On Meditation- Hurdles and Bliss

Dhyan or Meditation otherwise is in trend but if you are willing to explore the depths, it is rather a mystical topic. This article is an attempt to facilitate every beginner to have their first dive, just willingness is required.

Why Meditation?

Every effort of humans is an attempt to find fulfilment, right now most of them are looking for tangible things or objects to satisfy themselves. You have a floor — you need a villa, your child has a toy; he needs a bigger one. Like this, there are many things that we do to find fulfilment in our life, but every time we get something we still need something better and the result is always a momentary pleasure that never lasts forever.

There is nothing wrong in this about humans, it is just that there is something within everyone that wants to grow, that wants to rise. It just expresses itself as a tendency to attain fulfilment from material things.

As your experience grows you realise that there is nothing in this world which can give you a sense of fulfilment that lasts forever. Even if you become a billionaire and you can get whatever you want, still there will always be a thirst for more, this is the nature of humans. So, the only way to satiate this thirst is to outgrow it. This is one aspect of Why Meditation?

Now, look at your physical body. Is this you?

At some point in life, we all have this realisation that ‘I am not this body’ then we look for answers as to who we are! But nothing much can be done with you if this realisation happens at a later stage of your life. The physical body that we have is just an accumulation of food that we have gathered over these many years, it started with just two cells. It will wear off one day.

Now, the question arises that if anyway we have to die then what is the need to realise our true nature; we can realise ourselves after death as well?

No, you can’t. After you leave this physical body, you will not have any discernment because you won’t be taking your brain with you, it is all by tendency then. It is not that you will sit somewhere as a disembodied being and start meditating. If you die in unawareness you have to come back again; the same cycle of birth and death will repeat.

The meditation as generally done by people is okay, but before really giving anyone a technique or a specific sadhana, many aspects need to be looked upon or else if just about anyone is exposed to the real thing, problems happen.

The Divine and Devil of a Human

All the aspects are in a way looking upon the pravati(nature/tendency) of the seeker, whether he is of a devil or divine nature. For anyone to be meditative, a certain balance is required to which we are referring as divine. Anything which is out of balance in the human system is devil, be it the mind or any other part, whether physical or simply energy.

So this way, if a devil mind is told meditation he may damage himself because the necessary foundation is not there.

The Foundation

Suppose you are given a 5-watt bulb and you have to illuminate a large hall, would you be able to do? No. You definitely need a bigger bulb. Similarly for you to illuminate, the internal capacities need to be improved first, i.e; the mind. Only when there is a certain openness in the mind will you be able to hold the energy that generates within.

The reason why so much literature on meditation, life, wisdom and other allied subjects is there is to create a certain awareness and openness so that people at least start looking in this direction and the nature of individuals can be made more flexible. Right now you see anyone, most people are in a certain state of rigidity, the rigidity which comes from the thought — ‘I have The Knowledge’. All the spiritual discourses are oriented towards breaking this one thing.

What are we actually trying to do?

Meditation is not some act that you do for a certain time in a day and then get up rather it is a state of being and when you really sit, you are just intensifying that state. Only when you are meditative, meditation can happen.

Someone may be interested in doing meditation but it never means that they will be able to do it. Interest can develop by some texts or listening to someone but the practice is a different thing altogether. It takes much more than just interest. I have seen people who out of their interest take initiation by someone and then they do nothing with themselves. It is a wastage of the energy of the person/master who initiated them, it takes something to initiate people into Kriya.

What it takes to be meditative

Have you ever noticed a child? His behaviour. He can never sit idle, he wants to constantly engage with something that stimulates him, just ON with something or the other. Like this, even for an elder to sit and meditate is a big deal at first. An elder may not require as much stimulation as a child but sitting idle remains still a big deal! This happens as long as you take meditation as some activity that you need to perform. So, to make a transition from ‘meditation as an act’ to meditativeness, Karmas come into play.

In the Yogic culture, there is a very elaborate science of Karma — what it is and how it functions. Any spiritual practice that you do is fundamentally aimed at breaking some of your karmas (memory imprints) so that you can become more receptive and meditativeness can seep into you. If a certain amount of karmic blockage is clear then it becomes no choice but to remain meditative.

Karma and its play…

The word Karma means Action. Don’t think it in terms of just Physical Action. Karma is on many levels, i.e; Body, Mind, Energy and even subtler level. The Physical body is just a means of taking the Karma to its fruition.

