Antar Mauna Sadhna

[Guest guest]

Dear Balaji,

 

Let me add my one cent to the discussion going on reg Antar Mauna.

 

" Antar means inner and mauna is silence..which means the inner

silence.

 

Our Mind is a strange instrument. Mainly it is there to engage us

in the universe. But this is its temporary job, its real job is to

turn towards the self, understand the self.. merge into it...a

process which can be called Moksha. But mind is busy...it is busy

in the vritis coming out of chitta, vritis of past memories, vrittis

of future plannings, reacting to the external stimuli recd. through

the senses. It is extremely busy in processing all these

informations hence it has no time left for self-analysis...it has

rather forgotten its real Job.

 

Antar Mauna sadhna is a wonderful tool to remind the mind its

real job and put it on work of self-analysis. This sadhna is next

stage higher to Vipassana sadhna of the budhhists and is in complete

conformity with Patanjali Yoga Sutras where Pantajali declares "Yoga-

shcha-vritti-nridhum".....Absence of any Vritti is Yoga.

 

In this sadhna, one sits in a comfortable posture and starts

oberving the mind itself, how he is reacting to the vritis, how it

is reacting to the external stimuli and how it is behaving with the

Sankalpa-vikalpa. When mind is oberving the mind, it reduces its

attention towards the disturbing elements and starts self-analysis.

So Antar Mauna is really a calmness of mind rather than calmness of

vrittis.

 

It is a very difficult sadhna and though it looks simple, needs

years to reach at beginning levels.

 

baba

[Guest guest]

Thanks baba,

 

very nicely said. The mind is indeed a tool, possibly the only tool we

have at our disposal and the only means to realize the soul. We are

not aware of that which we call soul, and the only way to become aware

of it is through the mind. Some extreme right hand paths of yoga and

some bhakti yoga groups, deny the mind and its value. Yoga, in its

traditional and orthodox form, firstly tries to realize the mind and

expand the awareness in order to get access to the soul. "Because when

the mind realises itself, it realizes its source which is the spirit."

 

Selfobservation and antar mon can make one very inward, sometimes

introverted people naturally do antar mon and get into meditational

states very easily.

 

A word of caution though, I think that antar mon is like yoga nidra

and should not be recommended to people who have many fears and are

over-introverted. This might lead to further psychological problems.

In truth meditation in general should be practiced only from people

with a very healthy mind. The others should prepare their body and

energies through karma yoga, asanas, pranayamas, yamas and niyamas.

 

Om shanti.