Gita Satsang : Chapter 6 The Yoga of Meditation

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The Yoga of Meditation is the subject of the Sixth Chapter of the

Bhagavadgita; -Dhyana Yoga as it is called. We have noticed that, for

purposes of Meditation, a convenient place, free from distractions, is

necessary. The time that we choose for Meditation, also, is to be such

that it should not have the background of any engagement or activity

which may distract the attention of the mind from the goal of

Meditation. A suitable place, a suitable time, these two are very

important prerequisites. But more important, perhaps, than place and

time is the preparedness of the mind. The mind should be eager to sit

for Meditation and it should not feel any kind of compulsion. We do

not sit for Meditation merely because in our daily routine it is the

time allotted for Meditation; that would be some thing like going for

lunch at noon, even if we are not hungry, merely because noon is

prescribed as the time for lunch. It is not the time, but the need

that is important. If the mind does not feel the need for Meditation,

a mere prescription of place and time will not be of much benefit.

 

Most people feel a difficulty in getting any kind of satisfactory

result, because the mind is not prepared. How is the mind to be

prepared? Here a question arises, which can be answered by each one,

independently, from one's own point of view. Why do we feel the need

for taking to Yoga practice? If the need has not been felt, we would

not have been resorting to Yoga at all. Somehow, we have felt within

our hearts that Yoga is a solution to the problems of life. Everyone

has difficulties and tensions and our con science has somehow

persuaded us to accept that the panacea for all problems in life is

Yoga, finally. We have accepted, of our own accord, that no one can

help us in the end, except that great principle which Yoga regards as

the ultimate reality of life. We do not take to the Yoga of Meditation

just because somebody has told us to do it, or some text book has

eulogized it; just as we do not go to the dining hall for our lunch,

or dinner, merely because somebody asked us to go there. We feel that

it is necessary, and, therefore, we go.

 

Now, this need that we feel for the practice of Yoga should be a

genuine one. The mind is a trickster. It always deceives us from

moment to moment, because it does not have a continuity of moods. The

moods of the mind change almost everyday. And it is not difficult for

the mind to get dissatisfied with things. And it can be dissatisfied

even with that which it once regarded as a very necessary item in its

life. There. is no more difficult thing to understand than our own

mind. We ourselves are the greatest difficulties in life. Our mind,

like a weathercock, moves from one state to another. So, while most of

us may be honest and sincere in our resort to Yoga practice, we are

also in some way subject to the whims of the mind. "I do not feel like

it;" this is what we often remark. But why should we not feel like it?

What has happened? And we would only say, "I do not know what has

happened." That means to say that our mind is not under our control.

Even our taking to the practice of Yoga may be a mood of the mind and

not be a real conviction born of under standing;-this is important to

remember. Even as there are umpteen moods of the mind, Yoga also may

be one of the moods, and it may be a very unreliable mood, for it may

pass away. And the problems we feel when we sit for Meditation are due

to the unpreparedness of the mind basically, at its root, though on

the surface it appears as if it has accepted the adventure.

 

Many times we accept things only on the surface, and in our basic

attitude we are not prepared to accept everything. Now, the acceptance

of Yoga should be a wholesome attitude of the seeker. It should not be

merely a surface outlook which has somehow acquiesced in the

situation. And, as the great goal of life is the wholeness of reality,

our preparedness for its realization should also be a wholeness from

our side. Hence, a moody attitude and an acceptance which is partial

cannot be satisfactory where our objective is such an important factor

in life as Yoga. Why we have varying moods and contradictory desires,

which will surprise even our own selves. The answer to this question

in the Sixth Chapter is that we are often likely to be extremists in

our activities. We are not sober and harmonized in our engagements, in

our relationships. When we like a thing, we sell ourselves, as it

were, to that which we love. It is an extreme attitude of attachment.

When we dislike a thing, we whole-heartedly condemn the thing, and go

to the other extreme. We have found that it is very hard to maintain a

balanced mood of equanimity of attitude. And it is easy to be an

extremist, while it is hard to be a person of sobriety of perspective.

Either we eat too much, or we do not eat at all. Both these things are

very easy. We suddenly declare, "I shall not eat; for one week I shall

observe fast." But to control the appetite in a way that does not

affect either the body or the mind, or even our relationships and

activities, is a little difficult. While the Gita has emphasized the

factor of harmony in Yoga, it has not confined this harmony merely to

the ultimate union of the Self with the Absolute, in a transcendent

sense.

 

Again and again it has been driven into our minds, in various places,

that Yoga as harmony has to be applied in its relevance at every level

of life, even in our kitchen and bathroom, our social relationships,

our personal vocations, and the like. Even in our eating and sleeping

and our recreation there should be a harmony, and there should not be

any extreme mood, not that we indulge in eating and sleeping too much,

not also that we completely abstain ourselves from the needs of the

body and mind. The golden mean is supposed to be the essence of the

ethical attitude; -the golden mean; and it is so subtle as a hair's

breadth; it is an imperceptible reality. The arrangement of factors in

a harmonious manner is an im perceptible truth, not visible to the

organs of the senses. But we have to conceive it in our minds; with

some effort. Yoga is not for that person who eats too much, or does

not eat at all; sleeps too much, or does not sleep at all; works too

much, or does not work at all; plays too much, or does not play at

all, etc. These are common statements but very important ones. The

great Masters of Yoga are most normal persons. When we are a real Yogi

we will not appear as a Yogi at all. 'The moment we start appearing as

a Yogi; there is to be sensed some unnaturalness in the practice. Why

should we "appear"? There is no need to put on countenances: Normalcy

of behavior is a spontaneous consequence that follows from an

understanding of the wholeness of life, which is, basically, Yoga.

 

The Gita will tell us sometime afterwards that things which are good

ultimately look very unpleasant in the beginning, but they yield the

fruit of the greatest satisfaction and delight later on. The pains of

life, the sufferings through Yoga, are inevitable in the face of every

kind of spiritual practice. When we practice Meditation, we are

clearing the debris of our personality. It is as if we are sweeping

our room which has not been dusted for years, clearing the cobwebs,

etc. And when we clear the room of the dirt, there we will find the

dust rising up and blinding our eyes, and it may look as if things

have become worse than what they were earlier. But afterwards the dust

goes, it has been swept completely, and we are happy. So, these

problems and difficulties, pains and sorrows and doubts, the agonies

that appear in the course of the practice of Yoga are the inevitable

consequences of our effort in cleansing the mind of all the dirt that

is deposited there since years and incarnations. But a glorious day is

to come, we shall become happy, expecting a blessedness that is

supremely divine.

 

One who believes in God and trusts in God wholly, taking refuge in

God, shall be taken care of by God. "He shall not lose Me, and I shall

not lose him," says the great Master. "He who sees Me everywhere and

sees everything in Me, to him I cease not, nor to Me does he cease."

"Whoso, rooted in oneness, worships Me who abide in all beings, that

Yogi dwells in Me, whatever be his mode of life.Whoso, by

comparison with his own self, sees the same everywhere (as his own

self), O Arjuna, be it pleasure or pain, he is deemed the highest

Yogi."