Sunday, March 29, 2009

Meditation ( Contd)

My Motive

Naturally people look for a motive when somebody comes up with something generally useful. In our world, nothing is given for free. If it is it is not taken as such. People imagine that there are hidden strings attached to it.

Well I too have a motive. Not of making money or of starting a movement or a separate system. Honestly I am too lazy for all that. Even if I could do that I doubt my capability in running the thing for any length of time without making it into another such organization in the world. Every august body gets corrupted in the passage of time.

Even the greatest organization of the Buddha dwindled into tantrayana in the hands of his deluded disciples.

What if my followers (that is if I can gather any) convert this simple truth into something esoteric and totally reserved for the initiated? That would be the end of it and might deprive the world of this method forever.

Start a movement indeed! As if I don’t have enough things to worry about in life!
Then what is behind my seemingly innocent advices? Mind you they are not even ‘advices’ as such, they are just suggestions; you are not forced to accept them or practice them. They are put out so that everybody can access them and do something about their lives.

And don’t worry, they are innocent, the ‘seemingly’ is for those souls who wouldn’t believe the truth when they see it. We can’t blame them, they have been cheated, swindled, hood winked and taken for a ride by certain interesting elements in society to believe in any thing genuine without paying for it. For a price they have been allowed certain ‘luxuries’ and so naturally they have a high notion about money and what it can do.

I shall tell you why I do this, but I doubt whether it might satisfy you, nevertheless here it is:

I too have wandered in the wilderness of the soul seeking enlightenment. There could be others who have done more than me to find the meaning of life and reach truth. But I have done my stint at different alters. I must have recited billions of mantras, I have tried to awaken the sorry force called Kundalini (not a sorry force to real power mongers though) and had some success in it, I had tried my hand at vedanta, stripping myself of every trappings of individuality and finally arriving at the intellectual conviction that I am only pure consciousness and nothing else. I have practiced tantric sadhana and had even obtained the grace of my deveta. I had followed the Nada for some time and I had practiced intense Pranayama too for a short period of time. I am talking about years and years here.

None of this had brought any enlightenment to me. They brought in troubles. I was not at peace with myself and with the world.

Tell me what do we seek in life? Only the unintelligent would say that we seek power, money, position etc. You can’t have enough of them. The more you have them the more you feel troubled by them. Your interest shifts from your inner to the outer.
If you can’t achieve peace nothing matters. Peace is the only quality that you need and seek. You inherently know this to be true. But you think it can be achieved by something external to yourself. Before long you would realize that it is not so.

It is not that I have failed at any of the systems that I practiced. IT is that they have failed to lead me towards knowledge. If you achieve peace you have achieved liberation, this is the real knowledge and it can only be reached by the Sambavi Mudra. Don’t be deceived by the Indian name. I use it because it is convenient. It is the method that matters.

And it is universal.

If there were not enough unselfish souls to point out the way to me I would not have achieved it even with the practices that I told you about. Those practices do not lead you to liberation. This is the only true technique that there is and there can’t be any others as easy. It came to my mind because others kept it alive in the world. I am doing the same. I am trying to keep the knowledge alive. Those who are ‘too intelligent’ might not realize its true significance because it appears simple. And some brilliant souls who intuitively know of this truth would play it down and conceal it from public because it would be the death knell to their famous systems.

I have now explained my motive in putting it out to you. I am paying my debt to those kind souls who kept the truth alive. Even if it doesn’t reach anyone among the billions in the world today and even if it creates no impact in them that has seen it, that does not matter. In the very act of putting it out I have achieved my aim of making it tick. If it did not enter your mind, you will carry it in you and bequeath it to the next generation.

I am hopeful of it. Truth can’t be obliterated, not when there are so many seekers.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Mediataion ( Contd)

Meditation first and foremost is an internal activity. Whatever object you fix your mind on would have to dissolve into the underlying reality before you can claim that you have experienced reality. If you fix your mind on anything material like an image it is difficult to dissolve it in to what lies underneath.

Sri Ramakrishna found it be so when he was attempting to meditate as his guru Totapuri suggested. He would start meditating on the third eye and would start seeing his goddess Kali there at all times. She would not willingly go away. He needed to step over her to reach truth. His attempts to do it without destroying the image of goddess failed completely. He could only do so with a heart rending effort by cutting the goddess down to pieces with what he called the “ Sword of Jnana” . This could be an unnerving process for the ordinary devotee. It might make him or her mad.

Images become dear to us in the progress of our spiritual unfolding if we have taken their assistance. Devotees cling on to them afraid to let them go when they are no more needed. This is a hindrance. If you keep away from fixing your mind on anything material and start witnessing your inner world by meditating on the Ajna Chakra you would see every single image that you once cherished on the inside. They may not appear in the manner you expected them to appear.

I once had experienced the presence of Christ during meditation. Now the image of Christ embedded in my mind up to that point was that which you see in statues and pictures of Christ all over the world. It’s the image of a person of considerable physical and spiritual beauty, sleek and slender, with those great mystical eyes looking at you with love and compassion and tiredness and tenderness. But I found Christ to be somewhat different in physical appearance from that. I would not go into all that for fear of destroying the beautiful image that we have of him now.

In mediation you know what you see. The moment he appeared everything about him was evident to me. There could be no mistakes in such states.

