Vrittis
Vrttis or modifications of the mind are the only basis for the changes that your mind undergoes. They are successive. You do not know of a state or mood other than these because, as long as you are awake, you are a slave to these thoughts. You do not even know if there is an 'I' apart from the moods of the mind. You are merely studying them, because you feel you are trapped in these changing moods of the mind and it does not feel good. It is possible that during these changes, the change also brings along a little bit of pleasure, but that pleasure is not appreciated and does not seem to be very pleasant, because, while you are enjoying it, you are also conscious that it is going to come to an end. There is going to be a reaction to it, you are going to lose it. It is much easier for you not to have enjoyed this pleasure in the first place than to have it and then lose it. If you did not have it at all, you would not be unhappy at the loss.
Can you manoeuvre this so that only one kind of experience is had by you? That is absurd. Once you have seen that things keep revolving from one to the other - day and night, day and night - it is absurd for you even to think of a condition in which only day or night will prevail. Looking at this, can you accept that life is miserable? It is not possible, because there is something which rebels against this condition. Can you live in the hope that one day you will be free from this? No, this hope does not solve the present problem. When somebody is ready to jump on your throat, you can say, 'One day I will be strong and fight you,' but he will floor you now. So, a future hope does not solve the present problem, however much we may pretend it does.
There is no possibility of getting away from this, nor can you ever hope to get reconciled to it. It is then that you are intensely and immediately conscious. You are caught up in this problem which is with you until it is finally solved. You cannot rebel against it, because it is with you.
In the Buddha's last sermon, he said, 'Live in this world as if you are living in the room with a cobra.' There is no sense in teasing a poisonous snake that is under your bed. It will strike you. You do not get reconciled to it, and you do not accept it. It may not accept you. You cannot reject it, you cannot revolt against it, and you are locked in this room alone with the cobra. Then you live with such tremendous alertness and care - not in the sense of worry, but in the sense of 'I am looking at it, I do not let it go out of my inner vision for a single moment.' That is called nirodha, control.
Control is not suppression of these vrttis, because you cannot suppress them. When they are controlled, it means that you are living with such intense alertness and care that in all these changes you are really unaffected.
Suddenly, like a flash of lightning, you begin to understand that these changes happen, but there is an unchanging witness to all this. That which is aware of these changing moods is itself not changing. The whole thing takes place in one substance - intelligence - that, in its unmodified state, is able to watch all the modifications that take place on its own surface. The whole thing is citta - just as the waves, streams, currents, and moving substratum is ocean. Ocean is not the name for just one part of this structure; the whole thing is the ocean, the whole thing is the citta.
The movements take place only in relation to an observer. The river flows only in relation to a person standing on the bank of the river; but if you 'are' the river, there is no movement, no motion, no change. Today the hair on your head has grown perhaps 1 50th of an inch. You do not even know it grew, because it is part of you. You are that, you are the whole thing, you are the totality.
It is only when you separate yourself from any one of these experiences that it is seen as a movement. When you are the total existence, total intelligence, there is no movement, When 'I am' the total consciousness, all changes that take place in that total consciousness are part of the total consciousness; just as in one body, for instance, tremendous activity is going on all the time - venous blood is being pumped into the heart and the heart is pumping out arterial blood - but as you are sitting in meditation, you seem to be completely immobile, steady and firm. When you look at small fragments of your own physical body, you find tremendous activity going on in every department, but when you view the whole thing, it is one - stable, steady, and peaceful. There are no changes at all. That is citta vrtti nirodha.
I do not think that there are simple words in which this simple phenomenon can be explained, or the Sutra quickly translated. One has to understand the whole concept of vrttis. Only as long as you isolate one little vrtti and look at it, does it seem to be painful or pleasant. When the whole intelligence is seen as one, realised as one, there are no problems and no suffering.
Will of God
If you are able to get rid of all the notions that arise concerning a certain relationship, then the natural relationship remains. In short, when the vrttis are gone, life goes on. To what happens then, people have used the expression 'God's will is done'. It is not as though this person knows what God's will is. It only means that this did not happen on account of his individual will. There is a section in the Yoga Vasistha which describes this very beautifully:
"The desire that arises in the course of one's own natural functions devoid of craving, is that of a liberated sage. But that desire which is bound up with craving for external objects, is conducive to bondage. When all ego-based notions have ceased in one's heart, the attention that is directed naturally is also the nature of the liberated sage."
