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INTRODUCTION
      To comprehend and to practice meditation is obligatory for every man in
modern-day world. Meditation is the wonderful method of realizing dharma in human
life. In fact, it will be more apt to say that meditation is an aspect of religion
connected with breathing. Meditation is a form of religion. In modern times we find
religion and its different aspects being hotly debated and discussed, but there has been
no discussion, no discourse on the form of religion, on its spiritual aspect. Several
so-called religious people have turned religion into a subject of controversy and
polemic. They seem to have forgotten that religion is not a subject for polemic or
controversy, rather it is a subject of spiritual dialogue, spiritual purification, soul
discovery and spiritual karma.
      Meditation is spiritual or self-purification and self- discovery. Meditation helps
such flowers blossom on earth as will give out spiritual fragrance. Therefore, I
request, I exhort the entire world that it should get itself introduced with the fragrance
of religion through the medium of meditation.
     Shri Shirish Muni and Shri Sailesh²the former an ascetic and the latter a
believing Jain²are deeply involved in trying to realize my dream in the field of
meditation. Their right and proper efforts deserve my blessings. The responsibility of
getting the original Hindi version of this book published was taken over by Shri
Vinod Sharma : I wish him spiritually all the best. Dr. Dharam Singh of Punjabi
University, Patiala, accepted our request to make time to render it into English: he
will ever be an object of my blessing for the labour he has put in to make this English
translation possible as well as for what he has been doing to help various members of
the Jain Sraman Sangh in the perusal of their academic studies. Our thanks are also
due to Mr. Ravinder Jain and Purshottam Jain of Malerkotla and Dr. Rajesh Ranjan
and Dr. Paryudumna Shah Singh of Punjabi University who helped in a variety of
ways in the publication of this book.
     The series of meditation camps we have been holding is an exercise aimed at the
universal weal, the welfare of all. At this auspicious hour I welcome all those
dedicated young men and others to join and make a joint endeavour to bring about a
beautiful, clean and healthy social set-up through the medium of meditation.
                                                                           SHIV MUNI
CHAPTER I

                         MEDITATION :
                   WAY TO INNER-PURIFICATION
Introduction
     Welcome to all the seekers of the path to meditation and discipline. The Hindi
equivalent of the word ‘welcome’ is ‘swÈgat’. The word ‘swÈgat’ literally means
coming (Ègat) to self (swai). Thus, one’s return to the self is called ‘swÈgat’.
     There are certain things and desires in this world which sprout quite easily. For
example, one such thing is the food. It is quite easy for one’s mind to get attracted
towards food. Suppose you have just finished with your food and all of a sudden some
eatable of your liking and choice comes to your sight. A thought flashes through the
mind²‘let me taste a little bit of it.’ It is thus easy for the mind to get attracted to food.
And for this, one need not make a resolution that one will go for the food today. One
never knows when the mind is tempted by the good food. You sit on an upper floor
and the sweet smell of some dishes being prepared downstairs reaches your nostrils,
mind in a flash reaches downstairs to find out what is being cooked. It is somewhat
natural.
     The second example is that of sleep. You enjoy a good 8-hour sleep at night. Still
if you find nothing to be done during the day, what happens then? The mind favours
having some rest and finally some sleep. It is also quite easy for mind to go for rest
and sleep. You do not have to force your mind to have a sleep. Of course, sometimes
more than one attempts have to be made to wake you up. But while going for rest or
sleep, no effort is needed; sleep comes of its own.
      The third such example comprises the different objects and entertainment of our
senses. Music sounds good to the ear, sweet smell is good to nose, beauty appeals to
the eye, taste tempts the tongue and touch soothes the skin. These are five different
object of our five senses. Our mind is prone to go to any of these quite easily. If and
when a melodious music reaches the ear, no conscious effort is required to make the
ear listen to it. The mind concentrates on it of its own. And, if there happens to be a
sweet smell, no effort is required to make the nose smell it: our mind reaches the place
of that smell in a flash.
     So, these are the three things to which our mind is attracted quite easily and of its
own. First is the food, the second sleep and rest, and the third our different
inclinations (say, for tasty food), entertainment (say, listening to music), and other
objects appealing to mind. However, to get away from these, to think of returning to
oneself, one will have to make efforts in this behalf: accomplishment of it is no doubt
a great achievement. There will be numerous people who might have thought of
meditating, observe silence for a while, and attend the camp at least once or twice.
There will only be very few among those who thought of this but then made a strong
resolution to do that. Of course, this thought came to many people, but what was the
thought actually? ‘O.K., shall do it sometime. There is still time. We shall do.’
     They failed to take the final decision. They remained confused or in dilemma.
Some people resolved that they would do it and then they did get their names
enrolled, but even amongst them there were quite a few who failed to put that
resolution to practice-maybe something at home prevented them or maybe their
resolution was not strong enough and their mind wavered. In case of those who got
prevented because of some important or unavoidable work at home, it is somewhat
understandable. The main thing is that mind wavered at one or the other stage. Thus,
even after getting their names enrolled, even after taking the decision, they failed to
put that resolution to practice. You are welcome for the reason that you are among
those resolute ones who took the decision and then sticking to it reached here.
Stages of Self-Purification
     Now we shall see as to what we have to do during these three days. How shall
we live during these three days? What is the importance of living here? What have we
to do while being here? If we put into one word all those different activities, different
sorts of meditation and the different methods of working on our own selves during our
stay here for three days, the word obviously will be inner-purification or
self-purification. We shall work on this purification during our stay in the camp for
three days.
      What is the meaning of inner- or self-purification? How can we explain it? When
people generally listen to the word ‘inner- or self-purification’, they take it to be
purification of Ètman or soul. And, when they listen to the word ‘Ètman’, it seems to
them to be something different, something within the body yet different from it. This
is not the primary meaning of the word. When the word came into usage for the first
time around three thousand years ago, the word ‘Ètman’ meant ‘I’. That is why the
word ‘Ètmaj’ was used to convey the meaning of ‘my son’ or ‘my daughter’. If Ètman
or soul was something different from body, then whose son or daughter he/she would
be? It would belong to the inner consciousness, and the body would have had no
relation with it? Thus, son/daughter is related to your body and the Ètman also means
‘I’. In this sense, inner-purification means ‘my purification’ or purification of
whatever I am.
      First of all, what are you? What is your first identifica- tion? When you say ‘I’,
then what is your first identification? How can one identify you? By name? There can
be several people by the same name. Then the first identification is your body.
Suppose there are three persons by the same name and you want to call one of them,
how will you do that? How will you identify one you want to call from the other two
by the same name? Obviously, by looking at their physical appearance, at their body.
All three have the same name, but they have different bodily appearance. So what is
the first mark of identification? The body. So the body forms the first stage of the self
we talk about.
First Step : Purification of Body
     The first step in this direction is the purification of the body. This body of ours
needs be cleansed, purified. This first step is rather significant because we never give
serious attention to our body. And if we ever divert the attention, it happens only
when the body starts giving problems, i.e. when it becomes prone to disease and
decay. These teeth in our mouth seldom attract the serious attention they deserve: of
course, our attention goes to them but only when one of them gets painful. When a
tooth falls off or is pulled off, the tongue spontaneously reaches there time and again
to assure itself-or warn us?-that a tooth is gone. Maybe, otherwise we might not
bother to think as to how many teeth we have. We never divert our attention in this
direction. Similarly, we never consciously think that we have two ears. Again, we
remember and think of the ear only when it gets painful or becomes hard of hearing. It
is only after that that we think that there is something wrong with our ear. It is
thereafter that we begin to attend to the ear. The same happens with our body as a
whole. We never pay attention due to it. That is why our body falls prey to different
diseases.
What is a Disease?
      Disease implies ‘give attention to me’. Suppose there is a small toddler and
nobody is paying any attention to it. What will it do? It will weep, wail and cry. Then
you give it a little of your attention, ask it what was wrong with it and why it was
weeping. On your attending to it, it will calm down a bit. It will ask for nothing, it
needs nothing except your attention. Similarly, you did not pay attention to your body.
Gradually with the passage of time one or the other disease takes roots. If you are
fortunate enough that no disease took roots, some impurity or disorder takes place.
The latter also implies lethargy. Today, if you are asked to sit straight for a while, you
start complaining of pain here or there. You cannot sit straight, but can easily sit in a
little bending posture. Sitting straight is quite difficult. For some people, walking
upstairs is problematic. In the Dayalji Ashram if you daily go upstairs, you realize
how much is its height. No doubt, you are not yet old people beyond 80 years of age,
but any disorder can take roots in the body even when you are young enough of say
30 or 40 years of age. In the case of some people, it is the head that has become
problematic, it is the waist in the case of other, and similarly some other part of the
body in the case of others. In fact, when I said the age of 30 or 40, perhaps it was too
much. You will see as we go along with the yoga lessons, even people in their
twenties will face difficulties.
     A little movement of the body, bending it and making it do various things seems
quite difficult to many. And it is not unnatural or unexpected because we never paid
any attention to the body, never bothered to enquire about its condition. When we
were infants, we had a brand new heart, supple hands, bright and sharp eyes and a
beautiful face. As we have grew up, did we ever look at ourselves to find out what
happened to all these parts, to the body as a whole. Whenever we showed any care or
concern for the body, it was only to cleanse it from without with water and soap. We
never thought of cleansing it from within. In fact, we never knew how to do it. Then
how will we do the inner cleansing, inner purification of the body here in this camp?
Relationship of Body and Mind
      This body of yours must not be taken as mere body alone, rather quite intimately
related to it is your mind. If there is restlessness of the body, mind cannot remain calm
and concentrated. If there is tension and disorder in the body, mind cannot remain
balanced and in order. See for yourself: when your foot is in pain, can you possibly sit
calm and composed? Can you concentrate in prayer? Or can it concentrate in
samÈyik? Obviously, no. It means, this body is not mere body alone, our mind is
intimately connected with it. You may say for the sake of saying what is inside? It is
just like a house on rent. However, you are still in the body and you are so closely
connected with it that whatever happens to the body immediately affects your total
being, including the mind. If a small thorn pierced into your foot, you remember the
pain the whole day. It is a small thorn, but it shakes your entire six feet tall body. And,
it happens because of a small thorn! Thus, we realize that the body has a deep effect
on the human mind. This implies that the purity of body is of utmost importance.
     We have to work on our consciousness, on our mind, but for that it is imperative
that our body should be set right, cleansed and purified. Purity of body is the first step.
And, for this purity of body we shall perform different yogic exercises.
What is Yoga?
     The yoga exercises are hundreds of years old. They have not been made or
introduced by me or anyone else. These have been taken from ancient texts. We shall
try different postures (Èsnas) for cleansing the body. The stiffness of the body, the
lethargy and all such evils will gradually be gone because the yogic postures are not
mere exercises. They are not just another physical activity. There is a lot of difference
between yogic postures and other physical exercises. Often people tend to confuse one
with the other. It is not that mere raising hands up and down, forward and backward is
a yogic activity. Yoga is not mere physical exercise. The latter is only for the body
whereas the former is for your consciousness. Of course, it will be the body which we
shall be using, but the effect will not be limited to the body, rather will go to your
inner most self, to your conscious self. Some yogic Èsnas are connected with the
feeling of anger and the other with the wavering of mind and its sensuous and sensual
inclinations. Therefore, when you perform some yoga Èsnas, this surely affects your
feelings. Gradually these feelings and emotions come under control. This is the first
step towards the purification of body, purification of Ètman.
Silence for Self-Purification
      What is your second identification? How do the people identify you? The first
such identification is the body which includes your appearance, mien and face. What
is the next? Profession? No, profession cannot be the mark of identification. Your
voice? What and how you speak is the second mark of your identification. When a
phone call comes, the person on the other end may not give out his name, but from his
voice we can identify the caller. That is why when a regular caller, a person well
known to you makes a call, he just says hello and you respond by asking about his
well being and continue the conversation without asking the caller’s identity. Thus,
the second mark of your identification is your voice. And, therefore, the second step
towards self-purification is that of the voice or speech. This purification is also of
great significance because we have been making use of our speech more or less
carelessly and recklessly, with the minor exception that we try to speak a little
respectfully in the presence of elders. It is on rare occasions that we observe silence
for a while, but we have never given the due attention to our speech. Then, how can it
be purified? What sort of purification it will be? For this purpose, we shall make use
of silence. We shall remain completely silent.
     Observance of silence here means that we will not speak through the expression
of words. We shall not ‘speak’ even through gestures or by eyes. Absolutely no
gestures or words. Silence here implies as if you had cut off all relations with the
outside world. You should presume you have none in the world except yourself and
that you know nobody in the outside world. There are so many people here in the
camp, but each one of you must live and move about here as if he were alone. You
know so many people here, but you have to be here as if you know nobody.
Everybody is alien to you. If there is any problem with anybody here, it should not
bother you. All your attention be fixed and concentrated on yourself alone. Let it not
be that a person comes and stands behind you, all eyes get turned to him to find out
who has come to stand there. The person did not come to stand there for your sake!
There is no need to look back at him, but we are so habitual of it that we cannot
control ourselves. We are accustomed to look at what we need not. It is like the habit
of listening to what we need not and what we are not supposed to listen. We are also
habitual of speaking what we need not. Therefore, observance of silence here means
that we shall make absolutely no use of words; we shall not utter even a single word.
Absolute silence.
     You might have a problem, you might have a question to ask, might have a
physical or mental problem, or you might have forgotten to bring along something.
You might just open your bag and find that you have forgotten to bring the soap or
some such thing. Do not try to borrow such a thing from anyone because it will
amount to speaking. Both the person borrowing and the person lending will be taken
as speaking to each other. For any sort of problem, a diary and pen will always be
available here. You have just to enter therein your name and the item you require. We
shall manage the required item for you. You may have problem in comprehending a
question, do not express your problem in words, but put that problem here in writing
and we shall solve your problem. You may have some other problem, for example a
severe headache. You must not ask anybody for help or advice. You should just enter
here your name and problem. Asking anybody else for anything whatsoever is
complete taboo. You should presume that around you sit not humans but just ghosts.
None of them has any acquaintance with you. All are aliens who have come from
foreign, unknown lands. You should live and move about here in this fashion.
Whenever you have a difficulty or a problem, you will put that in writing here in this
diary. In case it is something really urgent or emergent, you will inform me about it in
writing. But you will not talk at all among yourselves or with people from outside.
      Many people known to you will be visiting here-some to listen to the discourse,
some to pay obeisance, but you will meet none of them. You must not meet anybody
whosoever from outside. You have come here and it is important for you that you
keep your belongings in a separate bag with you even if someone closely related to
you, maybe your wife or husband, son or daughter, might also be attending the camp
with you. Even if you had brought your belonging together in one bag, you should
now separate yours from the other person’s. If your belongings are kept in one bag,
observing silence is not possible. If you know someone, identify someone and he/she
sits beside you, you are sure to ask him/her for this or that item. Conversation will
naturally follow. One, you are not used to observing silence and then if there is beside
you a known face with whom you are used to converse daily, conversation here will
be a sure possibility. And, silence is the most significant part of this camp. You have
to be very, very careful in maintaining silence. Not only in the hall but wherever you
go-in the room, in the bathroom or anywhere else-you must not talk to anybody at any
place. You have to behave as if you do not know how to speak: you have become
dumb. You should dive into silence in this way.
What Sort of Silence?
    Of course, we shall observe silence, but this never means that we shall become or
seem to be sad. Our silence must not be sadness oriented. It should be smile oriented.
We shall observe silence with a laughing face, laughing and smiling. And, this
laughter and smile is not for anyone else, it is by you for your own self. You will
smile because you have to smile. You would not do so because someone else is
looking at you or because some one acquainted with you is close by or is passing by
you. Your smile will not be for any reason, it will be without any reason whatsoever.
This is what is called Ènand or ecstasy. This ecstasy is not the outcome of this or that
reason. On the other hand, pleasure is the effect of a cause. You should always keep
laughing, you should always keep smiling and you will never at any cost lose this
smile and laughter. You should make the resolution with yourself that your smile will
remain whatever comes to happen. You may have headache, you might have a broken
foot, but smile should always remain spread on your lips. You may like the food or
you may have to get up half way without taking the required food, but you will keep
smiling. You will never lose this smile. This is silence. This is purification of speech.
     During the observance of silence during this camp, some people think that since
they do not have to converse, it will be useful to take along a book and read it. Let it
be emphasized that silence here means absolutely no use of words. Nothing to read
and nothing to write. If there is anything important to be written, I shall tell you to
write. In case you feel that you have missed out something, there is nothing to worry
about. You may ask me, in writing, any question and any number of times. But you
will not write anything of your own. The prescription is not to write, read, speak or
make gestures.
     There is office downstairs. A telephone is also available there. You may get the
temptation to go there so as to make at least a phone call at home to find out that all is
well. As it is, there may not be cordiality in relations at home, but when one goes out
to a village or some other place, one does remember home a few times. Maybe,
distance adds to the affection. In that case you might get the feeling to go down and
make a call at home. But do not go even near the office or the phone. This is for your
safety alone. In case you go to the office, you might meet someone not from the camp
and his waves, his feelings, his ideas might adversely affect you. The environment
from which he has come, the environment in which he has been living are all different
from yours. Why have you been asked to remain here during the tenure of the camp?
This is to give you a different kind of environment so that you could observe a deep,
very deep silence in that environment, an environment wherein you will be observing
both the inner and the outer silence. We are trying to build that kind of environment.
If you meet someone from outside, the preparation being made here will get hindered,
will go waste. So not going to the office and not meeting anyone from outside is for
your own welfare. It is not for the safety and welfare of anyone else. It will be your
safety and it will be to your benefit.
What is Prȇa?
     We have so far discussed body and speech. What is the third one? This is our
prȇa, the life-force. We know a very little of it. This body of ours is made up of
bones, flesh and blood. Beneath it is a subtle body which is made up of prȇa. This is
called prȇa body. We shall also make endeavours at the purification of this body.
We shall do this partly through the medium of speech and partly through that of
prȇÈyÈma.
What is BhÈvanÈ?
We shall purify the bhÈvanÈ through amiability, friendship, love and
forgiveness. After that comes our consciousness. That consciousness will be purified
through meditation. Thus, we shall do five kinds of purification-of body, of speech, of
prȇa, of bhÈvanÈ and of consciousness. If we put together all the five kinds of
purification, it can well be called self-purification. During these three days we shall
dive into self-purification. We shall practice it. We shall pay full, complete attention
on our own self, because this is the time when we shall be working on ourselves. We
shall pay absolutely no attention to the others-even if someone is having headache or
some other ailment or problem. You need not either think or speak about any one else.
