On Dhyana Samadhi

August 27, 2006

Dear Advaitins,

I just wanted to present some excerpts from Raja Yoga lectures of

Swami Vivekananda. Please note that he has told us to use the

technique for the vedantic realisation. He did not approve the

conclusions arrived by the patanjala yoga sutras as the ultimate. He

was a staunch vedantin with the realisations of the upanishadic

statements. It is a greatest pussle to me as to why the sage

patanjali was not able to raise to the heights of the vedanta with

such a beautiful and scienticfic method. May be we can take it as a

progress in philosphy and realisation- Samkhaya to Yoga and which

culmitanted in the Advaita Vedanta.

It is very strongly adviced that one should skip the pranayama

portion of the yoga untill and unless guided by the competant

teacher. Otherwise it will lead to serious health disorders.Even

without this is an excellent tool to assimilate and realise the

ultimate truths taught by advaita philosophy.

( It is said that when when the mind gets deeper concentration the

breath will automatically adjust without causing any injury to the

body and mind of the sadhaka.)

For more information on these please read Raja Yoga of Swami

Vivekananda. There is another small booklet -Meditation and its

Methods-by the same author, which teaches a simple but very

effective ways of concentrating the mind. Both books are published

by Advaita Ashrama of Sri Ramakrishna Math. Hope this will be

helpful.

---------------

We have taken a cursory view of the different steps in Raja-Yoga,

except the finer ones, the training in concentration, which is the

goal, to which Raja-Yoga will lead us. We see, as human beings, that

all our knowledge which is called rational is referred to

consciousness. My consciousness of this table, and of your presence,

makes me know that the table and you are here. At the same time,

there is a very great part of my existence of which I am not

conscious. All the different organs inside the body, the different

parts of the brain -- nobody is conscious of these.

When I eat food, I do it consciously; when I assimilate it,

I do it unconsciously. When the food is manufactured into blood, it

is done unconsciously. When out of the blood all the different parts

of my body are strengthened, it is done unconsciously. And yet it is

I who am doing all this; there cannot be twenty people in this one

body. How do I know that I do it, and nobody else? It may be urged

that my business is only in eating and assimilating the food, and

that strengthening the body by the food is done for me by somebody

else. That cannot be, because it can be demonstrated that almost

every action of which we are now unconscious can be brought up to

the plane of consciousness. The heart is beating apparently without

our control. None of us here can control the heart; it goes on its

own way. But by practice men can bring even the heart under control,

until it will just beat at will, slowly, or quickly, or almost stop.

Nearly every part of the body can be brought under control. What

does this show? That the functions which are beneath consciousness

are also performed by us, only we are doing it unconsciously. We

have, then, two planes in which the human mind works. First is the

conscious plane, in which all work is always accompanied with the

feeling of egoism. Next comes the unconscious plane, where all work

is unaccompanied by the feeling of egoism. That part of mind - work

which is unaccompanied with the feeling of egoism is unconscious

work, and that part which is accompanied with the feeling of egoism

is conscious work. In the lower animals this unconscious work is

called instinct. In higher animals, and in the highest of all

animals, man, what is called conscious work prevails.

But it does not end here. There is a still higher plane

upon which the mind can work. It can go beyond consciousness. Just

as unconscious work is beneath consciousness, so there is another

work which is above consciousness, and which also is not accompanied

with the feeling of egoism. The feeling of egoism is only on the

middle plane. When the mind is above or below that line, there is no

feeling of "I", and yet the mind works. When the mind goes beyond

this line of self - consciousness, it is called Samadhi or

superconsciousness. How, for instance, do we know that a man in

Samadhi has not gone below consciousness, has not degenerated

instead of going higher? In both cases the works are unaccompanied

with egoism. The answer is, by the effects, by the results of the

work, we know that which is below, and that which is above. When a

man goes into deep sleep, he enters a plane beneath consciousness.

He works the body all the time, he breathes, he moves the body,

perhaps, in his sleep, without any accompanying feeling of ego; he

is unconscious, and when he returns from his sleep, he is the same

man who went into it. The sum total of the knowledge which he had

before he went into the sleep remains the same; it does not increase

at all. No enlightenment comes. But when a man goes into Samadhi, if

he goes into it a fool, he comes out a sage.