"That which is afflicted by contact with external objects is the craving conducive to bondage. The non-volitional desire which is unaffected by any object is liberation"
"That desire which existed even before contact with the objects, exists even now and for ever. It is natural, therefore sorrowless and free from impurity. Such a desire is regarded by the wise as free from bondage. 'I want this' - when such a craving arises in one's heart, it gives rise to impurity. Such a craving should be abandoned by a wise person by all means, and at all times. Give up the desire that tends to bondage, and the desire for liberation, too. Remain still like the ocean, knowing that the self is free from old age and death. Let not these disturb your mind. When the whole universe is realised as illusory, craving loses its meaning."
Expression and Experience
The movement of energy in consciousness is experience from one end, and expression from the other, only in relation to the personality. Consciousness has this energy inherent in it, and therefore there is no duality there. The energy is constantly in motion. That is what energy means. In relation to that energy itself, there is no motion. In relation to consciousness, there is no energy at all - it is inherent in it, just as you are a living being. A living being means you are alive. You do not have to say, 'I am a living being who is alive'. There is no living being who is dead. Energy is motion. Therefore there is no motion as far as the energy is concerned. It is only when it is compared or related to something else that one could say that there is motion, there is a duality. That motion itself is undivided.
The individuality or personality seems to exist from a certain point of view - or plane of understanding. It is that individuality which interprets that movement of energy in consciousness as experience here, and expression there.
The personality is dependent upon its own conditioning - predisposition, and its own mood - two things are involved here. Sweet is not sweet to all beings. Even in the case of those beings to whom sweet is sweet, it is not always sweet. So, the characterisation of the experience as pleasant and unpleasant is dependent on these two things.
It is the personality which receives this movement of energy, which first interprets it as experience. There is no experience, it is a mere vibration passing through. It would not bother you at all if the 'I' were not there. Because the 'I' is set up as something independent, it bothers you, it touches you. When it touches you, depending upon your previous predisposition and present mood, you call it pleasant or unpleasant.
The same movement of energy is seen as experience at one stage and expression at the other stage. Your expression is my experience, and my expression is your experience. This means that what is called expression at one point becomes experience at another point - the two points being two ends of the same object, the same substance. It is like road signs when there is construction on the road. On one side, the caution is '10 miles per hour' zone begins. On the other side it is written '10 miles per hour ends.' If you are going from this side, it begins, if you are coming from that side, the same thing is the end. The end is the beginning. You think that there are two ends, but there are two beginnings, too. If that is to be the end, this is the beginning, and if that is to be the beginning, that is to be the end. So, if it is to be an expression there, it is an experience here - and vice versa. It is the same thing.
All these are clearly, but confusingly, inter-related; clearly if you can see it clearly, and confusingly if it is confusing to you. From me, it is expression, and in you, it is experience. If that experience is interpreted by you as good, the expression that proceeds from here is supposed to be good action. Is that not what is meant by 'the happiness of all beings?' So, if you are happy, what he is doing is good; if you are unhappy, whatever he is doing is evil - never mind what he calls it. Do you see the point? It is quite simple. Expression and experience being the two ends of the same stick, you cannot say 'I know you are made miserable by what I am doing, but what I am doing is very good.' It is not good. Something is missing, something is wrong somewhere.
The characterisation of experience and the characterisation of expression are entirely dependent upon me.
As long as the 'me' is there, the division will continue to be, the distinctions will continue to be, and the struggle will continue to be.
Concentration
The world around us presents various experiences through the senses - the ears, eyes, nose, the tactile sense and the sense of taste. At least through the first four the world constantly pours into your mind; and yet, what you do not pay attention to immediately, does not exist, at least it is not perceived. In the same
way, perhaps, the memories of all the events that have taken place since our birth are stored in the brain, but until the attention or selective perception is focused upon a particular memory, it is not revived. For instance, this morning when I was looking for a name, as soon as I looked at that person, the attention was focused upon that particular bit of memory, and the name was remembered.
This happens to us all the time. It is concentrating our attention that makes us revive this memory and enables us to perceive the world. So, concentration is not something that is only part of yoga practice, but something which we do nearly all the time - otherwise if all the memories that were stored in your brain suddenly made themselves manifest now, you would go crazy. For instance, when you go to the theatre or watch a Western movie film, all your attention is gripped there - you do not even know who is sitting next to you.
