Thursday, November 19, 2009

Uththara Geeta

Most of us have heard of Bhagavad Geeta, and some of us have endeavored to understand it too. The Geeta is like a broad spectrum spiritual antiseptic. It considers every kind of mental preferences and prescribes remedies for all sort of spiritual illnesses. People are often confused about the different streams of thought that is seen in it. That is why Arjuna says that he is bewildered by Krishna’s equivocal instructions (Cha.3 verse 2 of Geeta). The Geeta can only be taken as an introduction to spiritual practices.

This is the reason why Krishna later taught the AnuGeeta (the verses that follow geeta) to Arjuna. But he knew that even an intelligent student like Arjuna would find it hard to arrive at truth unless repeatedly advised on it. So in compassion he goes on to teach the Uththara Geeta (Post Geeta) to Arjuna. This is the final advice and culminates the teachings of Geeta.

He takes out the essence of every science in it and teaches it to Arjuna saying “Yal saara bhUtam thadupaasithavyam”. Worship only that which matters. Sciences are many, we could spend our entire life learning them and understanding nothing at all about ourselves.

I will relate to you meaning of the important verses of the advice. They throw light on the practice we are interested in.

Imagine the limitless Chidakasa (inner space, or the space you find within when you close your eyes and turn your attention to your forehead) as the soul or imagine the soul as the inner space so that both becomes merged into one – forget everything else. One should be steadfast and intelligent about it. Never doubt for a moment that what you find within is your true self. As you keep on doing it the breath would become still at the point between the eye brows.

When you do it what happens is this:
Prabhaa sUnyam, manhsUnyam
BudhisUnyam, niraamayam

That is, your consciousness goes through these stages- first, thoughts become nil and the mind remains in its nature of light, in fact mind and this light is one and the same. Slowly the light fades and our psyche remains with its names and forms, this also fades and what remains is the intellect which is still aware of different emotions, then that intellect also fades. After that you can’t say what remains…..

“There the words and mind turns back”

As an Upanishad describes it, this state in indescribable, this state is called Samadhi.

Krishna states emphatically in the verse 10 of the second chapter:

“MuhUrthamapi yogaschEl
NasaagrE mansa saha
Sarvam tharathi papmaanam
Thasya janma sathaarjitham”

That is:

If someone achieves this state for a single minute, all the sins in all the births they ever had become destroyed forever. Now the sins that Krishna speaks of are the foolish entanglement with the world of ignorance which our consciousness ever had.

This is the method of “sadyO mukthi” or “immediate liberation” and Krishna goes on to describe how Krama Mukthi” or step by step liberation can be achieved for the ignorant by following the Kundalini Yoga. We are not concerned about it here.
So,
KEEP YOUR MIND AT THE PLACE BETWEEN THE EYE BROWS

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Breathing

Most of us are very busy in our lives. We do not have a spare moment and even when we have it, it is weighed down with the cares and troubles that we generally have. Thoughts come and go, emotions flit through the mind. Everything we see around us brings back memories of things done and reminds us of things which need to be done. We either live in the past or in the future and never in the present. Naturally we are not at peace. We can only be at peace if we live in the present.

Hence, even when we put aside a bit of time for meditation it becomes mostly useless because we can’t rid ourselves of this constant activity of our mind. This is more so when we try to follow a simple technique of meditation like the Sambavi Mudra. If we can quiten the mind it might be of some help in the practice.

So let us talk about the most effective and easy technique to do that- Breathing.

Technicalities about pranayama are not important here and are not necessary for our purpose. Our aim is to lessen the number of thoughts we have so that it would be easy to fix our mind at the Trikut or middle of forehead.

What you do is to breathe deeply when you sit or are lying down for meditation. Just breathe from your abdomen or the pit of your stomach or whatever you like to call it. Names and terms do not matter, breathing long and deep and slow is what matters. Take it as the preparatory exercise before beginning the real meditation. As you do it, follow the breath in an out. There is no need to tire yourself out by rushing things. Slow steady sweet breathes would do it.

If you can manage it keep your spine straight, but even if you can’t do it breathe through the nostrils. This is very important, apart from other ills like colds etc which may result from mouth breathing, breathing through nostrils would make the breath pass though the trikut making us more aware of it. Also breathing through mouth can never be deep. So breathe through the nose at all times.

Well what do you when your nostrils are blocked as sometimes they are? Mostly this does not happen to those who practice pranayama. But if you do not do it but is person who takes a bathe every day, try this technique. When you shower or pour water over your head or are in the pool bathing, keep a little water in the mouth and keep it shut till you have toweled your hair dry. Then spit it out. This works most of the time and clears the nostrils for the day.

