The practical aspect of Dhyan Yoga-1
or
Dhyanayoga Ka Vyavaharik Kriyapaksha (ध्यान योगा का व्यवाहारिक क्रियापक्षा )
If we all begin with the collective chanting of the Gayatri Mantra, गायत्री मंत्र
"Om Bhur Buvah Swah, Tatsaviturvarenyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi, Dhiyo Yonah Prachodayat " ओउम भूर भवः स्वाहा तत्सा वितुरवारेनियम भर्गो देवाश्य धीमही धियोयो नाः प्रचो दयातः ॥
There will be tremendous effect of the Mantra मंत्र
There is a need of special training of dhyana ध्यान (meditation) together with Gayatri upasana. गायत्री उपासना There are two modes of upasana उपासना(worship) –– those of the name and the form (of God). There could be no devotional practice without God’s name and form. These two are supposed to be the universal modes of worship. Look at any religion, we will find the use of God’s name and/or form in their modes of worship. Mohammedans recite the name of Allah on tasabiha; Christian Priests chant God’s name with the help of a rosary; the Arya Samajis आर्या समाजी meditate upon divine form as sunlight; the yogis of Nada Yoga नाद योग concentrate upon the sublime sounds of the Omnipresent. In any case, the support of meditation (with Divine name or form) is essential for true worship. This is why this has been advised to practice meditation along with the japa जप of the Gayatri Mantra. गायत्री मंत्र
Mental concentration on some gross object – e.g. an idol, or a picture of a deity, is most convenient for the majority of people; because, the human mind, in general, is not so developed that it could be focused for a stretch of time without any visible or perceptible symbol. However, with sincere practice, one begins to realize the presence of God in his inner self and learns to meditate upon it, without any external symbol.
First of all ….we should know, what is the meaning of dhyana yoga ध्यान योग ? Well, let us try to understand it. As we all might know, our life has two facets. One is the external, which is most familiar to us. The holes in our ears open externally; our eyes also open up externally and keep watching what is happening in the outside world. We can see the things outside but we don’t even get a glimpse of what is there inside us. Is there nothing? No! The real substance, the essence is all inside us. They might be manifested externally but the basic elements of life lie deep within.
Where is our life force? It is not outside; it is inside…. And what about the intellect through which we earn wealth and gain respect? That also is not external, but, an internal potential. We don’t see introvert and often keep wondering why God has befuddled mankind by giving us instruments of perception of the external things and events but no fine-tuned instrument of knowledge of the inner world. We never notice the immense treasure of talents, virtues and divinity, hidden inside our own self. What is easily seen by us is – my child, my material property, my this, my that, and what not! But we can’t see our future; The Omnipresent God and our souls are also far beyond our perception. What to say about the inner world, we can’t even see many components of our own body. We can’t look at out own eyes. Let’s we just try to see (without a mirror) how is our nose, how are our eyebrows? How do our eyelids look like? If we can’t even see these gross external parts of the body, how will we see what is inside? When we peep into our inner world and attempt to know it, we perform some kind of dhyana. In fact, dhyana yoga ध्यान योग is the best method of seeing inside.
Well, so what should be the focus of dhyana ध्यान? Who to meditate upon? One’s inner self or the Almighty God? These two are not really different. Enlightened evolution of the inner self is God. Our ultimate spiritual evolution is – shivoaham, शिवाहम sachidanandoaham,सचिदा नन्दहुम tatvamasi,तत्वाम्सी ayamatmabrahm, अयामत्म्ब्रह्म pragyanambrahm. प्रग्यानाम्ब्रह्म These five great maxims of Vedanta वेदांता affirm that the soul, in its absolutely pure form, itself is God. Take the example of coal and diamond. Except for a minor difference in the atomic structure, the two are quite the same. Diamond is thus a refined form of coal. The soul and God are also basically the same except for the fact that the former is expressed within a limited identity (confined to the individual self) whereas the latter is unbounded, infinite. One is manifested in a tiny domain, while the other is gigantic, unlimited…. One is bounded by the thralldoms of maya माया , while the other is absolutely free. This is the only difference between us and The Divine. This difference is there because of the mist of ignorance covering up the resplendence of our inner self that keeps us cut off from our eternal origin. If we refine and illumine ourselves (by the purifying radiance of virtues and righteous knowledge) we can attain our soul-reality and also God-awareness. This is why (during the dhyana yoga) we meditate upon light; focus our attention upon the inner self, upon the sublime roots of our being and its ultimate goal….
That is why Rishi Muni ऋषी मुनी and our ancestor advised us to meditate upon the rising sun?". The brilliance of rising sun is a symbol of divine light. We may feel its radiance in our mind during this meditation, or may get a reflection of Goddess Gayatri गायत्री . It doesn’t matter if instead of sunlight we experience the deity’s image or some divine reflection. That only shows the degree of progress of our dhyana ध्यान . Don’t mistake the physical light as some of we might interpret. Here it means the divine light, or the sublime glow of pure knowledge. It is not the physical illumination; rather it is the radiance of spirituality and true knowledge. We pray "Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya" –"तमसो माँ ज्योतिर्गाम्या" ‘O’ Lord! Take us from the darkness towards light; here again, we mean from ignorance to knowledge. In spirituality, the word "light" is always used in the context of enlightenment, pure knowledge. (This is what should be understood by us in reality).