This gives you an indication that it is possible for you to focus your attention. The yogi wants to know how to make this happen. To deliberately and voluntarily focus the attention upon something, is concentration. If somebody watches your breathing while you are concentrating and entering into the meditative mood, he will see that the breath becomes very fine and smooth. In meditation, the breathing becomes so fine that you almost do not notice it - there is no deep breathing at all, the breath is nearly suspended. The entire force of the mind - the beam of consciousness - seems to flow in one stream. Mind is a flowing thing, it is not static. You cannot arrest it or bottle it up. When you think you have stopped the functioning of the mind, you only think you have stopped it.
To concentrate is to let the mind flow in a single direction and let this happen where and how you want. There is a restriction of the spatial dissipation of mental energies. For instance, at one time you can hear something, you see all sorts of things, you can smell cooking, you feel the chill wind, you are thinking partly of what you are going to do tomorrow - all the rays of the mind are dissipated. When all the rays are gathered together and beamed on a single object, this is dharana or concentration.
Though ultimately the distinction, or the division, or the distance, between the experiencer and the experience has also to be abolished, the yogis insist that you become aware of what you are doing at the moment - though that awareness is not meditation. For instance, while you are driving a car, become totally aware of everything that you are doing - the feeling of the steering wheel in the hands, the feeling of the back resting on the seat - everything. Then you are there, you are driving, and you know exactly what is happening. Why should you do this? Because, if you do not, your mind, heart, and soul, are somewhere else, and the driving takes place automatically, mechanically, blindly.
In yoga, we leam to focus and direct the beam of attention on itself, on the perceiving subject. You may look at the object in front of you, but its perception takes place within you. When the entire stream of consciousness pours within you on to that spot where this is perceived, the picture becomes dearer and clearer. Instead of seeing what is outside, see its reflection within. Then begin the questions 'Which is the reflection of what? Is this the reality which is reflected within me, or is that the reality which is reflected there? Is that a tape recorder which is reflected in my mind as a tape recorder, or do I have the thought that that is a tape recorder and therefore it is seen as a tape recorder?' Which comes first? Does the idea arise in you that that is a tape recorder, or does it come and hit you on your head and say, 'I am a tape recorder'? The two - if they are two at all - happen almost simultaneously. There is a confusion, and one does not know which is the substance and which the shadow, which the reality and which the reflection.
Once the attention is focused in a single beam, one end of the beam of attention is the idea that arises and the other end is considered the object. You do not know what the object is, but is it possible for you to watch the subject, the idea that arises, and hold it in sharp focus? Can this single idea be held intensely?
Intensely means without the interference of tense - past, future, or even present tense. When you look at a girl, for instance, the idea arises 'That is Miss So-and- so'. That is past tense. You remember that she might go to Europe next year. That is future tense. You think she is a nice girl. That is present tense.
What creates these tenses - the present, past, and future tense? Thought! So, when you dismiss, or when the intense observation itself dismisses these three tenses, then the attention has gone beyond tension - which is born of the tense - and gone beyond thought. That is where the reality is - beyond thought and beyond the tense. This does not mean that thoughts are bad or thoughts are to be abolished. If thoughts are abolished completely, then who knows what thought is? Keep the thought and look into it.
So, first there is the focusing of attention, then the attention is focused on itself, intensely. When all these three tenses are removed, you are intensely watching her - or watching the reality of what is here, the idea of what that is. When this ideation which arises within becomes absolutely clear - for the simple reason that the attention is totally absorbed in it, that is meditation.
Meditation
Simple Method
Here is a simple procedure which in due course will enable you to enjoy deep meditation:
1. Sit preferably facing east (the sun rises in the east) or north (there is great power in the north pole) with a symbol of God or a lighted candle or lamp placed in front of you at eye level. The best posture is padmasana or lotus posture. If you cannot do this, sit in a comfortable position with the spine erect. The best is from 4 am. to 6 am., but if this is not possible, do it as soon as you wake up. It is good to have a quick bath, but if this is not possible without loss of the good morning hour, have a quick wash of hands, feet and face.
2. Chant a few hymns or offer your own prayer, audibly, to the Lord. This is like switching the radio on and tuning it. Raise the mind to a higher level. Imagine you are in the presence of God. This may appear to be self-hypnotism, but the results are astounding.
