Nidhidhyasana - Was: Why aCommentary?

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advaitin, "Neelakantan" <pneelaka@s...> wrote:

> Namaste All,

>

> I would like some explanation of the term nidhidhyAsana. I came

> across some discussion of this in the introduction to Chandogya

> Upanishad by Swami Gambhirananda. He calls it a higher form of

> meditation wherein there is no effort or will or intellection

> involved. There is the constant presence of the firm conviction "I

am

> brahman". To me the process goes like this: shravaNa or listening,

> followed by manana or contemplation and then comes nidhidhyAsana

> wherein one has embraced the idea that has been heard and

> contemplated upon and there is complete conviction, just short of

> actualisation. This differs from dhyAna. Meditation seems like a

> loose definition which is used to translate both dhyAna and

> nidhidhyAsana.

 

Mamaste, Neelakantan-ji and all,

 

Good question. Yes, there is a subtle difference between Dhyana and

Nidhidhyasana. I extract the following from a web page of mine:

 

".....Think about this and other spiritual declarations instead of

trying not to think about anything. This process of going over in

the mind through all the spiritual declarations like the mahAvAkyas

is called nidhidhyAsana. Thus what starts as a mantra japa,

probably mechanically, becomes a mauna japa with the involvement of

the total personality, heart and soul. And gradually the mauna japa

itself becomes a nidhidhyAsana. At that stage there is no more

japa, no more counting. The mind is not now repeating anything..

When you reach the stage of `Atma-samstham manaH kRtvA na kimcid-

api cintayet', it is not thinking of nothing; The nidhidhyAsana now

is being done without any effort so that the mind is now resting in

the Atman, on the Atman......"

 

To get the full context of the above paragraph you may go to

 

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/livehappily_4.html

 

PraNAms to all advaitins

profvk