The five day Sri Radha Krishna Jhoolan ended on 5th August with the darshan of Paramahamsa Satyananda. Below are some photographs that speak for themselves.

Jhoolan

The final worship by Kanyas of Radha Krishna during Jhoolan.

Radha Krishna and Bal Gopal Jhoolas during Jhoolan.

GOD'S NAME

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

This is not an alarm clock, it is my wake up clock. It is set to ring every morning at two a.m. It wakes me up and the first thing I listen to is God's name. It is programmed to chant the name of God for forty minutes at a time. So I get up from my bed and sit down to sing, Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram Patita Pavana Sitaram, Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram for forty minutes. Then I get up, wash myself and start my japa. Oh God, when I sleep You should be the last one whom I shall remember, and when I wake up Your name should be the first thing that I hear. So I inaugurate and close the day with God's name. Anything which is begun well, ends well.
However, when you open your eyes in the morning, the first thing you see is this idiotic world. What is there to look at? You look at the world the whole day because you have to. But you should forget it, at least for forty minutes, and listen to the Lord's name. Start your day with the Lord's name. Don't be fearful of God. God won't be unhappy if you don't repeat His name. Even if you denounce Him, He won't punish you. You pray, not for God, but for yourself. Why take the Lord's name if you are afraid of Him? Even if you abuse God, He will still shower His grace upon you. God does not get angry at anyone, He does not punish anyone. When you chant His name, you do it for yourself.
You can also remove yourself from this worldly business for at least forty minutes and just listen to the Lord's name. Sugar is always sweet whether you put it in halwa or cake. In the same way, God's name is always sweet whether you sing or chant it. It has its quality of madhuram. There is a song: Adharam Madhuram, Nayanam Madhuram. He is sweetness personified. When you get out of bed in the morning with your eyes closed, half asleep, half awake, sing God's name. That is how the day should begin, with God's name: Sri Ram Jai Ram. This is a good start in the morning, then you can take a bath and read the Bible, Ramayana, Srimad Bhagavatam, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Bhakti Vedanta or Swami Sivananda.

Long-term investment
When you rise in the morning, firstly sit down and sing God's name. Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram is one example. However, you need not sing this, you can make up your own. Go on singing the Lord's name for thirty to forty minutes. When you repeat God's name you don't spend time, you gain time. It is a long-term investment. Repeat this process again when you go to bed at night. Even if you return late at night from a discotheque or a night club and you are a little drunk, it doesn't matter - that's a part of life. You can still sing God's name.
Chanting of the Lord's name does not mean that you run away from the world. In the balance of life there are four scales: artha, kama, dharma and moksha. These scales balance each other. If only artha and kama persist, then man becomes agitated. Therefore, artha and kama should be counter-balanced by dharma and moksha. In what proportion? You do not mix one kilogram of sugar with one kilogram of milk. In one kilogram of milk, you only put a few spoonfuls of sugar. The same is true for the proportion of salt that you put in vegetable dishes. Similarly, dharma and moksha make the dish of life tasty. Therefore, chant God's name for some time, perhaps forty minutes in twenty-four hours. Forty minutes is hardly a fraction of one day, but it is enough to make the dish tasty, to make household life enjoyable.
You do not need to sing bhajans for eight to ten hours, just twenty minutes in the morning and twenty minutes at night. Then it doesn't matter what you eat. If you want to eat meat, eat it. If you want to drink wine, drink it. Whatever you want to do, you can. Even thieves and dacoits whose profession it is to plunder and loot should chant Sri Ram Jaya Ram for just ten minutes. This is the truth, because dacoits and criminals will always exist in the world. Even God cannot eliminate them, so what can the government do? No government can eliminate criminals; they have never succeeded in doing so. Crime is the oldest profession. Man first started to earn by thieving and looting, not by hard work. Crime is a reality. I am not asking you to commit crime. I am just saying that whatever you are, whether a prostitute, a dacoit or a saint, a female or a male, high caste or low caste, politician or executive, remember God's name.
When you get up in the morning, sit down and chant God’s name for forty minutes. Do it loudly. What is there to hide? There should be no shame in singing the Lord's name. I do my pooja openly and regularly - every evening. At half past five I worship Ganesha, Hanuman, Rama, Shiva and Tulsi. People advise me to take a shortcut in doing pooja. I say why take a shortcut? Why should people be ashamed of worshipping the Lord? If people see me worshipping, they will also go back home and worship.

Spiritual journey of man
You should not relate spiritual life with daily life, nor should you have any. complex about your nature, such as "Oh, I am not a good man." Yes, you are not a good man, and I am also not a good man. You are a bad man eighty percent of the time and I am a bad man ten percent of the time, but a bad man I am. As long as you are in this human body, you can't be free from sins, from lapses, from the frailties of human life, because you are subject to the dharma of the body. You are subject to the gunas: sattwa, rajas and tamas. Without the integration and permutation of sattwa, rajas and tamas, there is no creation. The total composition of creation is the three gunas. When fusion takes place between the three gunas, then creation comes into being, otherwise existence enters into avyakta, the unmanifest dimension.
Therefore, you have to accept the reality as it is and yourself as you are. So where do you start? If you start with morality, you will have psychological problems. Ask any psychologist and he will verify that. Goodness cannot be imposed or cultivated. Goodness is your inner being which is completely hidden, and you can only break through the shell with God's name. Although man has been born with a body, he is controlled by nature, or Prakriti, which has threefold qualities, trigunatmika. The body and mind each have their own dharma. So, thinking that I am a bad person is a worthless thought. The spiritual journey of a man does not begin with satya, ahimsa and btahmacharya; these are the culmination of human life.
The journey of man begins with faults, because man has accumulated karmas from the past eighty-four lakh yonis through which he has evolved. Craving, sleep, fear, sexual instincts are what you have inherited from the animal level of evolution. The human journey begins with an incomplete nature. Do you complete your MA or MSc and then begin primary school? When you start school, what do you know? You know nothing. Similarly, life begins with weaknesses, mistakes, incompleteness, impurities, desires, anger, greed, animosity, attraction and repulsion. You can't fight with these things and you can't go against them. You can't say, "From today I won't tell a single lie. I will be truthful." You can't say, "From today 1 won't go to a single woman." It is all hypocrisy.

Satyam, shivam, sundaram
.Three things are your true form, your true nature: satyam, truth; shivam, auspiciousness; and sundaram, beauty. You don’t have to bring purity from outside, it is within you. You don't have to adopt any good quality from outside. You are already that. Therefore, the scriptures have said that these three-satyam, shivam, sundaram, represent your real nature, but are hidden. In order to manifest them, you have to break the outer shell. There is only one way to do this, no other method or way works. My model is 1923 and I have been trying all my life. I have tried every method and left it. I have tried to straighten the dog's tail so many times, but it always curls back again. Cut the tail and the stump is straight. I realized that I was trying to save the tail and also to make it straight. This is not possible. Either have a curled tail or cut it off. So, I cut off my tail.
Life begins with incompleteness. If you want to take your life towards completeness and perfection, then you should begin with the mantra of wholeness. The only mantra of wholeness and perfection is the Lord's name. So life starts with imperfection and this is natural. When you wish to move towards perfection, you don't have to take up a difficult method or path at the outset. You can try any method, but an important item in your life should be discipline. Just before you go to sleep and when you wake up, repeat God's name. You have seen my clock. It is not an alarm clock, I call it the Awakening Clock. This clock wakes you up with God’s name, not an ear-piercing, nerve-shattering screech or tone. Keep such a clock with you. Set the alarm for yourself and at the right time the clock will sing kirtan.

God is One
Do not think of yourself as a devotee of Shiva, Rama, Krishna, Devi, Christ or Buddha. Sects are always different, but God is one. One father has ten sons and each son has a separate family and home. However, that does not make the father different in each family and home. In the same way, sects are many and different but God is the same. A variety of names does not mean that Rama, Vishnu, Krishna, Shiva or Shakti are different. By sect I am a Shaiva, but if I worship Rama in Raghunath Kutir, do I become a Vaishnava? If I worship the Mother, do I become a Shakta? If I worship Jesus or Mother Mary, do I then become a Christian? These are sects and traditions, but bhakti is not limited to a sect.
There is no harm if Shiva kirtan is sung in a Vaishnava house, if Christian hymns are sung in a Hindu house or if Rama or Krishna kirtan is sung in a Christian house. Five star hotels keep a Bible in every room. Nowadays they have also started to keep the Bhagavad Gita. I used to read the Bible, Koran and Gita. What difference has this made to my personality? Whether one is Christian, Muslim or Hindu, what difference does it make? These are sects, and sects are not the personalities of anyone. Essentially, we are not Christians, Muslims, or Hindus. We are human beings, we are all one. There is no special anger called Christian anger, no special passion called Christian passion.
These are the ways, the paths, but basically we are all one. Imperfections are almost the same in everyone. The qualities of anger, greed, lust and passion are the same in each one of us, throughout the world, whether we are from the East, West, North or South. Similarly, the quality of goodness is the same in everyone. Fundamentally we are one and the same. So it doesn't matter what name we repeat, Sri Rama, Om Namah Shivayah, Hail Mary, Hail Jesus. Suppose you have come from a Christian background and I give you this clock. You say, "No, I don't want it because I am a Christian." This is a foolish idea. Many Indians intermarry with men and women from foreign countries, and many foreigners marry Indian men and women. Yet we don't see any difference in that, we see the difference only in God's name.
When we repeat the name, it will remind us of God. Name is only a reminder. Sri Ram, Jaya Ram Jai Jai Ram is only a reminder. The idea which it invokes in us is that of divinity, and divinity has no form. Divinity is total, all comprehensive and universal. God's name reminds us of purity, divinity and greatness. We can take any name or read any scripture, whether it is the Gita by Prabhupad, the works of Shankaracharya, the Upanishads, the Vedas, the Bible, the Koran, the Guru Granth Sahib, the couplets of Kabir, Meera or Raidas. They make no difference to our religious beliefs. I have found the taste of salt to be the same in Europe, India and China. I have found the same sweetness in the sugar of Russia, the UK and the USA. I have never found any difference in the taste anywhere. What I don't understand is how the difference in God's name cropped up in the first place. It must have been the work of mischief mongers.