My point is, you can experience Christ in the manner you chose if you are mediating on a picture or image of his or otherwise. As the concentration on your chosen image heightens you would start to see and feel him as he is pictured by you. You could even get the stigmata. Such meditation follows the tradition of Ashtanga yoga of Pathanjali, especially his methods of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. Your intense emotional and mental concentration creates Christ for you. The Tantrics say that such manifestations are the children of the practitioner. This is a true statement.

You can even attain Samyama (total identification with the object of meditation) on him and be one with him.

But you need to go beyond that to find truth. Truth is not divisible. It is not an image you mentally create for fixing your mind. It is your true nature. That can only be revealed to you by meditating on your own self. It is much better done without any restricting images in you mind. And as I told you before the only effective practice of doing it is through Bhrooh Dhyana. It is simple fast and easy. It never fails.

Think, do I have anything to gain by telling you an untruth? Or did I tell you of anything which you can’t do? Did I suggest to you something which would land you in trouble? And did I sell it for a price and act as a guru? (If I really wanted to, I would be a much better guru than the thousands of gurus that abound now in the world for I speak of a simple and unfailing method which would liberate even the devil. The devil? Yes even the devil. It takes some confidence to say so, don’t you think? If I can’t say so who can? This is the sort of confidence you gain by knowing the truth.)


Ask yourself these questions. If you find them easy to answer you are on the right path to liberation. I did not invent this technique. It is as available as the sunlight and air that is around you. But there are people, both in the west and in the east, who are not satisfied with the simple and easily obtainable liberation. Because of their delusions they need an intricate system to believe in. If some one is ready to teach you the method of Kundalini raising you run to them. Goose pimples rise on your skin when you hear about the chakras, their properties, and the way the force raises through them, the diagram’s, the Shaktipat, the rituals associated with it, the presence of energy within you, the powers that it grants you.

When the foolish practice finally breaks you down, you still remain elated that you have gone through such experiences and you are ‘more’ blessed than others. There are no blessings to come from without, you bless or damn yourself by your own actions. If you believe that you are one with the truth, you are.

(To be continued)

Meditation

I have stated that you can meditate on anything and everything in the world. The reason for this is that there are no divisions in the universe. The blazing sun that you see overhead as well as the smallest grain of sand which you find attached to yourself is connected and forms an inherent whole. To the modern mind this should be obvious. But what masks this apparent reality?

These divisions are in the mind.

That is why quelling of the mind is attempted by every people who have ever thought and acted on the subject of finding reality.

It’s the mind which decides that there are divisions. That there is you and me and the other person. In reality nothing is that far away as it seems to us. The mind being what it is would not easily let go of its fields of involvement. To make it do so you need to fix it on something. That could be anything in the universe, the sun, moon, stars, ocean, and even a speck of dust. I have found that if you meditate on anything intently it would take you to the final truth. There is nothing else other than the truth you see.

But then why am I insisting that we should place our mind at a certain place inside our body to meditate, namely on the trikut? Well for one thing, reality is as evident in your body as it is everywhere. There is nothing wrong in meditating inside as you can see. To a normal man, because of his chosen limitations his own body feels nearer to him than anything else. The seeker of truth need be sensible before everything. If you chose a place outside your body to meditate, which one would you chose? Perhaps you would choose the finest and best specimens that you can find around. It may be a beautiful place, an interesting object or a godly soul like Jesus Christ or Rama or Buddha.

There is nothing wrong in meditating on them. You can do it and realize the truth in that manner too. But the amount of work you need to do to achieve it and then finally destroy the image could be tremendous. How would you meditate on Jesus for example? Would you obtain a picture of him or would you construct an image of him in your mind. Who can say that these images conform to Jesus as he was when he was in body? Or would you like to meditate on an idea, something abstract? If you do, you would soon feel dispirited by the effort. The philosophers have been meditating on the finest of all percepts for ever so long. Have any one of them claimed to have found the truth?

If they have the world would have been a different place by now.

( to be continued)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Sambavi Mudra. The Do’s and Dont’s

I thought I had finished with Sambavi Mudra in that post of mine. It doesn’t seem to be so anyhow. So here is some more stuff about it! Is this really needed? But who knows, my firm belief was that every one was qualified to learn the Sambavi Mudra, but if some thinks otherwise, what can one do?

My post on it might not appear much, but I gave you the whole truth there. Refer to that post for technical details.

http://sambaviyoga.blogspot.com/2009/03/sambavi-mudra-explained.html

There simply is no other technique to rival it. I have tried all ( mantra, tantra, yantra, Kundalini, ashtanga yoga, vedanta you name it) and found this as the only true method. If somebody says there is anything else they are either ignorant or are trying to lead you astray, you would be well advised to keep away from them.

The procedure, as you may note, is the simplest of all. Just keep your mind at the place between your eyebrows. This can be done at any time at any place and in any kind of circumstances. Eat what you like and do what you normally do. But practice the mudra whenever you get the time. The hottest noon is as good as the coldest night.

The filthiest place is as good as the purest spot.

Keep at it, persist and everything will follow.

Of course a quite place all to yourself and the night time might be beneficial in the beginning. I would not advice the mornings, you might be in the alpha initially, but beta is knocking at the door persistently. Meditation is serious business. There is no one-second meditations. There are only split second realizations. You prepare yourself for it.

Yet not every one can chose places and times can they? If you can, meditate near water, that is, near a lake or pond, it seems to help some. I have only rarely done that though.

