Why Meditation is difficult?
There
is a big question hovering above us all the time why is meditation strenuous? This particular question is being asked by warrior Ajuna to Lord
Krishna in the great battle of the Mahabharata. Arjuna goes through a nervous
breakdown and laments that trying to control the mind is as difficult as
controlling the wind. Arjuna says this because of the mind's wavering, turbulence, and fickleness. Why meditation does not change our life is because it
does not address the structure of the mind. Here I will explain three
major impediments of meditation: why is it arduous?
Firstly
it can be explained through a parable of an
elephant and its mahout (the rider who controls it). Even
if the mahout wants to employ elephants it will not obey. The metaphor here is our intellect (Buddhi) is like a
mahout (rider) and our body is like an elephant. The elephant is physically
very strong and the mahout can’t force, compel and pursue. For this mahout
trains the elephant to follow certain directions. After adequate training, the
elephant will be ready to listen to our instructions and will be fit for work.
Likewise, our intellect will start to work after sufficient Abhyasa (Practice).
The reason is our intellect decides our actions and it is overpowered by our
lower mind. From childhood, we have dumped so many emotions and thoughts in our
minds and festered them with tendencies (Vasanas) and impressions. These have
already set certain patterns in our life besides body and physiology. The body
resists these good actions by intellect unknowingly and does not respond to the
knowledge and resolutions. So this is a precise difficulty in restraining the
mind. For this, the solution is Abhyasa (Practice) which is the repetition and
training of the mind through meditation. From the initial stage, it is very
tedious, boring, and time-consuming. But after repetition and sustained effort,
the mind will get subdued, and obedient and will set a new pattern of thought.
The
second impediment is that certain parts of our body have
almost autonomous intelligence. The bunches of nerves have a kind of inner
decision-making regarding sense pleasures and exert a pull that might override
our intellect. For this Abhyasa (Practice) and training the body is the
solution.
The
third hindrance is a piece of scientific knowledge. When we sit
for meditation, keep the body in a straight line, close our eyes, fixate on one
point, withdraw the senses from the external world and focus inwardly. Now
what happens is, once you withdraw the mind from external activities like I
will not see, hear, talk, move and will not do any activities then the
"entire perceptive capacity of the mind is
free". "When the full perceptive capability of the mind is
free it goes back and forth and becomes available for free bandwidth". " Bandwidth is defined as the amount of energy
or mental capacity needed to handle a situation” Then all the thoughts are
coming up and your mind is going in various directions. The whole purpose of
meditation is to liberate intellectual capacity so that you can focus
everything on "God". But concentrating all of it on God requires
great mastery. If you do not have superiority or command, the mind runs amuck.
It is like you are controlling the wind. The solution to this problem is well explained
in the "6th Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita".
Most
people’s energy and time are dedicated to secular life. Whatever time and
energy are given to meditation is not adequate. The first thing we sacrifice in
our life is spirituality. Often many of the great things in our life,
which have ultimately been very useful and welfare for us, are ones, which are
easy not to do. Easy to do and easy not to do
and spiritual practices are like that. Easy to do and easy not to do is why it
gets shortly stripped. A solution to this is to spiritualize life itself and
our work and our interaction with the world. When we try to meditate,
the mind is wandering, and difficult to focus.
Either the mind wanders, is distracted, or falls asleep. But concentrating
deeply on being absorbed in one-pointedness is very difficult. The answer to
this lies in Bhagavad Gita, which is spiritualizing life itself and every
activity can be spiritualized. It is the philosophy of life not the philosophy
of separated family life. It divinizes the entire human life by dispassion.
Swami Vivekananda again says that “Those who run away from life and go to a
cave or forest to meditate have missed the way”. He also said that those who
fall head over heels into the illusions and nonsense of life have gone astray.
He tells us to make our lives divine and to see God wherever we are. See that
God is everywhere, no matter where you are or what you do. It did not compartmentalize
or divide life into two parts and it is a holistic philosophy. If you follow
your spiritual activity as one part and your secular life as another part,
spirituality will be the main loser. After dedicating much of your energy and
time to secular life you will be getting exhausted. When you are sitting for
meditation you cannot concentrate and focus because you are weary and forced to
postpone the necessary and mandatory replenishment of vital life energy. The
next day the same repetition will happen and procrastination is the end result.
We are sacrificing our spiritual life by finding simple excuses.
Notwithstanding these obstacles, it is achievable and Bhagavad Gita is a good guide and companion. All essential teachings are in the Upanishads and central teachings of the Upanishads are systematized in Bhagavad Gita in a very practical way, which deals with all facets of human life. Bhagavad Gita was taught on the battlefield, and it is not about war and has nothing to do with it. Moreover, Bhagavad Gita teaches nonviolent struggle. That stands for the conflict, obstacles, and afflictions we have to undertake of us in our daily life. It symbolizes the battle of life which is undergoing tragedy, pain, diseases, disaccord within the family, and fighting between the nations and religions. It provides us knowledge of controlling our faculties and achieving the kingdom of God that lies already within us. We are very busy in our worldly life and have so much to do in our life.
We can enjoy our life if we utilize our fullest potential and only after that the liberation of sorrows and sufferings is possible forever. The great Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung concluded that the problems of humanity will persist forever. But Bhagavad Gita laid down clear-cut solutions for the sufferings of the entire humanity. Consequently, Swami Vivekananda explains that "spirituality is the manifestation of the divinity already within us" by work, worship, and mental restraint through Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga, and Raja yoga.