What is Knowledge : Ch-9-19.

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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; either way it is a war. If we do not want a war either psychologically or socially, we have to adopt one technique, either this way or that way. There cannot be two adverse positions totally irreconcilable with each other.

2.
On a careful investigation into the substance of the matter, we will find that the outward world which is pressing upon us does not require so much to be changed as the need we may feel to change our own self. Again, this dual position which we feel the need to maintain in regard to ourselves and that which is pressing upon us may be overcome and transcended if we take resort to that which is above both ourselves and that which is pressing upon us.

The pressure is coming from the object outside, and the pressure is felt by us as individuals. In the Bhagavadgita, towards the end of the third chapter, there is a great teaching which points out that clashes of any kind between the subjective consciousness and the object which is pressing upon it can be overcome only by resort to the Atman – yo buddheh paratastu saha.

And what is the Atman? It is that which is neither in us nor in the object, but is in us as well as in the object, so that it is pervading an area larger than that occupied by us as well as the object. The Atman is that which is wider than what we are, wider than what is pressing upon us, and therefore, it is a transcendent presence, though it is immanent in us as well as the object. This is why people say that God is both transcendent and immanent.

THE END.

NEXT :- Chapter 10: The Stages of Samadhi

Swami Krishnananda

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