Swami Chidananda

[Guest guest]

The Part of Technique in Spiritual Life

 

Radiant Immortal Atman! Beloved sadhaks and seekers! The name of Swami

Vivekananda is known to all of you. He was a disciple of Sri

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and had the distinction of being one of the

earliest of the monks of India to take the great message of Vedanta

and the universalism of Vedanta to the Western countries. His Guru had

many disciples, many of them young men, some of whom were very highly

educated and qualified, a few of them unlettered. But they all became

accredited spiritual leaders after the passing away of Sri Ramakrishna.

 

The second most important disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, whom even Swami

Vivekananda treated with great deference and reverence, was one Swami

Brahmananda. He was the first president of the Sri Ramakrishna Mutt

and Mission when it was founded near the end of the last century.

Swami Brahmananda was a very serious person, always dignified, not

given to easy change of moods. He was patient, understanding, and a

kind teacher.

 

Disciples who took initiation from him sometimes used to go to him a

year or two later and complain that they could find no progress in

their sadhana, bemoan the fact that they had had no “experienceâ€â€ " they

had not seen any light, their kundalini had not risen, they had not

had any vision of Gods or Goddesses, there was no higher

consciousness. He used to listen to them patiently, and after they had

fully stated their problem, he would tell them: “Yes, yes, I

understand your difficulty. I understand your eagerness to have

experience. Yes, it will come. Continue your japa. Repeat your ishta

mantra regularly without fail every day for another year. Please come

back to me after the end of the year·â€

 

He used to reassure them, tell them to continue their japa, be very

regular, gradually increase the time, and practise for another year.

After a year the same people would return and repeat the same story.

He repeated his patient hearing also. He heard them patiently as

before, repeated his same instructions and asked them to come back

again after a year. Sometimes this was repeated a third time also, and

then after the fourth year or the fifth year when they came, they no

longer had a complaint. They had found an answer. The agitation had

gone. They gradually began to feel peace and inner joy.

 

Later on he used to say: “Sadhaks are very impatient. Before they

hardly start their spiritual life and sadhana, already they want to

have experience; they want to have experience as the very beginning of

their spiritual sadhana, not as the later part. And they think that

such experience only, constitutes the sign that they are progressing.

So what could I do, what could I tell them? I could only tell them to

carry on with their sadhana, continue their japa, be very regular in

it.†Therefore, he used to tell them: “My dear son, you should not be

too impatient. You must have sufficient abhyasa (practice) before you

start looking for results and before you want or wish to complain. You

want to have a tree within days of planting a seed. You want to have

fruit before the tree has become a real tree.â€

 

This impatience in a sadhak is impractical and is a result of not

realising that a good part of the sadhana goes not into the structure

of spiritual life but into its foundation. When the foundation of a

building is being built, no structure is seen above the surface of the

ground. Someone looking from far off will see nothing there. Yet

something important, something indispensable, is being done. If within

a few days of starting construction you already want to see walls and

rooms, it is an impractical view and approach.

 

Swami Brahmananda was an experienced teacher, so he was able to be

patient and ask them to carry on. However, this problem is still acute

today. Therefore many spiritual teachers purvey to the common market

of sadhaks and offer techniques which will show results. In three

sessions in a darkened room someone wants to press your eye-balls and

make you see flashes of light. “Oh yes, I will give you illumination.â€

What is illumination? Illumination is flashes of light. If someone

hits you on the head with a club, you will have lots of flashes. If

you hit your head against the wall by accident, you can have many

stars. There are organisations and foundations that promise this type

of spiritual experience, awakening of the kundalini†" you will get

siddhi (psychic power).

 

But then, are you trying to lead a spiritual life or do you want to

practise some techniques and get some results? What is it that you

understand about a life of nivritti†" of renunciation, of seeking? When

you say I am seeker, aspirant, what are you seeking after, what are

your aspiring for? “No clear idea. I want happiness, I am seeking for

peace.†What do you know about peace? What is this peace you are

seeking for? What is this happiness you want? How do you know it is

not there? We have to define our goal and first of all ascertain where

it is and whether it is there or not.