Every form is God's form
Everybody says that God has no form, but the best way to depict Him is to say that every form is His Form. It is easy to say that God is without form, because no one has seen His form. You are the witness of the things which you have seen, and you cannot be the witness of the things that you have not seen. How can you say that God is without form? Have you seen Him? No. Whatever you have seen, you are the witness of that. You have seen this universe which is the manifestation of God. Places of pilgrimage or teerthasthanas are the manifestations of God. Ganga and Yamuna are the manifestations of God. I am also a manifest form of God.
There is a sloka which says:

The entire manifest universe, including time and space,
Inside and outside, everywhere, is pervaded by God.
In water, on land, on the mountain peak, in flaming fire,
God is universal, pervading the entire creation.

The entire universe is pervaded by one power. We call Him God, Hari, Rama, Allah, Khuda, Om or Amin. Just as it matters little whether we say soap or sabun, the name of God doesn't matter; it is the essence that is important.

Sing your way to Him
The scientists have said that there is energy within matter. We say that beyond energy there is consciousness, beyond consciousness there is the soul, and beyond the soul there is divinity. In the Bhagavad Gita it is also said that behind the body are the senses, behind the senses is the mind, behind the mind is the intellect, behind the intellect is the soul and behind the soul is divinity. By behind, I mean its essence. In the same way, God is the essence of everything. The essence of milk is butter. The essence of butter is ghee. The essence of ghee is fat. The essence of fat is calories and the essence of calories is energy and heat, which is the basis of life. When the heat diminishes, we die. Similarly, the ultimate essence of matter is God, and matter is the manifestation of divinity. We are all the manifestation of divinity. The panchatattwas, five elements, are manifestations of divinity.
Therefore, just as sugar becomes one with milk, let the mind melt in God. There is no use controlling the mind, because there is no mind as such. Just sing His name until you get out! Just sing and sing the name of God until your mind melts. This was the path of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Meerabai. Narada continuously chanted Narayana, Narayana, twenty-four hours a day. If you sing the name of God with proper tune and pitch, rhythm and beat, you will enjoy it. Good food, sweets, tea, coffee, even brandy do not generate as much heat as the singing of God's name. There is a song:

Now I enjoy the life of a wandering ascetic.
The happiness I get from singing the Lord's name
I did not find in all the richness of the earth.
We are the monarchs, the crownless monarchs.

Bhagavat Katha

From 1st to 8th September 2009, Sivananda Janmotsav, the birth celebration of Swami Sivananda will be held at Rikhiapeeth. During this 8 day utsav, Bhagavat Katha will be conducted by Sri Swami Girishanandaji Maharaj of Akhandananda Ashram Vrindavan.

For information and registration you may contact Rikhiapeeth.

Rikhiapeeth, PO Rikhia, Dist Deoghar, 814113, Jharkhand, India
Tel: Rikhia 06432-290870/ 09304-488889/ 09304-799449.

AWAKENING THE SPIRITUAL MAN

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Swami Satyananda Saraswati

I have read many books from time to time, written by eminent authors on prana shakti and kundalini yoga which is a most transcendental yet, immediately useful topic. I don't necessarily agree with everything they write, but beyond a certain stage in the spiritual life, everyone has the same experiences. In the beginning of the practices which lead to fulfillment and enlightenment in yoga, there, may be differences of experience, but after a while all of us join on a common track and we have the same experience. Therefore my experience is not strictly just personal experience.

Awareness in action

I have been an aspirant and a practitioner of yoga all throughout my life. Even to this day, I do not miss even one moment in indolence. I do not wish to miss even one breath in carelessness. When I am given to the expansion of awareness, when I have pledged myself to grow out of this animal in man and, when I have set myself to express the greatest, the noblest, the purest, the brightest and most illumined aspects of spiritual life, then I must dedicate myself to this awareness all throughout my life.

There has hardly been a moment in my life when I have not been living in a different world. Please do not misunderstand me and think that I meditate for twenty four hours a day- I do and I do not. I have my own commitments. I have my own responsibilities. I have hundreds of centers all over the world. I have hundreds of sannyasins and sannyasinis, most of whom are not in their sixties but in their twenties. You can imagine that I must have some difficulty in my conscious mind and also in my unconscious mind.

On the administrative side, I have to sign not less than two hundred balance sheets every year. From three o'clock in the morning right up till nine o^'clock at night I have to sign letters with my right hand and with the left hand I am reading various publications. At the same time, I have to dictate to my secretary from Melbourne. In my bathroom I have a telecom, and from there I dictate letters. I have three telecoms for the three secretaries, so I can dictate letters from my room to theirs, such is the rush of work.

There are so many publications to print that I need to have the most modern printing press and an automatic, computerized composing machine, managed by one of your Australian swamis. Apart from this, I have to take care of enormous financial responsibilities, which run not to thousands but to lakhs of rupees. All my institutions run on a total budget of millions of dollars.

Still, yoga can be maintained, higher awareness can be stabilized and one can live above matter while having to deal with matter. That is what is taught by the Gita and other spiritual literature. We have been making a mistake. We want to live either the so called spiritual life or the so called sensual life. May I tell you that both of these lives can be lived together and there is a secret to doing this. The secret is kundalini.

Kundalini and spiritual awareness

There is no other way you can transcend the barriers, no matter what practice you follow, Oh, I can tell you the names of many great men, but none of their practices can make you transcend the boundary wall.

There is a boundary wall, an impenetrable wall of consciousness, a barrier of awareness, and beyond that there is no right of entry without kundalini yoga. You go and come back, go and come back. You see the flame of a candle, the blue lotus, the cross; you see Jesus, Rama, Krishna, Guru, and you come back. You cannot transcend that way.

What you have experienced is the deepest state of relaxation, and beyond that the spiritual experience begins. When the symbol, when the form of the subject of your meditation becomes vividly clear in your mind, when you are not aware of time and space, that is the final stage of relaxation and yoga nidra. It is only after that, that the spiritual journey really begins.

It is in this context that I have always been telling people not to fear kundalini. She is the mother aspect, the Mary of Christians, the Durga of Hindus, the aspect of energy, the aspect of shakti. Just as a scientist explodes the energy out of matter, likewise a yogi withdraws the energy out of matter. This kundalini is at once physiological, mental and transcendental. People have different opinions about this primal power which man has preserved within himself right from the dawn of creation.

For centuries and centuries, for millions of years, man has been travelling in darkness. He has made tools, he has built houses and palaces, he has created armies, he has developed languages, but still he has been living through the dark ages. Unless the alpha rhythm becomes universal and common, natural, spontaneous and ever present in the human being, he is human in form only, but not in reality.

Much of us still lives in the animal kingdom. We move by instinct, we think by instinct, we understand by instinct and that is how we pass our whole life, through a tunnel which is totally dark. We are moving but we don^'t see ourselves; we don't know which way we are going. We are going ahead but we don't know we are going ahead. That is the dark tunnel of human evolution through which all of us have been passing until now.

The moment that the energy is exploded and the awareness comes forth, you know that you are, and that is when you begin your spiritual journey, that is when you begin to feel like a human being. I know that I am. The animals procreate and we do too, but they don't know that they are procreating and we know that we are. They indulge in sex and we do too, but they don^'t know and we do. This awareness is a special privilege of human existence. It is gyanam, not gyana yoga, but gyanam.

Gyanam is spiritual awareness that has developed in man, making him aware of time, space and objects and their relationships. Maybe there is a dog who is listening to me but he does not know that he is listen­ing. You know that I am speaking, you know that you are listening, you are aware, and that is the beginning of spiritual awareness. With that you become man, and this particular awareness by which you know that you are, has to be expanded.

Purging the mind

Often the outward signs of this process of becom­ing aware are mistaken for symptoms of schizophrenia by our medical professors, teachers and scientists. If it is schizophrenia, then every man will become schizo­phrenic before he evolves into another plane of higher existence. Matter has to be split, only then can the energy explode, not in any other way. Matter cannot remain the same if energy is to come out. The mind has to be blown, broken and disintegrated. The samskaras must be broken. The emotions and the various aspects of the mind have to be separated.

You have to see all these things in your practice of antar mouna, and if you don't want to see them, then the natural course of evolution will make you see them. That is why I have always and everywhere been telling people that in the field of concentration of the mind, the more the vacillation, the better it is for your spiritual evolvement. The more the karmas and the thoughts come to the surface, the better it is for your spiritual illumination. Let them come. If they don't, if concen­tration begins at once, there is something wrong.

The soul has to pass out all the karmas. The mind has to purge out its previous knowledge, its previous experience. Even if you don^'t believe in the previous birth, at least believe in this birth. During the years of your life, how many experiences have you had? How many things have you perceived? Where are they now, and where do they come from? Those karmas, those samskaras, those seeds, those latent impressions of this life or the past lives, have to be experienced, have to be thrown out, have to be purged.

Those who follow the path of yoga should remem­ber that kundalini yoga is one of the most powerful methods of purging these impressions. It works like dynamite, like a powerful explosive. You put it under­neath and pow! It is not easy to achieve enlightenment, and it is not good for me to claim that I can give you enlightenment. Enlightenment is the last job that a man has to perform, not the first job. After that, you are fulfilled, you are complete, nothing to gain and nothing to lose- one state of being.

Therefore, in kundalini yoga the very practices which are taught in this context start exploding the personality right from the beginning. You may have read about this in books, but let me repeat again. When the kundalini awakens in mooladhara chakra, the sacral plexus, heat is generated, the emotions and passions are generated, and everything seems to be exploding and going around in circles. But the truth is that there are disturbances when consciousness awakens in any field of life.

To give an example, when a beloved husband has just left his wife, how does she feel? Just one incident in life has triggered a whole emotional explosion. In the same manner, with the awakening of mooladhara chakra, all the lower karmas are triggered, pow, pow, pow, pow! Everything comes out and you must only have patience. You must remember these words which I am speaking now. Just be patient and quietly watch what is happening- the lights, the explosions, the emotions and the passions, everything is coming up.

Living on a higher plane

This shakti is the awakening of spiritual man. This generation, the one that is coming up now, has a duty to fulfill. I know that not just hundreds but thousands of boys and girls, men and women, all over the world, are engrossed in their efforts, right or wrong, to awaken the kundalini. Some use drugs, some use mantra, others use the raja yoga methods, yet others use penance and austerities, and a few use the help of a guru.