3. Chant 'Om' deeply, concentrating on the solar plexus, feeling that the sound vibrations arise from there. Feel that these sound-vibrations travel upwards towards the crown of the head, through the vagus nerve. They actually will. When they reach the throat region, close your lips and continue to and let the sound 'fade out' at the crown of the head. Do this 3 or 6 times.
4. If the Om-chanting has not succeeded in completely turning the mind inwards, and especially if there is some external disturbance, do this: breathe deeply, but effortlessly, and at the same time close the glottis a little bit, so that the breath produces some sound. It is not the vocal cords, but the glottis that helps to produce this sound - not unlike when you are suffering from a mild cold. Let this sound also fade away. Do not stop abruptly. You will find that your mind follows this sound and 'goes inwards'.
5. Breathe slowly now. Watch the breath. Now listen to it without producing any sound, even with the throat.
6. Mentally repeat your mantra now - any name of God or sacred formula or Om, as you breathe in and out, without straining the breath. Associate the mantra with the breath - this is the trick. Repeat it once while you breathe in, and once while you breathe out. If the mantra is long, break it into two; repeat half while inhaling and half while exhaling.
7. Keep looking at the picture, symbol or flame in front of you. That is what you have been doing all the time, at least from step 4. But transfer that symbol to within yourself. Feel that the image is in your own heart. 'See' it there. Do not stare at the picture or flame in front of you - if you do your eyes will get tired and begin to smart - but let the symbol go out of focus. Do not worry. Your eyes will not blink, water or smart.
8. Now close your eyes, and visualise that image of God. Feel His presence within your heart. Let it be radiant and 'living'.
9. Gradually let that image expand till it occupies your whole body, the room in which you are sitting and eventually the whole world. Feel this. Feel that you yourself are just a little part of God, but one with Him. This must lead to meditation. That which you visualise now will become real in due course.
10. Sit like this for a minimum period of 20 minutes. Gradually increase the period. If, by the Grace of God and guru you lose body-consciousness and enjoy sitting, carry on! The prescribed time is only the minimum.
11. After this, offer a prayer to the Lord for the health and long life of the sick, whom you can actually visualise in front of you, and peace and prosperity of those who are suffering. This is very, very important. This is the greatest service you can render to humanity. You feel your oneness with all - that is the spirit of 9 above. You can easily radiate health, happiness and joy.
12. Get up slowly. Do not immediately run away. Take a few minutes before you leave the meditation-room. Your mind and your nerves were extremely calm during this practice. If you suddenly jump out of that mood and rush into company, you might 'injure' the nerves. This is very important.
13. Do not sit for this practice within two hours after a meal. Do not wear tight clothing.
14. Do not eat anything for half an hour after this practice. Do not take a bath immediately either.
15. If you wish to do a few rounds of pranayama, you may do so before you start this meditation-practice, or soon after step 2 above.
Meditation on the Self
Meditation is the direct and immediate observation of the arising of the 'I', with no mediator at all. No mediator is of any use to you here, because a mediator is another distraction. Even words and description of meditation may be another distraction.
Therefore, yogis have given us very nice exercises, which again must lead us on non-stop to the discovery of the ego. Where does the ego sense arise? Where one is able to observe where the ego sense arises, that is meditation. Here, one immediately realises that this is the mischief maker, the villain who has brought about a division, who has disrupted the harmony that exists all the time, and who has destroyed love.
Yoga can also be interpreted as the junction of the fracture and the healing agent. The darkness of ignorance and the light - that junction is also yoga. When these two come together, healing takes place. What is healing? Making it whole.
Making it whole is just a phrase, it was whole already! Unlike the fracture of a bone, consciousness cannot be fractured. You and I are one for ever. Nothing can disrupt our unity, harmony, and love, just as in our sleep we forget our identity and regain it when we wake up, and yet the identity has not been disrupted. You and I are one, there is this oneness and oneness alone, but there is some mysterious loss of memory. Meditation restores that knowledge, that understanding.
What is meant by 'meditation on the Self'? The Self is the meditator and the Self in meditation contemplates whatever it contemplates. Whatever it contemplates, it becomes, because that contemplation and the Self are not two different things. That thing itself becomes you. 'You' becomes 'that', 'that' becomes 'you'. There is no distinction whatsoever. It is quite simple and beautiful. The Self is intelligence, the Self is the essence of the unconditioned mind, the pure mind; in that there is an idea, a thought, a dream, a vision.