You have come here for your own sake, and you will see to your own benefit. There
are so many volunteers here to look after others, to attend to their needs and alleviate
their difficulties and problems. You must not pay attention to others. There is no need
for you to speak for anyone. Silence, everybody to his own self, is the rule. If you
must say something, write it down to convey. If anyone else has to say, he will do it
himself. You must remember this, and follow this strictly. This will mean
self-purification. There are certain rules, certain prescriptions for self-purification, and
we have to follow them.
What are the Rules?
      All of you might have read the rules while getting your name registered to attend
this camp. If some of you have not, I shall repeat the rules for their benefit and for that
of others. The first thing about the camp is that it will start at 12.00 noon today and
conclude at 4.00 in the evening of the fourth day from today. You will have to stay
put here for these four days. Whatever might happen to you or to the outside world,
you will live here for this duration. You make the resolution that you will live here
whatever might happen. Nobody of you will come to me with the request that such a
thing has happened and for this he will have to go back home. You will not be
allowed to go- whatever might be your compulsions. This rule is like the one under
which a doctor takes a patient to the operation theatre. The doctor will first ask you if
you would wish to be operated upon. Once you answer in the affirmative, the doctor
takes you to the operation theatre, gives you the injection or anesthesia and the
operation starts, you cannot at that stage leave midway, saying that today half the
operation is all right and you will get the other half done some other day because
today you must go home for some urgent piece of work. Will the doctor let you go at
that stage? Such a decision is dangerous not only for you but also for the doctor. In
case such a patient dies, the blame will be unduly attributed to the doctor as well. So
either you will not go to the operation theatre or if you go you will come out only
after the doctor completes the operation. This camp is also a similar thing. It is a sort
of operation to be conducted by you on your self. You are your own doctor, your own
physician and your own surgeon. You cannot go away leaving the treatment half way.
And, once you start the treatment, there might come several problems which you will
have to face. If the wound has gone sour because of your earlier neglect, it will sure
pain now when you cleanse it and dress it.
     Suppose there is a bit of trash and rubbish lying on the floor of your house. Dust
particles will sure go up when you try to sweep off the floor to remove this rubbish.
How can you expect a rose smell from there? It is therefore natural that body will
experience some pain when go in for its cleansing, its purification. If someone of you
develops some physical or psychological problem, if someone develops restlessness
or insomnia, it is no cause to worry or get frightened. Keep on renewing the resolution
that you will complete what you have begun and that during the duration of the camp
nothing is more important to you than the fulfillment of this resolve. Do not worry
about what might be happening at home or at shop or office. Spend your days here
unconcerned about the happenings of the outside world. Take it for this duration as if
you have no family, no home and that you are a recluse. It is just a three-day long
renunciation. If you are so very keen, you may go back after three days or you might
stay here for another day. This is the first rule of this camp.
     Check up and confirm now if you have an urgent appointment tomorrow
morning or the day after. If it is so, let me know now. I shall relieve such a person just
now. But later on at night, I will not allow. If you have come with the mind to spend
here the first day and then decide whether or not to continue here the next day, it will
not do. Once we get started, your mind may or may not feel interested, you will have
to remain here till the conclusion of the camp. If there is such a person, please let me
know now. Later on it will not be possible for me to release anyone. It is just like a
plane taking off, you cannot get down until and unless it lands. When the plane is in
the sky, you cannot say that I must jump down now, at this very moment. It is not
possible. This is the first rule.
     The second rule is the purification of food intake. Our body and mind are
affected by the kind of food we take. Here you will be provided with pure vegetarian
and healthy food. It will be a bit different from the kind of food you take at your
home. You sometimes get sweets, fried food and other eatables with a lot of pepper.
At home you take tea, coffee, etc., but you will get none of these things here. Some
among you might be habitual of smoking, tobacco or any other kind of intoxicant, but
you will get no such thing here. However, you will get healthy vegetarian food daily.
And, you will eat only what will be supplied here. You will not accept any eatable
from outside for your intake.
      Purification of food is rather important. As we work on the body in different
ways and as we work on our mind, on our consciousness in varied manners, food
constitutes a significant part of the whole process. It plays a very important role in
this.
     Third, you will not take any sort of intoxicant. Some of you may have the habit
of smoking or chewing tobacco, but you will not take any such during your camp. In
case, someone of you has brought along unknowingly-I am sure no one will have
brought such a thing knowingly and consciously-any intoxicant, he should hand the
thing over to me. Please all of you check the pockets of your shirts and trousers
because some such thing might unwittingly have been put there. Any such thing now
handed over to me will be given back to you after the duration of the camp. However,
those who are chronic patients of diabetes, hypertension, liver or kidney and are
taking regular medicine for any of such ailments are advised to keep their medicine
with them and continue with their regular dose of it. However, you will not take that
medicine which has not been recommended by a physician as daily dose for a chronic
ailment. This includes the lighter medicines, say for mild headache, for pain in this or
that part of body or for not getting proper sleep. In case you feel you need some
medicine, please let us know and we shall make arrangements for your requirements.
But you will not take any medicine on your own. However, you may continue with
the medicines already prescribed by the physician. Still you will not make use of any
medicine for inducing sleep and for killing pain. You are advised to maximize the
intake of water. You should take a lot of water because when we meditate, a lot of
heat is produced within the body.
     The most important among these rules is that you will remain in ecstasy in all
circumstances.
       If you are restless, get calm down:
       If you are calm, get happy;
       If you are happy, get ecstatic,
       And if you are ecstatic, get silent.
                                                                     ²SrÏ Ravisha×kar JÏ
     We have to live through this camp in this way-in ecstasy and in silence. We shall
remain ecstatic come what may. If we sleep well, we shall be in ecstasy, but we shall
be in ecstasy even if we do not sleep well. We shall remain ecstatic if we are able to
concentrate or not able to concentrate on meditation. We shall enjoy the same ecstatic
position whether the mosquitoes bite us or not. We shall keep laughing throughout
these days. We shall laugh heartily, whether laughter comes or not. You will see that
in the beginning, it might sound like artificial, a sort of drama. But you will never
know when this drama will turn into truth. So we shall live here in complete ecstasy.
Bondage of Twentieth Century
     What sort of bondage it is? This is the bondage of time. For example, you sit still
wrapt in some thought and someone comes and tells you that it is one o’clock, you
will automatically feel hungry. This is so because it is your lunch time. Another
person attuned to this lunch-time routine might say that it is still half an hour to go
before one o’clock, therefore he is not yet hungry and that he will have lunch half an
hour later. In other words, he is not hungry now, but will get hungry at one o’clock. It
also means that he does not feel the need for lunch because he is hungry but because it
is one o’clock. Similarly, one might ask for the time. Is it 11 o’clock. šO, it is 11
already; I feel sleepy’. This means sleep does not come when we feel sleepy, it comes
at particular time or we want to go to bed not because of sleep but because of time
factor. We have become bound by time. Our mind has become so slave to time that
such things have become our second nature. This is a gift of the twentieth century. We
have to get liberated from this habit. So you will not keep your watch with you, and
will hand it over to us. In case it is with you, you will now or then feel tempted to
look at it for time. And once our mind learns of the time, it will think of the work it is
supposed to do at that point of time, and thus it will start its chain. So please hand
over your watches to us. And if you have any money on your person, or cell phone or
mobile phone, please give over all such things to us. Please do not keep with you
anything which is costly or which can help establish your contact with anybody
outside here. It is only then that you will be able to fully concentrate and benefit
yourself with the purification of self.
CHAPTER II

                MEDITATION : A BACKGROUND
     DhyÈna or meditation is an important word. The given word has its own value
and significance. The word is like a point pregnant with deep meanings. In fact,
dhyÈna is the centralization of the scattered powers. And these powers are facing the
direction of the centre of the self.
    DhyÈna also means silence of the inner self. ¶chÈrya Amit Gati says:
    Ènand-rÊpam               paramÈtmatattvam,              samasta-sa×kalpavi-
    kalpa-muktam;
    swabhÈvalÏnÈ nivasanti nityam, jÈnÈti yogÏ swayameva tattvam.
     Thus where there is no sa×kalpa or volition and no vikalpa or alternative, that
calm and silent stage is named dhyÈna. Looking at and listening to soham sound of
natural and spontaneous breathing in (inhalation) and breathing out (exhalation)
soothens and calms the thoughts. And when all thought stop, when they all calm down
and mind becomes thought-free, such a stage is called dhyÈna.
     There are some similarities between sleep and dhyÈna. When one is in deep
sleep, his mind is at peace. That is why we call it deep slumber. Otherwise, different
sorts of dreams keep coming and going. Similarly, when mind becomes flawless and
calm, only then can one achieve dhyÈna or we can say that one gets immersed in
dhyÈna.
Difference Between DhyÈna and Sleep
      In deep sleep, our mind is thoughtless and at peace, but it is peace associated
with unconsciousness. In dhyÈna, mind is at peace but associated with complete
consciousness. The second similarity between the two is that neither of them can be
attained through conscious effort, with force or power. Both of them happen
spontaneously. You cannot attain them through willing endeavour. Of course, it is
necessary to create internal and external background to let them happen. For example,
you choose a proper place so that you can have a good sleep at night. Then you spread
proper bedding to lie down on it and take on light or heavy/woolen sheet over your
body according to the weather at that time. You either switch off the light or put on
dim light. You lie down in a relaxed posture and close your eyes. Thereafter, if sleep
comes, well and good, but if it still does not come, you cannot use force for it. The
more you will use your mind to make efforts to get sleep, the farther it will go from
you and your mind will get equally restless.
     But if you leave your mind free, you never know when suddenly sleep overtakes
you. Similarly, we create internal and external background for attaining dhyÈna to
happen.
External Background
       At a proper place and in a proper posture, with your eyes lightly closed while
keeping your backbone straight, you should leave your body loose and relaxed and sit
still. This is the external background.
Internal Background
As we take our attention off the surrounding environ- ment, we pay our entire
attention to look at and listen to the sound of soham of the natural and spontaneous
breathing in and breathing out. As we do so, our thoughts begin to calm down and
when the thoughts get completely calm down, dhyÈna is accomplished. We cannot
calm down the thoughts with force The harder we try to check our thoughts, the more
they continue to increase. Thus, dhyÈna is not an effort, but just a happening. Still it is
very important and imperative to create external background for it to happen.
Silence is Consciousness
      This entire world is a game of consciousness. The inner silence and nothingness
is the basis of the creation of everything including sciences, mathematics, language,
art, poetry, music, metaphysics and so on. After entering into silence, the door opens
for innumerable possibilities. Thus, when a person enters silence, he undergoes multi-
dimensional progress. His consciousness also develops.
CHAPTER III

                    DHY¶NA : PRACTICAL FORM
                       AND ACHIEVEMENT
     [Dr. Shiv MunijÏ, ¶chÈrya of the ƒrama‡ Sa×gh, has been a very well known
scholar, orator, spiritually enlightened and a guiding spirit to many seekers of spiritual
knowledge. With the help of his deep study, experience and experiments he has led
many on the path to high spirituality. All including the old, the young and the small
children are benefiting from his teachings on methods of dhyÈna and its application.
    In the following pages are published those discourses and addresses of the
¶chÈrya which he gave to the seekers of higher knowledge. The readers of these
pages can also benefit by understanding the practical form of dhyÈna.]
     Even those who are absolutely ignorant of and unfamiliar with the practice of
dhyÈna often use the word in their daily life. For example, they quite often ask ‘read
with care (dhyÈna),’ ‘listen with care’ and ‘do the work with care’. This speaks for
the popularity of the word throughout the world. In the field of sÈdhnÈ, the word
dhyÈna is a concept. It implies making your mind reflect or concentrate on the soul
(Ètman) which is like the supreme Lord or turning the mind inwards from outward
world. Just as a fish ever remains deep inside the water, similarly when mind after
moving away from the ideas and rituals absorbs itself in the soul, it is dhyÈna or
meditation.
     Meditation occupies the highest place in both the Vedic and „rama‡ic traditions.
In the preceding pages we have made only doctrinal analysis of it. It is necessary to
know the practical or experimental method of meditation along side its thorough
doctrinal knowledge. We either study or learn from others to understand a doctrine
and then after following it we try to transform our life. Thus, it is only after
meditating and realizing its accomplishment in practice that life can become pleasant
and joyous.
      First of all we shall try to understand the content of meditation. Many of you
might have read somewhat or listened from others on the subject of meditation.
Maybe, a few amongst you might have practiced it as well. However, when you listen
now to the lectures on this topic, listen to them from a new perspective. In fact,
listening is also an art. Often, as we listen, we do so on the basis of our own history,
on the basis of our sa×skÈra. You have already formed a pre-conceived notion of
what meditation means, and you have formed this notion thinking it to be the right
one. If you listen to what I say with that pre-conceived notion already in mind, you
will agree with me if my ideas are identical with your earlier notion. However, if my
ideas are not identical with that notion, you will wonder as to why I speak as I have
been, and that meditation does not mean what I try to convey. In other words, you
have already made up your mind that meditation means this and this.You have come
to the meditation camp. Let it be an experiment for you. What is meant by the word
experiment? In experiment, you never know the final result to be arrived at, but still
you agree to give your cent per cent in making the experiment a success. Whatever
might be the final outcome, you always give your maximum in the experiment. This
meditation camp is a sort of journey into the unknown. Yes, since there have already
taken place so many camps, I can say with a certain degree of assurance that this and
this will happen during the camp. Even then the world of consciousness is the world
of the unknown. Who knows what might happen and how that might happen? Our
duty is to do, to perform but the result or the reward of that performance is not in our
power. You should go ahead with this camp with the presumption that this meditation
camp is a blessing. And, when a person is under the blessings, whatever happens is
for his well being. We have to go through this experiment with this kind of feeling in
mind.
    What is meditation? How to define it? What do you think of it? If you are asked
to meditate, what do you understand of it? First of all, I will ask the audience here as
to what meditation means. You will tell me whatever you think of the word.
     The various responses from the audience can be summed up as under:
   Concentration
   Control over mind
   Mental journey from one world to the other
   State of being liberated
   Reflection on soul
   Cessation of the course of cognition
   Sit in a state of nothingness
   End of Asssumptions
   Feeling of being in Divine proximity
   Removing the defilements
   One-pointedness of mind
     All these answers mean almost the same thing.
     Of course, it is very difficult to define the word dhyÈna in a few words or
sentences. Kahlil Zibran has said that he used to write quite long and voluminous
poems on love until he had not been in love; the day he experienced love, he did not
know how to express or describe it. All the words seemed small. Similar is the case
with dhyÈna.
     So what is dhyÈna? How to define it? According to the universally accepted and
known view, it means concentration of mind, to apply it to one point. That is why
people ask as to who or what should be concentrated upon?
     I conducted a meditation camp at JalÈnÈ. Three days of the camp were over. On
the concluding day, it was time for asking questions. One from amongst the
participants asked me: ‘You repeatedly ask us to meditate, to concentrate, but what or
who should we concentrate upon?
     I asked him what he has done during the last three days.
     He said: ‘I had been thinking of this. Concentration on breathing and such other
things is all right, but concentra- tion? What is to be concentrated upon?
     From dhyÈna, we generally understand to concentrate on something or
somebody. Often people think of concen- trating on a particular photograph, on
repeatedly reciting a given mantra, on some person, a spiritual preceptor, or some
such person. To concentrate the mind and apply to any of such things is generally
taken to mean dhyÈna. The general masses think that concentration is meditation. In
fact, majority of the people think so. I have met a large number of people who think
almost on the same lines, i.e. meditation means concentrating the mind on a given
point. Concentration of mind is the important thing.
     If mere concentration of mind were dhyÈna or meditation, it would have been a
very easy thing to do. It would not have been difficult at all. Mind gets concentrated if
we do something in which we feel pleasure. For example, someone might be
interested in music and he might take pleasure listening to it. You daily find children
watching television, with their mind fully concentrated on the programme they are
watching and they get completely oblivious of the surroundings. They either will not
respond even to their mother’s call or at least will refuse to get away from the
television. They get deeply involved in what they watch. Their mind gets concentrated
on the television. When you count money, how is it that your mind gets concentrated
on the job. O course, the mind wavers often. Normally, it goes to what happened
yesterday or before that. But while counting the currency notes, it is concentrated on
the job so that counting does not go wrong. This is a human example. Take the
instance of a cat: it is all concen- tration while preying on the rat. It looks intent, not a
single hair of its body moves.
                  DHY¶NA ² NOT CONCENTRATION OF MIND
     If mere concentration of mind is taken to mean dhyÈna, then you should put your
mind on a thing you love to do, it will get concentrated on that. Had mental
concentration been the same thing as dhyÈna, I need not have asked you to look at the
breath. I could have easily procured a good movie for you to watch. Your mind would
have concentrated on the movie. None of you would have complained of the pain in
the foot or ache of the back. People sit for three long hours to watch a movie. There is
only a 10-minute-long interval in between. At that time, nobody complains that
watching a movie for such a long time was quite painful to his foot or back. Here in
the camp, half an hour-half an hour is too long a period, even 10-15 minutes of
dhyÈna- seems ages to them and they complain whether the organizers have no watch
with them!
      Time, it seems, has stopped moving. And, watching a movie you sit for such a
long time and still say you never knew how the time flew past. If I say it might be
because of sitting cross-legged on the floor, I shall also suggest you sit in the chair
and see the result. If you feel it is hot out over here, I shall suggest you sit under the
fan. It will not make much difference to your feelings. As it is, there is a lot of
difference between your mental make-up as you watch a movie and that as you try to
meditate or concentrate on the breath. In the former situation, it is like adding fire to
the already burning fire of desires and temptations within you. I can give you an
illustration from our life of yester years. Those days people used to cook food on fire
in the hearth. After the food was cooked, people used to put the fire in the hearth off.
For this purpose, they would sprinkle water on the fire. Do you know what happens if
you sprinkle water on the fire? A sound of shnnnn comes. Why does this sound come?
The answer is simple: fire is hot and the water cold. If and when two opposites meet
together, there is bound to be some reaction. If a reaction occurs, there is bound to be
some sort of noise or sound. And, if you add some ghee or oil to the fire, there will be
no noise and the fire in the hearth will continue to burn. Why? In this case, we add
fire to the fire and that is why no reaction took place.
In the same way, within each one of us burns the fire of desires and feelings. A
sort of stimulation or excitement is there within us. This keeps the fire of desires and
feelings burning. This excitement or stimulation is ever within. What happens when
you watch a movie or indulge in some other entertainment? A little more fire gets
added to the already burning fire within us. Thus, nothing, no reaction takes place.