You are not the only travellers on this spiritual path. There are millions and millions. People all over the world have been thinking of just one thing, how to awaken that power by which man can live in a different realm, but still keep operating on this earth plane. You can live on this earth with lower consciousness, and you can live here with the highest consciousness. Which would you prefer? Tell me!

When you live here with the lower consciousness, you eat chocolates and all sorts of things. And when you live on a higher plane, are you still going to eat chocolates? Of course you will! But on the lower plane everything you experience carries a reaction and it leaves impressions on your mind. That is karma, the continuity of the existence of karma. When you live on a higher plane of consciousness, you live life and you get the maximum from it because life does not react. It does not leave a chain of vicious actions and reac­tions, which cause the continuation of this horrible existence.

`My wife died! Oh, my wife died!' What's wrong? She died three years ago! That's all finished, but you are still stuck in a state of horrible grief because of karma, because you live on a lower plane of conscious­ness. You should live on a higher plane, then the enjoyment is greater and the gratification is infinite. What little you get from life is too much for you. When you live on the lower plane, however much you get from life is too little because you think, God! Maybe tomorrow I will not have anything at all! You have insecurity, fear of being looted, fear of losing the grant of nature.

Therefore, when man lives on the higher plane of existence he is not going to shun this creation. People say, “When everyone becomes a swami, what is going to happen to the world? It will collapse?” I say it will be a world with freedom. After all, what do you mean by a swami? A man who has mastery over his mind is a swami, and he who has not mastery over his mind is not a swami.

When you live on the higher plane of existence you will operate in the beautiful world, and I say beautiful because I believe it to be so, with the beauti­ful ideals of purity, compassion, and so on, which you now talk about. Before you talk about these things, you must first go up to the higher plane, and then you will see that these idealistic phrases become the reality of experience.

This evening one swami asked me if I loved him. I asked him, `Do you understand what love is?' If you come to me and ask, `Swamiji, do you like or dislike me?' I will say yes or no. But if you ask me whether I love you, I first want to know if you know what love is. When we live on a lower plane our understanding of love is limited. We understand love in relation to our existence and our experience. As we grow more and come to live on a higher plane, love takes on a different meaning. We begin to experience love in the absolute sense, without personal limitations.

Please do not mind if I tell you that you don't know what love is. You like people, you like your wife and children, you like your husband and friends, or you may dislike them. You live in a world of love and hatred, raga (attachment, liking) and dwesha (hatred, jealousy). You live in a world of these two opposites. There may be one person here and there out of millions and millions, who has experienced love, who is able to give love, the divine experience.

Prana is fact

The practices of kundalini yoga come to us at a time when they are very much needed for our humanity. This great potential energy in man can be aroused by the methods of yoga, and then the prana shakti can be expressed. Thought can be converted into idea, idea can be converted into will, and will can be converted into creativity. Dissipated energy is thought, concentrated energy is idea, dynamized energy is will, and creative energy is our objective. These ob­jects around us are materialized, creative energy. The dissipated energy which we have can be dynamized and materialized just by awakening prana shakti. If you don't awaken prana shakti, it cannot be done.

The proof of prana shakti can be seen through Kirlian photography, which records the movement of prana in each and every organism, just as your camera records your face and body. This system reveals that plants have prana, the fingers have prana, the nose has prana, this microphone has prana, you have prana, the whole life seems to be an interplay of prana shakti. When travelling by car, by train or by plane, I always think about prana moving this way and that.

You see, this whole business of prana is fact. Up to now, we have been materialistic. We have seen matter and we have accepted matter. Beyond this, however, we have only postulated; we have never really believed. We would say, `Supposing there is...' But now let us say, `Definitely there is prana.' The fun of it is that people say the body contains prana, and I say the opposite, that prana contains the body. People say that God is in us; I say no, we are in him. Are we his containers or is he our container? Oh yes, I remem­ber a story about this.

The picnic

There were four friends who went for a picnic on a weekend. One was a philosopher, one a botanist, one an astrologer, and the last a musician. Each wanted to contribute something to the picnic, so they decided that the musician would take charge of the cooking, while the others went to bring the different food items.

The astrologer climbed a coconut tree to pick some coconuts and while he was doing so, a donkey brayed. He took out his book and read that a donkey's bray at a certain time of day is very inauspicious, so he threw away his coconuts.

The botanist went to a greengrocer. He looked at the cucumbers and decided they were too flatulent. He went to the potatoes, but they had too much starch and carbohydrate. The spinach had too much oxalic acid, and the cabbages were all reserved for this convention. The shopkeeper suggested onions, but the botanist said, ^`No. If it is union it is alright, but if it is onion it is all wrong, and we don't want it.'

The philosopher went to fetch some oil for frying. He was bringing it back in a little bottle when suddenly there came to his mind the question of whether God is the basis for creation, or creation is the basis for God; whether Brahman, the supreme being, is the basis for the universe, or the universe is the basis for Brahman. Who contains whom? Then he began to question whe­ther the bottle contained the oil, or the oil contained the bottle. He remembered that in logic they say that if there is any difference of opinion on a subject, it should be settled by practical experience. So, he decided to drop the bottle on the ground and see. It broke into many pieces and all the oil was spilt.

Meanwhile, our musical brother was cooking the rice. When the rice started boiling, the bubbling sound of the water made a nice rhythm, so he started beating on the pot in time to it. However, the rice pot didn't keep to his timing, so he took a hammer to it, as drum­mers do when they are adjusting their drums. Of course, he knocked the pot over and all the rice was lost.

Now, when the others came back, they all sat down feeling tired and hungry. These four intellectuals didn't have much to show for their picnic. And so it is in sadhana, that due to our limited ideas and intellectual concepts, we totally miss the point of the practices and consequently, we have little of any practical benefit to show for our effort.

Prana shakti is the basis of yoga, the basis of kundalini, the basis of creation, the basis of all human activity, the basis of all animate and inanimate exist­ence. Just because the scientists of our time are late in discovering prana shakti, why should you be late also? This prana shakti is going to give you extra energy in your daily life so that you can overcome depression and sorrow. When you are lacking prana shakti, you are depressed, you are tired, you can^'t remember, you feel shy, you are schizophrenic, and so forth.

Increase your potentiality

We should now start to practise yoga continually and system­atically- hatha yoga, raja yoga, asanas, pranayama, mudras, bandhas and kriyas. Gradually, not in one year but in a few years, you will increase the scope of manifestation of this wonderful, incredible power.

What I have been speaking about is not a philosophical utopia, it is a scientific matter. The people who are involved in yoga and meditation, in Zen Buddhism, or in any system, no matter where they are, must now take up this topic and go ahead with their own experiments in their own lives.

Prana Vidya Course:

An advanced sadhana course of Prana Vidya will be conducted at Rikhiapeeth in English medium from the 12^th -18^th October 2009. This course gives sadhaks the unique opportunity to experience yogic techniques for the subtle control of energy by utilizing breathing practices and visualizations. This comprehensive course is designed for those wanting to deepen their yogic practices and to experience the subtle influences of prana and the chakras. These ancient techniques are particularly powerful when practiced in the spiritually charged atmosphere of Rikhiapeeth.

For more information and registration details contact

Bihar School of Yoga,
P.O. - Rikhia,
Dist- Deoghar,
Jharkhand, 814 113, India.

For reply enclose a self addressed envelope.

Tel: Rikhia 06432-290870/ 09304-488889/ 09304-799449.

NADA YOGA

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Any practice or technique of meditation that brings about complete cessation of consciousness is called laya yoga. There are many sadhanas recommended in laya yoga, and nada yoga is one. The word nada is derived from the Sanskrit root nad meaning “to flow”. Hence the etymological meaning of nada should be a process or a flow of consciousness. Ordinarily the word nada means sound. There are four stages of manifestation of sound according to frequency and subtlety or grossness. The four stages are: (i) para, (ii) pashyanti, (iii) madhyama and (iv) vaikhari. These four stages of sound should be understood scientifically.

Para nada

Para means ‘transcendental’, ‘beyond’ or ‘the other side’. It is beyond the reach of the indriyas, or sense organs, and the mind and other means of cognition. Hence para nada is the transcendental sound. It is indicative of a truth that there is a sphere of superconsciousness where the sound is heard in different dimensions.

Students of classical music are aware of the fact that every note is made up of different numbers of vibrations per second. They vary in length, speed and pitch. In Indian music these vibrations are called andolana. In one second a sound may make many thousands of vibrations. Above a certain level of high frequency, sound becomes inaudible and can only be perceived subjectively. The ears cannot receive such sounds that are vibrating at a very high rate. Therefore, we are not aware of all the sounds that are present in the cosmos. Sounds having a very high frequency are transformed into silence. Beyond a certain limit, the ears do not have the capacity. No one can hear or understand a sound like that even if it is present.

Para or transcendental sound has the highest vibration frequency. This intense vibration faculty makes para inaudible. Various texts mention that para sound has no vibration. It is a sound that has no movement and therefore no frequency. It is a still sound, but we cannot conceive of a sound that has no vibration, no movements, no motion. When a sound goes to its maximum pitch, it attains a sudden stillness, and that is para nada.

In the Upanishads, the sound of Om is said to be the manifestation of para. The audible chant of Om which we produce is not para because it is physical, subject to our hearing, understanding and logic. Therefore, the audible Om cannot be called the transcendental Om. Para is a cosmic and transcendental sound devoid of all movement. It is both still and infinite. It has shape and light too. Its nature is jyoti (light). It is different from all sounds usually heard or conceived. The Upanishads clearly state, “that is Om, that sound is Om.”

Pashyanti

The second stage of sound, which has less frequency and is more gross than para, is pashyanti. It is a sound which cannot be heard, but it can be seen. Pashyanti in Sanskrit means ‘that which can be seen or visualized.’ The ancient scriptures maintain that sound can also be perceived. How does one see a sound? Well, have you ever heard a piece of music in a dream? This particular dimension of sound, as it is in dream, is called pashyanti. It may be called a mental sound, which is neither a conscious sound nor a semi-conscious sound. It is a subconscious sound pertaining to a quality of mind and not belonging to the quality of the sense organs, like the tongue or ears.

When I say out loud “Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama,” it will be called vaikhari, but when I close my eyes and mouth and go in and repeat mentally the sound of Rama, visualizing its colour and form with the inner eye, it is known as pashyanti. When the word or the sound is heard in a sphere where one is not aware of the outer surroundings, it is called pashyanti. When every outer sound is extinct and you hear a new sound altogether unlike the nature of audible sounds, know it as a special sound or the nada of pashyanti.

