Dhyana Vahini
Original in Telugu
For every item of work, Chittaikagrata (One-pointedness of the mind) is very important. It is not correct to say that the S_adgunas_ (Good qualities) needed for V_yavaharika_ (Transactional) matters and Paramarthika (Spiritual) matters are different from each other. Spirituality is nothing but the purification of the Vyavaharika. Success or failure in this depends on Ekagrata (One-pointedness). This one-pointedness too is but Sadhana (Spiritual discipline), i.e., practices such as Japam (repetition of Lord’s name) and Dhyanam (Meditation). There are two paths along which this spiritual discipline of one-pointedness may proceed: (1) Sunyavastha (No-pointedness), and (2) Anekagrata (Many-pointedness). No-pointedness is the stage of sleep; it is also called the Tamo-guna (quality of Ignorance). Many-pointedness is the result of the Rajo-guna (Restless quality), turning the vision of the opened eye on Srsti (Creation) and its sights. Avoiding both these, without falling into these two extremes, if the eye is neither closed as in sleep nor opened wide as in the fully awakened stage, but half-opened and directed to the tip of the nose, the Satva-guna (quality of Purity) will become one’s nature; and Chittaikagrata (One-pointedness of the mind) can also be acquired easily.
Of course, this does not mean that merely fixing the sight on the tip of the nose is enough to become a person of pure quality. Fix it there at the beginning, and, then turn the vision onto the Name and Form you have in mind for Smarana (Remembrance); that is Dhyanam (Meditation).
When you are engaged in Japam (repetition of the Lord’s name) and Dhyanam (Meditation), other thoughts might enter into you at first; but, you shouldn’t worry about this. There is no great danger on account of them. When you begin Nama-smarana (remembering the name of God), sit down with enthusiasm. If you enter upon any task with firm determination, no impurity can affect you. Your concern is only to see that you are fully Nirmalam (Unsullied) when you start the Japam, etc. Do not worry about formalities for this. Select the Name that you like and the Form of that Name. That Name is itself the Mantra. That Mantra is ever pure, ever-accessible, and all-encompassing.
But, do not change the Name and the Form, to suit the fancy, and have one thing one day, and another the next. Whatever the Name and Form that first gave you satisfaction, hold fast to them without swerving. They will get implanted in the heart, without fail. Afterwards, everything will happen through His grace. If the worker is ordered to dig the earth, his work is simply to go on digging. The gardener alone knows how much of that earth is to be put under which plant and how that earth is to be so put. So too, the command is to “Do Nama-smarana, constantly dwell on the Lord’s Name and Rupa-Dhyanam, meditate on the Lord’s form!” Provided you continue to do that work, He will direct, Himself, where and how that has to be utilised.
The value of Name and Form consists in the training that they give to the Manas (Mind). What need is there to train a horse that has already been trained? It is the untrained horse that is trained through many ways. Similarly, it is to tame the unruly mind that we have Prarthana (Prayer), Bhajans (Devotional singing), Japam (repetition of God’s name), and Smarana (remembrance of the name of the Lord). In the initial stages, the horse runs in many directions, but the trainer should not worry. He should hold fast to the reins. The mind (compared to a horse) too, naturally runs in different directions when you begin remembrance of the Name and meditation, but, you must not yield to despair, anxiety, or aversion. Hold fast to the reins, the Nama (Name of God)! Within a short time, your speech and your thoughts will come under your own grip. Only, do not allow anything to come near you that might make you forget the name of the Lord. The profit of that Name, you will yourself realise in due course.
Do not crave for the fruit the moment the sapling is planted! Do not pluck and chew the leaves and the twigs, in the hope of inferring therefrom the taste of the fruit! If you do so, you will not be able to know the sweetness of the fruit; besides, the plant itself will not survive.
Similarly, your task is, simply, to cultivate the sapling called Nama (Name of God). Do not, while doing so, doubt and examine whether it is being properly done, whether it has the glory ascribed to it. That sapling will, without fail, grow into a tree and it will give you the fruit you hope to eat. You can achieve it. The Name is the net capable of catching hold of that fruit. So, if you are able to stick to the Name, without altering it, and able to keep its Form always in sight, that is called the state of Ekagrata (One-pointedness). The net of Nama-smarana (remembrance of the Lord’s name) should have no torn holes; that is to say, it must take place always, with no intermission. If there is any gap, the fruit called Paramatma (the Supreme Lord) that falls into the net might escape through it! Perform meditation until your mind comes firmly under your control. That is the primary task.
