Vedantham : ( 07/11/2012. )

13/04/2018 10.The Stages of Samadhi-14 The final point is that in the last onslaught of meditation, the presence of this principle of eternity is recognised in everything else, particularly in the object of meditation, not by the means of a thought thinking an object, or much less the sense conceiving it, but by the soul that contemplates. True meditation is a performance of the soul, and not merely a thought of the mind. We are not merely thinking something in meditation, we are ‘being’ something; and we know very well how different our ‘being’ is from the way in which we think. Our ‘being’ is what we call our soul, and we embrace that object as a soul in itself. As we have a status of our own, the object also has a status of its own. We called this status the soul of the thing. It is soul entering into soul. What do we mean by the soul? It is, to repeat once again, that very thing which we consider as something which cannot be regarded as involved in space and time. Anyone c...

31/03/2018 10.The Stages of Samadhi- 13. Now, Sage Patanjali tells us it is possible for us to enter into the essence of the object, as we have been able to enter into our own essence and come to the conclusion that there is something in us which is not so involved in space and time. This contemplation of any particular thing as something in itself, not involved in space and time, would be to attempt at a union with that object. What prevents us from coming in union with anything? It is the externality of the object. That which is outside is always outside – it cannot become something that is inside – and, as we have noted, the outsideness of a thing is the spatio-temporality of that thing, or the conditioned character of that thing in space. So, the freedom of the object from the thought of involvement in space and time is at once the grasping of the eternal principle that is in that object. And eternity is not temporality; it is not time, it is not space. But you may as...

15/03/2018 10.The Stages of Samadhi- 12. The Yoga Sutra, or any system of yoga, catches hold of this point. If there is something in us which knows the involvement of things in space and time, and therefore that something in us cannot itself be part and parcel of space and time, this can also be said to be the essence of every other object. If we can consider ourselves essentially as something not in space and time, anyone else also can think in the same way, and all objects in the world – even an atom, even a particle of sand – can be thought of in terms of something by itself, and capable of being known as not involved in space and time. This non-involved something which knows the involvements in space and time is the eternity that is speaking through temporality. The eternal something in us speaks in its own style that everything is temporally involved, and the knowledge of temporality cannot itself be a part of temporality. This eternity that is in someone is also...

06/03/2018 10.The Stages of Samadhi- 11. In philosophical circles, certain schools of thinking tell us again and again that a thing as such can never be known because all thinking is through space and time and by the conditions of thought; therefore, there is no such thing as knowing a thing as it is in itself. We may feel for the time being we are satisfied with this kind of statement of the philosopher, because we know very well what actually he means. We accept the fact that our minds are accustomed to think in a particular way only. There is a set, logical way of thinking, and we cannot jump out of this set mould of logical thought. So it is true that even when we are trying to think in a super-logical way, we are not actually freeing ourselves from the conditions in which the very thought is involved. But, that there is something called the thing as it is in itself, and it cannot be known under the circumstances of the placement of the mind in space and time, is a subtl...

26/02/2018 10.The Stages of Samadhi- 10. 10.1 We are told later on that this externality is nothing but the placement of a thing in space and time. Anything that is in space or in time is externally related, and it is impossible to free anything from this involvement in externality as long as it is thought to exist in space and time. So, a further step is taken by Patanjali’s instruction when he says that a stage has to come in our meditation when it must be possible for us to contemplate the object not necessarily as placed in space and time, but independent of space and time. This is not something that is to be attempted by the force of will, because any pressure exerted by the will on the nature of the object of contemplation will not permit the freedom of the object from the thought of involvement in space and time. We ourselves are in space and time. I think I am here, and I think you are there. This idea of my being here and your being there is the idea of something...

15/02/2018 10.The Stages of Samadhi-9. How do we do this? This is a great feat of the power of the will. A tremendous strength of will is necessary to free oneself from conditioning psychological factors when dealing with any particular person, thing, or even situation. A total dispassion of outlook may be called for. It has to be total, because there should not be any preconceived ulterior notion or motive in this attempt. It is not that I should know you as I want to know you, but I should know you as you would like to be known – also, as you would like to be known in the sense you really are, not in the sense you think you are. Hence, appearance is to be broken through in order that reality may be penetrated and contacted in meditation. These are the secrets of what is called initiation in yoga, and are not details which are explained in any textbook. We will not find it in the sutras of Patanjali or any book on Vedanta or yoga, because while it may appear that it is c...

05/02/2018 10.The Stages of Samadhi-8. 8.1 Patanjali says that if meditation is to be an attempt on the part of consciousness to know a thing as it is in itself, it has to be freed from the notion which one has about it, and also freed from the nomenclature with which it is characterised, or by means of which it is defined. I must know you independent of your name, and I must know you independent of the way in which I am able to think of you. This is not an easy thing, as we know very well. It is ordinarily impossible to dissociate a thing from its name. The idea of the name immediately jumps into the mind, and also the notion which one holds about that particular thing – it is of this nature, it is of this character, it is related to me in this particular manner, etc. – is also impossible to avoid. 8.2 How will we avoid it, if it is supposed to be an absolute necessity that knowledge of a thing as it is in itself is practicable and desirable? Everyone will accept that kn...