Madhyama

A form of sound having lower frequencies than para and pashyanti, but still subtler than the audible vaikhari form of sound, is known as madhyama. It is a sound produced in whispering. No audible effect is produced in it. Madhyama produces very minute vibrations in the act of a whisper. In an ordinary sound, two objects strike against each other in order to produce sound. But in madhyama no two things strike violently so as to produce audible sound. For example, when a sound is produced like ‘thuck, thuck, thuck,’ it is called a gross sound. The word madhyana means ‘in between’ or ‘middle’, so madhyama means a middle sound, a whispering sound or the sound of a whisper.

Vaikhari

The fourth and gross stage of nada is called vaikhari. Vaikhari sound is audible and producible. The spoken sound is vaikhari. It is produced by friction or by striking two things against each other. Its frequencies of vibration are conducted within a certain limited range.

To sum up, vaikhari is the gross quality of the vocal organs, madhyama is the subtler quality of the same physical organs, pashyanti is the quality of the subconscious or unconscious, and para is the quality of the soul.

The universe and nada

According to nada yogis and the scriptures dealing with the subject of nada yoga, the nada brahma, or the ultimate and transcendental sound, is the seed from which the entire creation has evolved. A nada yogi believes that the world is but a projection of sound alone. The whole macrocosmic universe is a projection of sound vibrations. From that sound the whole world has evolved. In the Bible there is the reference: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.” This word is called the nada or the shabda. Sufis in India call it surat. Surat or shabda yoga is another name for nada yoga practice. The Sufi saints of philosophical temperament also believe that out of sound and form the world evolved. The nada yogis believe that the five elements, five karmendriyas, five jnanendriyas, the fourfold mind and the three gunas have evolved out of one eternal sound. It means that prakriti, the material, mental, psychic and intellectual universe, is all an outcome of nada brahma. This is the ultimate belief of all nada yogis. So a nada yogi believes in a reality which has manifested itself in the form of vibration. It is a vibration that either does not vibrate at all or at such a high frequency that it is beyond the reach of the human faculty.

The eternal or original nada has the highest rate of frequency and vibration. When any object vibrates at a tremendous and unimaginable speed, it becomes still. It means that the highest point of motion and vibration is stillness. And that nada appears to be the creative principle of all matter and the entire material substance.

Nada yogis contend that everything in the universe originated and evolved from the eternal and infinite nada. In this context a study of the Upanishads is recommended, with special reference to Nada Bindu Upanishad and Hamsopanishad.

Music is also a materialized form of nada and the movements of prana in the body are also nothing but the expressions of nada. The purpose of nada yoga sadhana is to find out the primal, the finest, the ultimate inner sound - the word or shabda. In order to discover this transcendental and non empirical sound, the process starts from the external gross sound. From there the ultimate form of sound is conceivable only through going into the deeper realms of our consciousness.

The centre of nada

There are different centers where the transcendental nada is said to be situated. Bhaktas try to find the centre of their ishta in anahata. Yogis try to find the centre of intuition in ajna. Vedantins try to find the centre of hiranyagarbha in sahasrara. Likewise, nada yogis locate the centre of nada in bindu. Bindu is the centre where the continuous, eternal, inaudible, unbroken and unbeaten sound goes on. For the purpose of the discovery of nada, it is true that the bindu has to be discovered primarily and finally.

Before venturing into the depth of this science, it would be better for the aspirant to locate or discover the mental, astral and psychic nature of the sound of nada. Different nada yoga practices are introduced in order to help the aspirant to get through the different psychic and non-physical sounds, before the consciousness can finally be attuned with the real nada.

Practice of nada in bhakti yoga

The practices meant for bhakti yoga are also included as practices of nada yoga. When a bhakti yogi performs mantra japa, in the first stage he tries his best to maintain awareness of the sound produced by the mantra. After having developed a deeper awareness of the sound of the mantra, he stops producing an audible sound vibration and in the second stage tries to intensify his awareness on the basis of the mantra repeated in whispered tones.

When this task is accomplished satisfactorily, he stops whispering and repeats the same mantra mentally. He tries to hear the mental and subtle notes which, though inaudible, can be visualized through a deeper form of awareness. Sometimes at this stage, it is possible to actually experience hearing the same mantra internally. The bhakti yogi will feel as if he has really chanted the mantra in an audible tone. When the awareness of mental mantra chanting is absorbing and the mind is completely fused in a deep realm of awareness, mantra or nada is transformed into a constant inaudible repetition which will appear to the aspirant on the plane of consciousness as audible; but it will be imperceptible and inaudible to others. This is the way to experience the nada in the practice of mantra yoga by bhakti yogis.

A few kriyas combined with bandhas and mantras should also be included in order to stimulate the dormant psychic regions. The aspirant should begin the task of discovering the first sound or nada by plugging the ears and listening to the inner sounds. When the practice is fairly advanced, the ears need not be plugged in order to commune with the different dimensions of sound. Instead one should try to commune with the inner sound during the stillness of the night without closing the ears. It is easy to apprehend the inner sounds at midnight or early in the morning.

Music and nada yoga

Music is also nada yoga, where the music is rendered absolutely scientific and classical in order to experience the nada. The development of musical systems in the past was done strictly in accordance with the views of nada yoga sadhanas. The well known and most ancient Sama Veda is always sung with a scientific exactness and in accordance with nada yoga sadhana.

At different stages of conscious awareness, the mind is easily attracted by different waves of nada. Certain vibrations of nada seem to be agreeable at a particular time, while others are disagreeable at a particular time of the day. Certain combinations of nada are agreeable to some people and disagreeable to others. In music these nada vibrations are known as raga or musical notes. A raga having short vibrations is not relished by some. The morning music of India, like the Bhairava or Bhairavi raga is appealing to a few, but not to all. I like the midnight music of India, the Malkos, the Durga, or the Jogia ragas. The evening raga, like Bhimpalasi, is also popularly appreciated. Generally, girls and boys at a tender age prefer Bhairavi. This shows that the mind reacts differently to different sound waves at different times.

Music can be taken up as a spiritual sadhana, as a preliminary practice, or just as a pleasant, interesting and inspiring sadhana of nada yoga, through which the mind can be attuned to the subtlest vibrations before proceeding to discover the last transcendental sound of nada.

Nada in the koshas

These sounds which are heard are true. They are the symbols of the content of the mind and of consciousness. The mind rests on these symbols and it goes in quickly with their help. These sounds are experiences of the deeper layers of consciousness belonging to annamaya kosha, pranamaya kosha and manomaya kosha. These sounds are not imaginary. They may be understood as the vibrations of different spheres of one’s existence. The physical, pranic, mental, supramental and the ananda or atmic are the five spheres of one’s existence. In different spheres of existence different sounds are heard. There are physical sounds first, but when consciousness becomes fine and transcends the physical plane, it will come in touch with the subtle sounds of the movements of pranic consciousness in the physical body.

The entire range of human consciousness is divided into three, or subdivided into five parts. The conscious state consists of the annamaya and the pranamaya koshas, and these two bodies are made up of food and of prana. The second sphere of the personality is comprised of manomaya and vijnanamaya koshas and mainly contains mental and astral matter. The third dimension of consciousness is the realm of anandamaya kosha, which is full of bliss.

In the practice of nada yoga, the manifestation of nada takes place in accordance with the relation established between the mind and the other spheres of consciousness. For instance, if the mind or consciousness is rooted in the physical body, by closing your ears you will hear the sounds or vibrations produced by the movements of the heart, lungs, brain, blood circulation and the process of metabolism and catabolism that are going on inside the body.

If consciousness has penetrated the pranamaya kosha, you will hear many more sounds. And if the mind has gone deeper into the anandamaya kosha, then all other sounds will disappear and in its place the effect of nada yoga will remain.

It is difficult to tell which particular nada belongs to a particular sphere. In India, illustrations are given in the form of symbolic stories. The individual consciousness, which keeps on soaring high and discovering the transcendental notes, is symbolized as Rishi Narada in Indian mythology. Without denying the historical existence of Rishi Narada, the esoteric significance of the word Narada should be understood. Narada is supposed to be a rishi who has a veena in his hands. In nada yoga, the sound of the veena is considered to be the music of a very high sphere. According to all the traditional nada yoga cults, the nada of the flute and veena belong to that sphere of consciousness where dwaita bhava, or the duality of consciousness, ceases to exist.

Nada yoga in the Bhagavata

Nada yoga is illustrated in the great book entitled the Bhagavata (different to the Bhagavad Gita). A symbolic and allegorical description of nada is given in the form of the story of Krishna. It says, “Lord Krishna left his place at midnight and went into the jungle. It was the full moon night of the first month of winter. He began to play the flute. The echo of the flute spread in the calm and undisturbed atmosphere. Music rose from the jungle and was heard by the gopis (the village cowherd girls). When they heard the sound of the flute, they immediately left their houses and their husbands, forgetful of all that was taking place. They ran, without consideration, to the place from where the nada from the flute was emanating. They started dancing about the flute player. After some time, it so happened that each one found herself dancing individually with Krishna.”

The story seems fantastic, but in fact it is not properly understood by people of the world. It is understood only by nada yogis. They consider Krishna to represent that higher sphere of consciousness where the nada of that sphere emanates during the deepest state of nada sadhana. When the emanation of flute music takes place, the senses, the indriyas, or the sense-consciousness, forsake their respective objects and withdraw from their respective centres of pleasure and perception. They recede and go back to the place from where the flute sound or the nada is emanating. There the senses dance around the nada. In that state, the senses completely withdraw from the outer objects. In other words, a yogi may say that dharana has taken place and dhyana is about to dawn.

In Sanskrit the word krishna means, ‘that which draws’ or ‘that which attracts’. It is derived from the root word karshan. So the word krishna means ‘the puller’, ‘the withdrawer’, or ‘the attractor’. It also means ‘farmer’, and, the word gopi means ‘cow’. In Sanskrit, go means ‘senses’, ‘cow’, ‘poor’, ‘humble’ and the ‘whole perceptible universe’. Ordinarily, the word gopi means ‘the daughter of a cowherd family’. Symbolically, gopi means ‘senses’. And who are the husbands of the senses (the gopis)? It may be said that for the eyes, the form is the husband, and for the ears, sound. When the music of a flute is heard, the sense of hearing leaves or withdraws itself from the outer audible sounds and merges itself in the inner nada. This process is called pratyahara.