What makes the difference? From one state a man comes out

the very same man that he went in, and from another state the man

comes out enlightened, a sage, a prophet, a saint, his whole

character changed, his life changed, illumined. These are the two

effects. Now the effects being different, the causes must be

different. As this illumination with which a man comes back from

Samadhi is much higher than can be got from unconsciousness, or much

higher than can be got by reasoning in a conscious state, it must,

therefore, be superconsciousness, and Samadhi is called the

superconscious state.

This, in short, is the idea of Samadhi. What is its

application? The application is here. The field of reason, or of the

conscious workings of the mind, is narrow and limited. There is a

little circle within which human reason must move. It cannot go

beyond. Every attempt to go beyond is impossible, yet it is beyond

this circle of reason that there lies all that humanity holds most

dear. All these questions, whether there is an immortal soul,

whether there is a God, whether there is any supreme intelligence

guiding this universe or not, are beyond the field of reason. Reason

can never answer these questions. What does reason say? It says, "I

am agnostic; I do not know either yea or nay." Yet these questions

are so important to us. Without a proper answer to them, human life

will be purposeless. All our ethical theories, all our moral

attitudes, all that is good and great in human nature, have been

moulded upon answers that have come from beyond the circle. It is

very important, therefore, that we should have answers to these

questions. If life is only a short play, if the universe is only

a "fortuitous combination of atoms," then why should I do good to

another? Why should there be mercy, justice, or fellow - feeling?

The best thing for this world would be to make hay while the sun

shines, each man for himself. If there is no hope, why should I love

my brother, and not cut his throat? If there is nothing beyond, if

there is no freedom, but only rigorous dead laws, I should only try

to make myself happy here. You will find people saying nowadays that

they have utilitarian grounds as the basis of morality. What is this

basis? Procuring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest

number. Why should I do this? Why should I not produce the greatest

unhappiness to the greatest number, if that serves my purpose? How

will utilitarians answer this question? How do you know what is

right, or what is wrong? I am impelled by my desire for happiness,

and I fulfil it, and it is in my nature; I know nothing beyond. I

have these desires, and must fulfil them; why should you complain?

Whence come all these truths about human life, about morality, about

the immortal soul, about God, about love and sympathy, about being

good, and, above all, about being unselfish?

All ethics, all human action and all human thought, hang

upon this one idea of unselfishness. The whole idea of human life

can be put into that one word, unselfishness. Why should we be

unselfish? Where is the necessity, the force, the power, of my being

unselfish? You call yourself a rational man, a utilitarian; but if

you do not show me a reason for utility, I say you are irrational.

Show me the reason why I should not be selfish. To ask one to be

unselfish may be good as poetry, but poetry is not reason. Show me a

reason. Why shall I be unselfish, and why be good? Because Mr. and

Mrs. So - and - so say so does not weigh with me. Where is the

utility of my being unselfish? My utility is to be selfish if

utility means the greatest amount of happiness. What is the answer?

The utilitarian can never give it. The answer is that this world is

only one drop in an infinite ocean, one link in an infinite chain.

Where did those that preached unselfishness, and taught it to the

human race, get this idea? We know it is not instinctive; the

animals, which have instinct, do not know it. Neither is it reason;

reason does not know anything about these ideas. Whence then did

they come?

We find, in studying history, one fact held in common by

all the great teachers of religion the world ever had. They all

claim to have got their truths from beyond, only many of them did

not know where they got them from. For instance, one would say that

an angel came down in the form of a human being, with wings, and

said to him, "Hear, O man, this is the message." Another says that a

Deva, a bright being, appeared to him. A third says he dreamed that

his ancestor came and told him certain things. He did not know

anything beyond that. But this is common that all claim that this

knowledge has come to them from beyond, not through their reasoning

power. What does the science of Yoga teach? It teaches that they

were right in claiming that all this knowledge came to them from

beyond reasoning, but that it came from within themselves.