Time flies past. Three hours or even six hours. You just do not feel it. Some people
can go on watching movies throughout the night. Some parents share with us that their
children continue watch the television all through the night. As I said earlier, they do
not feel sleepy, because it is fire being added to the fire.
     Look, what happens here? It is just half an hour before you started the
meditation, and you feel drowsy. This happens because here water is being sprinkled
on fire. When cold water falls on the fire of desires and feelings, reaction will be there
and there will be some sound. It is that very reaction which we sometimes call pain in
the feet, pain in the neck, back ache, restlessness, wavering of mind, the question of
when will this come to an end, etc.
     All this is the result of water being added to the fire. If a housewife says, since a
reaction takes places and a sound comes, water need not be put on the fire in the
hearth. It would mean that fire in the hearth will continue to burn. Perhaps, it will
never be put off. But a wise housewife would say, ‘whatever the sound or reaction, I
must extinguish the hearth-fire since I do not need it after cooking the food.’ The
wisdom of the devotee lies in his determination not to be bothered by the sound or the
reaction, but keep firm on his resolve to extinguish the fire. This is the primary
difference between the spiritual endeavour and entertainment.
Yoga Discipline a Must
     The famous PÈta¤jalÏ YogasÊtra begins with the words ‘atha
yogÈnushÈsanam’. A free rendering of these words into English would run as-now
begins the discipline of the yoga. May it be yoga or meditation, the path of the
devotee is marked by discipline. Why is discipline so important and necessary? The
answer is: this is the way on which first comes pain. Mind fails to stick to it. It
continues to waver. There is restlessness. To check the mind and to overcome all
other obstacles, you will have to follow certain do’s and don’ts. These stipulations are
a must. For example, you will have to keep your eyes closed. You will have to
observe silence. This implies discipline and regulations to be observed. These are
necessary because we all know that mind will not remain concentrated without all
these. Suppose there are no such stipulations and regulations and you are given the
freedom either to keep silence or continue with whatever conversation you want. How
many of you will prefer to observe silence? If you are given the option to meditate as
long as you wish and go to sleep when you wish and continue to sleep as long as you
wish. How long will you continue with meditation? We all know the answer!
     It is difficult for man to meditate. We do not have much control over our body
and mind. We wish to, but we cannot because our body and mind do no cooperate.
Mind wavers. Discipline is necessary to keep both the body and mind to keep on the
right path.
A Little Suffering : Immense Joy
    The path of yoga and meditation is such as brings pain and suffering, dilemmas
and restlessness in the beginning. However, those who go across willingly and
laughingly without bothering for the pain in the foot or aching back or restlessness of
mind ultimately achieve the ecstasy. This ecstasy is immense and immeasurable. How
is the path of entertainment? It looks rather fine to begin with, and mind gets easily
attracted to it. However, this is only for a brief while. Later on, pain and suffering in
mountain-like proportions await us. A little bit of pleasure and many times more
suffering. This is what is in store ahead if mind is given freedom to indulge in
entertainment and to run after the fulfillment of desires. On the way to spiritual
endeavour, there is a little suffering in the beginning, but later on it is followed by
many times more joy and ecstasy.
     What is the pain or suffering? Just a little. What we now feel is either a bit of
pain in the foot or headache or backache or a little restlessness. Have you never felt
such a pain in life earlier? It might have happened many times before. You might
have fallen ill on several occasions. What was the result of that ailment? Nothing
much. But the way we are now endeavouring to tread is marked by a little pain in the
beginning, a little bit of dilemma and suffering. I appreciate that you might not have
sat in this posture earlier. Thus a little bit of pain is natural. However, if you go
through it joyously, you will then go steady further on the way.
Concentration of Mind : Result of DhyÈna
     It is a generally accepted assumption that concentration of mind is meditation. If
meditation were just concentration of mind, it would have been quite an easier thing.
But meditation does not mean mere concentration of mind. Meditation is not mere
concentration. By meditating, mind gets concentrated: this is the effect of meditation.
But this is not meditation itself. Through meditation concentration can be achieved,
but concentration does not imply meditation.
Emptiness of Mind : Result of DhyÈna
      The second assumption about meditation is that making mind empty, making
mind calm is meditation. The ability to empty mind of all ideas and feelings and to
make it calm is also said to imply meditation. It also implies that relaxation of mind is
meditation. If making mind empty of thoughts and ideas and feelings were meditation,
it would have been a very easy thing. In that case, there would have been no need
either to sit on the ground in a specific posture or to look and concentrate on the
breath. If one wants just a calm mind, an empty mind, one should just go and sleep
under a fan. Body might feel at ease. And, when you are in deep slumber, your mind
is generally empty, your mind with no ideas and feelings. In fact, such a mental state
is called deep slumber. Mind is not free of feelings and ideas until it keeps dreaming.
And, when there are no ideas and feelings in the mind, you go to deep slumber.
     If emptying your mind of all thoughts and feelings were meditation, then both
sleep and meditation would have been synonymous. They would have been one and
the same thing. But, they are not one and the same thing; there is a lot of difference
between the two. What is that difference? Emptiness of mind is a state that comes
during the meditation. In a way, it is an effect of the meditation. It can also be called
an achievement of dhyÈna. However, you empty your mind of all thoughts and you
have meditated, it is not so.
DhyÈna : Return to Primordial State
Now the question arises: what is dhyÈna? How can we define it? Everything has
its own primordial state. For example, the inherent nature or original state of water is
coolness. If you want to heat it up, you will have to make some effort for it. It will
have to be placed on fire. Water will hot up only if we heat it either with the help of
electricity or solar energy. But if we leave the water to itself, it will soon go back to
its original state. And, the original nature of water, as we said earlier, is coolness.
What is the inherent nature of fire? Heat or warmth. Similarly, there is also an original
state of your being. To come back to that original state is called dhyÈna.
     What will you have to do to return to the original state?
   You will have to overpower your mind;
   You will have to remain conscious;
   Soul will have to be purified;
   Resolution will have to be made;
   Body will have to be given up;
   Mind will have to concentrate;
   Feeling of friendship will have to be developed;
   Body and mind will have to be kept separate;
   Pure vegetarian and sÈtvik (healthy) food will have to be taken;
   Self will have to be tested;
   Mind will have to be firm;
   Thoughts will have to be centralized;
   Become inactive and inert; and
   Masks will have to be removed.
     Now if I ask you a question, the answer to it will help you a lot. What will have
to be done to make hot water cool? Nothing at all, because coolness is the original
nature of water. Something will have to be done only if we have to warm or hot it up.
You will have to either put on fire or switch on the electric heater or put it in the sun.
But if you have to cool it, place it anywhere and do nothing. It will cool down of its
own.
Original State : Doing Nothing
      Are you following what I say? If fire is to be extinguished (made cool),
something will have to be done. If the fire burns and you wish that it keeps burning,
just do nothing and let it burn. In other words, no conscious effort is required for a
thing to return to its original state of being. The original state implies the inherent
nature of the given thing or which is not the effect of an external cause. The original
state means the state in which a particular things remains of its own. If water is cold,
there is not external reason for it being so. Of course, it will heat up only because of
some reason, as an effect of a cause. No reason or cause is needed to make or let it
remain cool. Water is cold because its original, inherent nature is so. This is its nature.
Similarly, will you have to make an effort to return to your original state? Nothing,
absolutely nothing.
Difficulty of Doing Nothing
It is very easy to say ‘do nothing’, but it is equally difficult to put this into
practice, i.e. to do nothing. Apparently it seems the easiest of thing to do nothing.
After all, it asks you to do nothing. Just look at yourself for five minutes and you will
realize that our body does so many things during a brief spell of five minutes. It might
be quite difficult for the body to remain inactive, doing nothing for five minutes.
Mind is much more alert and active than body. Think of what your body did during
the past five minutes. Sometimes your hand went beneath the feet and many times
your foot was beneath the hand. Sometimes your finger went into your ear and at
other times it combed your hair. It was quite rare that you sat still. How many things
did your body do during the last five minutes?
     First, you have to do nothing with your body. Then, your power of speech has
also to be made inactive. Now I have asked you to observe silence. I can see some of
you observe this only as long as they apprehend that I am near about and looking at
them, but as soon as they get an opportunity to go away from my sight and they are
sure that no one is looking at them, they begin conversation. Still, body and speech
are under our control at least to some extent, say five to ten per cent. But what is to be
done with the mind? OK, you are asked not to do anything with your mind. The more
you think of not doing anything, the more this mind will run hither and thither.
Yoga’s Inactivity and Original State
      Body-mind-speech is yoga. When all these three-body, mind and speech-are
made inactive, only then man can be called to be in his original state. Now you will do
nothing with your body. Be completely still and calm. You will not speak at all. And
when your mind will also become still, you will realize the transformation going
inside you. What will you feel? Peace or restlessness? Joy or sorrow? Ecstasy? What
is your original state-whether it is peaceful or restlessness or full of joy or sorrow or
full of ecstasy?
DhyÈna and Sleep
     There is somewhat similarity between dhyÈna and sleep. When you are in
dhyÈna, you are in a position of inactivity, doing nothing. You are in the same
position when you are asleep. However, there is a major difference as well. During
sleep you are unaware of yourself because you are in a state of unconsciousness.
However, during meditation, you are fully aware of yourself because you are in a state
of consciousness. In other words, if consciousness is added to sleep, the latter will
become dhyÈna or medita- tion. To put the same idea in different words, add some
unconsciousness with the meditation, and it will become sleep.
     DhyÈna or meditation thus implies a state of nothing- ness, of doing absolutely
nothing. Still, one remains fully aware, conscious during this state. Our mind is
habitual of often remaining in two states. One, it should do something- think, reflect,
speak, listen, walk or any such other activity. You might have felt that as you get up
in the morning, mind starts functioning of its own. You look at this or that thing, you
read and write and you do various other things. If you have no important thing to do,
you will start watching television or listening to the radio or go out for a walk. And if
you still have nothing to do, you will ring up someone and just disturb him or her. But
you must do something because you cannot remain inactive. And, if you decide to do
nothing, no phone call or television or radio, you will just go to sleep. This implies
you will either be indulgent or just go to sleep. DhyÈna or meditation is a stage in
between these two, a sort of middle path. It is neither indulgence nor sleep. It is
complete detachment but full consciousness, state of alertness.
Inhaling and Exhaling
      As we have seen above, dhyÈna means to return to one’s original state of peace,
ecstasy and consciousness. Neither body will be involved in doing anything nor power
of speech will be active nor mind will be active. All the three-body, speech and
mind-will become completely inactive and still, but your self will remain fully
conscious. This is called dhyÈna. Emptiness coupled with conscious- ness. You are
fully conscious yet you are not in a position to do anything. If we want to reach this
state, our breathing can be of much help to us. It provides a lot of co-operation.
Breathe naturally, spontaneously. Let it come in and go out as it does in its own
natural way. Now some people will say that they have to look at the breathing but
their mind does not concentrate on this. Why not? You can also concen- trate your
mind on anything else, any colour, any form, but you must make the mind concentrate
on something.
      Someone also asked me a question that we try to concentrate our mind on breath
on my asking, but if it is to be concentrated, why not concentrate it on God, on the
Name Divine. Let me tell you that you can concentrate your mind on God or God’s
name or on some incantation instead of on breath, and I am sure you will succeed
because the former is a much easier task than the latter one. However, our aim is not
just to concentrate the mind. Our aim is to reach a state of complete inertia, absolute
inactivity and still remain fully conscious.
     The form, colour, mantras, etc. cannot take you to the position where I wish you
to reach. On the other hand, the breath can easily take you there. That is why we take
the help of breath-control. In case you recite some given incantation, it will not be
meditation, it will be recitation. I agree, recitation, recitation of divine Name is not
bad. It is something commendable. But this is not meditation. And, we are here for
meditation. Therefore, you have to supplement breath-control with nothing, absolutely
nothing else. It should be a pure, spontaneous natural breathing.
      Someone else had asked me that mind is difficult to focus, it wavers time and
again. He had asked for an answer: what should he do? Whatever you will do is sure
to help mind waver even more. Wavering of mind is an activity. How can we annul
this activity with another activity? The only way out is inactivity, complete inertia. If
the mind runs hither and thither, let it go. You should keep your body still. The more
you will keep the body still, the more it will be helpful to keep the mind focused. Our
body and mind are two only for saying, otherwise they are in essence one. They
cannot be separated, one from the other. It would be like try to separate water from
the steam. The latter is the product of the former and cool down the latter and it will
take the former shape. In other words, both are the two different states of one matter.
Unity of Body and Mind
     SwÈmÏ SatyÈnand SaraswatÏ says that body is the gross form of mind which is
subtle. In other words, mind is the subtle form of body which is gross in nature.
Whatever happens in and to the body has an immediate effect on the mind. You might
have realized that whenever there is pain in any part of the body, the mind gets
disturbed and becomes restless. Similarly, if the mind is disturbed or upset, the body
will share the same feeling. All this goes to show that body and mind are one. If you
study a little deep, you will understand this sense of unity between the two. That is
why when your body is healthy, this helps to keep your mind stable and focused. I do
not mean here that you must not move your body or change a bit of your posture if
there is a lot of pain. In that case you are free to change your posture somewhat. But
be careful of what you have to do while changing the posture. Your attention, your
mind should remain focused on breath as you do this. In other words, change the
posture while still looking at the breath. Eyes should also remain closed. You will
realize this will help in providing peace to mind.
     Second, if mind is disturbed, do not feel upset or restless because of this. If mind
is upset and does not concentrate, our undue consciousness of it will become another
reason for this restlessness. It will amount to the same if I say that I get highly
annoyed because I get annoyed repeatedly. Why do I feel angry with myself? This is
because I get angry quite often. Anger leading to anger! If your mind is upset, please
do not feel very upset or disturbed on this count. Do not bother for the moment
whether the mind is calm or upset. It should be all right with you in both situations.
Your primary, your sole duty now is to look at the breath. I shall also look at the
breath, whether my mind is calm or disturbed.
Consciousness/Alertness
       Now look, what time approximately it should be. This is the time around which
most of you might normally be returning home from your shops. It is not very late
still. Some people might yet be taking their dinner. Still look at the faces of some of
the participants: they feel sleepy. Some can be seen yawning. Why this? The answer
is: whenever the mind gets a bit disturbed, it knows of only one thing and that is sleep.
Whenever you find yourselves in such a state, try to come out of it. Once you enter
that state of mind, you are gone. Some people ask me if they have only to meditate,
why sitting in a given posture and why not lying down?
      My answer to them is that it is possible to meditate while lying down. But what
will happen then? You will not realize when you come out of that meditation or
dhyÈna. Two or three hours of meditation. And, you will not know what might have
been happening on your right or left. You feel sleepy even when you sit and sleep is
natural when you lie down. So meditation is possible while lying down, but at this
stage our mind is not so enlightened that we can do so in that state. So my advice is
that we should do it while sitting. Even in the sitting posture when you feel that it has
been quite long sitting or you feel sleepy while sitting, it is advisable to stand up.
Meditate standing on your place. You can meditate in a standing posture as well. It is
not obligatory for you to sit, you can meditate while standing. If you feel difficulty in
sitting without any support, you can take the support. If someone, for example, has a
knee problem, he can make use of a chair. The only precaution is to keep yourself
awake and alert/conscious.
Conclusion
     I hope all of you have understood what I told you about dhyÈna. What is
dhyÈna? Become inert but remain alert and awake. To arrive at that stage, our breath
will help us a lot. How does it help? Why is it necessary to merely look at the
breathing. Why not anything else? We shall take up these questions tomorrow. This
will suffice for today. Now, once again, we will sit inert and in peace for five minutes
and meditate for a while.
Some Important Instructions
     Along with dhyÈna (meditation) yoga, has also to be done regularly. For yoga
exercise, it will be better to wear loose clothes. Tight jeans trousers, necktie, etc. are
not helpful, rather they are hindrances. Put on loose dress. Similarly, ladies may also
wear the kind of loose dress that suits them. Then we shall start yoga exercises. The
regular yoga practice makes it easier to sit in a dhyÈna posture. Pure vegetarian and
sÈtvik (healthy) food is also necessary along with yoga. Non-vegetarian and spicy
(rajasÏ and tÈmasÏ) food is an obstacle on the way to meditation.
CHAPTER IV

                DHY¶NA : ITS PRACTICAL FORM
                    AND ACHIEVEMENT-II
      Yesterday we has some reflections on dhyÈna (medita- tion) and tried to explain
as to what is meant by dhyÈna. Today we have to understand how our breathing helps
us reach this stage. Why did we choose breath alone? We could have possibly chosen
something else as well, e.g., some incantation, some form, but we finally decided in
favour of breath. Why? What is so special in breath? What made us finally choose
breath?
Background of DhyÈna²Method
      There are some special reasons for this choice of ours. In a way, we can also say
that there is no particular reason for this. Why is this method as it is? The answer is:
this method is as it is because it has reached us from our spiritual mentors; this
method has evolved as such. There is an old Jaina text called ¶chÈra×ga SÊtra.
¶chÈrya ¶tmÈ RÈm, who was the spiritual mentor of Dr. Shiv Muni who happens to
be the present ¶chÈrya and head of the ƒrama‡ic Sa×gh, has been the first Jaina
ÈchÈrya. He was a great savant : he was a great scholar and an enlightened being as
well. What is the characteristic of knowledge? One such characteristic is that a
knowledgeable, an enlightened person should never get involved in polemic.
Whenever he finds the possibility of polemic, he should take along dialogue.
      ¶chÈrya ¶tmÈ RÈm was known as a great scholar and an enlightened person. It
is said that when he was an old man of 83 years, he fell down on the floor and the
bone of one of his feet got broken at three places. His spontaneous reaction was that if
it had broken into three, let it be. He was beyond all pain and pleasure, joy and
sorrow, appreciation and denunciation. People around him advised that he must go in
for operation. When they insisted a lot, he agreed to go in for operation. But he put
forward a condition. He will get his foot operated but will not take anaesthesia. I
would like to see the doctor how he operates my foot.
      There was those days a German doctor by the name of Virgin. He operated upon
the ¶chÈrya’s foot. The operation took about three and a half hours to complete. The
¶chÈrya sat calm and continued to watch how the doctor went with the operation. In
fact, to begin with, the doctor was not willing to operate without giving anaesthesia to
the patient: he was afraid lest some calamity should happen to him. However, the
¶chÈrya remained adamant, saying that he may go ahead with the operation if he
wants to do but it will have to be without anaesthesia. He even told the doctor that he
was not in need of any operation. At last the doctor gave in and operated upon his foot
without giving him any anaesthesia. The ¶chÈrya sat calm and watched through every
movement of the doctor. At last the operation was completed. The ¶chÈrya asked the
doctor to ring up his home as his wife seems to have forgotten to lock home. The
doctor wondered and asked how he knew this as he sat far away from the doctor’s
home. The ¶chÈrya again asked him to be quick and ring up his wife as she was about
to leave home. At the moment she stood in his bed room. He also told that their bed
room was in that particular direction in their home.