Really the only need is for being sensible about it. I used to sit on a card board piece or lie on a wide wooden plank while meditating to negate the ill effects of the cement floor on which I sat. If I did not do that I would have found it very hard to move my limbs after wards.

Some advise sitting on tiger skins (There are no regular tiger skins any more. Those that you see around are all fakes. You may have to go and hunt for one if you need it badly. Naturally you would spend the rest of your days meditating inside a prison cell from then onwards in most of the countries) .And some advise sitting on woolen blankets, or in open places, on hill tops and in the shade of the trees.

Woolen blankets may be good, but open places etc might not be. What if some poisonous thing starts meditating on you? Consuming sweet and nourishing food and avoiding spices and everything that tastes bitter, avoiding using oil on the head and not bathing in day time all seems prescribed for the yogis by some shrewd yoga practitioners. Follow them if you like. Even otherwise you would develop. You need not be told to avoid extremes in all cases do you?

All these are only external things. As long as you have not achieved the state of yoga you might take sensible care of your body. That is all there to it.

Even forget the eye positions. Be only aware of the point between the eyebrows.
The sensation of touch might assist you in this regard. Touch the point in between the eyes and close your eyes. You will feel a tickle at the spot and that would assist you in keeping your mind there. There is no need for intense concentration, just place your mind at the spot. That is all that is required. The truth is where the mind is placed the prana becomes still at that place.

After some practice you would begin to have experiences. They would lead you further on.

Want to know whether this was done by others?

Totapuri, the guru of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa picked up a broken glass piece from the ground and pressed it firmly on the forehead of his disciple just above the joint of the eyebrows and told him to meditate on that spot. (Now, don’t do that to yourself, you may cut yourself and bring up a scar on your forehead)

Dakshinamurthy (Shiva) is seen to sit in meditation all the time, turning his sight inwards.

I think I have quoted the following lines somewhere in one of my earlier posts. It’s a rough translation of a Sanskrit verse.

“Here is a sight under a banyan tree
The master looks young and the disciples wizened.
The master’s silence is the explanation
And the disciples seem bereft of doubt.”

You see the mouna (Silence) could be an explanation in itself too.

Buddha, when asked about meditation, once picked up a flower and held it aloft and sat looking at it for a while without saying a single thing. None understood it save Kasyapa in the audience. Buddha smiled at him and entrusted him to teach others what meditation is.

Why a flower? Well as I have mentioned before the mind can be placed on the internal as well as external objects. In fact you can meditate on anything. But The Trikut (third eye, Ajna chakra, and spot between the eye brows) is the most effective of them all. It leads to immediate liberation.

It is curious that some Zen masters consider even the long line of Buddha’s as their vassals! It is not mere ego on their part; they have even gone beyond the principle of Buddha. Gautama the Buddha was great, but self is greater still.

Watch how the Buddha is depicted in his statues. He is in the Sambavi mudra constantly.

I mean, that is all there to it.

Even a great master can do only that much, to show where and how to place the mind. The rest should be done by those who have seen it done.

It might be difficult for some to do it open eyed. If so shut the eyes and imagine that you are looking through the Ajna chakra. To some it may even appear that they can see with their eyes closed. That’s a bit of clairvoyance for you.

I will once again say this. There are no do’s and don’ts in this technique, namely the time of day or night, places, situations you are in , your food habits, purity of mind, astrological signs, state of health, belief systems, geological conditions, whether you are men , women, aborigine, civilized, young, old, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, communist, capitalist etc etc. If you intend to get all these solved before you start practicing yoga, you would never get around doing it.

Let me tell you all liberated souls everywhere have ever practiced this. If you want to, you can search for and locate it in your own belief system. It could prove a hard task anyway. Even in India it is obscured and put under a veil by the vested interests.

Why go to all that trouble while a totally secular method is available. Try it and find peace. Life is short, time is precious and we do not know what would happen in the very next moment.

So start practicing right away. All the changes that you require would come to you in the course of your practice.

Realization is really a change of focus in awareness. It is achievable at this very moment. Some latch on to the truth the minute it is spoken. To some others it might take a little bit of time.

It is said that Swetaketu was advised 9 times by his father and guru on the truth of “You are that” ( “Tat Tvam Asi”) before he realized it. Getting at the truth in that way is hard. It’s like walking on a razors edge- Pretty perilous. You have to rip away all the misconceptions one by one. It might even unsettle you. Even those that have done so have to practice Dhyana. Vyasa has so stated in his Brahma sutra.
So you see, learning is not enough, intellect is not enough, studying sruti’s and smriti’s (Recorded knowledge) is not enough. Even Vichara dhyana ( reflection) is not enough. You need to practice meditation.

If so then do it the easier manner.

That is why I suggested Bhrooh Dhyana (Meditation on the Third eye). It is the easiest way that exists and honestly it is the only way that exists as long as you inhabit the human body. It has no ill effects. I can promise you that it would make you a Yogi in no time. But please note this promise does not include ashta sidhis! (The celebrated eight or so powers of the yogi’s) though. To some they may come to some others they may not.

But those are material phenomena; they have to do with matter and this universe. You are looking to supersede that.

Let me tell you that you can supersede all.

Good luck to you. Find peace

Sunday, March 22, 2009

My experience with Kundalini

After reading a lot of silly things about the power called Kundalini on the net I began to think about my experience with the force. When I started on Yoga I was inexperienced enough to think that awakening this demonic force would be good for inner growth. Nothing could have been farther from truth than that. This force, or force’s to be exact, as there are innumerable such powers’ in your body and in the nature, is the residual energy contained in things. It is this force which gets released when we achieve fission inside an atom. It is much better left alone than explored for it floods you with a fake awareness of reality and draws you away from your real self.