Let the mind run wherever it likes; only be careful you do not follow it, seeking to discover where it is going! You remain in the same place where you are. Mind will wander about for some time as the fancy takes it and soon getting tired and exhausted, it will come back to you in the end! It is like a little child, that knows nothing. Since the mother is following it and calling it back, it gets courage and confidence to run forward in any direction; but, if the mother does not run behind the child, but retraces her steps quietly, the child too, of its own accord, will run back to the mother!
Do not care for the vagaries of the mind. Carry on remembrance and meditation of the Name and Form you like best, in the manner you are accustomed to. In this way, you will definitely acquire Ekagrata (One-pointedness) in Dhyanam (Meditation); you will realise your heart’s desire. Do not entertain in your mind the idea of purity or impurity while doing this Sadhana (Spiritual practice) of Dhyanam. There is nothing impure in the world. When the Lord is immanent everywhere in everything, how can anything be impure? Even if something appears to the ulterior eyes as impure or something experienced as impure, the moment it contacts the Name of the Lord, it becomes purified.
Note this point! If a person discovers a treasure while answering the call of nature, will he hesitate to take it, because he is impure at that time? Purity and impurity are the result of the mental reactions of the particular moment. When one has to give money to someone, one talks of the auspicious time and the purity of the hour. What is the reason behind these two attitudes? The mind itself! Because of love for money, one will not be bothered to think of purity or impurity while taking money. However, while giving money, due to lack of interest in giving away his money, one wishes to look for the auspicious time and the purity of the hour.
Similarly, no thought of purity or impurity will bother you if you have full faith in and love for the Name of the Lord. On the other hand, if you feel some compulsion and some discontent, all kinds of possible and impossible obstacles will present themselves. Therefore, give up all such feelings! Strengthen the faith in the unshakeable holiness of the Name and its appropriate Form. Firmly believe that everything is made holy, by His Name.
Cultivate Prema (Love) for the Lord. It has infinite potentiality. An iron chain can be broken with ease, but not the chain of love that binds you to the Lord. The cruellest of animals too is overpowered by love. This is the Daiva-maya (Indefinable power of the Lord)! If only the floodwaters of this love are directed, not to the lakes and shoals on the sides of the river, but to the ocean of the Lord’s grace, how holy this world would be! And, how blessed the Jivi (Individual) would be! This is the highest Moksa (Liberation). To direct without interruption that love on to the Name and the Form of the Lord, that is real Dhyanam (Meditation). Do not mistake this temporary abode as your eternal dwelling place! Nor should you lose heart at evanescent troubles and short-lived tragedies. Immerse yourselves in the effort to attain the eternal Lord. Do not think about any losses. Everything in this world is subject to decay; if not today, tomorrow at least, it is bound to disintegrate, isn’t it?
It is not right to reject the Lord, who is eternally related to you, misled by this world with which one is related for a short period! As already written, “The relatives come, up to the outer gate or maybe, up to the burial ground, but your real relative who never leaves you and your true rescuer is the name of the Lord!” The Lord is your only true relative who will never leave you. Considering the number of births you have come through, you have had countless mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, sons and daughters, friends and enemies, but, are they subsisting today? Do those relatives remember the relationship? You are no one to them; they are nobody to you. But, you and they have both, the Lord, in common, as the unchanging relative; He subsists throughout all the births; He is eternal. He watches over you from birth to birth. What greater tragedy can there be than forgetting such a Lord? With the senses weakened and powerless, and refusing to function, with the parents, the wife and children, the friends and relations all crowding and grieving on one side, and the messengers of death compelling you to pack up for the journey, without delay, on the other, …. who knows when this call will come and how? Before that moment comes, be ready with the thought of God!