Can you cultivate any quality - humility, for instance? How do you do that? What is the mind seeing at that time? If you say, 'I am a very humble man. If you do not recognise this, I will fight you!', what kind of humbleness is that?
If you are a bully - rude in your behaviour, vicious in your thoughts - and you want to become suddenly non-violent, what do you do? Is it as simple as changing your shirt? You can pretend or think that you have stopped all violence, but at the least provocation it will come up. If you are ashamed of yourself, you can either pretend or rationalise it. For instance, there was a very violent Swami in India. One day we questioned him: 'You get angry so easily. You scold people and are rough with them. Why?' His reply was: 'Yes of course I am. We swamis are the ones who can, because we are here to correct all these people. Angry? Yes, definitely I can get angry.' Why rationalise it?
Do you understand the difficulty? It is not possible for you to cultivate these good qualities. So, what can you do? You must grow in meditation, in self-awareness. As you grow in this self-awareness, you see self-awareness. Meditation does not mean closing the eyes! Self-awareness means awareness throughout the day. There is self-awareness as I am sitting here talking to you. As you are sitting here listening, can you also watch yourself? Can you also watch what is happening to the mind all the time?
When you can do this, you discover, firstly, that this bad-temper, falsehood, greed, and so on, are disturbances to the mind and therefore painful. Only when you realise, can you see directly for yourself that what you and I call evil is painful - not because you see what someone else told you, but you see for yourself that it is painful.
Secondly - which is even more interesting - by this self-awareness, you see that there is absolutely no difference at all between the emotion of hate and the emotion of affection. I do not want to use the word love. Both hating and affection involve the same charge of energy. Though you see that affection is a very pleasant thing, while hate is unpleasant, painful. When you can see this for yourself, then you have won the battle.
Meditation on a Mantra
You cannot really focus your attention on things which are created by something or other from outside. If, for instance, you try to contemplate a feeling like aggression, there is no aggression or excitement. You realise that you were excited some time ago, but now you are not. Therefore, a specific voluntary mental activity, which can be observed, is introduced in the form of a mantra. You are observing the mind or the citta, but only a specific field - the mantra sound that is heard. If you have learned how to observe that mantra, you have also learned how to observe every mood that arises in the mind - fear, worry, etc.
Your eyes may be directed at the tip of your nose, your forehead, or wherever you want to look, but you are not looking out at all. If you are serious in the practise of concentration, it does not make the least difference if your eyes are open or closed. If you have resolved that, you will not communicate with another - it is easy to keep the eyes open in meditation. But when there is the possibility of communication, keeping the eyes open may be a distraction.
The eyes do not see what you think you see. What the eyes see, only the eyes know. You do not know. When the attention is directed to the mantra within, the eyes can do what they want to do. Even this we have experienced in our life, sometime or other. For instance, when you are enjoying yourself on the beach and suddenly you remember that you have left the washing machine on - then you are not seeing what you are looking at, you are looking at what goes on within you.
When it comes to the use of a mantra in japa, make sure that your whole attention is listening to the mantra. The attention is focused on a specific field. The mantra should not be vague, but absolutely clear. When the observing intelligence is locked in with the object of its own observation - that is, only these two exist in the world - there is complete and total concentration. Only the observer and the observed exist.
For a moment you realise that even the observed is reflected in you, it is not outside of you. It becomes clear in the example of the mantra. When you think you are repeating the mantra, you hear the mantra; when you think you hear the mantra, you are repeating the mantra. They are two aspects of the same thing, they becom interchangeable. When the whole mind becomes the mantra, there is meditation - nothing else bothers you. That is what happens to two lovers. Their own personality is gone, the whole mind is occupied by the other person. If this has not happened to you, you do not know how to love. You are aware of nothing other than this mantra, but you are aware of a division between the one who repeats the mantra and the one who listens to the mantra. There is a division there: 'I' hear the 'mantra'.
Then comes the last stage.