My attempts to awaken this power were through pranayama. The actual practice I adopted was easy enough. While doing pranayama I mentally directed the flow of energy towards the base of my spine and visualized it rising through the sushumna to the bindu which is just a little over your head. (Giving a mental slap to the snake at the base would be helpful.) Some knowledge of the etheric, astral, and mental bodies can also be useful in your visualization. On the return journey I tried to spread the energy all through the body to avoid the force getting fixed at some nerve centers which are called chakras. This could have been an error too, arising out of the little knowledge that I then had on the subject. If it is fixed at some centers it could lead to awakening the properties related to that level of awareness to a morbid extent.

Well this was the practice that I used to do at that time. It is a little more detailed than given in the above description but as it is not relevant here we will skip those.

I had stumbled on the system in my youth and was not at all well informed on the subject then. Not that I am now, other than I have done some reading on it since and have had some personal experience on the subject.

My grandfather was a true Tantrik and was the last disciple of one of the great Tantrik’s of his time. Though I was an atheist at that time, I believed that we can’t dismiss any system of belief unless we have at least personally tried them out. I was out of collage and was yet unemployed. I had a lot of spare time and no girls to worry about, for that sort of things wouldn't do in a village in our land. I must have had enormous amount of libido and no regular outlet for it. I was always restless then. May be that is why I ventured into Yoga with the help of his brief notes on the subject and certain other books he had including Shad Chakra Nirupana, a wonderful little treatise on Chakra’s.

The only guru I had then was my mother, who was given Mantra Diksha (Mantra initiation) by her father and was otherwise quite innocent of all the practices of yoga and was absolutely incapable of giving me any guidance in the matter. She had initiated me into the mantra yoga in the manner she was taught by her father and from then onwards I considered him my Guru and went on with my personal mystic adventures till I found some one else.

I have to mention that as far as the serpent power is concerned Pranayama is not the only method to release the energy, but it could be the the most pedestrian and the easily understood of all practices. Any one can attempt it provided there is someone who has gone through the grind before to help them when it is needed. As I have explained before in my posts, pranayama alone releases energies which might cause harm if they are not utilized properly. If you couple it with this wicked force the harm could often be irreparable.

I did not have any immediate awakening of the force during this practice. Some authors like W.C. Leadbeater of the Theosophical Society have claimed to have awakened it within 40 days. I do not know if that is possible. He has stated that it was the result of intense practice with the assistance of a great master. Anyway I did not practice that hard and was even doubtful whether it would awaken at all. But I went on doing it day in and day out. This little visualization trick, while doing pranayama, soon became a habit only with me and I slowly began to drift towards other practices which interested me then. I would be doing this thing in morning and in evening and then would forget about it.

After a period of time I began to notice subtle changes inside myself. I became intensely conscious of what was going on around me. But it always had a weird aspect to it. I could sense the feelings of others, but unfortunately it always came from their bad side. It was as if none around me had a good thought in them. This began to trouble me a greatly. My level of concentration had become heightened and I would feel a shock if a minor noise was heard. Every sense was alert, touch, smell, taste, sight, sound all came to me in purely digital quality as we say now. I was compelled to adopt certain postures while lying down or sitting though I have never even cared for them in the first place. In fact I only learned the names and the nature of those while reading up on them subsequently.

While meditating I would become suddenly conscious that I am doing the Moolabandh and Uddiyan bandh and Jalandhara bandh unconsciously. The breath would suddenly cease or become very thin and I would be sitting in that posture sometimes for a long while without being conscious of it. All this, while I was only doing Vichara Dhyana which is in the Jnana Yoga tradition and quite distinct from the Hatha Yoga or Raja Yoga practices. In it you think of your inner self and try to raise your consciousness through thought discarding everything other than your awareness of yourself or the “I”. I had never thought much of the Hatha Yoga practices other than Pranayama and my interest was limited to mostly Nadi Shudhi pranayama. I was only extending Nadi Shudhi pranayama even while trying to raise Kundalini. Other and more vigorous sorts of Pranayama never interested me much.

As the feeling heightened I became deeply worried, for I could not stand the sight of my friends, family members and people in general. It was as if whenever they came into my presence they brought the whole of evil with them. I was never conscious of evil in that sense before. My intuition developed and with it my troubles increased, for I would start seeing something in my mind all of a sudden and that would happen in the immediate future, mostly bad. I had to wage an intense battle within me. All the demonic forces in the universe was rising up against me, I would feel bestial urges and desires and they would take hold of me completely, I would be completely buffeted with all sort of sensual promptings ceaselessly.

Yet there was no visible sign of the force awakening inside me. No one I knew then could have helped me in my predicament. I became a recluse, barely venturing out because all the damned badness inside the mind would be triggered the moment I set eyes on anything. As no one could be found to help I resorted to reciting my given mantra incessantly to keep out of the clutches of the vileness I found in myself. I would be reciting it even in my sleep. Would wake up like that and would continue like that all through the day. What a change from a true atheist!

Before venturing in to the practice of this stupid yoga I was just like any youth of that period. If not an extrovert I enjoyed company and going out. I was not a bad athlete and had represented my colleges in Cricket. I was fanatical about working out everyday. Enjoyed all kinds of board games, including cards, caroms, chess and had also some talent for writing.

