Eating the Mangos - A guide to practical Vedanta - Part II

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Namaste.

 

Continuing from

advaitin/message/13078

 

Seven-step Sadhana

 

Counting the leaves is information; eating the ~go is realisation.

Here is a seven-fold practical programme, or Sadhana, which can lead

us to this resplendent realisation

1. Meditation

2. Doing only one thing at a time

3. Japa, or use of the mantra

4. Discriminating restraint of the senses

5. Association with like-minded people

6. Putting the other person first

7. Some form of selfless service

 

 

Is it not possible for a human being to attain instant Samadhi

without practising meditation? Yes, it is possible for a Ramakrishna

or a Ramana Maharshi. But for the vast majority of ordinary people

like you and me, the long laborious discipline of meditation is

unavoidable.

 

In the words of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita:

 

"Who knows the Atman Knows that happiness Born of pure knowledge:

The joy of sattva.

Deep his delight After strict self-schooling: Sour toil at first But

at last what sweetness, The end of sorrow."

 

Meditation is concentration, and concentration is consecration. It

is only as long as we have a grasshopper mind and live on the

surface level of consciousness that finite things - such as money or

material possessions - would seem to bring some sort of satisfaction.

 

But as our concentration grows, it will become increasingly clear to

us that our real driving need is not for anything that is fleeting,

changing or finite, but for the immortal, immutable and infinite

Reality called God who dwells in the depths of our consciousness.

 

When we let our mind become many-pointed, we move away from the Lord

of Love, who is the heart of our heart, the life of our life; when

we make our mind one-pointed, we move closer to Him.

 

"If the heart wanders or is distracted," says St. Francis de

Sales, "bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it

tenderly in its Master's presence. And even if you did nothing

during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it

again in our Lord's presence, though it went away every time you

brought it back, your hour would be very well employed."

 

Quintessence of Education

The dynamic discipline of meditation can be greatly facilitated if

we try to do only one thing at a time instead of dividing our

attention among two or three things at the same time, as we are

being conditioned to do in the name of efficiency or relaxation.

Concentration is efficiency; concentration is relaxation. Division

is inefficiency; division is tension. Swami Vivekananda

said, "Concentration is the quintessence of education."

 

When I was in my early teens I had just discovered Washington

Irving, and could not tear myself away from his delightful story of

Rip Van Winkle. At breakfast I was reading Rip Van Winkle and

eating. "This is poor reading and poor eating," remarked my

grandmother as she took away my plate.

 

Whenever I go to a campus cafeteria, I cannot help being surprised

at the number of students who are drinking coffee, smoking and

reading books simultaneously. This is going against one of the

fundamental Principles of education which is to give all our

attention to one thing at a time.

 

Undivided Attention

It is not difficult for me to visualise my illiterate grandmother

walking into the cafeteria and taking away from every student the

cup of coffee and the pack of cigarettes, leaving them with only

their books to be read with undivided attention.

 

One of the valuable aids in making the mind one-pointed (to

translate the Sanskrit term Ekagra) is by scrupulously refraining

from doing more than one thing at a time.

 

Do Not Wobble

When your boy friend is telling you about the climax of his

unwritten novel, even if a peacock comes on the scene and starts

dancing in front of you, don't look at the dancing peacock, but keep

both your eyes on the future novelist. On the other hand, when you

are looking at the dancing peacock, give all your attention to it so

that you don't even hear the words of the coming Hemingway. In the

words of the Buddha, when you are walking walk, when you are

sitting, sit-don't wobble!

 

Most of us are under the impression that we spend our waking hours

in logical, systematic thinking. If we can observe the thoughts of

even a profound scholar, we would be surprised to find how his mind

jumps about, like a grasshopper, from thought to thought, sometimes

relevant, sometimes irrelevant, sometimes profound, sometimes

puerile.

 

When the temple elephant is being taken in procession through the

narrow lanes, its wandering trunk snatches clusters of bananas from

a fruit stand on one side, then passes on to the other to) pick up

coconuts from a grocery store. In this manner it weaves its way

through the winding lanes, its hunk in constant motion. The mahout,

who takes good care of the elephant, will give the animal a bamboo

stick to be held firmly in its trunk so that it may not wander from

stall to stall.

 

This is exactly what the mantra does for the wandering mind. Not

only does it steady the mind from wandering thoughts, but it can

serve as a tremendous transformer when tidal waves of anger, fear or

lust rise up in our consciousness. On such occasions, instead of

taking it out on those who are near and dear to us, we should go for

a brisk walk if possible, repeating a mantra. The rhythm of the

mantra, the rhythm of the footstep, and the rhythm of the breath

blend into a healing harmony.

 

The intense repetition of the mantra thus enables us to direct into

constructive channels the prana or the vital energy which would

otherwise have run amuck, inflicting severe damage on our body and

mind. It is sometimes asked whether this does not lead to

suppression.

 

Suppression versus Japa

In suppression, as I understand it, a wave of anger is pushed down

where it continues its destructive work below the surface level of

consciousness. On the other hand, in japa or the repetition of a

mantra, the very power that is agitating the mind in the form of

anger, begins to calm it The power is there in both the cases; in

anger it is working against me because I am the victim; in japa it

is working for me because I am the victor.

 

 

 

"Eating the Mangos" an article by Eknath Easwaran published in

TattvaLoka (http://www.vidya.org/tattvaloka/english/98nov/mangos.htm)