You repeat the mantra and focus all your attention on it, until that sound becomes uppermost. You have then avoided the distractions and there is clarity of vision. When this mantra is the only thought, or object, that occupies the mind, that is called meditation already. But it is not a rigid static affair, because the mind - being vibrating consciousness - is not still, in the sense of dead matter. It is very much like the sunshine in which we sit. The sun's rays pour on us in the same way that you are focusing your attention on the meditation object. There is a stream of consciousness flowing towards it; and, in meditation, the object becomes clearer and clearer. You are not meditating on the object, you are meditating in the object. It looks as though you are entering into it, looking at it from inside. Standing outside and looking at it is concentration, and entering into it is meditation.
That is when you begin to ask: 'Am I repeating the mantra or am I listening to it?' At that point, you are entering into the mantra.
You ask yourself: 'If the mantra sound is mind, what am I? Am I inside of it or outside of it? If I am in it, I am also the mind, 'I' is also the mind.' The mind, which was spread out as the world, has come to be restricted to this mantra. The only problem that remains is 'What is the relation between this mind and me?' There is no verbal answer to that question, but when it arises, it is possible that the mantra sound is suddenly not heard. When meditation becomes deeper and the mantra alone remains - which means that the listener gets dissolved, meditation happens, and the 'I' is not there - you will know what that means. Here the 'me' blends into consciousness and the mantra blends into consciousness. Then there is no hearing of the mantra, because 'I' does not exist. This is something which cannot be put into words.
The mind has to be extremely alert in order to enter into this meditation. Meditation cannot enter into you, you must enter into it. The whole of your mind, the whole of your self, must enter into meditation - as if 'I' does not exist. That is when samadhi happens.
Something else may prevent you from hearing the mantra - you may fall asleep and, on waking, may think that you have entered into deep meditation. It is important to recognise that this was sleep.
One cannot really say when concentration ends and meditation begins, or when meditation ends and samadhi begins. One flows into the other; therefore, the three are regarded as one unit.
Spiritual Growth
The change that is brought about by meditation is drastic, and total. It is so subtle that you yourself will not know it. The change that you know has taken place in you, is not a desirable or healthy change.
You look in the mirror every day. The face this morning was not different from the face you saw yesterday morning, and that was not differentfrom the day before yesterday. You can go on and on and come to the absurd conclusion that the face you saw today is exactly the same as it was 20 years ago. It is not true at all! Can you tell me that on the 1st January 1959 your nose grew half an inch longer? It did not. It was exactly the same as the previous day. And yet, it has grown. The whole body grows, but without making the change felt. That is real growth.
If you wake up one morning and look at your face in the mirror and see that it has grown overnight, there is a lump on your cheek, for instance, you will rush to the doctor and have it cut out. It is dangerous. In exactly the same way, any growth you are intensely aware of is not real growth. If you used to smoke like a chimney last year, and this year you go around all the time, telling everybody you do not smoke now, you are still smoking. It is smoke, smoke, smoke that is coming out of your mouth. You used to smoke visibly last year and now it is invisible smoking. At the least temptation or provocation, you will go back to that, because the mind is still smoking.
Real and total change is something which one is not aware of, because the change has been brought about deep within. The whole consciousness has undergone change. The consciousness was filthy, and now it has become clean. You do not see the change within yourself, but it may be noticed by other people.
It is what others have noticed in a yogi that has been recorded and handed down as discipline. People have noticed that a yogi does not tell lies, does not harm others, has pure thoughts, is not greedy, is clean in clothes, surroundings and in mind., etc. and leads a very simple life. They have put all these things together and given them as commandments. (II. 29)
Aspects of the Mind.
In meditation, the stream does not flow outward, but inward. In order to understand an object, you cannot possibly let the attention flow onto the external object, you must examine your own mind, or consciousness, which apprehends and sees an object. The 'I' cannot possibly know what it is, because the vibrations that are emanated by it enter the senses - eyes, ears, etc. - and they are gathered by that aspect of the mind which is called manas - the coordinating agent or the registrar of the mental university.
For instance, if you look at a tape-recorder, the eyes see something, the ears hear something, and the hands feel something. All these sensations are gathered together and co-ordinated by the manas. With that information, the mind approaches another department, the memory bank or citta. 'Did you see anything like this before? It is black and has a handle sticking out, such and such dimensions, and makes a noise all the time.' What is it? The memory bank says, 'Tape recorder.'