I never missed a local festival in the neighborhood, took pleasure in reading and had some intellectual friends (me being the least learned among them) and we discussed Plato to Sartre, roshomon to seventh seal, Sophocles to Brecht, Karl Marx to Mahatma Gandhi. I could stand my drink and even had smoked pot occasionally (very spurious kind, none of us had any money to go for anything better. It rarely got us into a mood; we did it for the thrill of breaking rules rather than anything else)

I had even directed a drama at that time. As my father used to say, I must have been the Jack of all trades-their cessation and my withdrawal into myself was sudden and surprising for every one.

My habits were also beginning to change. I was never fond of vegetarian food. But I suddenly found myself more inclined towards lighter food stuff. In fact I could not use spices in my diet at all. I became thin and would eat less and less. I did not get much sleep at night, and while sleeping would be at the strangest of places in the world.

And then one day this happens.

I was lying on a wooden cot at night trying to fix my mind on the ajna chakra, I went into a stupor then, the next thing I knew was this unbelievable noise inside me. It was as if hundreds of oceans were roaring within me. My entire frame began to shake as a giant force seemed to be travelling upward through my spine. I could watch it ascending, ripping the centers within and rising further up. By then I had become certain that if it got fixed at some point at the navel (the swadhishtana for example, considering my base urges at that time) I would be a goner as far as the world is concerned.

I tried to fix it at the Ajna chakra for what I was worth. The commotion was tremendous. If I was a little braver I would have followed its course through to sahasrara, but I was more concerned about getting out of the state than doing anything with it then. I must have cried out to my grand father to help me, the force rose and wrung my chest and then went further up filling the whole of head with a terrible din. Then my sahasrara chakra seems to have opened up and it began to pour out, it lasted for some considerable time. I thought it would never stop. Then I went out completely. I would never know whether it returned or ebbed out of me fully.

When I became conscious again my mother was standing besides me and she seemed to be in some sort of trance. She would not answer any of my questions and soon went off to her room. The time was past midnight and usually she would be sound asleep by then.

I had aches all over my body for some days afterwards. I felt curiously relieved after the incident. Although I stopped the practice altogether after this, I still haven’t recovered fully from its impact.

That which happened to me might have been the release of a minor portion of the coiled up energy in me. I have never seen it described exactly like this by any one. Most of the practitioners goes with the force, ascending with it and is said to have experienced ecstasy. One yogi has somewhere stated that a case like mine could happen when the emotional part of the force rises. May be he is right.

Emotional or not I did not feel any better for it. I became much worse perhaps. I firmly believe that it is truly a destructive force as far as inner realization is concerned. My experience tells me that it is absolutely unnecessary in seeking truth. Kundalini is this world, it is Maya, you can’t achieve true knowledge with this force. It would make you smug, make you look down upon the rest, you might even obtain ashta siddis with it, but that would only count within the world. That is why the great Buddha never spoke of this though it was known to all in India from the time immemorial.

Not for nothing did Christ decline the offer of Satan of the kingdom of this world, and it is not for nothing that Satan is depicted as the serpent.

Every people knew of this power and its destructive quality. It is much better to leave it alone. The yogis of the middle ages in India rediscovered it because they were cowardly. They should have never done that. Political subjugation can not be overcome by psychical feats. If that was the case the world would have been a better place long ago.

Amrita Bindu Upanishad

This is a translation of Amritabindu Upanishad, as faithful as I can make it, no attempt is made to interpret it in any manner. I have always felt that the study of the Upanishads should be done without relaying on their commentaries to ensure your personal participation in the study. Otherwise you would be following the ideas of others regarding the Upanishad rather than the Upanishad itself. That way lays bondage which the texts are trying so hard to get you out of.

I have omitted the “Santhipatham” of the text beginning with “Bhadram Karnebhi…” from my translation. It is a prayer to various deities or an invocation of peace to help the seekers achieve their objective of learning the ultimate truth without any hindrance.

Enjoy the text and meditate on it. It will give you an insight into what meditation is all about.

1. The mind is chiefly spoken as of two kinds, pure and impure. The impure mind is desire-ridden, and the pure is free of desire.

2. Undoubtedly it is the mind that is the cause of man’s liberation and bondage. The mind that is attached to sense objects leads to bondage, while that which is free from them leads to liberation. So they think.

3. Since liberation is for the mind free from sense-objects, the mind should always be made clean of such desire, by the seeker of truth.

4. Once this is accomplished and the mind is fully controlled within the heart (the heart chakra is one of the favorite centers of meditation-Translator) it realizes its own essence. Then the supreme state is obtained.

5. The mind should be controlled till it gets fully merged in the heart. This is Jnana (realization) and this is Dhyana (meditation) also, all else are mere talk and word play

6. The supreme state is neither to be thought of (as it is beyond thought), nor unworthy to be thought of (as it is the only method of release), nor is It to be thought of in any other manner than the essence of the ever visible, timeless, supreme bliss itself. Truth which is free from all entanglement is reached in this state.

7. First concentrate on OM with its letters( that is on AUM, the meaning would be roughly like this A= creative force, U= sustaining force , M= destructive force or in essence the visible reality in all its aspects contained in the word OM- Translator), then graduate to OM without regard to its letters. When the later form of meditation becomes fruitful, the idea of non-entity is attained as entity.