Now, let us bring some science and sense to it! We know that our brain is a storehouse of memory. Similarly, there is memory on many levels, not just the brain. From cellular to energy, everything in our body contains certain memory to act the way it is acting. Now, whatever we do throughout our life- every act, whether we are conscious about it or not, creates an imprint in our memory, i.e; it may not be in your conscious memory but it is still there. So, Karma means action but it is, in reality, the imprints of actions in our memory that creates Karma.

Suppose, you want to beat someone up and you start thinking about it. You may not yet have physically done anything to that person but the imprint has already been created in your mind. Karma has nothing to do with the physical actions, they are just means of fruition. Once, the imprint is there Karma is there, whether you perform that action or not, that’s up to you.

Based on this, there are three types of Karma:

1. Sanchitta Karma: Sanchitta means accumulated. This karma is an accumulation of all the imprints that you have gathered over many lifetimes. In the depths of our unconscious memory, these imprint lay dormant.
2. Prarabhda Karma: Prarabhda means that ‘which has begun’. Before birth, based on certain conditions (family, surroundings etc.) the soul chooses some quota from its Sanchitta Karma that it has to spend during this life, this Karma is known as Prarabhda, i.e; that part of Accumulated (Sanchitta) Karma which is now in play and will be spent during the tenure of this lifetime is called Prarabhda.

To put it simply, out of your memory imprint over many lifetimes, that part of imprint which has to be dissolved in this lifetime is your Prarabhda Karma.

3. Agami Karma: Agami means that ‘which will come’. This Karma is a consequence of the acts that you do today based on your tendencies according to Prarabhda.

Right now, in your living experience whatever you experience as pleasure or suffering is a part of Prarabhda Karma. So, the meditation or Sadhna that you ask for is aimed at breaking some memory imprints that are a barrier in your spiritual development. It is to spend the Prarabhda Karma in fast-forward which means suffering or pleasure will happen at greater than normal pace but at the same time, the Sadhna is intended to act as a support to enable you to get through all that.

Every human being, according to their Prarabhda has some innate desires which we refer to as Vasanas. These vasanas need to be cleared up to some extent otherwise the mind will always remain distracted. If you get a hold over your desires, you are on the right track.

In many ways, these vasanas are very much visible because people have no control over them. If one has a certain openness in their energy system, they can see what the other person is up to in terms of vasanas. Some people always want food, some chase money while many desire sex and many more such desires, this all is visible if you know how to see.

So this was all that it takes to be meditative. The key takeaway is to clear yourself from these blockages so that meditation can happen effortlessly. Take control over yourself.

What does it take to ask for a Sadhana or Practice?

See, there are two routes to it. One is that you get initiated by someone (initiation is a kind of energy imprint made on your system by someone who initiates you), even if initiation has happened it is entirely up to the meditator to take it further. The second route is about getting oriented by someone, however, this can take you only to a certain level but it will create openness in your system which in turn makes you a shiny receptacle of initiation that you may take later by someone.

It happened once that a young boy of 24 asked me for a practice to do, he was alright but I returned him with the names of four books that he has to read, this person in surprise asked;

“What is the need of these books”? Well if you ask someone to give you something you should never question their way, you follow it or not that is up to you.

In another case, a lady asked for a practice, so I told her to chant a particular word for two weeks, and it has been a year now that I am waiting for those two weeks to get over!

The reason why I told these two cases is when it comes to orientation, it has to start with something very fundamental, like the way children are made to draw random lines before teaching them to write! See, in the physical form of yoga(Hath Yog), you may not start with fundamentals if you want, the upper limit is you will break a leg or a hand, nothing more than this. But when it comes to dealing with the energy system(Dhyan or Kriya) it has to start with the fundamentals otherwise many unpleasant things can happen.

The Bliss

Now that you know what all it takes to be meditative, let me tell you a certain way to bring a certain openness and receptivity, I am not going to tell any Kriya, however, there is a consecrated chant which I prefer to tell anyone willing to begin. The chant is ‘Brahmananda Swaroopa’ by Isha Foundation, you can search for it on Youtube. It is a powerful chant which is appropriate for beginners and is revered by advanced seekers too. Even if you do not do any meditation, this chant alone can help. Listen to it with your eyes closed. This is especially good for those who are not yet initiated into any yogic practice. Do not think that I am promoting anyone here, but yes, the chant is a useful resource.

I will leave the Bliss part of this article for you to experience rather than writing everything down :)

Namaskar.

P.S: This article took efforts to be made the way it is now. If this article helped you or took you even a little closer to being ‘yourself’, spread it further.