The whole thing is projected again on to what is called the buddhi, or awakened intelligence. Buddhi is not a dull, routine, mechanical intelligence, but awakened intelligence which can recommend and give valued judgement, e.g. 'It is a good one,' 'It is not such a good one,' 'I can afford it,' 'I cannot afford it.' Then the entire thing is again presented to what is known as ahamkara - egotism which issues orders: 'Right, I will buy it.' 'I do not want it.' 'I will steal it.' 'It may be dangerous,' etc.
Some of the yoga scriptures even have detailed locations for these aspects of the mind. The manas - the coordinating agent is said to be in the mid-brain, and the citta - memory bank is supposed to be in the heart. It is the citta that provides emotional energy. Do we not say, 'He touched my heart,' etc.? These are all figures of speech, but they do mean something. Even though physiologically the heart may not be a thinking organ, it seems to play some part in evoking emotional equilibrium or emotional outburst. The value judgement or the buddhi is supposed to be on top of the brain. Therefore, when you are confused, you put your hand to the brow, 'What must I do?' You are squeezing your buddhi to see if something will come out of it. The ahamkara or egoism is in the region of the heart.
So, manas or the co-ordinator is in the middle of the head, the citta or mind stuff or emotional part of your being is in the heart, the buddhi is on top of the brain, and the ahamkara or egotism is also in the region of the heart.
If something in our daily life has an extraordinary emotional impact, we act foolishly, because the head does not play any part at all in this, the senses are not coordinated, nor is the buddhi consulted. Immediately your emotional being is touched, the ego jumps in and says, 'I must have it'. Afterwards, you sit and regret for your whole life-time. Therefore, whenever there is a strong emotional reaction, the reaction is immediate, unthinking, and unintelligent.
Samadhi
Do you have the right understanding to know what is happening when you meditate? When you do not know, you associate some kind of hallucination or a deep comatose state with meditation and samadhi.
In the yoga scriptures or sastra, there are descriptions of two types of samadhi - jada samadhi and caitanya samadhi. Jada samadhi is a state of stupidity, which is very easily mistaken for caitanya samadhi or super-conscious state.
Here are stories which illustrate this:
In 1946 in our ashram in Rishikesh, we had a visitor, a remarkable man between 30 and 40 years of age. We were all youngsters in our early twenties. This man used to meditate, sitting in the lotus posture on a block of stone on the bank of the Ganges. He became almost one with the block of stone. In those days, Swami Sivananda Himself used to conduct a prayer class in the mornings, from 5 am to 7 am. That gentleman would sit there from 4 am without a movement. We youngsters were terribly impressed with him, because we found it very difficult to sit for half an hour in the lotus posture without something hurting, whereas this man maintained a perfect posture for 3 hours.
Sometimes I used to escort Swami Sivananda to His room and He would look at this chap and say, 'Hm! See! Samadhi'. We did not know whether to take him seriously, or whether He was jesting.
One day, we were standing around talking to him. At 7 o'clock, this gentleman got up from his rock seat and walked into the presence of the Master. 'Ah, you are meditating. Very good, very good! How long do you meditate?'
This man thought that the Master was very pleased.
'Three hours, Swamiji.'
'In deep meditation?'
'Yes, Swamiji. I have been doing this for the past 15 years. Regularly, every morning from 4 to 7. Deep meditation'.
All the time we were thinking that the Master was full of admiration for this man, and He was going to appoint him Lord of Heaven!
'Hm.' He paused, and then he suddenly burst out, 'Look at him. Drowsy, sleepy.
What is meditation?'
We were all stunned and the man didn't know what to do with himself.
'You were sitting and sleeping. Do you know what samadhi means? It means touching the omnipresence, coming into contact with the omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent Being. To be one with the Creator of this Universe, to be one with this Cosmic Power. If you do that for half a second you will have such energy, such power, that you would roll up the whole Earth and play with it like a tennis ball. Look at this dreamy fellow! Drop this business - go and do some hard work and wake yourself up.'
Another time, a sadhu was sitting in the lotus posture under a tree on the bank of the Ganges, steadily looking at the tip of his nose - I saw him at about 7 am one day, and he was still sitting there at 3 pm. It looked as if he was in samadhi. I was impressed!