     The doctor rang up his house. Whatever the ¶chÈrya had told was true.
This is what we call the third eye, the divine eye. This is the capability to see
what is not visible to the physical eye.
     ¶chÈrya ¶tmÈ RÈm in his exegesis of the SÊtras has described this method, but
nobody has been able to compre- hend it. Several years have gone by since he passed
away, but nobody has since then taught this way to meditation. ¶chÈrya Shiv Muni,
the author of this book, went through this literature and discovered this method. When
Shiv Muni was working for his doctoral degree, he realized that all the TÏratha×kars
of Jainism did nothing except meditation. It is not the case only with Jainism, you
look at any religious tradition and you will find meditation discussed there. This made
him resolve to comprehend the view of ¶chÈrya ¶tmÈ RÈm and discover the method.
He did succeed, but he was not yet satisfied. The research continued and continued
and ultimately he found this method in the ¶chÈra×ga SÊtra. It is this method which
we are going to practice today.
Method of Inhalatation and Exhalation
     To remain alert and conscious while still being inert and inactive is called
dhyÈna or meditation. What we mean here is that consciousness be rationed while
remaining inert and inactive. This is dhyÈna or meditation. The dhyÈna is a stage
midway between indulgence and sleep. Breath helps us reach the stage of complete
denial, inertia and inactivity. How does it help? In a way, breathing is an activity. It
seems as if we breathe in and breath out, and continue doing so repeatedly. However,
breathing while still being an activity is not an activity. How? Let me explain this.
Suppose a person gets unconscious. Will he in that state be able to take his food by
himself? Can he drink water? No, he cannot take food or water. Can he move about?
No, he cannot move about, either. In fact, he cannot perform any of the necessary
activities of body. Still that unconscious person breathes. This implies that you do not
make any effort to breathe. It may sound strange to say you breathe but still you do
not breathe, i.e., make no effort to breathe. Breathing goes no naturally. The activity
of breathing in and breathing out continues of its own. In case you were to take the
breath and sometime you forgot to breathe, this might have caused a serious problem.
It has been a favour by God that He did not leave this duty into you. In that case you
would have forgotten to breathe at same point of time and consequently this life might
have gone by now. Man forgets so many things and it is natural he might have
forgotten one day to breathe. And, this would not have given him an opportunity to
repent.
      Breathing is a natural activity. If I say you breathe and If I say breathing comes
in and out of its own, both the statements can be accepted as true. Actually, you have
to make no conscious effort to breathe. When you are asleep, you cannot do anything,
but you breathe. You do not know of it, but breathing continues. This means, this is
not you who take the breathe, but breathing goes on of its own. This also implies that
breathing is both an activity and inactivity. It can be said to be an activity, but actually
it is an inactivity. It can be said that you do it, but actually it goes on of its own. So
long body is conscious, it will continue to breathe for its own sake and of its own.
     What happens when you look at the breath? You move from the world of action
to the world of inaction. You do nothing with the body and the mind is made to
concentrate on the breath which means that your mind is also not doing anything.
Mind merely looks at the inhalation and exhalation of breath and does nothing
because the breathing goes of its own. Similarly, the body is also not doing anything
because breathing is a natural process for which body has to do nothing. Remaining
conscious, breathing, and being in the present means doing nothing. You should halt a
while here.
     Breath is like a pathway, a bridge which leads us from indulgence to
nothingness, from action to inaction. That is why we have chosen the breath. What
would have happened had we chosen a mantra, an incantation? We should have
repeatedly recited that and that would have become an action, an activity in itself. Had
the choice been of a portrait, we could have imagined it time and again and tried to
concentrate our mind on that. That would also have become an activity. For this
reason, we have chosen the breath. There is another beautiful thing about breath. You
may or may not consciously wish it, but breathing must bring you in the present. Is it
possible for you to look at the breath you took say ten minutes earlier? You may wish
it very much, you cannot do it. Similarly, it you wish to look just now at the breath
that you intend taking say after ten minutes from now, you cannot do that either. Then
which breath can you see? You can look at the breath that you are just now breathing
in and breathing out. In other worlds, if you have to look at the breath, you will have
to bring yourself to the present. We can also say that whenever you are with the
breathing, you are in the present. You cannot be either in the past or the future.
Nobody ever asked you to discard either past or future, but looking at the breath made
you discard both and live and in the present.
Breath : A Complete Life
      The first good thing about breathing, as we told you, has been that it bring you ²
quite spontaneously ² to the present. The second good thing about it is that the whole
life is linked with breathing. Whatever you might do in life, breathing is ever with
you. You may go anywhere in the world, you may be in India or America, you may be
awake or asleep, you may be having your food or walking about, you may be doing
anything, breath is there always with you.
     You might have seen, whenever a child is born ² he may be born in a rich family
or a poor family, he may have born in India or anywhere else in the world ² he weeps
the first thing after coming into the world. As he weeps, everybody else laughs. In
case he does not weep, everybody else might have to weep. If he does not weep, the
doctor sure is to hit or pinch him lightly so as to make him weep. The doctor knows
that his failure to make the child weep is sure to cause grief to others. What I mean to
say here is that the first thing that the child does after his birth is weeping. And, he
weeps quite loudly. Why? What is the problem with him? Why does he weep?
     What do you think? Why does the child weep?
     šHis lungs expand.›
     If the lungs expand, there is no need to weep; he can laugh also.
     šHe weeps because he enters into new environments.›
    Enters into new environments. The poor little thing. Inside it is utter darkness
while outside it is light. This being better environment, he should laugh.
     šHe weeps for coming into light from darkness.›
    I think this fact of coming out of darkness into light should make him happy.
Then why does the poor thing weep?
šHe feels the pain.›
     Does he feel pain? Does it pain to take birth?
     šHe has now to breathe in through his nose. This is why he weeps.›
     He has to breathe in through nose.... He does not know this. That is why he
breathes in and out through his mouth.
     šThe reason is his separation from mother.›
     Separation from mother... got away from mother. Suffers from pangs of
separation? I think, once away, he does not bother as to who gave him birth.
     šHe weeps because now he has been burdened with worldly responsibilities.›
     Worldly responsibilities, you say. Ok, once he is born into this world, he will
naturally grow up into youth. He will have to go to school, study and then ultimately
get married to someone. I think it is enough burden for him!!
     šHe weeps and cries for his soul.›
     What? He weeps and wails for his soul to come? It sounds ridiculous. Strange
that he weeps for his soul to come into his body as he has already taken birth!
     The question still remains. Why does the child weep? All right, I shall myself
answer the question. Otherwise, I am sure varied and strange answers will keep
pouring, ranging from the expansion of lungs to crying out for the soul to the pangs of
separation. What is the reality behind this? In fact, the child seems to us to be
weeping, otherwise he does not weep at all. He sounds to be weeping, but actually he
does not weep. We presume he is weeping. So long as he is in his mother’s womb, it
is natural for him to do whatever his mother does. When his mother breathes, he also
takes breath. When his mother takes the meal, it reaches him automatically. Now he
has come out. So long as he remained in his mother’s womb, his lungs were
completely shrunk, absolutely non²functional. As he comes out of his mother’s body,
he cries loudly. In fact, it is no weeping or crying. It is the opening up of the lungs but
we seem to take as if he were weeping.
     When the child is born, the thing that he does after coming out of his mother’s
body is to breathe in. And do you know what is the last thing that a person does before
he dies? He breathes out, but cannot breathe in. He stops breathing.
Birth and Death
      We learn that life begins with breathing and it ends with the stopping of
breathing. In other words, breathing is life and end to breathing is death. In between
these two points lies our worldly existence. All joys and sorrows of life, all laughter
and weeping, all meetings and separations, all friendships and enmity, all good and
evil thoughts of mind are related to breath. This means when you look at the breath,
you look at the entire life.
     Breathing is not just breath going in and out. Entire life of ours is related to
breath. Just the feelings of mind change, pace of breathing also changes. Breathing
and body, breathing and mind, breathing and prȇa, all these things are deeply and
intimately connected with each other. We can also say that breathing is a thread which
ties body-speech-mind together. When you are with the breath, you are with you
entire self, your entire entity. The whole entity of your stops with you in the present.
You might have thus realized when you began the process of looking at the breathing,
what happened to your thoughts in a matter of moment. Did they come in abundance
or they got decreased. We have just to see if more or less thoughts come to us after
that.
     The answer obviously is that they became less. Why did they get less? Did you
think of this? Whenever you happened to be with you breathing, whenever you looked
at your breathing, what happened to the thoughts? To begin with, they were quite a
many, but what started happening gradually? They got less and less Earliest, their
pace was quite fast. Then this pace became slow. Why this change ² in numbers and in
pace? The answer is simple : the mind got connected with breathing. When mind gets
connected with breathing, what change did you see in the number and pace of
thoughts? It happened so because mind got related with breathing.
Preparation Within and Without
      First of all, we sit in any posture of our choice. We keep our back, waist and
neck straight. We close our eyes. We put our hands on our knees or just place them in
the lap. We take the spectacles off. This is the preparation without.
     The second preparation is the preparation within. What is that? You put your
mind on the breathing in and out. On the basis of these two preparations, mind
spontaneously concentrates. Thus, meditation is called a happening, it is not an action.
It happens of its own. It cannot be done with forced effort. However, you have to
prepare a background for it to happen.
     We discussed the similarity between meditation and sleep in the preceding pages.
Let me add here that there is one more similarity between the two. You cannot make
yourself sleep with any forced effort: sleep comes of its own. For example, you go to
sleep at night. Before that, you fix your bed, change your dress, take on the quilt or
something if the weather so demands or put the fan on if the weather is hot. Then you
lie down on the bed and close your eyes. Now it is for the sleep to come or not to
come. If you do not get sleep, you cannot force it. You cannot compel it. The harder
efforts you will make for getting sleep, the farther it will go. You just leave yourself
relaxed in the bed, you do not know when you are overtaken by sleep.
      Similar is the case with meditation. You cannot let it happen by force. You
cannot force your mind to stop thinking. This is not possible. You can only prepare
the background. On the basis of that background meditation will happen when it has
to happen. Thus, meditation is a happening, and in making this happen, breathing has
a vital role to play.
Significance of Sound of Breathing
     Then what did we do today? We have now added sound of breathing to the
process of concentrating on breathing. Now a question will crop up in the mind of
many as to why did we add only sound of breathing? On the one hand, we say that
there should be no incantation, no recitation, but we have added sound of breathing.
Why? What was the necessity of adding it? Was breathing alone no sufficient? Of
course, breathing alone was sufficient. The addition of sound of breathing to it adds
pace to your progress. We shall move faster on the way.
    What is sound so²aham? Let us first try and understand its meaning? It is not a
word, it is a sound. There is, of course, difference between sound and word. What is
that difference? Sound is not a part of any language whereas any given word comes
from one or the other language. For example, the bell rings. The sound that comes
from the ringing of the bell is sound. However, if you want to put that sound in words,
you will have to answer how does the bell ring? The answer will be²tan..nn..nn. Now,
this tann....nn.. is a word. It is not a sound. There is difference between sound and
word. If you speak tann...nn..nn, it is not like the sound of the bell. Is it? No. Still, if
you want to express the sound of the bell in words, the word is tann...nn..nn. That is
the nearest possible word to convey the sound. That is why we have used this word.
You will not use in its place the word dam...dam simply because it does not match at
all with the sound of the bell. One thing is sure, there is difference between the sound
of the bell and the nearest possible word we use to express it.
SoahaŠ : Not a Word But Sound
     SoahaŠ is not a word. It is a sound. But where did this sound come from? This
sound has come from nowhere. It is present within you. As and when you breathe in,
this sound šso› is already present within you. And as you breathe out, the sound of
šAhaŠ› is also within you. You may or may not do it, this is a continuous, eternal
sound. Ad and when the breath goes in, the sound of šso› happens and as and when
the breath goes out, the sound of šAhaŠ› happens. And this happens continuously.
      Now you will say, if this is ever happening, why is it not audible to us? We have
not heard this until now. We did sit with eyes closed several times, but we never
realized this. The fact is that this sound is very subtle and we live in lot of hustle and
bustle. It is as if you stand in a busy market and someone from back gives you a soft
call. You will not hear this : it will not reach your ears. Then the same fellow cries
loudly. You look back and recognize the person standing behind calling you.
Noise Within and Without
      If there is much noise outside, the soft, subtle voice will not be audible to you.
Similarly, this sound of šsoahaŠ› is happening within you, but we live amidst much of
a noise. There is a lot of noise in the outside world, but relatively this is not much. It
is rather small. Much more and in fact several times more noise is happening within ²
the noise of ideas and of desires. How can you listen to that soft voice in that
maddening noise? This is continuously happening inside but still we do not hear it.
That is why we have added it to the breath from outside: we shall pronounce šso›
while breathing in, but shall do so only in mind. And, we shall similarly say šahaŠ› as
we breathe out.
     What is the use of adding the sound from without? It helps us attune ourselves
with the sound within. We get attuned to it. And gradually as you continue with our
practice, you will not then add the sound from without. You will get a spontaneous
feeling that as you breathe in, you listen to a sound of šso› and as you breathe out, a
sound of šahaŠ› is heard. This is all a matter of practice. With the passage of time and
gradually after some more practice, you will be able to listen to this sound from
within even when you stop breathing for a while. This sound within is eternal,
continuing for ever. That is why we have added this sound from without to the
breathing. We could have looked at the breath alone. Why this sound? Breath is subtle
and still it is gross. More subtle than breath is this sound. And in this camp, we have
to move from the gross world to the subtle one.
From Subtle to the Subtlest
Speech is more subtle than body. Mind as well as the ideas within is more subtle
than the speech more subtle is consciousness which is indicative of the stage of
complete silence. Very subtle. More subtle than the subtlest. We cannot call it even
subtle : it is subtle and still it is not so. Thus, if we want to go to the subtle world, this
sound helps us a lot. That is why we have added this sound of šsoahaŠ› with
breathing.
     Now some people might ask that they could have meditated by placing an image
of a deity before us instead of concentrating on breathing and that sound. Now, see,
both breathing and sound of šsoahaŠ› are realities of the present moment. They are
not figment of imagination. In case, we had to concentrate on an image of God, what
we might have to do? We shall have to imagine. None of us, neither you nor me, have
seen God. What does God look like? Does God have two hands or four hands? Should
we have an image of standing God or sitting God? Should God have eyes closed or
open? This is real problematic. One of you might say that my god is of black
complexion. The other can possibly say that his god is of a fair complexion. If one
says that his god has eyes closed, the other might say that his deity has eyes open.
      This will create a problem. But there is no problem in the case of breathing.
Breathing is the same in the case of everybody of us. One may belong to any
community, any background, one may be a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian, there is
no difference at all in their breath : it is the same in the case of every one of them.
Breathing is a universal phenomenon. There is no controversy about it. And, it is a
reality of the present. One does not have to imagine it. We need not to suppose that
we are breathing in or out. There is no need for any imagination or supposition. This
is a fact, a reality. It is present now. We breathe in and we breathe out.
     Similarly, one might say that there could have been another word in place of
šsoahaŠ›. In case we replace it by any other word, it would mean imposing it from
without. As for the word šsoahaŠ›, we can say that it is added from outside, but at the
same time we can also say that we do not add it from outside. In fact, this is
happening continuous- ly for ever within you. That is why we have added this to
breath because this also makes us realize the present.
Conclusion
     I Hope you have understood by now as to why did we take breath for this
purpose and why did we add to it the sound of šsoahaŠ›. You might have learnt that
we did so for a purpose. Now you are looking at the breath, you may please continue
doing so. As I have advised you, I shall request you please be careful of those things.
You may breathe in a natural, spontaneous way and with that add the sound of
šsoahaŠ›, but this sound is within your mind, a silent one.
Concluding Discussion
     Now we shall take up one or two questions and find answers to them. Some
people say that the duration of the meditation should be lessened a bit. Now the fact of
the matter is that when you are fed up with something you do not like doing it the
time seems to pass of quits slow. On the other hand, when you are interested in the
thing you are doing, the time seems to pass of quickly. Take one example : you are
alone on a journey. How do you feel? How long the journey is. You have a jovial
company on the same journey. Jokes and light conversation goes on. Time flies as you
gossip about. Time seems to fly because your mind was interested in all that you were
doing, you were involved in. Now how many of you feel that it was enough for
meditation : please tell me with all seriousness and truth. Those who will say the truth
will ultimately learn something. Let me tell you that when it is the beginning of the
end or death of mana, the feeling that overtakes you first of all is that of sadness, of
despondency. If you feel like getting fed up, it implies that the process of the death of
your mana has started. It is a fact that when mana begins to die, sadness begins to take
over. As it is, mana or mind lives on novelty. What does mind like the most?
Something new. Take, for example, the food you like the most. Suppose you like the
vegetable of ladyfinger the most. As you had for the second time, you did like it a lot,
but not as much as the first time. When you had it for the third time, it was just ok. If
you are offered it once again, you might have it without much interest or taste. But if
it is offered once again, you will prefer to go away without taking food.
      However tasty a dish might be, you will enjoy it the best the first time you take
it, but gradually your taste in it will not remain the same. It will become less with the
passage of time. This is what has been called by Marshal the law of utility. According
to this, your interest in a thing declines with the passage of time. You do not like for
ever either the ladyfinger or the sweetmeats or the ice cream. There is nothing which
appeals to mind for ever. Mind aspires for something new.
     Take the example of a person you like a lot. You might feel like living with him
for ever. You will feel very good in his company for a day, for a few days, but after
some days you will feel that it is enough now. But it is not possible in our life to
change everything. There are limita- tions in certain matters. But it is universal
characteristic of mind that it is ever interested in something new. It ever aspires for
something new. Now when you began meditating, there was nothing in it which
resembled with something new. You are breathing in and breathing out, and it is as it
has always been. It is the same breath, the same šsohaŠ›. That is why we feel that it is
enough. You feel fed up.
Mind Getting Fed Up : Mind’s Death
     In a way mind’s getting fed up is a good sign. It implies that the process of the
death of mind has begun. First of all, mind gets fed up, and if it happens to pass
through this stage, it is sure to reach the stage of ecstasy.