 

You must know the connection between the technique that you are

following and the life that you are leading. Are they two unconnected

things? “I go my way, but every morning and evening I do something; I

practise some technique and technique must yield. If I keep a hen, I

must get an egg every day.†Does this work? What about your life? Are

you paying attention to your life or are you paying attention only to

your mental acrobatic? This question has to be considered. This

question has to be very, very definitely made part of your consideration.

 

Swami Brahmananda adopted a pragmatic method. He neither spoke about

spiritual life nor results. He said, “Carry on your sadhana.†Of

course, together with the sadhana spiritual teachers lay down some

principles, they lay down some way of life. They also put before the

seeker a certain ideal. If this ideal is always kept in mind and the

principles put before the disciple by the Guru are adhered to, then

even the practice of one’s minimal, daily, routine sadhana will yield

fruits†" more surely and perhaps earlier. A wrong emphasis upon

technique and insufficient importance given to ideals and principles

can lead to frustration, can lead to delay in success.

 

First and foremost try to know that all sadhana, all technique, all

these various items of yoga abhyasa have one aim: to remove the

distraction of your mind and focus your mind, and thus bring about a

state of ekagrata, one-pointedness, concentration, and to integrate

your life, your thoughts, your feelings, emotions, sentiments,

imaginations and aspirations towards one unified quest, one clearly

defined goal. If that is there, all things fall into place. If this

centre of unification, this factor of integration is not there,

naturally you are bound to be buffeted hither and thither.

 

In olden days before television and movies were invented, the main

diversion in the cities and towns was always the circus, where the

audience not only saw wild animals, but they watched human beings

performing extraordinary feats. One such feat would be performed on a

rope or wire stretched near the roof of the tent, perhaps forty or

fifty feet from the ground. There was no net; if a person fell from

this height†" finished. The performer would carry a long stick and, step

by step, slowly walk across the rope as the audience held its breath.

 

How were they able to successfully do such death defying feats even

though thousands of people were there? The focus of their entire

attention, entire mind, entire being, was only on their balance and

getting across. They were oblivious of the audience; their entire

consciousness was on their feet which were gingerly moving step by

step along the rope. Their concentration was so powerful that the

whole audience became concentrated, spellbound, with eyes riveted and

breath held.

 

That is the thing needful. That is the purpose of all sadhana. Japa,

meditation, kirtan, puja, upasana†" everything should make you totally

absorbed in the task that you are doing. Be absolutely one-pointed,

completely focused. And it is the solution of ninety percent of the

problem of all seekers†" this ingathering of the mind and the

disciplining of the attention towards one task.

 

The focusing of the entire attention of the mind in one direction,

towards one goal, in one task†" that is Yoga, that is sadhana, that is

abhyasa. It is the key to success. It is the guarantee and assurance

of progress and it is the solution to all problems. And it does not

come in a day. As patient as Swami Brahmananda was, a disciple has to

be even more patient. This focusing of attention, this complete

concentration upon the ideal, the goal, and the day after day

cultivation of this practice of all-absorbing concentration upon the

objective, becoming established in it, is helped by cultivating the

habit of patience in everything, the habit of attention in everything

that you do.

 

This, therefore, is the great thing desirable†" to have a goal and to

focus your mind and heart and soul upon it and not to pay attention to

irrelevant details, not allow the mind to distract you from this total

concentration towards your ideal, your principles, your way of life,

your abhyasa, your goal.

 

Therefore, be absorbed in your practice and try to develop this inner

state of total attention, total focus, complete absorption, and see

the results. Then you will find that there is no longer room for being

frustrated or discontented. If this is not there, then your whole life

will be nothing but murmuring, complaining, grumbling and

dissatisfaction, because these things grow where there is a lack of

this total focusing, attention and concentration. All abhyasa is for

concentration. Concentration overcomes distraction, and distraction is

the bane of all human beings, whether they are spiritual sadhaks or

whether they are purely worldly, materialistic people. Therefore, if

this focusing is made, if you become ingathered, one-pointed,

integrated, then whatever is to come, it will come in due course.

 

This is how spiritual practice should be understood and spiritual life

lived. Life is not to be subordinated or given the less important

place. In a life governed by principle, moving towards an ideal,

technique forms a part of the entire thing called Yoga and sadhana and

spiritual life. God bless you!