The Yogi teaches that the mind itself has a higher state of

existence, beyond reason, a superconscious state, and when the mind

gets to that higher state, then this knowledge, beyond reasoning,

comes to man. Metaphysical and transcendental knowledge comes to

that man. This state of going beyond reason, transcending ordinary

human nature, may sometimes come by chance to a man who does not

understand its science; he, as it were, stumbles upon it. When he

stumbles upon it, he generally interprets it as coming from outside.

So this explains why an inspiration, or transcendental knowledge,

may be the same in different countries, but in one country it will

seem to come through an angel, and in another through a Deva, and in

a third through God. What does it mean? It means that the mind

brought the knowledge by its own nature, and that the finding of the

knowledge was interpreted according to the belief and education of

the person through whom it came. The real fact is that these various

men, as it were, stumbled upon this superconscious state.

The Yogi says there is a great danger in stumbling upon

this state. In a good many cases there is the danger of the brain

being deranged, and, as a rule, you will find that all those men,

however great they were, who had stumbled upon this superconscious

state without understanding it, groped in the dark, and generally

had, along with their knowledge, some quaint superstition. They

opened themselves to hallucinations. Mohammed claimed that the Angel

Gabriel came to him in a cave one day and took him on the heavenly

horse, Harak, and he visited the heavens. But with all that,

Mohammed spoke some wonderful truths. If you read the Koran, you

find the most wonderful truths mixed with superstitions. How will

you explain it? That man was inspired, no doubt, but that

inspiration was, as it were, stumbled upon. He was not a trained

Yogi, and did not know the reason of what he was doing. Think of the

good Mohammed did to the world, and think of the great evil that has

been done through his fanaticism! Think of the millions massacred

through his teachings, mothers bereft of their children, children

made orphans, whole countries destroyed, millions upon millions of

people killed!

So we see this danger by studying the lives of great

teachers like Mohammed and others. Yet we find, at the same time,

that they were all inspired. Whenever a prophet got into the

superconscious state by heightening his emotional nature, he brought

away from it not only some truths, but some fanaticism also, some

superstition which injured the world as much as the greatness of the

teaching helped. To get any reason out of the mass incongruity we

call human life, we have to transcend our reason, but we must do it

scientifically, slowly, by regular practice, and we must cast off

all superstition. We must take up the study of the superconscious

state just as any other science. On reason we must have to lay our

foundation, we must follow reason as far as it leads, and when

reason fails, reason itself will show us the way to the highest

plane. When you hear a man say, "I am inspired," and then talk

irrationally, reject it. Why? Because these three states --

instinct, reason, and superconsciousness, or the unconscious,

conscious, and superconscious states -- belong to one and the same

mind. There are not three minds in one man, but one state of it

develops into the others. Instinct develops into reason, and reason

into the transcendental consciousness; therefore, not one of the

states contradicts the others. Real inspiration never contradicts

reason, but fulfills it. Just as you find the great prophets

saying, "I come not to destroy but to fulfil," so inspiration always

comes to fulfil reason, and is in harmony with it.

All the different steps in Yoga are intended to bring us

scientifically to the superconscious state, or Samadhi. Furthermore,

this is a most vital point to understand, that inspiration is as

much in every man's nature as it was in that of the ancient

prophets. These prophets were not unique; they were men as you or I.

They were great Yogis. They had gained this superconsciousness, and

you and I can get the same. They were not peculiar people. The very

fact that one man ever reached that state, proves that it is

possible for every man to do so. Not only is it possible, but every

man must, eventually, get to that state, and that is religion.

Experience is the only teacher we have. We may talk and reason all

our lives, but we shall not understand a word of truth, until we

experience it ourselves. You cannot hope to make a man a surgeon by

simply giving him a few books. You cannot satisfy my curiosity to

see a country by showing me a map; I must have actual experience.

Maps can only create curiosity in us to get more perfect knowledge.

Beyond that, they have no value whatever. Clinging to books only

degenerates the human mind. Was there ever a more horrible blasphemy

than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this

or that book? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to

compress Him within the covers of a little book! Millions of people

have been killed because they did not believe what the books said,

because they would not see all the knowledge of God within the

covers of a book. Of course this killing and murdering has gone by,

but the world is still tremendously bound up in a belief in books.