     Am I right or not? During meditation, you breathe in and breathe out through the
throat, is it proper or not?
      No, you have to do nothing. As several of you had asked the question, how the
breath has to be taken in, where to concentrate on the breath ² when the breath is at
this or that place in the throat. No, you have to concentration all you attention on the
top of your nostrils. So you may do as you all have been asked to. You will not make
any changes of your own. Is it all right? Hope you all understand.
     šEverything is all right, but it will be better if quantity of food provided is
increased a little. Look, we feel quite hungry at night. It makes us feel uncomfortable
during the night. Thus, we cannot have good sleep. Your most devoted disciple.› This
reads a slip written by one of the participants.
     Now the fact of the matter is that when you have nothing else to do, first of all
the mind will go to food. This is something very natural. Still if someone of you has
quite serious problem, he or she is welcome to see me. However, it does not mean that
you come in a long queue for this very purpose. It will be no surprise if all of you
might get up to share the same problem.
     The fact is that the food being provided to you is enough for you. We have
become habitual of eating much more than we need. Whatever you eat at home,
perhaps only twenty-five per cent of that is enough for the body. The body does not
need more than that, and we should not eat that. At times you might have felt, the
belly is full, but mind still needs a bit more. Mind craves for more and more and
more. Still anybody with some serious discomfort is welcome to see me.
     šOne such camp should be organized in the jungle in our Rajasthan. And it
should last at least a fortnight. I shall feel delighted living in the forest.› So says
another slip.
     Sure, if any of you wish that such camps should be organized at some particular
places, such people should get in touch with me. I shall tell them as to what needs to
be done and how to proceed further.
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Self development-by-meditation

  • 1. INTRODUCTION To comprehend and to practice meditation is obligatory for every man in modern-day world. Meditation is the wonderful method of realizing dharma in human life. In fact, it will be more apt to say that meditation is an aspect of religion connected with breathing. Meditation is a form of religion. In modern times we find religion and its different aspects being hotly debated and discussed, but there has been no discussion, no discourse on the form of religion, on its spiritual aspect. Several so-called religious people have turned religion into a subject of controversy and polemic. They seem to have forgotten that religion is not a subject for polemic or controversy, rather it is a subject of spiritual dialogue, spiritual purification, soul discovery and spiritual karma. Meditation is spiritual or self-purification and self- discovery. Meditation helps such flowers blossom on earth as will give out spiritual fragrance. Therefore, I request, I exhort the entire world that it should get itself introduced with the fragrance of religion through the medium of meditation. Shri Shirish Muni and Shri Sailesh²the former an ascetic and the latter a believing Jain²are deeply involved in trying to realize my dream in the field of meditation. Their right and proper efforts deserve my blessings. The responsibility of getting the original Hindi version of this book published was taken over by Shri Vinod Sharma : I wish him spiritually all the best. Dr. Dharam Singh of Punjabi University, Patiala, accepted our request to make time to render it into English: he will ever be an object of my blessing for the labour he has put in to make this English translation possible as well as for what he has been doing to help various members of the Jain Sraman Sangh in the perusal of their academic studies. Our thanks are also due to Mr. Ravinder Jain and Purshottam Jain of Malerkotla and Dr. Rajesh Ranjan and Dr. Paryudumna Shah Singh of Punjabi University who helped in a variety of ways in the publication of this book. The series of meditation camps we have been holding is an exercise aimed at the universal weal, the welfare of all. At this auspicious hour I welcome all those dedicated young men and others to join and make a joint endeavour to bring about a beautiful, clean and healthy social set-up through the medium of meditation. SHIV MUNI
  • 2. CHAPTER I MEDITATION : WAY TO INNER-PURIFICATION Introduction Welcome to all the seekers of the path to meditation and discipline. The Hindi equivalent of the word ‘welcome’ is ‘swÈgat’. The word ‘swÈgat’ literally means coming (Ègat) to self (swai). Thus, one’s return to the self is called ‘swÈgat’. There are certain things and desires in this world which sprout quite easily. For example, one such thing is the food. It is quite easy for one’s mind to get attracted towards food. Suppose you have just finished with your food and all of a sudden some eatable of your liking and choice comes to your sight. A thought flashes through the mind²‘let me taste a little bit of it.’ It is thus easy for the mind to get attracted to food. And for this, one need not make a resolution that one will go for the food today. One never knows when the mind is tempted by the good food. You sit on an upper floor and the sweet smell of some dishes being prepared downstairs reaches your nostrils, mind in a flash reaches downstairs to find out what is being cooked. It is somewhat natural. The second example is that of sleep. You enjoy a good 8-hour sleep at night. Still if you find nothing to be done during the day, what happens then? The mind favours having some rest and finally some sleep. It is also quite easy for mind to go for rest and sleep. You do not have to force your mind to have a sleep. Of course, sometimes more than one attempts have to be made to wake you up. But while going for rest or sleep, no effort is needed; sleep comes of its own. The third such example comprises the different objects and entertainment of our senses. Music sounds good to the ear, sweet smell is good to nose, beauty appeals to the eye, taste tempts the tongue and touch soothes the skin. These are five different object of our five senses. Our mind is prone to go to any of these quite easily. If and when a melodious music reaches the ear, no conscious effort is required to make the ear listen to it. The mind concentrates on it of its own. And, if there happens to be a sweet smell, no effort is required to make the nose smell it: our mind reaches the place of that smell in a flash. So, these are the three things to which our mind is attracted quite easily and of its own. First is the food, the second sleep and rest, and the third our different inclinations (say, for tasty food), entertainment (say, listening to music), and other objects appealing to mind. However, to get away from these, to think of returning to oneself, one will have to make efforts in this behalf: accomplishment of it is no doubt a great achievement. There will be numerous people who might have thought of meditating, observe silence for a while, and attend the camp at least once or twice. There will only be very few among those who thought of this but then made a strong resolution to do that. Of course, this thought came to many people, but what was the thought actually? ‘O.K., shall do it sometime. There is still time. We shall do.’ They failed to take the final decision. They remained confused or in dilemma. Some people resolved that they would do it and then they did get their names enrolled, but even amongst them there were quite a few who failed to put that
  • 3. resolution to practice-maybe something at home prevented them or maybe their resolution was not strong enough and their mind wavered. In case of those who got prevented because of some important or unavoidable work at home, it is somewhat understandable. The main thing is that mind wavered at one or the other stage. Thus, even after getting their names enrolled, even after taking the decision, they failed to put that resolution to practice. You are welcome for the reason that you are among those resolute ones who took the decision and then sticking to it reached here. Stages of Self-Purification Now we shall see as to what we have to do during these three days. How shall we live during these three days? What is the importance of living here? What have we to do while being here? If we put into one word all those different activities, different sorts of meditation and the different methods of working on our own selves during our stay here for three days, the word obviously will be inner-purification or self-purification. We shall work on this purification during our stay in the camp for three days. What is the meaning of inner- or self-purification? How can we explain it? When people generally listen to the word ‘inner- or self-purification’, they take it to be purification of Ètman or soul. And, when they listen to the word ‘Ètman’, it seems to them to be something different, something within the body yet different from it. This is not the primary meaning of the word. When the word came into usage for the first time around three thousand years ago, the word ‘Ètman’ meant ‘I’. That is why the word ‘Ètmaj’ was used to convey the meaning of ‘my son’ or ‘my daughter’. If Ètman or soul was something different from body, then whose son or daughter he/she would be? It would belong to the inner consciousness, and the body would have had no relation with it? Thus, son/daughter is related to your body and the Ètman also means ‘I’. In this sense, inner-purification means ‘my purification’ or purification of whatever I am. First of all, what are you? What is your first identifica- tion? When you say ‘I’, then what is your first identification? How can one identify you? By name? There can be several people by the same name. Then the first identification is your body. Suppose there are three persons by the same name and you want to call one of them, how will you do that? How will you identify one you want to call from the other two by the same name? Obviously, by looking at their physical appearance, at their body. All three have the same name, but they have different bodily appearance. So what is the first mark of identification? The body. So the body forms the first stage of the self we talk about. First Step : Purification of Body The first step in this direction is the purification of the body. This body of ours needs be cleansed, purified. This first step is rather significant because we never give serious attention to our body. And if we ever divert the attention, it happens only when the body starts giving problems, i.e. when it becomes prone to disease and decay. These teeth in our mouth seldom attract the serious attention they deserve: of course, our attention goes to them but only when one of them gets painful. When a tooth falls off or is pulled off, the tongue spontaneously reaches there time and again to assure itself-or warn us?-that a tooth is gone. Maybe, otherwise we might not bother to think as to how many teeth we have. We never divert our attention in this
  • 4. direction. Similarly, we never consciously think that we have two ears. Again, we remember and think of the ear only when it gets painful or becomes hard of hearing. It is only after that that we think that there is something wrong with our ear. It is thereafter that we begin to attend to the ear. The same happens with our body as a whole. We never pay attention due to it. That is why our body falls prey to different diseases. What is a Disease? Disease implies ‘give attention to me’. Suppose there is a small toddler and nobody is paying any attention to it. What will it do? It will weep, wail and cry. Then you give it a little of your attention, ask it what was wrong with it and why it was weeping. On your attending to it, it will calm down a bit. It will ask for nothing, it needs nothing except your attention. Similarly, you did not pay attention to your body. Gradually with the passage of time one or the other disease takes roots. If you are fortunate enough that no disease took roots, some impurity or disorder takes place. The latter also implies lethargy. Today, if you are asked to sit straight for a while, you start complaining of pain here or there. You cannot sit straight, but can easily sit in a little bending posture. Sitting straight is quite difficult. For some people, walking upstairs is problematic. In the Dayalji Ashram if you daily go upstairs, you realize how much is its height. No doubt, you are not yet old people beyond 80 years of age, but any disorder can take roots in the body even when you are young enough of say 30 or 40 years of age. In the case of some people, it is the head that has become problematic, it is the waist in the case of other, and similarly some other part of the body in the case of others. In fact, when I said the age of 30 or 40, perhaps it was too much. You will see as we go along with the yoga lessons, even people in their twenties will face difficulties. A little movement of the body, bending it and making it do various things seems quite difficult to many. And it is not unnatural or unexpected because we never paid any attention to the body, never bothered to enquire about its condition. When we were infants, we had a brand new heart, supple hands, bright and sharp eyes and a beautiful face. As we have grew up, did we ever look at ourselves to find out what happened to all these parts, to the body as a whole. Whenever we showed any care or concern for the body, it was only to cleanse it from without with water and soap. We never thought of cleansing it from within. In fact, we never knew how to do it. Then how will we do the inner cleansing, inner purification of the body here in this camp? Relationship of Body and Mind This body of yours must not be taken as mere body alone, rather quite intimately related to it is your mind. If there is restlessness of the body, mind cannot remain calm and concentrated. If there is tension and disorder in the body, mind cannot remain balanced and in order. See for yourself: when your foot is in pain, can you possibly sit calm and composed? Can you concentrate in prayer? Or can it concentrate in samÈyik? Obviously, no. It means, this body is not mere body alone, our mind is intimately connected with it. You may say for the sake of saying what is inside? It is just like a house on rent. However, you are still in the body and you are so closely connected with it that whatever happens to the body immediately affects your total being, including the mind. If a small thorn pierced into your foot, you remember the pain the whole day. It is a small thorn, but it shakes your entire six feet tall body. And,
  • 5. it happens because of a small thorn! Thus, we realize that the body has a deep effect on the human mind. This implies that the purity of body is of utmost importance. We have to work on our consciousness, on our mind, but for that it is imperative that our body should be set right, cleansed and purified. Purity of body is the first step. And, for this purity of body we shall perform different yogic exercises. What is Yoga? The yoga exercises are hundreds of years old. They have not been made or introduced by me or anyone else. These have been taken from ancient texts. We shall try different postures (Èsnas) for cleansing the body. The stiffness of the body, the lethargy and all such evils will gradually be gone because the yogic postures are not mere exercises. They are not just another physical activity. There is a lot of difference between yogic postures and other physical exercises. Often people tend to confuse one with the other. It is not that mere raising hands up and down, forward and backward is a yogic activity. Yoga is not mere physical exercise. The latter is only for the body whereas the former is for your consciousness. Of course, it will be the body which we shall be using, but the effect will not be limited to the body, rather will go to your inner most self, to your conscious self. Some yogic Èsnas are connected with the feeling of anger and the other with the wavering of mind and its sensuous and sensual inclinations. Therefore, when you perform some yoga Èsnas, this surely affects your feelings. Gradually these feelings and emotions come under control. This is the first step towards the purification of body, purification of Ètman. Silence for Self-Purification What is your second identification? How do the people identify you? The first such identification is the body which includes your appearance, mien and face. What is the next? Profession? No, profession cannot be the mark of identification. Your voice? What and how you speak is the second mark of your identification. When a phone call comes, the person on the other end may not give out his name, but from his voice we can identify the caller. That is why when a regular caller, a person well known to you makes a call, he just says hello and you respond by asking about his well being and continue the conversation without asking the caller’s identity. Thus, the second mark of your identification is your voice. And, therefore, the second step towards self-purification is that of the voice or speech. This purification is also of great significance because we have been making use of our speech more or less carelessly and recklessly, with the minor exception that we try to speak a little respectfully in the presence of elders. It is on rare occasions that we observe silence for a while, but we have never given the due attention to our speech. Then, how can it be purified? What sort of purification it will be? For this purpose, we shall make use of silence. We shall remain completely silent. Observance of silence here means that we will not speak through the expression of words. We shall not ‘speak’ even through gestures or by eyes. Absolutely no gestures or words. Silence here implies as if you had cut off all relations with the outside world. You should presume you have none in the world except yourself and that you know nobody in the outside world. There are so many people here in the camp, but each one of you must live and move about here as if he were alone. You know so many people here, but you have to be here as if you know nobody. Everybody is alien to you. If there is any problem with anybody here, it should not
  • 6. bother you. All your attention be fixed and concentrated on yourself alone. Let it not be that a person comes and stands behind you, all eyes get turned to him to find out who has come to stand there. The person did not come to stand there for your sake! There is no need to look back at him, but we are so habitual of it that we cannot control ourselves. We are accustomed to look at what we need not. It is like the habit of listening to what we need not and what we are not supposed to listen. We are also habitual of speaking what we need not. Therefore, observance of silence here means that we shall make absolutely no use of words; we shall not utter even a single word. Absolute silence. You might have a problem, you might have a question to ask, might have a physical or mental problem, or you might have forgotten to bring along something. You might just open your bag and find that you have forgotten to bring the soap or some such thing. Do not try to borrow such a thing from anyone because it will amount to speaking. Both the person borrowing and the person lending will be taken as speaking to each other. For any sort of problem, a diary and pen will always be available here. You have just to enter therein your name and the item you require. We shall manage the required item for you. You may have problem in comprehending a question, do not express your problem in words, but put that problem here in writing and we shall solve your problem. You may have some other problem, for example a severe headache. You must not ask anybody for help or advice. You should just enter here your name and problem. Asking anybody else for anything whatsoever is complete taboo. You should presume that around you sit not humans but just ghosts. None of them has any acquaintance with you. All are aliens who have come from foreign, unknown lands. You should live and move about here in this fashion. Whenever you have a difficulty or a problem, you will put that in writing here in this diary. In case it is something really urgent or emergent, you will inform me about it in writing. But you will not talk at all among yourselves or with people from outside. Many people known to you will be visiting here-some to listen to the discourse, some to pay obeisance, but you will meet none of them. You must not meet anybody whosoever from outside. You have come here and it is important for you that you keep your belongings in a separate bag with you even if someone closely related to you, maybe your wife or husband, son or daughter, might also be attending the camp with you. Even if you had brought your belonging together in one bag, you should now separate yours from the other person’s. If your belongings are kept in one bag, observing silence is not possible. If you know someone, identify someone and he/she sits beside you, you are sure to ask him/her for this or that item. Conversation will naturally follow. One, you are not used to observing silence and then if there is beside you a known face with whom you are used to converse daily, conversation here will be a sure possibility. And, silence is the most significant part of this camp. You have to be very, very careful in maintaining silence. Not only in the hall but wherever you go-in the room, in the bathroom or anywhere else-you must not talk to anybody at any place. You have to behave as if you do not know how to speak: you have become dumb. You should dive into silence in this way. What Sort of Silence? Of course, we shall observe silence, but this never means that we shall become or seem to be sad. Our silence must not be sadness oriented. It should be smile oriented. We shall observe silence with a laughing face, laughing and smiling. And, this
  • 7. laughter and smile is not for anyone else, it is by you for your own self. You will smile because you have to smile. You would not do so because someone else is looking at you or because some one acquainted with you is close by or is passing by you. Your smile will not be for any reason, it will be without any reason whatsoever. This is what is called Ènand or ecstasy. This ecstasy is not the outcome of this or that reason. On the other hand, pleasure is the effect of a cause. You should always keep laughing, you should always keep smiling and you will never at any cost lose this smile and laughter. You should make the resolution with yourself that your smile will remain whatever comes to happen. You may have headache, you might have a broken foot, but smile should always remain spread on your lips. You may like the food or you may have to get up half way without taking the required food, but you will keep smiling. You will never lose this smile. This is silence. This is purification of speech. During the observance of silence during this camp, some people think that since they do not have to converse, it will be useful to take along a book and read it. Let it be emphasized that silence here means absolutely no use of words. Nothing to read and nothing to write. If there is anything important to be written, I shall tell you to write. In case you feel that you have missed out something, there is nothing to worry about. You may ask me, in writing, any question and any number of times. But you will not write anything of your own. The prescription is not to write, read, speak or make gestures. There is office downstairs. A telephone is also available there. You may get the temptation to go there so as to make at least a phone call at home to find out that all is well. As it is, there may not be cordiality in relations at home, but when one goes out to a village or some other place, one does remember home a few times. Maybe, distance adds to the affection. In that case you might get the feeling to go down and make a call at home. But do not go even near the office or the phone. This is for your safety alone. In case you go to the office, you might meet someone not from the camp and his waves, his feelings, his ideas might adversely affect you. The environment from which he has come, the environment in which he has been living are all different from yours. Why have you been asked to remain here during the tenure of the camp? This is to give you a different kind of environment so that you could observe a deep, very deep silence in that environment, an environment wherein you will be observing both the inner and the outer silence. We are trying to build that kind of environment. If you meet someone from outside, the preparation being made here will get hindered, will go waste. So not going to the office and not meeting anyone from outside is for your own welfare. It is not for the safety and welfare of anyone else. It will be your safety and it will be to your benefit. What is Prȇa? We have so far discussed body and speech. What is the third one? This is our prȇa, the life-force. We know a very little of it. This body of ours is made up of bones, flesh and blood. Beneath it is a subtle body which is made up of prȇa. This is called prȇa body. We shall also make endeavours at the purification of this body. We shall do this partly through the medium of speech and partly through that of prȇÈyÈma. What is BhÈvanÈ?