Index
Preface
The Splendour of Meditation and its Practice
Meditation of the Three Gunas (Qualities) and their Result
The Goal of Meditation
Developing Virtues is Prime Objective of a Meditator
The Prime Path of Meditation is Cultivation of Atmic Bliss
Meditation Reveals the Eternal and the Non-Eternal
Remembering the Lord’s Name and Dhyanam Alone Sever All Bondage
One-pointedness is Essential for Meditation
Satva-guna is the Wealth Derived from Japam and Dhyanam
Aids to Meditation - Sincerity, Purity and Humility
The Object of Meditation is the Elimination of Vasanas (Tendencies)
The Destruction of Malina Vasana (Impure Tendency) is the Best Sign of Meditation
The Essence of Meditation is Fixing the Mind on One-point
Meditation Stills the Agitated Mind and Makes it Blissful
One-pointedness is Essential for Meditation
Original in Telugu
For every item of work, Chittaikagrata (One-pointedness of the mind) is very important. It is not correct to say that the S_adgunas_ (Good qualities) needed for V_yavaharika_ (Transactional) matters and Paramarthika (Spiritual) matters are different from each other. Spirituality is nothing but the purification of the Vyavaharika. Success or failure in this depends on Ekagrata (One-pointedness). This one-pointedness too is but Sadhana (Spiritual discipline), i.e., practices such as Japam (repetition of Lord’s name) and Dhyanam (Meditation). There are two paths along which this spiritual discipline of one-pointedness may proceed: (1) Sunyavastha (No-pointedness), and (2) Anekagrata (Many-pointedness). No-pointedness is the stage of sleep; it is also called the Tamo-guna (quality of Ignorance). Many-pointedness is the result of the Rajo-guna (Restless quality), turning the vision of the opened eye on Srsti (Creation) and its sights. Avoiding both these, without falling into these two extremes, if the eye is neither closed as in sleep nor opened wide as in the fully awakened stage, but half-opened and directed to the tip of the nose, the Satva-guna (quality of Purity) will become one’s nature; and Chittaikagrata (One-pointedness of the mind) can also be acquired easily.
Of course, this does not mean that merely fixing the sight on the tip of the nose is enough to become a person of pure quality. Fix it there at the beginning, and, then turn the vision onto the Name and Form you have in mind for Smarana (Remembrance); that is Dhyanam (Meditation).
When you are engaged in Japam (repetition of the Lord’s name) and Dhyanam (Meditation), other thoughts might enter into you at first; but, you shouldn’t worry about this. There is no great danger on account of them. When you begin Nama-smarana (remembering the name of God), sit down with enthusiasm. If you enter upon any task with firm determination, no impurity can affect you. Your concern is only to see that you are fully Nirmalam (Unsullied) when you start the Japam, etc. Do not worry about formalities for this. Select the Name that you like and the Form of that Name. That Name is itself the Mantra. That Mantra is ever pure, ever-accessible, and all-encompassing.
But, do not change the Name and the Form, to suit the fancy, and have one thing one day, and another the next. Whatever the Name and Form that first gave you satisfaction, hold fast to them without swerving. They will get implanted in the heart, without fail. Afterwards, everything will happen through His grace. If the worker is ordered to dig the earth, his work is simply to go on digging. The gardener alone knows how much of that earth is to be put under which plant and how that earth is to be so put. So too, the command is to “Do Nama-smarana, constantly dwell on the Lord’s Name and Rupa-Dhyanam, meditate on the Lord’s form!” Provided you continue to do that work, He will direct, Himself, where and how that has to be utilised.
The value of Name and Form consists in the training that they give to the Manas (Mind). What need is there to train a horse that has already been trained? It is the untrained horse that is trained through many ways. Similarly, it is to tame the unruly mind that we have Prarthana (Prayer), Bhajans (Devotional singing), Japam (repetition of God’s name), and Smarana (remembrance of the name of the Lord). In the initial stages, the horse runs in many directions, but the trainer should not worry. He should hold fast to the reins. The mind (compared to a horse) too, naturally runs in different directions when you begin remembrance of the Name and meditation, but, you must not yield to despair, anxiety, or aversion. Hold fast to the reins, the Nama (Name of God)! Within a short time, your speech and your thoughts will come under your own grip. Only, do not allow anything to come near you that might make you forget the name of the Lord. The profit of that Name, you will yourself realise in due course.
Do not crave for the fruit the moment the sapling is planted! Do not pluck and chew the leaves and the twigs, in the hope of inferring therefrom the taste of the fruit! If you do so, you will not be able to know the sweetness of the fruit; besides, the plant itself will not survive.