Anahad nada and anahata nada

What is anahad nada? No one has been able to tell even till this day. Some say that it is the cosmic sound of Om. Others say it is like bhramari, a sound resembling the unceasing and unbroken sound of the honeybee. Some say that it is the beat of the heart.

Some people call it anahad, while others call it anahat. These two words convey two different meanings. Anahat derives from ‘an’ and ‘aahat’. ‘An’ means ‘no’, ‘aahat’ means ‘that which is striking, hammering or beating’. Therefore, anahat means ‘no beating or striking of two things’. Usually a sound is produced by two things striking against each other, but anahat is a sound which is not produced by striking. It is spontaneous and automatic. Some scholars say that the nada is anahad. ‘An’ means ‘no’, and ‘hada’ means ‘boundary’, or ‘compound’. Hence anahad means ‘without any limit, without any boundary’, or ‘without any specification.’ It is a sound upon which no limits can be put. It can be any sound.

The ultimate nada

The ultimate nada that manifests in the highest sphere of consciousness is indescribable. It is a sound coming from the sphere beyond the anandamaya kosha. A nada yogi believes that the actual point where the individual consciousness fuses with the cosmic consciousness is in the highest state of nada. The aspirant or sadhaka realizes his higher consciousness in nada and sees the whole universe in the form of sound.

Nada Yoga Course:

A Nada Yoga Course will be conducted at Rikhiapeeth from 1st - 6th July 2009 in English medium. This comprehensive residential course will enable participants to experience the techniques taught of Bihar School of Yoga aimed at penetrating deeper layers of the mind by utilizing the medium of sound and vibrations.

For more information and registration details contact

Bihar School of Yoga

P.O. - Rikhia,

Dist- Deoghar,

Jharkhand, 814 113, India.

For reply enclose a self addressed envelope.

Tel: Rikhia 06432-290870/ 09304-488889/ 09304-799449.

Antar Mouna

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

When you concentrate and try to unify the vagrant tendencies of your mind, sometimes you feel strain. Because of that strain, you get a headache or some other complaint. Therefore, while practicing concentration, you have to evolve a method by which there may be no strain. Just as a tired person goes to bed and falls asleep without struggling with restlessness or insomnia, even so there are various methods for achieving spontaneous concentration and meditation.

The best method of concentration starts with prayer. When we start concentration directly and abruptly, the influx of blood abruptly increases in the brain. Various ideas keep on haunting the mind and hamper meditation. All the impressions of the actions done during the day come rushing up to the surface of the mind. If you want to meditate on Om, you naturally desire that nothing else should come to your mind. But for various reasons your daily experiences and impressions come to you during meditation. Therefore, the best time for meditation is brahmamuhurta, between four and six in the morning.

It is also necessary that the mind should slumber partially when you start the practice of meditation. If there is controllable drowsiness, concentration will be keener and better. At night, when drowsiness overpowers you, if you meditate on your ishta devata, you will definitely succeed. You should not start concentration before you have entered into a state of partial drowsiness. It is better to meditate in the early morning hours. You are not fully conscious although you feel that you are.

Some people meditate at odd hours of the day. This is good, but you must have experienced that while practising concentration during these hours, some tension is felt by the brain. Meditation should be effortless and spontaneous. If you practise the right technique of concentration from the very beginning, you will have no difficulty. The first practice to bring about this state is inner silence, or antar mouna.

Relaxation

Inner silence has many graduated states. In the beginning you should relax yourself mentally. If you do not understand what mental relaxation is, imagine how you feel when you return home from a hectic business round in the scorching sun and relax on a soft sofa in an air-conditioned room. You have to be aware of this type of relaxation.

Sit in any comfortable asana with your spinal cord straight. Close your eyes and try to relax yourself mentally. The technique is to feel that you are going to take a rest. Do not entertain any strenuous thought in your mind as you generally do. Experience peace and a feeling of rest, joy and comfort. The more you are able to relax, the more you will be able to practise concentration. Be aware of yourself and of your position. This is called self-awareness. Your limbs should also relax. This may take some time. Relaxation is a process which requires an effort in the beginning, but afterwards it is effortless.

Witnessing the thoughts

Try to visualize the chidakasha, the space in front of the closed eyes. Is the chidakasha changing its colour or not? Do you see a star or anything else there? What do you see in chidakasha? Some see stars, some see colours, some see light, some see only darkness. Never mind whether you see anything or not, but keep concentrating on chidakasha. Many thoughts will arise. Let them come. There may be thoughts, sounds or different feelings. You may experience an itching sensation or a tremor in your system, but try to remain a witness of all that. Do not identify yourself with any sound, sensation or thought that arises in the mind. When visualization of chidakasha is over, you should begin introspection of the thoughts.

In this process, you do not fight with your thoughts but maintain an impartial attitude towards them. Whatever thoughts come to your mind, let them do so. With closed eyes remain a witness of the various thoughts coming into your mind and do not try to consciously control the thought process. Do not get disturbed when various thoughts overwhelm you. Nor should you try to trim or eliminate the thoughts. Just become a witness and feel the thoughts passing before you slowly like a freight train. After some time this practice becomes very interesting.

In this process, you should be aware that "I am thinking." This consciousness has to be kept alive in the mind constantly. The only caution to be taken is not to identify with the thoughts. Awareness of the thinking process should be maintained throughout. "I am thinking" should be the constant awareness.

This method works subjectively to bring about a state of cessation in the process of thinking. In case of impure thoughts, awaken an awareness that you are only witnessing them while they are passing though your mental plane. If you do not identify yourself with such thoughts, they will be suspended without any effort. You should not be disturbed by bad thoughts or elated by good thoughts. Do not think that your meditation is very nice when good thoughts only come to your mind. Thoughts of any type, shade and dimension, whether good or bad, should be merely observed without any involvement.

Thought regulation

Many thoughts arise in the mind. Sometimes they arise with compelling force and it seems as if some unseen force within us is causing their upsurge. We may be averse to certain thoughts of passion, we may not like to enter into worries and brooding, but in spite of all our sincere efforts we fail to check the waves. This is proof that we lack control over the mind and we must evolve some effective method for settling these vagrant forces in their proper place.

If this is not done, mental exhaustion will result and sedatives will have to be introduced to ease the mental tension. When thought waves are not regulated, they become part of our habits and under their hypnotic sway many years of our life are wasted. The series of thoughts assail us unawares. We wake up at the instance of nervous breakdown, mental fever, neurosis and the like, when it is too late for us to overcome them. It is beyond the power of any physician. If care is taken well before the crisis takes place and thought regulation is rendered a part of our mental habit, then we can keep away various mental ailments successfully.

What is the remedy? Yoga prescribes a method by which one can become the master of the thoughts. You need not control your thoughts. You need not kill your mind. You must only attain complete mastery over your thoughts. One who has attained mastery over the mind keeps it as a trained servant. When the mind is properly kept under control, it can help you in many ways. One of the methods to train the mind is thought regulation. This consists of creating a particular thought voluntarily and dwelling upon it for some time, then rejecting it altogether.

Here you voluntarily create any thought of your liking and after thinking over it for some minutes you set it aside by your willpower. It is much better if you begin with lower thoughts. Voluntarily create and dwell upon themes of jealousy, anger, greed and the like for some time and finally set them aside with a mental stroke. It is easier to begin in this way because the mind is used to lower thoughts and such thoughts in fact act as centres of gravity for our consciousness.

Pious thoughts are soon forgotten and the mind finds it easy to slip away from such thoughts, while it is almost a task to detach its interest from thoughts of jealousy, anger, greed, fear, passion, pride and so on. The mind seems to have a greater affinity for lower thoughts while peace, compassion, love, forgiveness and the like are usually missed by the mind during meditation. Good resolves are always forgotten while evil intentions remain in the mind for long periods of time.

Practise in this way. Pose a particular thought. Retain the same thought in the mind for some time with vivid imagination, then dispose of it. If you practise this method for some time, you will learn a technique of removing any permanent thought that haunts your mind. This method is extremely useful. You can choose any thought you like, but be careful not to identify with the thought. Be conscious throughout of what you are doing. Do not allow any thought to come without being willed. Reject such thoughts which come to you of their own accord. Do not get attached to the thought. Practise with detachment. Have a vivid imagination of what you are thinking.

Sometimes while thinking there will be confusion. You will not be able to observe what you think. When this happens, you must meditate upon your ishta devata at once. Keep a few important points for meditation on your ishta devata in view. Try to think of the particular deity through general observances. Think of the whole picture of your ishta devata, the place where it is kept and the surroundings. Have a vivid imagination of this from the general to the particular. Thereafter, the same practice of thought regulation may be repeated according to your convenience.

Thought suspension

Now let us discuss the third process of antar mouna, inner silence. Concentrate on chidakasha. You will experience various shades of light, stars, illumination and astral figures. You should remain a witness of these experiences. The chidakasha or the astral plane is before you. You can project your subconscious mind over it if you have a deep sense of meditation.

Throughout this practice you should remain conscious of the incoming thoughts and set aside every thought which comes to you. You are engaged in setting the thoughts aside. At the same time you are aware of what is taking place within the astral realms. If you can do this, you can step into meditation without any effort. Then visions of astral events will follow. You are standing at the gate. You are seeing your thoughts coming to you. You inner chamber is open from all sides. Thoughts can enter from any side. You have to take a central position and from there have a look everywhere. From which side is the thought coming? When you see a particular thought lurking, stop it.

Have a constant awareness of chidakasha. See the astral patterns forming in it. If you observe them for some time, you will understand what is meant by astral patterns. You will experience various invisible vibrations floating across chidakasha. Gradually try to become more and more aware of chidakasha. Let your consciousness become so deep and intense that you do not feel like taking your mind away from chidakasha even for a moment.

There should be no analysis of the experience of the astral plane whatsoever. Thus, when you continue to observe the state of nothingness, you will realize various astral realities which so far have remained out of sight. There comes a state of mind when the vast fields of astral realization are left open to you and the whole stock of latent knowledge is apprehended. When astral figures start floating on chidakasha, start meditation on your ishta devata in calmness and silence.

