What is Meditation
After doing much study and research on the Indian system of yoga, in 1899 the German thinker, Orientalist and Indologist Max Muller was telling that “Yoga in modern times has descended into its purely practical and most degenerative form”.
The earliest reference
to yoga is found in Rig Veda which is a minimum 4000 years old script. It
mentions yoga as a yoke placed on an animal to connect it to either a bullock
cart or a war chariot. Yoga is also referred to as the whole rig of the war
chariot. In Mahabharata, a 3000-year-old manuscript defines yoga in the section
called “Yogavidhi” in chapter 12 verse 289 it says that “A Yogin (yoga
practitioner) who concentrate intently in great formal observances focused on
his navel, head and heart etc., perfectly harnesses his ‘Subtle self’ and with
the ‘Self’ which is the True Self”, having burned off his past deeds pleasant
and unpleasant, his insight impeccable, he may if he desires, take up the
highest yoga harnessing and quickly get absolutely free”.
The ‘Subtle self’ is the
inner organ or Antahkarana (conscience) and is organised into four parts. Ahamkara
or egoism is the ‘I’ ness which identifies the ‘Atman’ or ‘self’ with the body,
Buddhi or intellect which controls decision making, Manas or mind restrains
Sankalpa (grit or determination) and Citta or memory which is the storehouse that of
remembering and forgetting.
In Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2nd verse 50, yoga is defined. It was taught to grieving Arjuna right in the middle of the battlefield of Kurukshetra in the great war of Mahabharath, Arjuna was the greatest warrior of that time and actually had a nervous breakdown. Lord Sri Krishna was there and taught various forms of Yoga like Karma Yoga (the path of selfless action), Bhakti Yoga (the path of devotion and surrender), and Jnana Yoga (the path of knowledge, contemplation and meditation). By Yoga, the person is restrained by his determination to get rid of both good and bad deeds. Therefore, he tells Arjuna to “yoke yourself to yoga (self-control)”. So Yoga means “skill in action”. In addition, in Chapter 6th of the Bhagavad Gita, he explains Yoga and meditation and the seating arrangements for meditation. Reference in the Upanishad about 3000 years ago in one of the Upanishad called "Katha Upanishad" (3:3 to 3:9). It is a dialogue between young ascetic Nachiketas and Lord of death “Yama” describes Yoga in terms of: "The connection between the eternal self, intellect, mind, senses and the body to the relationship between the owner of the chariot, his chariot, the charioteer and the horses". The goal is to establish the true identity i.e. pure consciousness.
The advantages and vastness of yoga are unimaginable and beyond words. Firstly, Yoga is an analysis of perception and cognition. In other words, it is an analysis of how I perceive the world and how I control my senses. How I control the mind comes to the right cognition and right understanding of the world and myself. This is the kind of perception that is said to be at the root of suffering. One of the things that come up in the text is that everything is the suffering of one who is the "discerner". The "discerner" of knowledge knows each and everything in this world is the cause of suffering. How this happened because cognition and perception have changed according to the methods of yoga, so perception changes and then consciousness as a whole changes.
Secondly, Yoga is raising and expansion of consciousness. At the
moment the consciousness is limited to this individuality, to this body and mind. Through this analytical inquiry of meditative practices, what
happens is that cognition is perceived at much subtler and finer levels so that
consciousness begins to expand beyond the body, the mind and the intellect. And
thirdly, Meditation is phenomenal empowerment, that you can do whatever is
desired in the world, and still remain untouched by the process of
accomplishments that need to be conducted in the world. This is the end of all
suffering and this is “meditativeness”.
One most important things
we need to understand is, that you cannot do meditation, because meditation is a
quality. Quality is an outcome of a definite procedure. You can initiate an
operation; you can conduct an activity; you cannot conduct a quality. Quality
is a result of assiduous planning. It is like you want vegetables on your land.
You have to think of soil, manure, water, sunlight and insecticides etc. If you
cultivate this process of ingredients the proper way, vegetable and fruit is a
result. But today the world has become so goal-oriented, so they are not
interested in these things, but they want vegetables and fruits.
The dimension of
meditation is life-oriented. We can divide the majority of people in this world
into four categories namely material-oriented, mind oriented, emotion-oriented
and physical body-oriented. People are talking about jobs, property and wealth,
economic conditions and relationships and religion. The only thing that’s true
life is – what is throbbing in our body and mind i.e. “oneself” is life. Rest
are the arrangements we have made hoping these arrangements will allow us to
enhance our day-to-day life. Whether it is education, career, relationships,
family and wealth or all these things one after, only in the hope that it
will enhance our life. Most people, instead of enhancing their life, largely
get entangled with these accessories. Accessories have become larger than life
in a very cruel way. The Covid 19 virus is bringing focus to life and you
suddenly understand your expensive home is a prison, and your expensive car is as
good as junk because you can’t drive it for at least some time. Right now
the world is in a situation where we do not know how long it will take back on
the road.
We cannot meditate and
you can become meditative which is quality. If one cultivates their mind, body,
emotion and intellect to a certain level of maturity, they will be naturally
reflective. Meditation is phenomenal empowerment, not impairment. With this
empowerment, you can do whatever is needed in the world in the given situation
and still remain untouched by the process of activities that need to be
conducted in the world. Without this empowerment, human beings are crippled.
If you sit for meditation you have to reduce the space between two dimensions
of your physical body and mental pileup. This is called “Meditativeness”.