8. that alone is Reality, without component parts, without doubt, and without taint. Realizing I am that Reality one becomes immutable Reality

9. The Real is endless, beyond reason and analogy, beyond all proofs and causeless; knowing which the wise person becomes free.

10 The highest truth is that pure consciousness which realizes, “ There is neither control of mind nor it is coming into play, neither am I bound, nor am I a worshipper, neither am I a seeker after liberation, nor one who has attained liberation.”

11. Actually the soul should be known from its states of wakefulness, dreaming, and dreamless sleep. For him who has transcended the three states there is no rebirth.
12. Being the only One, the universal soul is present in all beings. Though One, it is seen as many, like the moon in the water.

13. Just as it is the vessel which being moved from one place to another which changes place and not the space enclosed in it, so is the jiva which resembles that space.

14. When the various forms like the vessel are broken repeatedly the Space (Akasha /ether) does not know them to be broken, but He knows perfectly

15. Being covered by Maya which is a mere sound, it does not know Space (The reality), through darkness, When ignorance is shredded, It by virtue of being Itself, only sees unity in everything.

16. The OM as Word is first looked upon as the Supreme reality. After that (the word idea) has vanished, that timeless reality remains. The wise person should meditate on that imperishable reality, if he desires the peace of his soul.

17. These two kinds of learning ought to be understood, the Word (physical) Reality and the Supreme Reality. Having mastered the Word Reality One attains to the highest Reality

18. After studying the Vedas (that is recorded knowledge) the intelligent person who is solely intent on acquiring knowledge and realization should discard the Vedas altogether, like the man who discards husk to obtain rice?

19. The milk is always white even though cows are of diverse colures. The intelligent person regards Jnana (learning) as the milk and the many branched Vedas as the cows.

20. Like butter hidden in milk, pure consciousness resides in every being. That ought to be constantly churned out by the churning rod of the mind.

21. The Supreme reality should be brought out like fire by taking hold of the rope of knowledge. “I am that Reality, indivisible, immutable, and calm”, thus it is thought of.

22. In whom reside all beings, and who resides in all beings by virtue of his being the giver of grace to all- I am that soul of the universe, the Supreme being, I am that Soul of the Universe the Supreme being.


This Upanishad is often linked to Yajurveda (one of the four Vedas) or more precisely to Krishna Yajurveda. Yet the “Santhipatham” (prayer at the beginning) belongs to Upanishads originating from Atbara Veda.

Considered from the point of view of the subject matter this is an Upanishad on Yoga, it is also a comparatively new Upanishad. Other Upanishads belonging to the same category are Varaha, Yogasikha, Yogathathva, Kshurika, Sandilya, and Hamsa.

Tao Teh Ching and Upanishads

The Tao Te Ching and the Upanishads are so similar that they seem the same to me often. I do not know whether there have been any such comparisons before in these lines, but it seems more than likely, for the likeness are so pronounced. These are the thoughts which came to mind when I recently looked into them again. To me it appears that the two systems have lot in common though they evolved at slightly different geographical regions and cultural backgrounds of the Asian mainland.
From the very first declaration of Ching the striking resemblances jumps to our eye.

“The Tao that can be told
Is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.”

It is not much different from “na vagachathi, no mano” (1.3) of Kena Upanishad. What the Upanishad says is this “the final truth is not reached by the words and it can not be reached by the mind.” The opening lines of Tao Te Ching almost replicate it.

There are other similar references in the Upanishads of this quality of the unqualified too. “Yato vacha nivarthanthe aprapya manasa saha.” (Taitiriyam. Anuvaka 4.1) is one such. It translates this way. “Where the words turn back, that which can not be approached by even the mind.” You can easily replace Tao with Brahma in any of the Ching verses. Such are the similarities that I often mistake some verses of Tao Te Ching to be that of the Upanishads when I see them out of context somewhere.
And again in the later verses it is said:

“Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.”

In the same manner the Upanishads presents a picture:

“Here is a picture at the base of a pepul tree.
The master looks young while all the students seem wizened.
The silence of the master is the interpretation
The students sit with their doubts removed”

Then again the Ching echoes the Nasadeeya Suktha of the Veda’s. First here is what the Ching says:

“Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.”

And here comes a loose translation of the Suktha:

“There was neither reality, nor unreality
There was neither energy nor breath
Who has covered the immense space?
Who has shrouded the sky …?”

And so on. I have always felt goose pimples rise all over my body whenever I go through the Suktha. Try to get a translated version of it and if you are a sensitive human being as I take you to be, I vouch that you would also feel it. The imagery is stunning; it would propel even the most unimaginative and practical of souls towards worlds unknown to them. You would not fail to guess something is happening within the words and within yourselves.

This is the real magic of mysticism

Pranayama

Though I do not care much about the intricate systems of Pranayama's that are advised by Hatha Yoga texts, a general understanding of the subject might not be a handicap to you. That is the only reason to include this here. Every text ( modern and ancient) comes with a detailed description of the practice and its methods. But all of them relays more or less on this basic technique.

This is the Nadi Sudhi pranayama which awakens the force called Kundalini. Knowing it might also be of use. If you want to awaken it try picturing the base of your spine as triangular in form and Kundalini as dormant in it while doing pranayama. (I have experience that the Kundalini would awaken through the Nadi Sudhi pranayama alone)

To do it you take in the air through the left nostril and hold it in then lets it out through the other nostril. Then the reverse, take the breath in through the right and holds it and releases it through the left.