Similarly, your task is, simply, to cultivate the sapling called Nama (Name of God). Do not, while doing so, doubt and examine whether it is being properly done, whether it has the glory ascribed to it. That sapling will, without fail, grow into a tree and it will give you the fruit you hope to eat. You can achieve it. The Name is the net capable of catching hold of that fruit. So, if you are able to stick to the Name, without altering it, and able to keep its Form always in sight, that is called the state of Ekagrata (One-pointedness). The net of Nama-smarana (remembrance of the Lord’s name) should have no torn holes; that is to say, it must take place always, with no intermission. If there is any gap, the fruit called Paramatma (the Supreme Lord) that falls into the net might escape through it! Perform meditation until your mind comes firmly under your control. That is the primary task.
Let the mind run wherever it likes; only be careful you do not follow it, seeking to discover where it is going! You remain in the same place where you are. Mind will wander about for some time as the fancy takes it and soon getting tired and exhausted, it will come back to you in the end! It is like a little child, that knows nothing. Since the mother is following it and calling it back, it gets courage and confidence to run forward in any direction; but, if the mother does not run behind the child, but retraces her steps quietly, the child too, of its own accord, will run back to the mother!
Do not care for the vagaries of the mind. Carry on remembrance and meditation of the Name and Form you like best, in the manner you are accustomed to. In this way, you will definitely acquire Ekagrata (One-pointedness) in Dhyanam (Meditation); you will realise your heart’s desire. Do not entertain in your mind the idea of purity or impurity while doing this Sadhana (Spiritual practice) of Dhyanam. There is nothing impure in the world. When the Lord is immanent everywhere in everything, how can anything be impure? Even if something appears to the ulterior eyes as impure or something experienced as impure, the moment it contacts the Name of the Lord, it becomes purified.
Note this point! If a person discovers a treasure while answering the call of nature, will he hesitate to take it, because he is impure at that time? Purity and impurity are the result of the mental reactions of the particular moment. When one has to give money to someone, one talks of the auspicious time and the purity of the hour. What is the reason behind these two attitudes? The mind itself! Because of love for money, one will not be bothered to think of purity or impurity while taking money. However, while giving money, due to lack of interest in giving away his money, one wishes to look for the auspicious time and the purity of the hour.
Similarly, no thought of purity or impurity will bother you if you have full faith in and love for the Name of the Lord. On the other hand, if you feel some compulsion and some discontent, all kinds of possible and impossible obstacles will present themselves. Therefore, give up all such feelings! Strengthen the faith in the unshakeable holiness of the Name and its appropriate Form. Firmly believe that everything is made holy, by His Name.
Cultivate Prema (Love) for the Lord. It has infinite potentiality. An iron chain can be broken with ease, but not the chain of love that binds you to the Lord. The cruellest of animals too is overpowered by love. This is the Daiva-maya (Indefinable power of the Lord)! If only the floodwaters of this love are directed, not to the lakes and shoals on the sides of the river, but to the ocean of the Lord’s grace, how holy this world would be! And, how blessed the Jivi (Individual) would be! This is the highest Moksa (Liberation). To direct without interruption that love on to the Name and the Form of the Lord, that is real Dhyanam (Meditation). Do not mistake this temporary abode as your eternal dwelling place! Nor should you lose heart at evanescent troubles and short-lived tragedies. Immerse yourselves in the effort to attain the eternal Lord. Do not think about any losses. Everything in this world is subject to decay; if not today, tomorrow at least, it is bound to disintegrate, isn’t it?
It is not right to reject the Lord, who is eternally related to you, misled by this world with which one is related for a short period! As already written, “The relatives come, up to the outer gate or maybe, up to the burial ground, but your real relative who never leaves you and your true rescuer is the name of the Lord!” The Lord is your only true relative who will never leave you. Considering the number of births you have come through, you have had countless mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, sons and daughters, friends and enemies, but, are they subsisting today? Do those relatives remember the relationship? You are no one to them; they are nobody to you. But, you and they have both, the Lord, in common, as the unchanging relative; He subsists throughout all the births; He is eternal. He watches over you from birth to birth. What greater tragedy can there be than forgetting such a Lord? With the senses weakened and powerless, and refusing to function, with the parents, the wife and children, the friends and relations all crowding and grieving on one side, and the messengers of death compelling you to pack up for the journey, without delay, on the other, …. who knows when this call will come and how? Before that moment comes, be ready with the thought of God!