Two or three nights later, there was a terrible commotion in the temple where he was living. I asked the chief priest of the temple what had happened. He said that that sadhu was a scoundrel and had been causing trouble. He was able to sit still for so long because he had taken a special drug. Whatever you are doing at the time, the drug takes effect, that you will continue to do while under the influence of the drug. So, if you start laughing when you take it, you will laugh for eight hours.
People do all manner of things. There are people in the Himalayas who occasionally keep vigil all night, singing. They also take some drugs in order to keep themselves awake. But will it lead to enlightenment? No. Hallucination? Yes.
Some of us are capable of hallucinating with wide open eyes, without taking any drugs. Most of us are being fooled already with what we see in this world. If you look into your own mind you can see a million hallucinations.
All you have to do to see a drama is to look within and see what is going on in the mind. All your fears, worries, anxieties, hopes, and cravings, are a funny drama. They are all hallucinations already! Why must you take a drug in order to get into another hallucination?
Hallucination is not samadhi because it has not produced a complete and drastic change in you. Samadhi means that complete and drastic change. The change must be total, complete.
If this drastic change is not brought about, then whatever one is doing is only wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is a very mild form of hallucination.
Translator's Position
To illustrate the translator's unique position, six important words that occur in the text are given below with a complete list of their meanings as found in a medium-sized dictionary:
cittam
1. Observing. attending.
2. (a) Thought, thinking, attention .
2. (b) desire, intention, aim.
3. The mind.
4. The heart - considered as the seat of intellect.
5. Reason, intellect, reasoning faculty. nirodha
1. Confinement, locking up, imprisonment.
2. Enclosing, covering up.
3. Restraint, check, suppression, control.
4. Hindrance, obstruction, opposition.
5. Hurting, punishing, injuring.
6. Annihilation, complete destruction.
7. A version, dislike.
8. Disappointment, frustration of hopes (in dramatic language).
9. Suppression of pain (buddhism).
pranidhana
1: Applying, employing, application, use.
2. Great effort, energy.
3. Profound religious meditation, abstract contemplation.
4. Respectful behaviour towards.
5. Renunciation of the fruit of actions.
6. Entrance, access.
7. A prayer, an entreaty (buddhism).
pratyaya
1. Conviction, settled belief.
2. Trust, reliance, faith, confidence.
3. Conception, idea, notion, opinion.
4. Surety, certainty.
5. Knowledge, experience, cognition.
6. A cause, ground, means of action.
7. Celebrity, fame, renown.
8. A termination, an affix or suffix.
9. An oath.
10. A dependant.
11. A usage, practice.
12. A hole.
13. Intellect, understanding.
14. An assistant or associate.
15. An epithet of Visnu.
16. A co-operating cause (buddhism).
17. An instrument, a means of agency.
18. Religious contemplation.
19. A householder who keeps a sacred fire.
samadhi
1. Collecting, composing, concentrating.
2. Profound or abstract meditation, concentration of mind on one object, perfect absorption of thought into the one object of meditation, i.e., the Supreme Spirit (the 8th and last stage of Yoga).
3. Intentness, concentration (in general), fixing of thoughts.
4. Penance, religious obligation, devotion (to penance)
5. Bringing together, concentration, combination, collection.
6. Reconciliation, settling or composing differences.
7. Silence.
8. Agreement, assent, promise.
9. Requital.
10. Completion, accomplishment.
11. Perseverance in extreme difficulties.
12. Attempting impossibilities.
13. Laying up com (in times of famine), storing grain.
14. A tomb.
15. The joint of the neck; a particular position of the neck.
16. A figure of speech (in rhetoric).
17. One of the ten gunas or merits of style.
18. A religious vow or self-imposed restraint.
19. Support, upholding.
vrtti
1. Being, existence.
2. Abiding, remaining, attitude, being in a particular state.
3. State, condition.
4. Action, movement, function, operation.
5. Course, method.
6. Conduct, behaviour, course of conduct, mode of action.
7. Profession, occupation, business, employment, mode of leading life.
8. Livelihood, maintenance, means of subsistence or livelihood.
9. Wages, hire.
10. Cause of activity.
11. Respectful treatment.
12. Commentary gloss, exposition.
13. Revolving, turning round.
14. The circumference of a wheel or circle.
15. A complex formation requiring resolution or explanation.
16. The power or force of a word by which it expresses, indicates or suggests a meaning; general character or force of a word.
17. Style in composition.
18. Customary allowance.
19. Manner of thinking.