  • 8. We shall purify the bhÈvanÈ through amiability, friendship, love and forgiveness. After that comes our consciousness. That consciousness will be purified through meditation. Thus, we shall do five kinds of purification-of body, of speech, of prȇa, of bhÈvanÈ and of consciousness. If we put together all the five kinds of purification, it can well be called self-purification. During these three days we shall dive into self-purification. We shall practice it. We shall pay full, complete attention on our own self, because this is the time when we shall be working on ourselves. We shall pay absolutely no attention to the others-even if someone is having headache or some other ailment or problem. You need not either think or speak about any one else. You have come here for your own sake, and you will see to your own benefit. There are so many volunteers here to look after others, to attend to their needs and alleviate their difficulties and problems. You must not pay attention to others. There is no need for you to speak for anyone. Silence, everybody to his own self, is the rule. If you must say something, write it down to convey. If anyone else has to say, he will do it himself. You must remember this, and follow this strictly. This will mean self-purification. There are certain rules, certain prescriptions for self-purification, and we have to follow them. What are the Rules? All of you might have read the rules while getting your name registered to attend this camp. If some of you have not, I shall repeat the rules for their benefit and for that of others. The first thing about the camp is that it will start at 12.00 noon today and conclude at 4.00 in the evening of the fourth day from today. You will have to stay put here for these four days. Whatever might happen to you or to the outside world, you will live here for this duration. You make the resolution that you will live here whatever might happen. Nobody of you will come to me with the request that such a thing has happened and for this he will have to go back home. You will not be allowed to go- whatever might be your compulsions. This rule is like the one under which a doctor takes a patient to the operation theatre. The doctor will first ask you if you would wish to be operated upon. Once you answer in the affirmative, the doctor takes you to the operation theatre, gives you the injection or anesthesia and the operation starts, you cannot at that stage leave midway, saying that today half the operation is all right and you will get the other half done some other day because today you must go home for some urgent piece of work. Will the doctor let you go at that stage? Such a decision is dangerous not only for you but also for the doctor. In case such a patient dies, the blame will be unduly attributed to the doctor as well. So either you will not go to the operation theatre or if you go you will come out only after the doctor completes the operation. This camp is also a similar thing. It is a sort of operation to be conducted by you on your self. You are your own doctor, your own physician and your own surgeon. You cannot go away leaving the treatment half way. And, once you start the treatment, there might come several problems which you will have to face. If the wound has gone sour because of your earlier neglect, it will sure pain now when you cleanse it and dress it. Suppose there is a bit of trash and rubbish lying on the floor of your house. Dust particles will sure go up when you try to sweep off the floor to remove this rubbish. How can you expect a rose smell from there? It is therefore natural that body will experience some pain when go in for its cleansing, its purification. If someone of you develops some physical or psychological problem, if someone develops restlessness or insomnia, it is no cause to worry or get frightened. Keep on renewing the resolution
  • 9. that you will complete what you have begun and that during the duration of the camp nothing is more important to you than the fulfillment of this resolve. Do not worry about what might be happening at home or at shop or office. Spend your days here unconcerned about the happenings of the outside world. Take it for this duration as if you have no family, no home and that you are a recluse. It is just a three-day long renunciation. If you are so very keen, you may go back after three days or you might stay here for another day. This is the first rule of this camp. Check up and confirm now if you have an urgent appointment tomorrow morning or the day after. If it is so, let me know now. I shall relieve such a person just now. But later on at night, I will not allow. If you have come with the mind to spend here the first day and then decide whether or not to continue here the next day, it will not do. Once we get started, your mind may or may not feel interested, you will have to remain here till the conclusion of the camp. If there is such a person, please let me know now. Later on it will not be possible for me to release anyone. It is just like a plane taking off, you cannot get down until and unless it lands. When the plane is in the sky, you cannot say that I must jump down now, at this very moment. It is not possible. This is the first rule. The second rule is the purification of food intake. Our body and mind are affected by the kind of food we take. Here you will be provided with pure vegetarian and healthy food. It will be a bit different from the kind of food you take at your home. You sometimes get sweets, fried food and other eatables with a lot of pepper. At home you take tea, coffee, etc., but you will get none of these things here. Some among you might be habitual of smoking, tobacco or any other kind of intoxicant, but you will get no such thing here. However, you will get healthy vegetarian food daily. And, you will eat only what will be supplied here. You will not accept any eatable from outside for your intake. Purification of food is rather important. As we work on the body in different ways and as we work on our mind, on our consciousness in varied manners, food constitutes a significant part of the whole process. It plays a very important role in this. Third, you will not take any sort of intoxicant. Some of you may have the habit of smoking or chewing tobacco, but you will not take any such during your camp. In case, someone of you has brought along unknowingly-I am sure no one will have brought such a thing knowingly and consciously-any intoxicant, he should hand the thing over to me. Please all of you check the pockets of your shirts and trousers because some such thing might unwittingly have been put there. Any such thing now handed over to me will be given back to you after the duration of the camp. However, those who are chronic patients of diabetes, hypertension, liver or kidney and are taking regular medicine for any of such ailments are advised to keep their medicine with them and continue with their regular dose of it. However, you will not take that medicine which has not been recommended by a physician as daily dose for a chronic ailment. This includes the lighter medicines, say for mild headache, for pain in this or that part of body or for not getting proper sleep. In case you feel you need some medicine, please let us know and we shall make arrangements for your requirements. But you will not take any medicine on your own. However, you may continue with the medicines already prescribed by the physician. Still you will not make use of any medicine for inducing sleep and for killing pain. You are advised to maximize the
  • 10. intake of water. You should take a lot of water because when we meditate, a lot of heat is produced within the body. The most important among these rules is that you will remain in ecstasy in all circumstances. If you are restless, get calm down: If you are calm, get happy; If you are happy, get ecstatic, And if you are ecstatic, get silent. ²SrÏ Ravisha×kar JÏ We have to live through this camp in this way-in ecstasy and in silence. We shall remain ecstatic come what may. If we sleep well, we shall be in ecstasy, but we shall be in ecstasy even if we do not sleep well. We shall remain ecstatic if we are able to concentrate or not able to concentrate on meditation. We shall enjoy the same ecstatic position whether the mosquitoes bite us or not. We shall keep laughing throughout these days. We shall laugh heartily, whether laughter comes or not. You will see that in the beginning, it might sound like artificial, a sort of drama. But you will never know when this drama will turn into truth. So we shall live here in complete ecstasy. Bondage of Twentieth Century What sort of bondage it is? This is the bondage of time. For example, you sit still wrapt in some thought and someone comes and tells you that it is one o’clock, you will automatically feel hungry. This is so because it is your lunch time. Another person attuned to this lunch-time routine might say that it is still half an hour to go before one o’clock, therefore he is not yet hungry and that he will have lunch half an hour later. In other words, he is not hungry now, but will get hungry at one o’clock. It also means that he does not feel the need for lunch because he is hungry but because it is one o’clock. Similarly, one might ask for the time. Is it 11 o’clock. šO, it is 11 already; I feel sleepy’. This means sleep does not come when we feel sleepy, it comes at particular time or we want to go to bed not because of sleep but because of time factor. We have become bound by time. Our mind has become so slave to time that such things have become our second nature. This is a gift of the twentieth century. We have to get liberated from this habit. So you will not keep your watch with you, and will hand it over to us. In case it is with you, you will now or then feel tempted to look at it for time. And once our mind learns of the time, it will think of the work it is supposed to do at that point of time, and thus it will start its chain. So please hand over your watches to us. And if you have any money on your person, or cell phone or mobile phone, please give over all such things to us. Please do not keep with you anything which is costly or which can help establish your contact with anybody outside here. It is only then that you will be able to fully concentrate and benefit yourself with the purification of self.
  • 11. CHAPTER II MEDITATION : A BACKGROUND DhyÈna or meditation is an important word. The given word has its own value and significance. The word is like a point pregnant with deep meanings. In fact, dhyÈna is the centralization of the scattered powers. And these powers are facing the direction of the centre of the self. DhyÈna also means silence of the inner self. ¶chÈrya Amit Gati says: Ènand-rÊpam paramÈtmatattvam, samasta-sa×kalpavi- kalpa-muktam; swabhÈvalÏnÈ nivasanti nityam, jÈnÈti yogÏ swayameva tattvam. Thus where there is no sa×kalpa or volition and no vikalpa or alternative, that calm and silent stage is named dhyÈna. Looking at and listening to soham sound of natural and spontaneous breathing in (inhalation) and breathing out (exhalation) soothens and calms the thoughts. And when all thought stop, when they all calm down and mind becomes thought-free, such a stage is called dhyÈna. There are some similarities between sleep and dhyÈna. When one is in deep sleep, his mind is at peace. That is why we call it deep slumber. Otherwise, different sorts of dreams keep coming and going. Similarly, when mind becomes flawless and calm, only then can one achieve dhyÈna or we can say that one gets immersed in dhyÈna. Difference Between DhyÈna and Sleep In deep sleep, our mind is thoughtless and at peace, but it is peace associated with unconsciousness. In dhyÈna, mind is at peace but associated with complete consciousness. The second similarity between the two is that neither of them can be attained through conscious effort, with force or power. Both of them happen spontaneously. You cannot attain them through willing endeavour. Of course, it is necessary to create internal and external background to let them happen. For example, you choose a proper place so that you can have a good sleep at night. Then you spread proper bedding to lie down on it and take on light or heavy/woolen sheet over your body according to the weather at that time. You either switch off the light or put on dim light. You lie down in a relaxed posture and close your eyes. Thereafter, if sleep comes, well and good, but if it still does not come, you cannot use force for it. The more you will use your mind to make efforts to get sleep, the farther it will go from you and your mind will get equally restless. But if you leave your mind free, you never know when suddenly sleep overtakes you. Similarly, we create internal and external background for attaining dhyÈna to happen. External Background At a proper place and in a proper posture, with your eyes lightly closed while keeping your backbone straight, you should leave your body loose and relaxed and sit still. This is the external background. Internal Background
  • 12. As we take our attention off the surrounding environ- ment, we pay our entire attention to look at and listen to the sound of soham of the natural and spontaneous breathing in and breathing out. As we do so, our thoughts begin to calm down and when the thoughts get completely calm down, dhyÈna is accomplished. We cannot calm down the thoughts with force The harder we try to check our thoughts, the more they continue to increase. Thus, dhyÈna is not an effort, but just a happening. Still it is very important and imperative to create external background for it to happen. Silence is Consciousness This entire world is a game of consciousness. The inner silence and nothingness is the basis of the creation of everything including sciences, mathematics, language, art, poetry, music, metaphysics and so on. After entering into silence, the door opens for innumerable possibilities. Thus, when a person enters silence, he undergoes multi- dimensional progress. His consciousness also develops.
  • 13. CHAPTER III DHY¶NA : PRACTICAL FORM AND ACHIEVEMENT [Dr. Shiv MunijÏ, ¶chÈrya of the ƒrama‡ Sa×gh, has been a very well known scholar, orator, spiritually enlightened and a guiding spirit to many seekers of spiritual knowledge. With the help of his deep study, experience and experiments he has led many on the path to high spirituality. All including the old, the young and the small children are benefiting from his teachings on methods of dhyÈna and its application. In the following pages are published those discourses and addresses of the ¶chÈrya which he gave to the seekers of higher knowledge. The readers of these pages can also benefit by understanding the practical form of dhyÈna.] Even those who are absolutely ignorant of and unfamiliar with the practice of dhyÈna often use the word in their daily life. For example, they quite often ask ‘read with care (dhyÈna),’ ‘listen with care’ and ‘do the work with care’. This speaks for the popularity of the word throughout the world. In the field of sÈdhnÈ, the word dhyÈna is a concept. It implies making your mind reflect or concentrate on the soul (Ètman) which is like the supreme Lord or turning the mind inwards from outward world. Just as a fish ever remains deep inside the water, similarly when mind after moving away from the ideas and rituals absorbs itself in the soul, it is dhyÈna or meditation. Meditation occupies the highest place in both the Vedic and „rama‡ic traditions. In the preceding pages we have made only doctrinal analysis of it. It is necessary to know the practical or experimental method of meditation along side its thorough doctrinal knowledge. We either study or learn from others to understand a doctrine and then after following it we try to transform our life. Thus, it is only after meditating and realizing its accomplishment in practice that life can become pleasant and joyous. First of all we shall try to understand the content of meditation. Many of you might have read somewhat or listened from others on the subject of meditation. Maybe, a few amongst you might have practiced it as well. However, when you listen now to the lectures on this topic, listen to them from a new perspective. In fact, listening is also an art. Often, as we listen, we do so on the basis of our own history, on the basis of our sa×skÈra. You have already formed a pre-conceived notion of what meditation means, and you have formed this notion thinking it to be the right one. If you listen to what I say with that pre-conceived notion already in mind, you will agree with me if my ideas are identical with your earlier notion. However, if my ideas are not identical with that notion, you will wonder as to why I speak as I have been, and that meditation does not mean what I try to convey. In other words, you have already made up your mind that meditation means this and this.You have come to the meditation camp. Let it be an experiment for you. What is meant by the word experiment? In experiment, you never know the final result to be arrived at, but still you agree to give your cent per cent in making the experiment a success. Whatever might be the final outcome, you always give your maximum in the experiment. This meditation camp is a sort of journey into the unknown. Yes, since there have already taken place so many camps, I can say with a certain degree of assurance that this and
  • 14. this will happen during the camp. Even then the world of consciousness is the world of the unknown. Who knows what might happen and how that might happen? Our duty is to do, to perform but the result or the reward of that performance is not in our power. You should go ahead with this camp with the presumption that this meditation camp is a blessing. And, when a person is under the blessings, whatever happens is for his well being. We have to go through this experiment with this kind of feeling in mind. What is meditation? How to define it? What do you think of it? If you are asked to meditate, what do you understand of it? First of all, I will ask the audience here as to what meditation means. You will tell me whatever you think of the word. The various responses from the audience can be summed up as under:  Concentration  Control over mind  Mental journey from one world to the other  State of being liberated  Reflection on soul  Cessation of the course of cognition  Sit in a state of nothingness  End of Asssumptions  Feeling of being in Divine proximity  Removing the defilements  One-pointedness of mind All these answers mean almost the same thing. Of course, it is very difficult to define the word dhyÈna in a few words or sentences. Kahlil Zibran has said that he used to write quite long and voluminous poems on love until he had not been in love; the day he experienced love, he did not know how to express or describe it. All the words seemed small. Similar is the case with dhyÈna. So what is dhyÈna? How to define it? According to the universally accepted and known view, it means concentration of mind, to apply it to one point. That is why people ask as to who or what should be concentrated upon? I conducted a meditation camp at JalÈnÈ. Three days of the camp were over. On the concluding day, it was time for asking questions. One from amongst the participants asked me: ‘You repeatedly ask us to meditate, to concentrate, but what or who should we concentrate upon? I asked him what he has done during the last three days. He said: ‘I had been thinking of this. Concentration on breathing and such other things is all right, but concentra- tion? What is to be concentrated upon? From dhyÈna, we generally understand to concentrate on something or somebody. Often people think of concen- trating on a particular photograph, on repeatedly reciting a given mantra, on some person, a spiritual preceptor, or some such person. To concentrate the mind and apply to any of such things is generally
  • 15. taken to mean dhyÈna. The general masses think that concentration is meditation. In fact, majority of the people think so. I have met a large number of people who think almost on the same lines, i.e. meditation means concentrating the mind on a given point. Concentration of mind is the important thing. If mere concentration of mind were dhyÈna or meditation, it would have been a very easy thing to do. It would not have been difficult at all. Mind gets concentrated if we do something in which we feel pleasure. For example, someone might be interested in music and he might take pleasure listening to it. You daily find children watching television, with their mind fully concentrated on the programme they are watching and they get completely oblivious of the surroundings. They either will not respond even to their mother’s call or at least will refuse to get away from the television. They get deeply involved in what they watch. Their mind gets concentrated on the television. When you count money, how is it that your mind gets concentrated on the job. O course, the mind wavers often. Normally, it goes to what happened yesterday or before that. But while counting the currency notes, it is concentrated on the job so that counting does not go wrong. This is a human example. Take the instance of a cat: it is all concen- tration while preying on the rat. It looks intent, not a single hair of its body moves. DHY¶NA ² NOT CONCENTRATION OF MIND If mere concentration of mind is taken to mean dhyÈna, then you should put your mind on a thing you love to do, it will get concentrated on that. Had mental concentration been the same thing as dhyÈna, I need not have asked you to look at the breath. I could have easily procured a good movie for you to watch. Your mind would have concentrated on the movie. None of you would have complained of the pain in the foot or ache of the back. People sit for three long hours to watch a movie. There is only a 10-minute-long interval in between. At that time, nobody complains that watching a movie for such a long time was quite painful to his foot or back. Here in the camp, half an hour-half an hour is too long a period, even 10-15 minutes of dhyÈna- seems ages to them and they complain whether the organizers have no watch with them! Time, it seems, has stopped moving. And, watching a movie you sit for such a long time and still say you never knew how the time flew past. If I say it might be because of sitting cross-legged on the floor, I shall also suggest you sit in the chair and see the result. If you feel it is hot out over here, I shall suggest you sit under the fan. It will not make much difference to your feelings. As it is, there is a lot of difference between your mental make-up as you watch a movie and that as you try to meditate or concentrate on the breath. In the former situation, it is like adding fire to the already burning fire of desires and temptations within you. I can give you an illustration from our life of yester years. Those days people used to cook food on fire in the hearth. After the food was cooked, people used to put the fire in the hearth off. For this purpose, they would sprinkle water on the fire. Do you know what happens if you sprinkle water on the fire? A sound of shnnnn comes. Why does this sound come? The answer is simple: fire is hot and the water cold. If and when two opposites meet together, there is bound to be some reaction. If a reaction occurs, there is bound to be some sort of noise or sound. And, if you add some ghee or oil to the fire, there will be no noise and the fire in the hearth will continue to burn. Why? In this case, we add fire to the fire and that is why no reaction took place.