However, if you have even a little success in this sadhana, you will have no necessity to meditate on the ishta, the form of the ishta will automatically arise from within. If you practise this faithfully, you will attain the stage of nirvichara, thoughtlessness. You can repeat the whole process again, but a beginner should never overdo this practice because it is quite different to relaxation. With this practice you complete the preliminaries and enter into the first phase of meditation. It is only after perfection of this practice that you should take up further meditations which are higher and deeper.

The problem of sleep

I wish to give a warning, however, to all those who are keen to pursue meditation to the extent of realization and samadhi. Meditation should only start after the scientific process of relaxation has been completed. If not, they will always talk of sleep, lethargy, and failures that follow entering meditation abruptly.

During the practice of meditation, the main problem is sleep, which you experience as you relax. First drowsiness dawns and then deep slumber. For those who want to remove tensions, sleep is necessary, but those who seek spiritual evolution will have to find a solution for this problem. If you want to attain samadhi or to contact the astral body, the mysterious kundalini and other higher forms of meditation, it becomes all the more essential to know the technique to overcome this difficulty.

The complaint of all aspirants is that when they succeed in attaining inner silence, they fall asleep and realize it only afterwards when the awareness revives. No doubt they feel fresh, but spiritual evolution is arrested there itself. Even in the case of earnest aspirants, their spiritual progress is arrested because they enter into slumber. Housesholders who have to discharge various duties remain ever busy and are under continuous strain. Naturally they fall asleep even with a little concentration.

The other difficulty is that if the consciousness does not slumber partially, inner silence is difficult to achieve. So, there is difficulty in both ways. The mind has to be drowsy to a certain degree and, at the same time, one has to be careful not to sleep. Therefore, it is necessary for those who want to avoid sleep during meditation to keep a few points in mind. First, you will have to practise detachment. You will have to reject the continuity of thought by constant and persistent practice. This is the first solution.

The second solution is asana and pranayama. When you get up in the morning, have a wash and practise some asanas like sarvangasana or sirshasana. This will check the tendency to sleep. Deep breathing as in ujjayi pranayama decarbonizes the system, removing drowsiness while increasing introversion. When you feel that you are about to sleep, start nadi shodhana pranayama and kumbhaka, using the ratio 1:4:2. Practise five rounds and then concentrate. This is beneficial for those who face waves of depression due to tension and continuous thinking. If you can minimize the degree of depression, you will be able to visualize the object of your meditation very clearly.

Some people sit in padmasana and meditate for hours at a stretch, feeling themselves to be in samadhi. This is not samadhi, however, it is the after effect of the day's strain. Of course, you can remove your mental depression by this suspension, but you cannot go forward on the spiritual path. If you practice asana and pranayam before meditation, then there will be no suspension.

Some aspirants sit for meditation, but they do not know what they are doing. Having heard about kundalini, they desire to awaken it and apply extra pressure to that point. There is bound to be depression. Therefore, it is essential to practise meditation under the guidance of a master. Meditation is a scientific process and it must be learned properly. Just as you require a map and guidance before starting any external journey, especially if you do not know the way, the same principle applies for the internal journey which is undertaken through meditation.

Along with sleep, visions are another disturbing factor in the primary phases of meditation. When you meditate with closed eyes, visions begin to appear, then there is temporary suspension of awareness. Again visions, then suspension and once again visions. All this happens because samskaras float upon the mental surface. You want to forget many unwanted things, you reject them, and therefore they go into the background. In due course this brings about bad after effects.

If you dislike a person, it does not mean that he has gone out of your mind. Rather he is very much in your mind. His memory will disturb you in meditation. So whatever difficulties you may have, you should annihilate these impressions either by rationalizing them or sublimating them through detachment. If you want to attain higher meditation, you will have to go beyond sleep and also the expression of astral contents in the form of visions. This can be achieved by the practice of inner silence, which is a method of purging the accumulated samskaras from the mind and a first step towards actual meditation.

Reprogram your mind

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Inside your head you have the most remarkable computer ever devised. It is a bio-computer that is so complex that we cannot even imagine its complexity. According to scientists, it consists of something in the region of ten to thirteen billion neurones which analyse, interpret, compare, store and transmit information that comes from the outside world, including our own body. It is capable of handling millions of bits of information in the form of audible and visual sensations, together with sense data from every part of the body, every second. Remember, every hair has a connection to the brain. Every square inch of the body has a vast number of connections to the brain.

Yet you are never aware of most of this activity; it happens in subconscious realms of the mind. This unawareness is absolutely necessary, other wise we would be aware of so much that we would become completely overpowered by the continual flow of information. In this context, it is imperative that we are totally unaware of most of the activity of the brain so that our consciousness is left free to follow things other than body sense data and so on. The human mind is in a way similar to a modern electronic computer. If a computer programmer wants a solution to a problem, he is interested in the answer, not the immediate calculations. The programmer will only become interested in the intermediate workings if something goes wrong, i.e. the output is not in an acceptable form, or the program will not pass through the computer. In this case either the program or the computer itself is wrong. This is the topic of this section.

Most of us live a life that is like a faulty computer output. Now, it is not the brain itself that is wrong, apart from a few cases; it is the program in the mind. In other words, if we are to live meaningful lives we have to reprogram our minds. It is the incorrect mental program that we have slowly developed since birth that is causing us all our unhappiness and anguish in life. Reprogram the mind and you will start to live a life that has deep meaning and that is happy. A well programmed mind can make this world a veritable heaven on earth. A badly programmed mind can make this world a hell on earth.

The reason for our unhappiness is our mental programming. This makes us seek happiness through making money, obtaining a nice new car that is bigger and better than any other, obtaining status, drinking and chasing after so many other things that give a flush of transitory pleasure. In short, we can say that we try to gain happiness through satisfying or boosting the ego. What's the result of this method of seeking happiness? It makes us use other people for our own selfish ends. If they get in our way we use all kinds of gross or subtle ways of bypassing or pushing them out of our way. The result is hatred, fear, jealousy, anxiety, tension and so on. Our continual chase after these ways of attaining happiness actually causes the opposite result; we become mentally tense and thus unhappy. If we don't obtain our objectives, our objects of desire, then we suffer mental tension, boredom and unhappiness.

Though these things don't give us happiness, we continue to chase after them. Why? The answer is that we are following the program that we have constructed for ourselves. We have programmed ourselves to chase after these things, even though they don't bring any kind of lasting happiness. Now a computer program can be changed. In the same way, the mind program can be changed if we make the necessary effort. We can reprogram ourselves so that we react in a different way to our environment, so we don't depend on 'ego trips' and desires for happiness.

Meditation is almost impossible when we are continually fighting life and the people who surround us. Meditation will occur almost spontaneously if we flow with life instead of fighting it. If we can reprogram our mind, we will start to tune in with our environment and meditation will take place automatically, without effort. Our consciousness will start to expand. When we harmonize our mind with the pattern of our surroundings, then we will automatically become happy. Happiness lies in the mind, not in manipulating the world to suit our desires. By reprogramming our mind we will be able to find permanent happiness in our own being.

It is our present likes and dislikes, hatreds, jealousies etc., which distort our interpretation of the outside world and also ourselves. Our mind accepts and acts on only that information which is compatible with our present programming. In other words, if we now feel, if our mental program dictates, that everyone outside hates us, then our mind will only accept and give access to information that reinforces this attitude. Other information will be suppressed. If we feel that our mental program dictates that everyone loves us, then again our mind will interpret information to reinforce this belief. This is a gross oversimplification, but it illustrates how our mind colours the outside world to suit our programmed mind. The outside world and other people are never seen as they really are because of our conditioning, because of our desires, attachments and so on.

We are not saying that desires are bad. All we are saying is that they are blocking your spiritual evolution and path towards meditational experience. Indescribable happiness and a higher awareness are waiting for us, all we have to do is reprogram our minds and meditate.

Points to note

The first point to remember is that we do not want you to change your lifestyle in any way. What we want you to change is your relationship with the outside world by reprogramming your mind.

Secondly, you must realize that the chase after outside happiness is futile. If, even after years of experience of trying to find happiness from the outside world, you have not come to this conclusion, then you will have no incentive to change your mind. You will only try to change your mind when you have realized the impossibility of getting happiness and peace from the external world. One only needs to look at people who have gone to extremes in seeking happiness though outside interests, they never seem to find what they want. In fact they tend to become despondent and cynical; they start to believe that permanent happiness and peace is a myth.

The third point to note is that the mind can be reprogrammed. There is a saying: as we think, so we become. Our present programmed mind is no more than the result of our previous thinking. The mind is like a piece of wax, it moulds itself to suit the impression imposed on it. If we start to try to think in a new way, then the mind will gradually but surely reprogram itself. Let's take an example of how the mind has already programmed itself, so that we are now forced to follow its dictates. A child might live in a home where the husband gets everything his own way by acting almost like a tyrant. At the same time, the child might find that he is always at the mercy of the whims of others. For example, he wants to go and play with his friends, but his father says no. His mind starts to program itself so that he thinks that power is the way to do what you want to do in life. When he becomes older he therefore seeks power as a means to attaining happiness.

It is the same with nearly all our external motivations in life; they start in essentially the same manner. At the same time we have the ability to remove this existing program so that we no longer have to follow its commands, and to replace it with a program which allows us a harmonious way of life and allows us to expand our consciousness. We can build a future that is consciousness orientated, positive and awake, merely by altering the mind that we now have. We can eventually aim at experiencing the hidden truth and beauty that exists inside us.

Autosuggestion

All people have phobias, complexes, emotional stresses and so on which make the mind continually tense, whether consciously or unconsciously. All these prevent the mind from becoming tranquil and peaceful, and act as obstructions to meditation. We should remember the cliché, as you think, so you become, for this tells us the way to remove these mental symptoms. The power of suggestion is very great. If we think negatively in life, then our life will become negative. If we think positively, then we will surely become positively inclined. If we think that we will suffer from cancer with sufficient intensity and belief, then surely we will eventually suffer from cancer, such is the power of suggestions or belief.

