said to go directly into the heart of the matter. What is it that we are meditating upon? What does the mind think when it meditates? It may appear, as it is sometimes felt by most people, that the mind is blank and thinks nothing in meditation; but it is not blank or literally a nothingness, because the emptiness or blankness which the mind may seem to maintain is also to become a conscious experience. 1.2 In meditation, one does not become unconscious; and if one is conscious that the mind is not thinking anything, one must be clear as to what one is actually saying when making such statements. What do we mean by saying that we are conscious of nothingness? It is a statement whose meaning cannot be very clear so easily. It is a state of awareness. ...

08/12/2017 Chapter 9: Yoga Meditation -19. 1. Here, we may employ an interesting suggestion made by a great thinker. When we are in an atmosphere which we consider as unavoidable and which we do not like, we may adopt this technique. That which we do not like and which is unavoidable is something which we would like to change, so that it may be in harmony with our way of living. If it is possible for us to change the condition in which it is pressing upon us, well and good; we can do that. We can change the whole world, and be happy with it. But if we find that we cannot change it or bring about any kind of circumstantial improvement in the condition which is pressing upon us for reasons well known to us, what is the other way? We have to change ourselves. Either that has to fit into our condition, or we have to fit into that condition. If neither I will budge nor you will budge, there will be war. It can be a war inside our mind, or it can be a war outside in the world; ei...

01/12/2017 Chapter 9: Yoga Meditation -18. Now, what are we going to do with that thing which we do not like but we cannot avoid? We know where we are. But we have to find a solution, because we have already said it is unavoidable. If it is unavoidable, the reason why we do not like it has to be explained. We have to go a little deep into this matter: “Why do I not like it, and why is it that I feel a kind of pressure when I have already decided that it is unavoidable? I am speaking in two languages – blowing hot and cold at the same time – when I say I don’t like it and yet it is unavoidable. So, I don’t know what I am speaking when I make statements of that kind.” We cannot be yogins or spiritual heroes or anything meaningful or worthwhile in life if this kind of question goes on harassing our mind day and night. We cannot have peace, let alone yoga meditation. We cannot have rest, we cannot have peace, we cannot lie on our bed for a little sleep, and we do not know on w...