  • 16. In the same way, within each one of us burns the fire of desires and feelings. A sort of stimulation or excitement is there within us. This keeps the fire of desires and feelings burning. This excitement or stimulation is ever within. What happens when you watch a movie or indulge in some other entertainment? A little more fire gets added to the already burning fire within us. Thus, nothing, no reaction takes place. Time flies past. Three hours or even six hours. You just do not feel it. Some people can go on watching movies throughout the night. Some parents share with us that their children continue watch the television all through the night. As I said earlier, they do not feel sleepy, because it is fire being added to the fire. Look, what happens here? It is just half an hour before you started the meditation, and you feel drowsy. This happens because here water is being sprinkled on fire. When cold water falls on the fire of desires and feelings, reaction will be there and there will be some sound. It is that very reaction which we sometimes call pain in the feet, pain in the neck, back ache, restlessness, wavering of mind, the question of when will this come to an end, etc. All this is the result of water being added to the fire. If a housewife says, since a reaction takes places and a sound comes, water need not be put on the fire in the hearth. It would mean that fire in the hearth will continue to burn. Perhaps, it will never be put off. But a wise housewife would say, ‘whatever the sound or reaction, I must extinguish the hearth-fire since I do not need it after cooking the food.’ The wisdom of the devotee lies in his determination not to be bothered by the sound or the reaction, but keep firm on his resolve to extinguish the fire. This is the primary difference between the spiritual endeavour and entertainment. Yoga Discipline a Must The famous PÈta¤jalÏ YogasÊtra begins with the words ‘atha yogÈnushÈsanam’. A free rendering of these words into English would run as-now begins the discipline of the yoga. May it be yoga or meditation, the path of the devotee is marked by discipline. Why is discipline so important and necessary? The answer is: this is the way on which first comes pain. Mind fails to stick to it. It continues to waver. There is restlessness. To check the mind and to overcome all other obstacles, you will have to follow certain do’s and don’ts. These stipulations are a must. For example, you will have to keep your eyes closed. You will have to observe silence. This implies discipline and regulations to be observed. These are necessary because we all know that mind will not remain concentrated without all these. Suppose there are no such stipulations and regulations and you are given the freedom either to keep silence or continue with whatever conversation you want. How many of you will prefer to observe silence? If you are given the option to meditate as long as you wish and go to sleep when you wish and continue to sleep as long as you wish. How long will you continue with meditation? We all know the answer! It is difficult for man to meditate. We do not have much control over our body and mind. We wish to, but we cannot because our body and mind do no cooperate. Mind wavers. Discipline is necessary to keep both the body and mind to keep on the right path. A Little Suffering : Immense Joy The path of yoga and meditation is such as brings pain and suffering, dilemmas and restlessness in the beginning. However, those who go across willingly and
  • 17. laughingly without bothering for the pain in the foot or aching back or restlessness of mind ultimately achieve the ecstasy. This ecstasy is immense and immeasurable. How is the path of entertainment? It looks rather fine to begin with, and mind gets easily attracted to it. However, this is only for a brief while. Later on, pain and suffering in mountain-like proportions await us. A little bit of pleasure and many times more suffering. This is what is in store ahead if mind is given freedom to indulge in entertainment and to run after the fulfillment of desires. On the way to spiritual endeavour, there is a little suffering in the beginning, but later on it is followed by many times more joy and ecstasy. What is the pain or suffering? Just a little. What we now feel is either a bit of pain in the foot or headache or backache or a little restlessness. Have you never felt such a pain in life earlier? It might have happened many times before. You might have fallen ill on several occasions. What was the result of that ailment? Nothing much. But the way we are now endeavouring to tread is marked by a little pain in the beginning, a little bit of dilemma and suffering. I appreciate that you might not have sat in this posture earlier. Thus a little bit of pain is natural. However, if you go through it joyously, you will then go steady further on the way. Concentration of Mind : Result of DhyÈna It is a generally accepted assumption that concentration of mind is meditation. If meditation were just concentration of mind, it would have been quite an easier thing. But meditation does not mean mere concentration of mind. Meditation is not mere concentration. By meditating, mind gets concentrated: this is the effect of meditation. But this is not meditation itself. Through meditation concentration can be achieved, but concentration does not imply meditation. Emptiness of Mind : Result of DhyÈna The second assumption about meditation is that making mind empty, making mind calm is meditation. The ability to empty mind of all ideas and feelings and to make it calm is also said to imply meditation. It also implies that relaxation of mind is meditation. If making mind empty of thoughts and ideas and feelings were meditation, it would have been a very easy thing. In that case, there would have been no need either to sit on the ground in a specific posture or to look and concentrate on the breath. If one wants just a calm mind, an empty mind, one should just go and sleep under a fan. Body might feel at ease. And, when you are in deep slumber, your mind is generally empty, your mind with no ideas and feelings. In fact, such a mental state is called deep slumber. Mind is not free of feelings and ideas until it keeps dreaming. And, when there are no ideas and feelings in the mind, you go to deep slumber. If emptying your mind of all thoughts and feelings were meditation, then both sleep and meditation would have been synonymous. They would have been one and the same thing. But, they are not one and the same thing; there is a lot of difference between the two. What is that difference? Emptiness of mind is a state that comes during the meditation. In a way, it is an effect of the meditation. It can also be called an achievement of dhyÈna. However, you empty your mind of all thoughts and you have meditated, it is not so. DhyÈna : Return to Primordial State
  • 18. Now the question arises: what is dhyÈna? How can we define it? Everything has its own primordial state. For example, the inherent nature or original state of water is coolness. If you want to heat it up, you will have to make some effort for it. It will have to be placed on fire. Water will hot up only if we heat it either with the help of electricity or solar energy. But if we leave the water to itself, it will soon go back to its original state. And, the original nature of water, as we said earlier, is coolness. What is the inherent nature of fire? Heat or warmth. Similarly, there is also an original state of your being. To come back to that original state is called dhyÈna. What will you have to do to return to the original state?  You will have to overpower your mind;  You will have to remain conscious;  Soul will have to be purified;  Resolution will have to be made;  Body will have to be given up;  Mind will have to concentrate;  Feeling of friendship will have to be developed;  Body and mind will have to be kept separate;  Pure vegetarian and sÈtvik (healthy) food will have to be taken;  Self will have to be tested;  Mind will have to be firm;  Thoughts will have to be centralized;  Become inactive and inert; and  Masks will have to be removed. Now if I ask you a question, the answer to it will help you a lot. What will have to be done to make hot water cool? Nothing at all, because coolness is the original nature of water. Something will have to be done only if we have to warm or hot it up. You will have to either put on fire or switch on the electric heater or put it in the sun. But if you have to cool it, place it anywhere and do nothing. It will cool down of its own. Original State : Doing Nothing Are you following what I say? If fire is to be extinguished (made cool), something will have to be done. If the fire burns and you wish that it keeps burning, just do nothing and let it burn. In other words, no conscious effort is required for a thing to return to its original state of being. The original state implies the inherent nature of the given thing or which is not the effect of an external cause. The original state means the state in which a particular things remains of its own. If water is cold, there is not external reason for it being so. Of course, it will heat up only because of some reason, as an effect of a cause. No reason or cause is needed to make or let it remain cool. Water is cold because its original, inherent nature is so. This is its nature. Similarly, will you have to make an effort to return to your original state? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Difficulty of Doing Nothing
  • 19. It is very easy to say ‘do nothing’, but it is equally difficult to put this into practice, i.e. to do nothing. Apparently it seems the easiest of thing to do nothing. After all, it asks you to do nothing. Just look at yourself for five minutes and you will realize that our body does so many things during a brief spell of five minutes. It might be quite difficult for the body to remain inactive, doing nothing for five minutes. Mind is much more alert and active than body. Think of what your body did during the past five minutes. Sometimes your hand went beneath the feet and many times your foot was beneath the hand. Sometimes your finger went into your ear and at other times it combed your hair. It was quite rare that you sat still. How many things did your body do during the last five minutes? First, you have to do nothing with your body. Then, your power of speech has also to be made inactive. Now I have asked you to observe silence. I can see some of you observe this only as long as they apprehend that I am near about and looking at them, but as soon as they get an opportunity to go away from my sight and they are sure that no one is looking at them, they begin conversation. Still, body and speech are under our control at least to some extent, say five to ten per cent. But what is to be done with the mind? OK, you are asked not to do anything with your mind. The more you think of not doing anything, the more this mind will run hither and thither. Yoga’s Inactivity and Original State Body-mind-speech is yoga. When all these three-body, mind and speech-are made inactive, only then man can be called to be in his original state. Now you will do nothing with your body. Be completely still and calm. You will not speak at all. And when your mind will also become still, you will realize the transformation going inside you. What will you feel? Peace or restlessness? Joy or sorrow? Ecstasy? What is your original state-whether it is peaceful or restlessness or full of joy or sorrow or full of ecstasy? DhyÈna and Sleep There is somewhat similarity between dhyÈna and sleep. When you are in dhyÈna, you are in a position of inactivity, doing nothing. You are in the same position when you are asleep. However, there is a major difference as well. During sleep you are unaware of yourself because you are in a state of unconsciousness. However, during meditation, you are fully aware of yourself because you are in a state of consciousness. In other words, if consciousness is added to sleep, the latter will become dhyÈna or medita- tion. To put the same idea in different words, add some unconsciousness with the meditation, and it will become sleep. DhyÈna or meditation thus implies a state of nothing- ness, of doing absolutely nothing. Still, one remains fully aware, conscious during this state. Our mind is habitual of often remaining in two states. One, it should do something- think, reflect, speak, listen, walk or any such other activity. You might have felt that as you get up in the morning, mind starts functioning of its own. You look at this or that thing, you read and write and you do various other things. If you have no important thing to do, you will start watching television or listening to the radio or go out for a walk. And if you still have nothing to do, you will ring up someone and just disturb him or her. But you must do something because you cannot remain inactive. And, if you decide to do nothing, no phone call or television or radio, you will just go to sleep. This implies you will either be indulgent or just go to sleep. DhyÈna or meditation is a stage in
  • 20. between these two, a sort of middle path. It is neither indulgence nor sleep. It is complete detachment but full consciousness, state of alertness. Inhaling and Exhaling As we have seen above, dhyÈna means to return to one’s original state of peace, ecstasy and consciousness. Neither body will be involved in doing anything nor power of speech will be active nor mind will be active. All the three-body, speech and mind-will become completely inactive and still, but your self will remain fully conscious. This is called dhyÈna. Emptiness coupled with conscious- ness. You are fully conscious yet you are not in a position to do anything. If we want to reach this state, our breathing can be of much help to us. It provides a lot of co-operation. Breathe naturally, spontaneously. Let it come in and go out as it does in its own natural way. Now some people will say that they have to look at the breathing but their mind does not concentrate on this. Why not? You can also concen- trate your mind on anything else, any colour, any form, but you must make the mind concentrate on something. Someone also asked me a question that we try to concentrate our mind on breath on my asking, but if it is to be concentrated, why not concentrate it on God, on the Name Divine. Let me tell you that you can concentrate your mind on God or God’s name or on some incantation instead of on breath, and I am sure you will succeed because the former is a much easier task than the latter one. However, our aim is not just to concentrate the mind. Our aim is to reach a state of complete inertia, absolute inactivity and still remain fully conscious. The form, colour, mantras, etc. cannot take you to the position where I wish you to reach. On the other hand, the breath can easily take you there. That is why we take the help of breath-control. In case you recite some given incantation, it will not be meditation, it will be recitation. I agree, recitation, recitation of divine Name is not bad. It is something commendable. But this is not meditation. And, we are here for meditation. Therefore, you have to supplement breath-control with nothing, absolutely nothing else. It should be a pure, spontaneous natural breathing. Someone else had asked me that mind is difficult to focus, it wavers time and again. He had asked for an answer: what should he do? Whatever you will do is sure to help mind waver even more. Wavering of mind is an activity. How can we annul this activity with another activity? The only way out is inactivity, complete inertia. If the mind runs hither and thither, let it go. You should keep your body still. The more you will keep the body still, the more it will be helpful to keep the mind focused. Our body and mind are two only for saying, otherwise they are in essence one. They cannot be separated, one from the other. It would be like try to separate water from the steam. The latter is the product of the former and cool down the latter and it will take the former shape. In other words, both are the two different states of one matter. Unity of Body and Mind SwÈmÏ SatyÈnand SaraswatÏ says that body is the gross form of mind which is subtle. In other words, mind is the subtle form of body which is gross in nature. Whatever happens in and to the body has an immediate effect on the mind. You might have realized that whenever there is pain in any part of the body, the mind gets disturbed and becomes restless. Similarly, if the mind is disturbed or upset, the body will share the same feeling. All this goes to show that body and mind are one. If you
  • 21. study a little deep, you will understand this sense of unity between the two. That is why when your body is healthy, this helps to keep your mind stable and focused. I do not mean here that you must not move your body or change a bit of your posture if there is a lot of pain. In that case you are free to change your posture somewhat. But be careful of what you have to do while changing the posture. Your attention, your mind should remain focused on breath as you do this. In other words, change the posture while still looking at the breath. Eyes should also remain closed. You will realize this will help in providing peace to mind. Second, if mind is disturbed, do not feel upset or restless because of this. If mind is upset and does not concentrate, our undue consciousness of it will become another reason for this restlessness. It will amount to the same if I say that I get highly annoyed because I get annoyed repeatedly. Why do I feel angry with myself? This is because I get angry quite often. Anger leading to anger! If your mind is upset, please do not feel very upset or disturbed on this count. Do not bother for the moment whether the mind is calm or upset. It should be all right with you in both situations. Your primary, your sole duty now is to look at the breath. I shall also look at the breath, whether my mind is calm or disturbed. Consciousness/Alertness Now look, what time approximately it should be. This is the time around which most of you might normally be returning home from your shops. It is not very late still. Some people might yet be taking their dinner. Still look at the faces of some of the participants: they feel sleepy. Some can be seen yawning. Why this? The answer is: whenever the mind gets a bit disturbed, it knows of only one thing and that is sleep. Whenever you find yourselves in such a state, try to come out of it. Once you enter that state of mind, you are gone. Some people ask me if they have only to meditate, why sitting in a given posture and why not lying down? My answer to them is that it is possible to meditate while lying down. But what will happen then? You will not realize when you come out of that meditation or dhyÈna. Two or three hours of meditation. And, you will not know what might have been happening on your right or left. You feel sleepy even when you sit and sleep is natural when you lie down. So meditation is possible while lying down, but at this stage our mind is not so enlightened that we can do so in that state. So my advice is that we should do it while sitting. Even in the sitting posture when you feel that it has been quite long sitting or you feel sleepy while sitting, it is advisable to stand up. Meditate standing on your place. You can meditate in a standing posture as well. It is not obligatory for you to sit, you can meditate while standing. If you feel difficulty in sitting without any support, you can take the support. If someone, for example, has a knee problem, he can make use of a chair. The only precaution is to keep yourself awake and alert/conscious. Conclusion I hope all of you have understood what I told you about dhyÈna. What is dhyÈna? Become inert but remain alert and awake. To arrive at that stage, our breath will help us a lot. How does it help? Why is it necessary to merely look at the breathing. Why not anything else? We shall take up these questions tomorrow. This will suffice for today. Now, once again, we will sit inert and in peace for five minutes and meditate for a while.
  • 22. Some Important Instructions Along with dhyÈna (meditation) yoga, has also to be done regularly. For yoga exercise, it will be better to wear loose clothes. Tight jeans trousers, necktie, etc. are not helpful, rather they are hindrances. Put on loose dress. Similarly, ladies may also wear the kind of loose dress that suits them. Then we shall start yoga exercises. The regular yoga practice makes it easier to sit in a dhyÈna posture. Pure vegetarian and sÈtvik (healthy) food is also necessary along with yoga. Non-vegetarian and spicy (rajasÏ and tÈmasÏ) food is an obstacle on the way to meditation.
  • 23. CHAPTER IV DHY¶NA : ITS PRACTICAL FORM AND ACHIEVEMENT-II Yesterday we has some reflections on dhyÈna (medita- tion) and tried to explain as to what is meant by dhyÈna. Today we have to understand how our breathing helps us reach this stage. Why did we choose breath alone? We could have possibly chosen something else as well, e.g., some incantation, some form, but we finally decided in favour of breath. Why? What is so special in breath? What made us finally choose breath? Background of DhyÈna²Method There are some special reasons for this choice of ours. In a way, we can also say that there is no particular reason for this. Why is this method as it is? The answer is: this method is as it is because it has reached us from our spiritual mentors; this method has evolved as such. There is an old Jaina text called ¶chÈra×ga SÊtra. ¶chÈrya ¶tmÈ RÈm, who was the spiritual mentor of Dr. Shiv Muni who happens to be the present ¶chÈrya and head of the ƒrama‡ic Sa×gh, has been the first Jaina ÈchÈrya. He was a great savant : he was a great scholar and an enlightened being as well. What is the characteristic of knowledge? One such characteristic is that a knowledgeable, an enlightened person should never get involved in polemic. Whenever he finds the possibility of polemic, he should take along dialogue. ¶chÈrya ¶tmÈ RÈm was known as a great scholar and an enlightened person. It is said that when he was an old man of 83 years, he fell down on the floor and the bone of one of his feet got broken at three places. His spontaneous reaction was that if it had broken into three, let it be. He was beyond all pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, appreciation and denunciation. People around him advised that he must go in for operation. When they insisted a lot, he agreed to go in for operation. But he put forward a condition. He will get his foot operated but will not take anaesthesia. I would like to see the doctor how he operates my foot. There was those days a German doctor by the name of Virgin. He operated upon the ¶chÈrya’s foot. The operation took about three and a half hours to complete. The ¶chÈrya sat calm and continued to watch how the doctor went with the operation. In fact, to begin with, the doctor was not willing to operate without giving anaesthesia to the patient: he was afraid lest some calamity should happen to him. However, the ¶chÈrya remained adamant, saying that he may go ahead with the operation if he wants to do but it will have to be without anaesthesia. He even told the doctor that he was not in need of any operation. At last the doctor gave in and operated upon his foot without giving him any anaesthesia. The ¶chÈrya sat calm and watched through every movement of the doctor. At last the operation was completed. The ¶chÈrya asked the doctor to ring up his home as his wife seems to have forgotten to lock home. The doctor wondered and asked how he knew this as he sat far away from the doctor’s home. The ¶chÈrya again asked him to be quick and ring up his wife as she was about to leave home. At the moment she stood in his bed room. He also told that their bed room was in that particular direction in their home. The doctor rang up his house. Whatever the ¶chÈrya had told was true.