In order to reach the superconscious state in a scientific

manner it is necessary to pass through the various steps of Raja-

Yoga I have been teaching. After Pratyahara and Dharana, we come to

Dhyana, meditation. When the mind has been trained to remain fixed

on a certain internal or external location, there comes to it the

power of flowing in an unbroken current, as it were, towards that

point. This state is called Dhyana. When one has so intensified the

power of Dhyana as to be able to reject the external part of

perception and remain meditating only on the internal part, the

meaning, that state is called Samadhi. The three -- dharana, Dhyana,

and Samadhi -- together, are called Samyama. That is, if the mind

can first concentrate upon an object, and then is able to continue

in that concentration for a length of time, and then, by continued

concentration, to dwell only on the internal part of the perception

of which the object was the effect, everything comes under the

control of such a mind.

This meditative state is the highest state of existence. So

long as there is desire, no real happiness can come. It is only the

contemplative, witness - like study of objects that brings to us

real enjoyment and happiness. The animal has its happiness in the

senses, the man in his intellect, and the god in spiritual

contemplation. It is only to the soul that has attained to this

contemplative state that the world really becomes beautiful. To him

who desires that carries it to the mind; third, the reaction from

the mind, along with which flashes the knowledge of the object which

was the external cause of these different changes from the ethereal

vibrations to the mental reactions. These three are called in Yoga,

Shabda (sound), Artha (meaning), and Jnana (knowledge). In the

language of physics and physiology they are called the ethereal

vibration, the motion in the nerve and brain, and the mental

reaction. Now these, though distinct processes, have become mixed up

in such a fashion as to become quite indistinct. In fact, we cannot

now perceive any of these, we only perceive their combined effect,

what we call the external object. Every act of perception includes

these three, and there is no reason why we should not be able to

distinguish them.

When, by the previous preparations, it becomes strong and

controlled, and has the power of finer perception, the mind should

be employed in meditation. This meditation must begin with gross

objects and slowly rise to finer and finer, until it becomes

objectless. The mind should first be employed in perceiving the

external causes of sensations, then the internal motions, and then

its own reaction. When it has succeeded in perceiving the external

causes of sensations by themselves, the mind will acquire the power

of perceiving all fine material existences, all fine bodies and

forms. When it can succeed in perceiving the motions inside by

themselves, it will gain the control of all mental waves, in itself

or in others, even before they have translated themselves into

physical energy; and when he will be able to perceive the mental

reaction by itself, the Yogi will acquire the knowledge of

everything, as every sensible object, and every thought is the

result of this reaction. Then will he have seen the very foundations

of his mind, and it will be under his perfect control. Different

powers will come to the Yogi, and if he yields to the temptations of

any one of these, the road to his further progress will be barred.

Such is the evil of running after enjoyments. But if he is strong

enough to reject even these miraculous powers, he will attain to the

goal of Yoga, the complete suppression of the waves in the ocean of

the mind. Then the glory of the soul, undisturbed by the

distractions of the mind, or motions of the body, will shine in its

full effulgence; and the Yogi will find himself as he is and as he

always was, the essence of knowledge, the immortal, the all -

pervading.

Samadhi is the property of every human being -- nay, every

animal. From the lowest animal to the highest angel, some time or

other, each one will have to come to that state, and then, and then

alone, will real religion begin for him. Until then we only struggle

towards that stage. There is no difference now between us and those

who have no religion, because we have no experience. What is

concentration good for, save to bring us to this experience? Each

one of the steps to attain Samadhi has been reasoned out, properly

adjusted, scientifically organised, and, when faithfully practised,

will surely lead us to the desired end. Then will all sorrows cease,

all miseries vanish; the seeds for actions will be burnt, and the

soul will be free for ever.

Jai Jai Raghuveer Samartha

Yours in the lord,

Br. Vinayaka

August 27, 2006

Vinayaka <vinayaka_ns > wrote:

Dear Advaitins,

From

Sankarraman