As you breath in visualize the prana going down to the triangle at the base and tapping the kundalini awake and sending it upwards. It would awaken sooner or latter. I would not advise the practice though. But some are adventurous and might want to try it.

There are several Chakras or subtle centers in its upward journey. Like Swadhishtana, at the lower abdomen ( its primordial, possibly contains the basic body related unconscious urges. It is dangerous if the Kundlini gets fixed there. Some say that you would become a veritable demon. A Mr. Hyde like charecter)

Then there is the Manipoora above that which is just a little farther removed from the basic side our nature. If this centre gets influenced all sorts of fears , external influence( mostly of an emotional and basic nature) might result they say

Next comes Anahata. This is said to be the seat of pure emotions. I have seen one guy who practices dhyana at the heart chakra. I do not know if he has his kundalini awakened. But the poor man seems to be in the throes of intense emotions at all times!

That is not advisable too.

The force getting fixed on the Visudha is also not very good. It still is a basic chakra.

My advise, if you want very much to awaken this force( I have no opinion about it I must say) try to fix it on the Anja chakra. It might save you if the force gets awakened and starts create havoc within you.

So place your consciousness on the Anja Chakra in normal meditation so that the force would ascend to there if you want to awaken the Kundalini.

Well any way the following is the basic practice of Pranayama. It would bring you the scarce state breath called the the Kevala Kumbaka. This is enough to take you places. You don't need Kundalini for attaining liberation. Possibly it hinders liberation. Here is what you do to get Kevala Kumbaka.

Pranayama has been categorized into three types. The following description may lack finesse, But it might give you a general idea what to the ancients the practice was.

1 Rechaka Pranayama 2. Pooraka Pranayama 3. Kumbaka Pranayama .

Rechaka Pranayama

Rechaka means to expel. In this Pranayama the practitioner expels all air from the lungs and blocks the breath on the outside without letting the air in to the lungs.

Pooraka Pranayama

Pooraka means to fill in. In this the air is taken in slowly till all your nadis( nerves) are filled with it. You might wonder how we can “fill” the nadis( nerves) with air. In the science of Yoga Prana is not merely air, it contains universal life force . It is this life force which is supposed to fill the Nadis.

Kumbaka Pranayama

Kumbaka means to block. This consists of blocking the air from going out once the lungs are filled with it. It is not really that different from Pooraka Pranayama. Kumbaka Pranayama is off three types

1. Sahitha Kumbaka and 2. Kevala Kumbaka

Sahitha Kumbaka

Sahitha means “with”. The meaning in the context is ‘Kumbaka with effort”. There is Pranayama or kumbaka with effort and without effort. This will become clear in the next section. Here it would suffice to know that blocking Prana (air) outside or inside your body is called Sahitha Kumbaka. Thus as you can see there are two types of Sahitha Kumbaka. Rechaka Kumbaka and Pooraka Kumbaka.. These are the same as Rechaka Pranayama and Pooraka Pranayama.

Kevala Kumbaka

This can not be “practiced”; it would have to “happen’ to you. I will explain it. In this Kumbaka or Pranayama the breath gets blocked without any effort either inside or outside of your body . This occurs after practicing Sahitha Kumbaka for some time, some considerable time mind you. It is the most natural outcome of the Sahitha Kumbaka. To me it happens all the time. Some times I would be sitting without breathing for some time before I become aware of it. To make it ‘happen’ you need to practice both the Sahitha Kumbaka’s for some time, the Rechaka variety and the Pooraka variety. Rechaka Kumbaka is a little difficult. You can not block air out side your body as long as you can block it inside.

There are two other types too within the above Pranayama’s .These are called the 1.Sagarbha Pranayama and 2.Agarbha ( Vgarbha) Pranayama’s. Let me explain these futher.

Sagarbha Pranayama

Sagarbha means included. In the context it means the practice of Pranayama with internal recitation of Mantra and taking count of the length of time you do the Pranayama. This is the Pranayama which is practiced with the recitation of OM. The practice is like this, you recite Om for 16 times while expelling the breath through your right nostril. And then fill in the air through left nostril reciting OM for 32 times. Then you hold in the breath inside reciting Om for 64 times. While holding the breath thus you also should think about the meaning of OM.

Agarbha ( Vigarbha) Pranayama.

Agarbha means not included .In this you do the same as above minus the count and the recitation. You expel air through the right, inhale through the left and hold it inside all without any count or recitation of Mantra. There are no rules in this Pranayama. You can practice at your pace. Expel, take in and hold in the air as long as you can.

As far as I know this is the best technique to make the Kevala Kumbaka ‘happen”. In the earlier technique the counting and recitation takes up all our attention and thus defeating the very aim of the practice, that of gaining inner knowledge.

Sambavi Mudra Explained

Raja yoga is the easiest of all practices. I shall explain it to you in the simplest possible manner, whether you want to make anything of it or not is your business.

There are several misconceptions about the practice, I know, but those are created by people with vested interests, so don’t be confused. I shall be very plain here; this is the only method which matters. If you are willing to stick to it you would be a Yogi in no time.

But are there any hitches? Yes, only one, that you might gradually lose interest in the world around you and might want to be in the Yogic state always. Yet if you want to be involved in the world and be a yogi too, that is also possible, but your heart will pine for the true state of happiness you will be in otherwise!

Here is the technique, shorn of all trappings:

Fix your mind at some point inside your body. You can place it anywhere inside the body and even outside on any thing if you want, but the most effective spot would be the place between your eyebrows.