These suggestions don't only come from the mind; they also come from the external environment. In fact they occur almost continuously. Our mind is continually influenced by outside events. We read a book and it suggests ideas to us which influence our behaviour. We talk with someone and though we are not always conscious of it, we are constantly being given suggestions. Everything comes to the mind in the form of suggestions. Suggestions come from the way people look at you, the way they move their hands, the way they speak and in so many other subtle ways. Using this power of suggestion in the form of autosuggestion is the simplest way to remove all the aspects that keep our mind tense, and to prevent negative outside influences from disturbing the mind further.

At the same time we should use autosuggestion to prepare ourselves immediately before meditational practices. The essential requirement for effective autosuggestion is the deep need to see the aims and suggestion translated into the desired results. Without a strong need or will, the object of the autosuggestion is unlikely to succeed or materialize. One must want to make a change. If the need is only half-hearted, it can be built up to a higher level of intensity by continually dwelling on the subject. As the reader treads the spiritual path, he will become more and more aware of things that cause him mental disturbance. The more he progresses, the more they will manifest and rise to the field of consciousness. As soon as they show themselves, they should be negated by replacing them with their opposite or else by autosuggesting that they are not really so very important.

As each individual will always have different problems, the reader must work out for himself and should develop his own technique for removing them. For example, consider a person who has a fear of the dark. Since he must spend much of his life in darkness, this is bound to cause mental disturbance. His mind will always be tense, consciously or unconsciously. The way to remove the phobia is to realize how ridiculous this fear really is; to realize that darkness is only the opposite of light; to realize that many other people are not afraid of the dark, so therefore why should he have a fear of the dark, and so on. Constant autosuggestion in this way will surely remove the fear. These kinds of suggestions are most powerful when the individual is in a state of relaxation. Even a deep-rooted fear is amenable to this type of treatment, providing the individual devotes himself wholeheartedly to its removal. Eventually a new, indifferent attitude, to the dark in this example, will penetrate the subconscious and the fear will disappear.

Autosuggestion can work for all types of complexes, conflicts and phobias. All that is required is the need to remove the problem. Now how can a person find out the deeper problems that adversely influence his life, that cause him unhappiness and tension, the ones that he doesn't even know about? The practitioner will find that his or her problems, phobias, fears, etc., slowly show themselves as more awareness is developed through yoga and meditation. A particularly good method of exposing these deep-rooted emotional and mental tensions is to regularly perform the meditational technique antar mouna, and to make a mental or written record of what is revealed during practice periods.

The next thing to be practiced in the attempt to remove mental and emotional problems is to prevent outside occurrences and crises from having adverse repercussions on the mind. In other words, the mind must be made stronger so that it is not greatly influenced by external events. The method is to slowly develop detachment (vairagya) to everything and every person. This does not mean that you should become a vegetable or not involve yourself with the ups and downs of life and with personal relationships. It means that though you react to external activities in the form of love, hate, argument, etc., these should not influence you in a deeper sense. On a human level they must influence you, but in a deeper way they should have no effect.

It is a matter of identification; if you see yourself as the body or the mind, then painful or undesirable physical and mental manifestations will greatly influence your life. In a similar way, on the other hand, if you don't identify yourself with the body-mind, but with the centre of consciousness, then the physical and mental sorrows of life will have little effect on you. We can compare external stimuli to ripples on a pond. Ripples disturb the surface of the pond, but they have relatively little influence on the bottom of the pond. The same should apply to the spiritual seeker; negative mental vibrations and physical ailments ideally should not disturb his being. This is easier said than done, but with continuos practice of self awareness one can attain the state where one is calm and tranquil among the tumultuous events of the outside world.

Another important usage of autosuggestion is in the cure and prevention of disease and bodily upsets. By consciously willing the body to become whole, strong and balanced, even the most serious terminal diseases such as cancer or leukaemia can and have been remedied by aspirants with strong willpower. The best times to make the autosuggestions are after meditational practices, or when just waking up in the morning and just before going to sleep at night. At these times the mind is particularly receptive to suggestion. Repeat the autosuggestion with intensity and feeling for a few minutes. Believe wholeheartedly that the autosuggestions will bring about the desired change. If this is done then the suggestion can only be successful. Half-hearted suggestions will surely fail.

Self-identification

This is intended to show the reader that a process of re-identification is necessary with regard to ourselves and to our surroundings. Much unhappiness in life arises because we identify ourselves with our body, our mind, our job or any other role in life. We identify ourselves with transitory facets of existence, instead of with that in us which is permanent and unchangeable, namely, the very core of our existence. If and when we can disassociate ourselves from our role in life, our body and mind, and accept these as merely manifestations of our inner being, the self, then meditation will almost be a constant and spontaneous process. Even a limited degree of detachment from our manifested aspects: mind and body, etc., will greatly help us to attain meditational experience because we will be released from the meditational impediments of bodily disturbances, mental disturbances and emotional disturbances. When all the physical, mental and emotional aspects of our being are calmed, then meditation will become a natural, simple and automatic process.

It is strange that if someone is asked what they are they will reply, ''I am a doctor'' or ''I am a plumber'' or ''I am a housewife'' or "I am a footballer'. They will answer in various ways, depending on what they consider their main role in life. They might give various answers, a woman might say that she is a mother, a wife and also a typist during the daytime. Yet really these things are not what they are, but what they do.

Let's take an extreme example of how this kind of identification can lead to much unhappiness. Consider an actor. He sees himself as an actor, an actor with a fine physique, a handsome face and a manly voice. He takes great care to keep himself in good physical shape. Yet as the years pass he will progressively and very critically notice that he is becoming older. His handsome features start to fade, his body loses its strength and his voice loses depth. He might even spend many hours every day despondently looking at himself in a mirror. He becomes depressed and unhappy because his conception of himself is disappearing. His self-identification with a transitory phenomenon is taking its toll. In many cases, especially with actors, this crisis has often led to an emotional breakdown or even suicide.

The situation exists with a mother; eventually her children will leave her. Again much unhappiness can result because of her self-identification as a mother. It is the same with a doctor, a plumber, a housewife, a typist. They are not permanent realities. Over identification with them by the individuals will surely lead to much strife and emotional upset. Identification with our body, mind and emotions is so common and widespread that we automatically assume its truth. For example, someone says, "I am thirsty''. This statement is said with no thought of its significance. It is not realized that the 'I' signifies our self-identification, and the 'I' refers to a temporary phenomenon, the physical body. A more realistic statement should be, ''My body is thirsty''. In this way it will be implied that the body is merely a temporary manifestation of the permanent self, the inner core of existence.

The same applies to our emotions and thoughts. We say ''I am angry'' or ''I am depressed'' and so on. Yet it is really the emotional system of the mind that feels these things. These are temporary emotional states which disappear as quickly as they arise; one moment there is friendship and then later there is a feeling of enmity. They are not permanent, even though we habitually identify ourselves with these states. We say "I think this'' or ''I think the sky is blue'' or ''I think that one plus one equals two''. Yet it is not really ''I'' that thinks, it is the mind, and the mind is changing from day to day. It is also not permanent, so how can it be the permanent reality that is ''I''? One day our mind can think one thing and the next day it can think something else. It is in a state of flux. How can we really identify ourselves with it? What we should say is ''my mind thinks'' or ''my mind feels'', for the mind is not the real 'I'.

We have the ability to watch the activities of the mind and the body. How can something that we watch possibly be our true identity? There must be something that is watching. The body and the mind are only instruments of action, of perception, of thought. Nothing else. Our real identity, the real 'I' is the centre of our consciousness. It is that which illuminates and witnesses everything that we do in life, the self. Though this is our core of existence, the essence of our being, very few of us operate from or identify ourselves with it. As we have already explained, most people identify with its manifestations and instruments, the mind and the body. If we operated from the self, if we knew the self to be our true identity, then we would be able to use our body and mind to their fullest capacity. Our mind and body would be able to work at peak efficiency. We would be healthy, for we would not impede the operation of our mind-body by our complexes and prejudices. From this viewpoint of identification, meditation would be a spontaneous activity.

How does one start to operate from the centre of consciousness, the real 'I'? This is the whole aim of the spiritual path. It is a long and arduous path, yet the following is a great help in itself. Also, as already explained, even partial identification with the self and dissociation with the body-mind and roles in daily life are great assets in attaining meditational experiences. And meditation is itself a powerful tool in eventually reaching the centre of one's being.

The first point you must realize is that the actions in life are only roles which you are fulfilling. They in no way represent your being or your true identity. They are merely a manifestation. This does not mean that you will cease to perform your roles; you will still do them, but you will now see yourself in the position of an actor. You will be able to witness yourself performing and acting your roles. You will see your true self as being in the audience, and the body-mind acting out its role.

The next point you have to realize that you are not the body and its sensations, you are not your emotions, you are not your intellect, you are not your mind in any way whatsoever. At first this will have to be done intellectually but after some practice you will cease to identify with all these manifested aspects of yourself, and you will know yourself as your true inner being, a part of the whole, the manifest and unmanifest existences which we know as God.

The experience of dhyana

During meditation one experiences a feeling of no anxiety. One's normal self-interest seems to disappear and one feels the same, if not more, for other people as for oneself. Life no longer seems fragmented by opposing ideas and opinions. Everything merges into one composite whole. External events enter the mind, are absorbed, yet without causing the usual disturbances or reverberations. All things take their normal course of action, without any unnecessary hustle or bustle. Fear, the biggest troublemaker in life, no longer exists. Even fear of death disappears, and the idea of death seems almost superficial, non-existent and unimportant. The usual ups and downs of life are replaced by a continual and elevating feeling of the joyfulness of life. Everything seems to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Even normally opposing religious, philosophical and cultural ideas seem to be in unison with one another. Everything fits. The past and future seem to be unimportant. They lack meaning. What is important is the eternal now. Living and experiencing the totality of the present seems to be the only important thing to do.

The present is so absorbing that the mind automatically fixes itself on the work or action being done. Efficiency and perfection become the natural course of life's events. The normal impediments to efficiency, such as worry or anger, no longer block the total absorption of the mind. Under these conditions work becomes play and play becomes work. There is no differentiation. Life becomes so joyful so that it needs no ambition, no justification, no reason; it is sufficient just to be. Remember that it is through frustration, dissatisfaction and unhappiness that we try to find a reason for life, or follow modes of life that are unnatural or contrary to our very being.