  • 24. This is what we call the third eye, the divine eye. This is the capability to see what is not visible to the physical eye. ¶chÈrya ¶tmÈ RÈm in his exegesis of the SÊtras has described this method, but nobody has been able to compre- hend it. Several years have gone by since he passed away, but nobody has since then taught this way to meditation. ¶chÈrya Shiv Muni, the author of this book, went through this literature and discovered this method. When Shiv Muni was working for his doctoral degree, he realized that all the TÏratha×kars of Jainism did nothing except meditation. It is not the case only with Jainism, you look at any religious tradition and you will find meditation discussed there. This made him resolve to comprehend the view of ¶chÈrya ¶tmÈ RÈm and discover the method. He did succeed, but he was not yet satisfied. The research continued and continued and ultimately he found this method in the ¶chÈra×ga SÊtra. It is this method which we are going to practice today. Method of Inhalatation and Exhalation To remain alert and conscious while still being inert and inactive is called dhyÈna or meditation. What we mean here is that consciousness be rationed while remaining inert and inactive. This is dhyÈna or meditation. The dhyÈna is a stage midway between indulgence and sleep. Breath helps us reach the stage of complete denial, inertia and inactivity. How does it help? In a way, breathing is an activity. It seems as if we breathe in and breath out, and continue doing so repeatedly. However, breathing while still being an activity is not an activity. How? Let me explain this. Suppose a person gets unconscious. Will he in that state be able to take his food by himself? Can he drink water? No, he cannot take food or water. Can he move about? No, he cannot move about, either. In fact, he cannot perform any of the necessary activities of body. Still that unconscious person breathes. This implies that you do not make any effort to breathe. It may sound strange to say you breathe but still you do not breathe, i.e., make no effort to breathe. Breathing goes no naturally. The activity of breathing in and breathing out continues of its own. In case you were to take the breath and sometime you forgot to breathe, this might have caused a serious problem. It has been a favour by God that He did not leave this duty into you. In that case you would have forgotten to breathe at same point of time and consequently this life might have gone by now. Man forgets so many things and it is natural he might have forgotten one day to breathe. And, this would not have given him an opportunity to repent. Breathing is a natural activity. If I say you breathe and If I say breathing comes in and out of its own, both the statements can be accepted as true. Actually, you have to make no conscious effort to breathe. When you are asleep, you cannot do anything, but you breathe. You do not know of it, but breathing continues. This means, this is not you who take the breathe, but breathing goes on of its own. This also implies that breathing is both an activity and inactivity. It can be said to be an activity, but actually it is an inactivity. It can be said that you do it, but actually it goes on of its own. So long body is conscious, it will continue to breathe for its own sake and of its own. What happens when you look at the breath? You move from the world of action to the world of inaction. You do nothing with the body and the mind is made to concentrate on the breath which means that your mind is also not doing anything. Mind merely looks at the inhalation and exhalation of breath and does nothing because the breathing goes of its own. Similarly, the body is also not doing anything
  • 25. because breathing is a natural process for which body has to do nothing. Remaining conscious, breathing, and being in the present means doing nothing. You should halt a while here. Breath is like a pathway, a bridge which leads us from indulgence to nothingness, from action to inaction. That is why we have chosen the breath. What would have happened had we chosen a mantra, an incantation? We should have repeatedly recited that and that would have become an action, an activity in itself. Had the choice been of a portrait, we could have imagined it time and again and tried to concentrate our mind on that. That would also have become an activity. For this reason, we have chosen the breath. There is another beautiful thing about breath. You may or may not consciously wish it, but breathing must bring you in the present. Is it possible for you to look at the breath you took say ten minutes earlier? You may wish it very much, you cannot do it. Similarly, it you wish to look just now at the breath that you intend taking say after ten minutes from now, you cannot do that either. Then which breath can you see? You can look at the breath that you are just now breathing in and breathing out. In other worlds, if you have to look at the breath, you will have to bring yourself to the present. We can also say that whenever you are with the breathing, you are in the present. You cannot be either in the past or the future. Nobody ever asked you to discard either past or future, but looking at the breath made you discard both and live and in the present. Breath : A Complete Life The first good thing about breathing, as we told you, has been that it bring you ² quite spontaneously ² to the present. The second good thing about it is that the whole life is linked with breathing. Whatever you might do in life, breathing is ever with you. You may go anywhere in the world, you may be in India or America, you may be awake or asleep, you may be having your food or walking about, you may be doing anything, breath is there always with you. You might have seen, whenever a child is born ² he may be born in a rich family or a poor family, he may have born in India or anywhere else in the world ² he weeps the first thing after coming into the world. As he weeps, everybody else laughs. In case he does not weep, everybody else might have to weep. If he does not weep, the doctor sure is to hit or pinch him lightly so as to make him weep. The doctor knows that his failure to make the child weep is sure to cause grief to others. What I mean to say here is that the first thing that the child does after his birth is weeping. And, he weeps quite loudly. Why? What is the problem with him? Why does he weep? What do you think? Why does the child weep? šHis lungs expand.› If the lungs expand, there is no need to weep; he can laugh also. šHe weeps because he enters into new environments.› Enters into new environments. The poor little thing. Inside it is utter darkness while outside it is light. This being better environment, he should laugh. šHe weeps for coming into light from darkness.› I think this fact of coming out of darkness into light should make him happy. Then why does the poor thing weep?
  • 26. šHe feels the pain.› Does he feel pain? Does it pain to take birth? šHe has now to breathe in through his nose. This is why he weeps.› He has to breathe in through nose.... He does not know this. That is why he breathes in and out through his mouth. šThe reason is his separation from mother.› Separation from mother... got away from mother. Suffers from pangs of separation? I think, once away, he does not bother as to who gave him birth. šHe weeps because now he has been burdened with worldly responsibilities.› Worldly responsibilities, you say. Ok, once he is born into this world, he will naturally grow up into youth. He will have to go to school, study and then ultimately get married to someone. I think it is enough burden for him!! šHe weeps and cries for his soul.› What? He weeps and wails for his soul to come? It sounds ridiculous. Strange that he weeps for his soul to come into his body as he has already taken birth! The question still remains. Why does the child weep? All right, I shall myself answer the question. Otherwise, I am sure varied and strange answers will keep pouring, ranging from the expansion of lungs to crying out for the soul to the pangs of separation. What is the reality behind this? In fact, the child seems to us to be weeping, otherwise he does not weep at all. He sounds to be weeping, but actually he does not weep. We presume he is weeping. So long as he is in his mother’s womb, it is natural for him to do whatever his mother does. When his mother breathes, he also takes breath. When his mother takes the meal, it reaches him automatically. Now he has come out. So long as he remained in his mother’s womb, his lungs were completely shrunk, absolutely non²functional. As he comes out of his mother’s body, he cries loudly. In fact, it is no weeping or crying. It is the opening up of the lungs but we seem to take as if he were weeping. When the child is born, the thing that he does after coming out of his mother’s body is to breathe in. And do you know what is the last thing that a person does before he dies? He breathes out, but cannot breathe in. He stops breathing. Birth and Death We learn that life begins with breathing and it ends with the stopping of breathing. In other words, breathing is life and end to breathing is death. In between these two points lies our worldly existence. All joys and sorrows of life, all laughter and weeping, all meetings and separations, all friendships and enmity, all good and evil thoughts of mind are related to breath. This means when you look at the breath, you look at the entire life. Breathing is not just breath going in and out. Entire life of ours is related to breath. Just the feelings of mind change, pace of breathing also changes. Breathing and body, breathing and mind, breathing and prȇa, all these things are deeply and intimately connected with each other. We can also say that breathing is a thread which ties body-speech-mind together. When you are with the breath, you are with you entire self, your entire entity. The whole entity of your stops with you in the present.
  • 27. You might have thus realized when you began the process of looking at the breathing, what happened to your thoughts in a matter of moment. Did they come in abundance or they got decreased. We have just to see if more or less thoughts come to us after that. The answer obviously is that they became less. Why did they get less? Did you think of this? Whenever you happened to be with you breathing, whenever you looked at your breathing, what happened to the thoughts? To begin with, they were quite a many, but what started happening gradually? They got less and less Earliest, their pace was quite fast. Then this pace became slow. Why this change ² in numbers and in pace? The answer is simple : the mind got connected with breathing. When mind gets connected with breathing, what change did you see in the number and pace of thoughts? It happened so because mind got related with breathing. Preparation Within and Without First of all, we sit in any posture of our choice. We keep our back, waist and neck straight. We close our eyes. We put our hands on our knees or just place them in the lap. We take the spectacles off. This is the preparation without. The second preparation is the preparation within. What is that? You put your mind on the breathing in and out. On the basis of these two preparations, mind spontaneously concentrates. Thus, meditation is called a happening, it is not an action. It happens of its own. It cannot be done with forced effort. However, you have to prepare a background for it to happen. We discussed the similarity between meditation and sleep in the preceding pages. Let me add here that there is one more similarity between the two. You cannot make yourself sleep with any forced effort: sleep comes of its own. For example, you go to sleep at night. Before that, you fix your bed, change your dress, take on the quilt or something if the weather so demands or put the fan on if the weather is hot. Then you lie down on the bed and close your eyes. Now it is for the sleep to come or not to come. If you do not get sleep, you cannot force it. You cannot compel it. The harder efforts you will make for getting sleep, the farther it will go. You just leave yourself relaxed in the bed, you do not know when you are overtaken by sleep. Similar is the case with meditation. You cannot let it happen by force. You cannot force your mind to stop thinking. This is not possible. You can only prepare the background. On the basis of that background meditation will happen when it has to happen. Thus, meditation is a happening, and in making this happen, breathing has a vital role to play. Significance of Sound of Breathing Then what did we do today? We have now added sound of breathing to the process of concentrating on breathing. Now a question will crop up in the mind of many as to why did we add only sound of breathing? On the one hand, we say that there should be no incantation, no recitation, but we have added sound of breathing. Why? What was the necessity of adding it? Was breathing alone no sufficient? Of course, breathing alone was sufficient. The addition of sound of breathing to it adds pace to your progress. We shall move faster on the way. What is sound so²aham? Let us first try and understand its meaning? It is not a word, it is a sound. There is, of course, difference between sound and word. What is
  • 28. that difference? Sound is not a part of any language whereas any given word comes from one or the other language. For example, the bell rings. The sound that comes from the ringing of the bell is sound. However, if you want to put that sound in words, you will have to answer how does the bell ring? The answer will be²tan..nn..nn. Now, this tann....nn.. is a word. It is not a sound. There is difference between sound and word. If you speak tann...nn..nn, it is not like the sound of the bell. Is it? No. Still, if you want to express the sound of the bell in words, the word is tann...nn..nn. That is the nearest possible word to convey the sound. That is why we have used this word. You will not use in its place the word dam...dam simply because it does not match at all with the sound of the bell. One thing is sure, there is difference between the sound of the bell and the nearest possible word we use to express it. SoahaŠ : Not a Word But Sound SoahaŠ is not a word. It is a sound. But where did this sound come from? This sound has come from nowhere. It is present within you. As and when you breathe in, this sound šso› is already present within you. And as you breathe out, the sound of šAhaŠ› is also within you. You may or may not do it, this is a continuous, eternal sound. Ad and when the breath goes in, the sound of šso› happens and as and when the breath goes out, the sound of šAhaŠ› happens. And this happens continuously. Now you will say, if this is ever happening, why is it not audible to us? We have not heard this until now. We did sit with eyes closed several times, but we never realized this. The fact is that this sound is very subtle and we live in lot of hustle and bustle. It is as if you stand in a busy market and someone from back gives you a soft call. You will not hear this : it will not reach your ears. Then the same fellow cries loudly. You look back and recognize the person standing behind calling you. Noise Within and Without If there is much noise outside, the soft, subtle voice will not be audible to you. Similarly, this sound of šsoahaŠ› is happening within you, but we live amidst much of a noise. There is a lot of noise in the outside world, but relatively this is not much. It is rather small. Much more and in fact several times more noise is happening within ² the noise of ideas and of desires. How can you listen to that soft voice in that maddening noise? This is continuously happening inside but still we do not hear it. That is why we have added it to the breath from outside: we shall pronounce šso› while breathing in, but shall do so only in mind. And, we shall similarly say šahaŠ› as we breathe out. What is the use of adding the sound from without? It helps us attune ourselves with the sound within. We get attuned to it. And gradually as you continue with our practice, you will not then add the sound from without. You will get a spontaneous feeling that as you breathe in, you listen to a sound of šso› and as you breathe out, a sound of šahaŠ› is heard. This is all a matter of practice. With the passage of time and gradually after some more practice, you will be able to listen to this sound from within even when you stop breathing for a while. This sound within is eternal, continuing for ever. That is why we have added this sound from without to the breathing. We could have looked at the breath alone. Why this sound? Breath is subtle and still it is gross. More subtle than breath is this sound. And in this camp, we have to move from the gross world to the subtle one. From Subtle to the Subtlest
  • 29. Speech is more subtle than body. Mind as well as the ideas within is more subtle than the speech more subtle is consciousness which is indicative of the stage of complete silence. Very subtle. More subtle than the subtlest. We cannot call it even subtle : it is subtle and still it is not so. Thus, if we want to go to the subtle world, this sound helps us a lot. That is why we have added this sound of šsoahaŠ› with breathing. Now some people might ask that they could have meditated by placing an image of a deity before us instead of concentrating on breathing and that sound. Now, see, both breathing and sound of šsoahaŠ› are realities of the present moment. They are not figment of imagination. In case, we had to concentrate on an image of God, what we might have to do? We shall have to imagine. None of us, neither you nor me, have seen God. What does God look like? Does God have two hands or four hands? Should we have an image of standing God or sitting God? Should God have eyes closed or open? This is real problematic. One of you might say that my god is of black complexion. The other can possibly say that his god is of a fair complexion. If one says that his god has eyes closed, the other might say that his deity has eyes open. This will create a problem. But there is no problem in the case of breathing. Breathing is the same in the case of everybody of us. One may belong to any community, any background, one may be a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian, there is no difference at all in their breath : it is the same in the case of every one of them. Breathing is a universal phenomenon. There is no controversy about it. And, it is a reality of the present. One does not have to imagine it. We need not to suppose that we are breathing in or out. There is no need for any imagination or supposition. This is a fact, a reality. It is present now. We breathe in and we breathe out. Similarly, one might say that there could have been another word in place of šsoahaŠ›. In case we replace it by any other word, it would mean imposing it from without. As for the word šsoahaŠ›, we can say that it is added from outside, but at the same time we can also say that we do not add it from outside. In fact, this is happening continuous- ly for ever within you. That is why we have added this to breath because this also makes us realize the present. Conclusion I Hope you have understood by now as to why did we take breath for this purpose and why did we add to it the sound of šsoahaŠ›. You might have learnt that we did so for a purpose. Now you are looking at the breath, you may please continue doing so. As I have advised you, I shall request you please be careful of those things. You may breathe in a natural, spontaneous way and with that add the sound of šsoahaŠ›, but this sound is within your mind, a silent one. Concluding Discussion Now we shall take up one or two questions and find answers to them. Some people say that the duration of the meditation should be lessened a bit. Now the fact of the matter is that when you are fed up with something you do not like doing it the time seems to pass of quits slow. On the other hand, when you are interested in the thing you are doing, the time seems to pass of quickly. Take one example : you are alone on a journey. How do you feel? How long the journey is. You have a jovial company on the same journey. Jokes and light conversation goes on. Time flies as you gossip about. Time seems to fly because your mind was interested in all that you were
  • 30. doing, you were involved in. Now how many of you feel that it was enough for meditation : please tell me with all seriousness and truth. Those who will say the truth will ultimately learn something. Let me tell you that when it is the beginning of the end or death of mana, the feeling that overtakes you first of all is that of sadness, of despondency. If you feel like getting fed up, it implies that the process of the death of your mana has started. It is a fact that when mana begins to die, sadness begins to take over. As it is, mana or mind lives on novelty. What does mind like the most? Something new. Take, for example, the food you like the most. Suppose you like the vegetable of ladyfinger the most. As you had for the second time, you did like it a lot, but not as much as the first time. When you had it for the third time, it was just ok. If you are offered it once again, you might have it without much interest or taste. But if it is offered once again, you will prefer to go away without taking food. However tasty a dish might be, you will enjoy it the best the first time you take it, but gradually your taste in it will not remain the same. It will become less with the passage of time. This is what has been called by Marshal the law of utility. According to this, your interest in a thing declines with the passage of time. You do not like for ever either the ladyfinger or the sweetmeats or the ice cream. There is nothing which appeals to mind for ever. Mind aspires for something new. Take the example of a person you like a lot. You might feel like living with him for ever. You will feel very good in his company for a day, for a few days, but after some days you will feel that it is enough now. But it is not possible in our life to change everything. There are limita- tions in certain matters. But it is universal characteristic of mind that it is ever interested in something new. It ever aspires for something new. Now when you began meditating, there was nothing in it which resembled with something new. You are breathing in and breathing out, and it is as it has always been. It is the same breath, the same šsohaŠ›. That is why we feel that it is enough. You feel fed up. Mind Getting Fed Up : Mind’s Death In a way mind’s getting fed up is a good sign. It implies that the process of the death of mind has begun. First of all, mind gets fed up, and if it happens to pass through this stage, it is sure to reach the stage of ecstasy. Am I right or not? During meditation, you breathe in and breathe out through the throat, is it proper or not? No, you have to do nothing. As several of you had asked the question, how the breath has to be taken in, where to concentrate on the breath ² when the breath is at this or that place in the throat. No, you have to concentration all you attention on the top of your nostrils. So you may do as you all have been asked to. You will not make any changes of your own. Is it all right? Hope you all understand. šEverything is all right, but it will be better if quantity of food provided is increased a little. Look, we feel quite hungry at night. It makes us feel uncomfortable during the night. Thus, we cannot have good sleep. Your most devoted disciple.› This reads a slip written by one of the participants. Now the fact of the matter is that when you have nothing else to do, first of all the mind will go to food. This is something very natural. Still if someone of you has quite serious problem, he or she is welcome to see me. However, it does not mean that
  • 31. you come in a long queue for this very purpose. It will be no surprise if all of you might get up to share the same problem. The fact is that the food being provided to you is enough for you. We have become habitual of eating much more than we need. Whatever you eat at home, perhaps only twenty-five per cent of that is enough for the body. The body does not need more than that, and we should not eat that. At times you might have felt, the belly is full, but mind still needs a bit more. Mind craves for more and more and more. Still anybody with some serious discomfort is welcome to see me. šOne such camp should be organized in the jungle in our Rajasthan. And it should last at least a fortnight. I shall feel delighted living in the forest.› So says another slip. Sure, if any of you wish that such camps should be organized at some particular places, such people should get in touch with me. I shall tell them as to what needs to be done and how to proceed further.