I think it works this way. The water that get into you through your head you as well as the mucus which might block the nose otherwise, trickle down to the water kept in the mouth and goes out of you when you spit it out.

Well back to breathing. As you go on doing it you would notice that thoughts are becoming lesser and lesser till they disappear completely. Please remember that we are not trying to fill ourselves with energy by doing it. An excess of energy does more harm than good to our state of mind. Our primary purpose is getting rid of unwanted thoughts and emotions so that we can bring our attention to our foreheads.

There would come a time when you are aware that the thoughts, feeling etc have completely disappeared from you for the present then turn your attention to the spot between your eye brows and place your mind there.

Normally the breath or prana becomes still at the place where the mind is placed. I outlined the above technique only for those who find it difficult to control their thoughts whatever they do, at times. All pass though such stages, even the best.

Wish you luck with it

KEEP THE MIND AT THE PLACE BETWEEN THE EYE BROWS

Sunday, November 1, 2009

The tale of Svetaketu in the Chandogya Upanishad

Well I think someone wants me to update the blog. That is nice; it shows that there are people out there who want to preserve this effort, whether playfully or otherwise. I will take even the playful efforts if it furthers the cause of knowledge and keep it alive in some form in some one’s mind. Let all beings be illumined.


I am even willing to believe in the theory of the sudden evolution of the human race in the year 2012( not the dooms day theory, I can assure you that would not happen), to a higher spiritual enlightenment. The poor state of affairs in the world makes me wish for it earnestly. Can the few words that I write in a blog with very few followers be the harbinger of that enlightenment? It is amusing to think so, well you know, much stranger things have happened in the world haven’t they?


Well, may be those who plays with this condensed essence of human knowledge might be ushering in that mighty change in our world who knows. I have very little personal interest in it, other than preserving the little body of knowledge for posterity. Let that change happen without any harm to anyone or anybody in the universe.


Anyway, let us do some browsing in the Upanishads and try to find something useful for understanding the world.


Let it be again understood that I have no particular preference in philosophical systems and that I think the whole body of human knowledge is one in essence. It is the heritage of the entire humanity. The only thing which prompts me to use the Upanishads is my familiarity with them.


We will talk about the tale of Svetaketu in the Chandogya Upanishad now. The old masters have subtly hinted at the whole process of evolution in the tale in their inimitable style. It is a beautiful tale and one we can carry in our minds once we have understood the essentials. Now to the tale:

Svetaketu proudly returned home after studying for twelve long years.

Seeing his pride the father asked him:

Did your teachers tell you about that country where the unheard is heard and the unthinked is thought of?

Wondering Svetaketu asked:

Where is that place, my teachers did not teach me that!
His father instructed him:

Once we know what clay is we know about all things made of clay, once we know what gold is we know all things made of gold, once we know what iron is we know what a nail cutter is.

“Ekam-evaa-adwityam” there is only one not many.

It is ‘asat ‘ or non-existent. But then what is the logic behind one nonexistent thing becoming everything else that you see around?

( well you know, this problem is difficult to digest even for the highly intelligent. That was why Sankaracharya introduced the theory of Maya, this world in delusional and not real. The modern science is slowly coming to grips with this fact after the advent of the quantum mechanics)

The one essence imagined “ I shall become many” It produced ‘Thejas’ or primal energy, you can take it as the field which came into being after the big bang. The thejas then thought “I too shall become many” it produced ‘apa’ ( water literally, but let us take it as plasma for the sake of convenience). The apa also thought “I shall be many” and invented ‘anna’ ( literally food, but it is solid matter in essence.) They also thought of becoming many by entering into everything and creating names and forms.


It then decided to make all these a trine (of three parts) to enter into them. Then the Upanishad subtly hints at the way the world is made with the example of fire. It says:

The red part you seen in a flame is the Thejas (energy), the white part is the ‘apa’ (plasma or light), and the black part is ‘anna’ ( food or mass).


Only these three (light, energy and mass) are real. Everything else is linguistically derived forms and names.

The Upanishad then sites the examples of the Sun, the Moon and the Lightening and says that we can see these three in them.

It then come down to the world of individual beings and states how to derive the subtle from what we see and experience on the outside. We might think that those old teachers taught without citing reliable experiments. Just follow this discourse to its end if you can find the text of the Upanishad (the whole of the sixth and seventh chapters). You will become a new person afterwards. It is too long a tale to site in full here. I might do it if someone wants me to do it and I have the time and desire to do it.

KEEP YOUR MIND AT THE PLACE BETWEEN THE EYE BROWS