One does not lose one's zest, nor does one lose one's interest in the activities of the world. One merely ceases to worry about things. There may be superficial worry, but internally there is perfect peace. All the preliminaries associated with preparing oneself for meditational experiences no longer seem important or necessary. In other words, all the rules laid down in the yamas and niyamas (see the chapter on Raja yoga), for example, detachment, renunciation and so on, are no longer necessary. The experience of meditation stands way above these rules. The rules no longer apply. These rules are designed to eliminate the mental disturbances. But now the individual can do anything: exciting activities, be angry, be happy, all the multifarious actions in life. These actions no longer adversely affect his inner being. He goes through life as a witness. Sense enjoyments are not diminished; in fact they are heightened.

Everything unites to become one. The faculty of intuition is the medium of knowledge. Objects show their deeper and essential characteristic. Everything assumes an attitude of friendliness and the universe assumes a state of helpfulness; opposition to one's nature no longer exists. Every atom shimmers with life and vitality. The progress of time and immensity of space lose their fixed meaning; they are seen as nothing more than a manifestation of the universe. Time begins to stand still and the outer depths of space no longer seem so far away. The stars come within grasping distance. Infinity and eternity become almost tangible. Existence is seen as the permanent aspect of everything. One realizes that one's being is intimately bound up with everything that is. As such, the ego no longer seems important or even a reality.

One normally sees oneself as a small insignificant part of the universe, as a small cog in a large wheel, a small particle in unending space and time. One often feels completely isolated and often alienated from other parts of existence. One feels alone, and very mortal. One never even suspects that one can overcome this situation. Most people merely shrug there shoulders and fatalistically accept their fate. Meditation changes all this. One realizes through meditation that one is a necessary, intimate and important part of the universe. One starts to relate deeply to everything that exists. They are no longer separate entities. You are That. This is a mystical state of meditation.

There will be different descriptions of the experiences depending on the depth or height of the meditation. Also each person will use his own language, religious terms, symbolism and personal feelings in an attempt to express the inexpressible. One doesn't suddenly experience the highest stage of meditation. It is a progressive intensification of spiritual experience that shows itself in small ways in the beginning. It might initially show itself in visions, in various tangible and intangible ways. Most of these visions will seem strange at first, for they don't seem to relate to everyday life. You may wonder how such weird and wonderful visions can come from your being. One may see dazzling visions of Buddha or psychedelic, multicoloured energy patterns. One may experience intensification of feelings and emotions. One may hear various sounds which come from the very depths of one's being.

Finally, let us take an example where a transcendental experience has almost flashed into existence, given illumination of an intense form for a very short time. The following is an extract from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: ''All at once I, without wrapping of any kind, found myself wrapped in a flame coloured cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere close by in that great city: the next instant I knew that fire was in myself. Directly afterwards there came upon me a sense of exultation, immense joyousness, accompanied or immediately followed by, an intellectual illumination quite impossible to describe. Among other things, I did not merely come to believe, I saw the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is on the contrary a living presence; I became conscious in myself of eternal life. It was not a conviction that I would have eternal life, but a consciousness that I possessed eternal life. Then I saw that all men are immortal; that the cosmic order is such that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all; that the founding principle of the world, of all the worlds, is what we call love, and that happiness of each and all is in the long run certain. The vision lasted a few seconds and was gone, but the memory of it and the sense of reality of it has remained during a quarter of a century which has since elapsed. I knew that what the vision showed me was true. That view, that conviction, I may say that consciousness has never, even during periods of deepest depression, been lost.''

Large numbers of classical books have been written which attempt to show spiritual growth and experiences in symbolic or allegorical terms. The writers have realized the futility of trying to describe the spiritual experience directly. They therefore use indirect methods which will only be understood by those people who have already started to have some kind of experiences. Other people will understand the contents of the books in a literal sense. Examples are the Ramayana and Srimad Bhagavatam giving the life stories of Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, Dante's Divine Comedy, Goethe's Faust and numerous other books and poems. They all try to appeal to people on a deeper level than the rational mind. In the same line of thought we therefore ask the reader to try meditation for himself and not get attached to reading about other people's experiences and spiritual paths.

PSYCHIC SYMBOL

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Whether you practice meditation on a religious basis or purely on the basis of raja yoga, the most important thing is that you have something on which to anchor your consciousness.
Every meditation practice utilizes something that the mind can grasp. It can be the breath; it can be a mantra, a koan or a personal symbol. There are three types of symbols or forms- gross, medium, subtle. You have to find a symbol for yourself. Some use an inverted triangle, a mandala, a flame; some have tiny little shining star, an Om sign, or a shivalingam; others concentrate on the heart, a lotus or a yin-yang sign, some on the cross, on Christ, Shiva, their own guru and so on.
There has always been a controversy about saguna (using a form) and nirguna (formless) meditation. Most people who believe the reality to be formless have a serious objection to accepting an object for meditation. They say that if the supreme consciousness is formless, how can a form help you to achieve that experience? But from all our experience we have come to a conclusion. Regardless of whether the absolute reality is formless or not, in order to maintain steady spiritual progress and to be able to have a grip over all the transforming states of consciousness, meditation on a form (saguna) should be practiced. Concrete awareness is a very important factor of dhyana yoga.
Many people sit for meditation without an object on which to fix their attention. They merely close their eyes and allow their mind to wander aimlessly. They either brood on their problems or fall asleep. As one progresses along the path of mediation, the tendency to sleep seems to intensify. Loss of awareness and sleep are the biggest obstacles for the meditator to overcome and one means of eradicating this tendency is too utilize a psychic symbol.
The importance of a psychic symbol is, and has been know in all mystical and religious systems throughout the world. This is why there are so many deities, images, symbols, etc; they are all intended as a point on which the mind can be fixed to induce meditation. This is why idol worship is so widespread in the world. Although few realize it, idols act as a focal point for concentration of the mind, for remembrance.
A psychic symbol guides the mind through the recesses of consciousness. When the consciousness passes from the external to the internal terrain, there is absolute darkness, there are no supports whatsoever. As long as you are able to visualize the object in the subconscious or unconscious plane, you are on the right path. The moment the symbol vanishes you are lost, which means that you have to come back again to mundane consciousness. Let us illustrate the importance of the psychic symbol with a story.
It was monsoon period and there was incessant rain and tumultuous winds. A crow was asleep at the top of a big tree beside a large river. During the night the wind was so strong that the tree was uprooted. It fell into the fast flowing river and was swept away. The crow, however, remained fast asleep and had no idea that the tree was being swept out to sea.
The wind subsided and the sun shone brightly. The crow awoke and was startled to find that he was surrounded by water. In all directions all he could see was water. He wanted to find land but didn’t know in which direction to fly. Finally the crow decided to fly east. He didn’t find any land in this direction so he decided to fly west for an hour or so. Not finding any land to the west, he decided to fly south. He flew south, then north, but still he couldn’t find any signs of land. He felt very tired and then he realized that there was no place where he could rest. All he could see was water. The crow immediately thought of the tree. But where was it? Instead of looking for land the crow now desperately sought the tree from which he had started his search. After some time and effort he found the tree and rested.
The crow was an intelligent bird, it learned from previous mistakes and experiences. Therefore, when it again felt strong enough to continue the search for land, it carefully remembered the location of the tree. It flew north and found no land so would return to the tree and rest. Then it would explore the other directions, always returning to the tree to rest. Eventually it sighted land and was able to fly directly to it and forget about the tree. The tree had served a purpose and was no longer necessary.
The crow represents the practitioner of meditation. The ocean is the mind. The tree is the psychic symbol and the land is meditation. At first the crow tried to find land haphazardly without maintaining awareness of the position of the tree. It nearly got lost in the great expanse of the ocean. In the same way, if a person tries to explore the mind without the help of a psychic symbol, then he will surely get hopelessly lost.
For the inward journey a guide is necessary and the guide is your psychic symbol. You must have one that is fixed and permanent. It is your inner guru and just like your outer guru, it should not be changed. Your inner guru is the shinning light of your symbol at a time when you are totally dead to the outer life, when time and space have been transcended. At that time the light is needed and this is why sages have always emphasized the need for a symbol.
When you are practicing meditation and utilizing a mantra, the mantra will bring you to a state where your awareness is internalized and possibly lost in thoughts and visions (visions are the thoughts in symbolic form). When this happens you must immediately awaken your symbol and try to visualize it. Supposing your symbol is the flame of fire, you must try to see it inside when your eyes are closed. It should be seen just as if you were looking at an external flame. At first it will be difficult, but you must try to stabilize the flame, make it constant. Some people, those who are predominantly intellectual, visualize the symbol in bhrumadhya, the eye brow centre, while others who are more emotional prefer to experience it in the heart area.
As you try to maintain awareness of your symbol, visions will float through your mind. As awareness of the symbol intensifies, the number of visions and fantasies that come before your mind will increase. These symbolic manifestations of pranic energy in the mind are known as vikalpas. They are the greatest barriers to spiritual awareness and are not easy to eradicate. Sometimes these visions can last for hours, with the practitioner forgetting all about himself, his mantra and the psychic symbol.
When you close your eyes and visualize a lotus, a rose or some other symbol, what you actually see is your own consciousness. As this consciousness, this mental awareness becomes progressively purified, the symbol will also become more clear. When you visualize a rose as clearly as you see it outside in the garden and if the qualitative perception does not differ, you will have reached a very high degree of concentration. If you are unable to see the rose clearly inside, your mind is not crystal clear. It means that between the thought of the rose and yourself there exist a barrier, and this barrier has to be removed.
When the awareness of your psychic symbol remains constant and unfluctuating, there is a moment when there is just the symbol. You see it very clearly and as distinctly as possible. At that point meditation begins. You are no longer practicing meditation, you are meditating!
Through utilization of the psychic symbol it is possible for advanced sadhaks to maintain a state of sleepless sleep. Even while sleeping they are aware of everything and can witness all their dreams. To do this it is necessary for the symbol to have become such a natural part of one’s psyche, that it can be clearly seen and maintained at any time.
The onset of sleep is like descending into a deep well with a rope. One slips and falls into the well, losing awareness and becoming lost in deep sleep. The psychic symbol is the means of descending into the well of sleep, but without falling into the depths of unconsciousness. Likewise, the psychic symbol provides a rope for descending into the deeper layers of the mind and consciousness in the practice of meditation.
The structure of dhyana yoga is built on the twin pillars of mantra and psychic symbol, and they have to become very solid pillars. They do not fluctuate or change, they remain steady.