It is the easiest of all methods and a proven one. There are two types of experiences you will go through while you keep at it- The Tharaka and Amanaska states. I will explain them below:

Tharaka Yoga

When the point at which you have placed the mind starts to glow with inner light it is known as Tharaka Yoga. The first thing you see inside would be a star ( tharaka). Hence the name.(tharana the root of tharaka means "to cross" . Its theoretical , let us not go into all that)

Amanaska Yoga

When the mind is completely dissolved in yogic experience, it is called the Amanaska Yoga. “Amanaska” means without mind, that is, the mind completely disappears in the inner illumination.

Now a little more about the actual practice:

THE THREE “EYE POSITIONS”

In the perception of truth (that is in your meditation) there are three “eye positions” that you might adopt. The “Ama”, “Prathipal” and “Poornima” eye positions (These eye positions are likened to the phases of moon, the Ama being the Moonless, Pratipal being the Half moon and Poornima being Full moon phases).

Here are the explanations.

Ama (fully shut) eye

When the eyes are completely shut while meditating it is known as the Ama eyed position of meditation.

Prathipal(half moon) eye

When the eyes are only half shut it is called the Prathipal eyed position of meditation

Poornima (full moon) eye

When the eyes are fully open while meditating it is called the Poornima eyed position of meditation.

All the three techniques of meditation are equally effective. I have done them all and found them true, great Yogis’ have also stated thus.

And for those who wonder how the open eyed meditation is done, that is how one could keep one’s eyes open and meditate at the same time; well you do it all the time. It is called the reverie, and yes, it is also a kind of meditation, it involves the three techniques of Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (absorption) described by Pathanjali in his Yoga Sutra’s. When you do all the three together it is called Samyama (total identification with the object of meditation). Samyama is Yoga, but if you do Samyama on anything other than the true essence of your being it only achieves that much. For instance, in reveries you unconsciously meditate on vacancy and you achieve that state of “bliss” for the while it lasts.

The Yoga Sutra’s of Pathanjali is a technical treatise on the subject of Yoga.
Studying it is not absolutely necessary to practice yoga; it lays out the different stages and experiences the Yogi goes through in the most scientific way. It is very useful in understanding what happens when you practice Yoga and also if you can wade through all the commentaries and the Sanskrit text it might even lead you to Yoga. But why go to all that trouble when you can have it in the most simplest of forms.

Now something of utmost importance:

The full moon eye position or the Poornima eye, though difficult is the greatest of all Mudras, or seals (signs). It is the subtlest of all secrets, the incomparable Sambhavi Mudra. Once you attain it you are a Yogi. In your open-eyed dreams you achieve it for a little while on the spurious of things. But in conscious application of this mudra on the essence of reality you surpass everything else and become aware of your own true nature.

The Mudra is described as follows in Sanskrit:

“Anthar lakshyam bahir netram
Nimishonmesha vivarjitha
Esha sa Sambhavi Mudra
Sarva thanthreshu gopitha.”

“Aiming inwards remain open eyed, without moving the eyelids. This is the Sambavi Mudra, which is disguised and concealed by all Tantra’s (texts on Yogic practice)”
By the term “aiming inwards” the definition allows you to place your mind anywhere inside the body but as I pointed out earlier the spot between the eyebrows is the most effective one to achieve Yogic state. There are several reasons for this, going into all that is not very relevant here. The spot between the eyes is known as the Ajna Chakra and it is the most harmless of places to keep your mind at.

You might now ask. But what about Yama, Niyama, Pranayama, Prathyahara, Dharana, Dyana and Samadhi? How can one achieve Yoga without these? Well Pathanjali has not considered the first five as having any importance other than as a discipline to prepare you for Yoga, though much is made of them by others. The state of Yoga is not something alien to you; it is already within you as pointed out by the great master himself. He has divided Yogic samadhi into Samprajnata (with objects before mind) and Asamprajnata (without objects). For instance Newton discovered Gravitation and Einstein discovered Relativity while they were in the state of Samprajnatha samadhi (absorption of mind with some objects as its aim) we also do it normally on much smaller scales ourselves.

Then why conceal it from everyone and prescribe an elaborate technique to study Yoga? Well it had its purposes. Yoga grants you many powers. The system of Pathanjali actually is an elimination procedure to weed out the unfit that would otherwise throng to study Yoga hearing about the powers it would give to them.

-But what about the problem of having to meditate on subtle reality of your own true nature which is not cognizable? Would you not feel dispirited and soon stop practicing altogether? Well, that is not going to happen my friends; if you practice what I have outlined above you will soon start experiencing things yourself. As your mind become absorbed in Ajna Chakra you will probably see various things like , the moon , the sun, the fire , lamp lights, lightning, luminance, sky, star, blue yellow and red colors inside your self. It may not occur precisely in this order, but you will see them. I would not say so unless I had such experiences myself. Also there would be instances of ringing of bells, drums, thunder and sounds of other instruments.

Once you experience these you would not want to quit, even if you quit, that experience would stay with you from then onwards, saving you.

Technically you need a Guru to point to the place on which you are to meditate by touching it with his/her hand; in this fashion the meditation would yield faster results. But not every one can find a real Guru can they? So do the best you can, be your own guru, because Lord Buddha has kindly allowed thus:

“Be a light unto yourself”.

After those kindly words no other sanction is needed for any one to practice meditation on this globe.