We should feel and imagine the sunlight presence. The sunlight focused successively at three points – the navel, the heart and the brain (especially the deeper core inside and above the centre of the forehead). These three regions contain the sublime nuclei of power for our three bodies – the physical, the subtle and the astral body. All these points should be enlightened (in our imagination and inner experience during this practice of dhyana yoga ध्यान योग); the brilliance of sunlight should enter all the three bodies. What does it imply? It implies the inherent philosophy and practical aspects of the three principal yogas योगा .
Karma Yoga कर्म योगा taught through Dhyana Yoga ध्यान योग:
In the first step of this practice of dhyana yoga ध्यान योग, we should imagine and try to feel as though the glow of sunlight is being absorbed by our navel. It means that the spark of praña प्राण should enter our physical body from the navel and flow in every vein, every artery and every cell…. Why from the navel? Because this is the connecting point of the umbilical cord between the mother and the fuetus and is therefore regarded as the energy centre of the body. As the vital elements from our mother’s body, that enabled our healthy birth, used to enter our body from the navel, the light (strength) of God is also induced in it through the same centre. When this light will be infused in our body, our bones, our blood, our flesh, all will shine. By this illumination it will induce energy, enthusiasm, alacrity, courage, and commitment to responsibilities, industriousness, and zeal for hard work, motivation for altruist service and love and joy for selfless fulfillment of duties. These qualities will help us accomplish our karma-yoga कर्म योगा. The "Karma-Yoga" is the yoga योगा of the body that means, this yoga योगा pertains to the worldly domains of our life and our deeds. One who meditates upon light in the navel region cannot sit idle. He will always be busy in good actions.
There are three streams of yoga योगा– karma-yoga कर्म योगा, gyana-yoga ज्ञान योगा and bhakti-yoga भक्ती योगा . It has been told that this is to be inculcating the practice of all these yoga’s योगा through the medium of light. Whenever the light of divinity will descend upon a person, it will inspire karma-yoga कर्म योगा in his physical being, in his conduct. Then the person will become more duty-bound; work will be ‘worship’ for him. The deeds of worship, service, social welfare and the actions pertaining to transactions of responsibilities, adoption of moral ideals, etc fall under karma-yoga कर्म योगा. These teach us that when our body absorbs the light (of praña प्राण ), we should become hard-working, our every action should be devoted to selfless duty.
It conveys that – one who meditates upon light should not be lethargic, lazy or dishonest. One who eats and earns without being sincere to his work is equivalent to a thief. We may find great joy in sitting and relaxing at home – doing just nothing, when our son is grown up and he is earning for the family. But this is a sign of lethargy; slothful luxury is worse than dishonesty. It is the worst abuse of our human hood. Insincerity to work and sluggishness are the most disgusting blots on the dignity of mankind. We may argue– "but I have worked so many years and now I am getting pension after retirement….” No, we should not sit idly and make merriment. Till we are alive (and able to move our body), we must do some work. We may have enough resources for our self and our family. But, there are others in the society, who has nothing; so we should work to give something to these others. Our children have studied and are well settled. But, there are many youngsters who are not able to go to school. So we should rise up from our narrow mindedness and lethargy. Try running a night school and teach the children of others.
So! When the light, which we meditate upon, will flow in our body as energy and alacrity, we should work like a karma-yogi कर्म योगा; apply the best of our efforts and hard work towards transaction of our duties as a good human being, towards noble aims till the last breath. We are all bound by our duties towards the society, nation and religion (ethics); we should bear these responsibilities gracefully. If we adopt this attitude and transmit it into our deeds, then only we are karma-yogi कर्म योगा, and have truly learnt to practice the dhyana yoga ध्यान योग.
or
Dhyanayoga Ka Vyavaharik Kriyapaksha (ध्यान योगा का व्यवाहारिक क्रियापक्षा )
If we all begin with the collective chanting of the Gayatri Mantra, गायत्री मंत्र
"Om Bhur Buvah Swah, Tatsaviturvarenyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi, Dhiyo Yonah Prachodayat " ओउम भूर भवः स्वाहा तत्सा वितुरवारेनियम भर्गो देवाश्य धीमही धियोयो नाः प्रचो दयातः ॥
There will be tremendous effect of the Mantra मंत्र
There is a need of special training of dhyana ध्यान (meditation) together with Gayatri upasana. गायत्री उपासना There are two modes of upasana उपासना(worship) –– those of the name and the form (of God). There could be no devotional practice without God’s name and form. These two are supposed to be the universal modes of worship. Look at any religion, we will find the use of God’s name and/or form in their modes of worship. Mohammedans recite the name of Allah on tasabiha; Christian Priests chant God’s name with the help of a rosary; the Arya Samajis आर्या समाजी meditate upon divine form as sunlight; the yogis of Nada Yoga नाद योग concentrate upon the sublime sounds of the Omnipresent. In any case, the support of meditation (with Divine name or form) is essential for true worship. This is why this has been advised to practice meditation along with the japa जप of the Gayatri Mantra. गायत्री मंत्र
Mental concentration on some gross object – e.g. an idol, or a picture of a deity, is most convenient for the majority of people; because, the human mind, in general, is not so developed that it could be focused for a stretch of time without any visible or perceptible symbol. However, with sincere practice, one begins to realize the presence of God in his inner self and learns to meditate upon it, without any external symbol.
First of all ….we should know, what is the meaning of dhyana yoga ध्यान योग ? Well, let us try to understand it. As we all might know, our life has two facets. One is the external, which is most familiar to us. The holes in our ears open externally; our eyes also open up externally and keep watching what is happening in the outside world. We can see the things outside but we don’t even get a glimpse of what is there inside us. Is there nothing? No! The real substance, the essence is all inside us. They might be manifested externally but the basic elements of life lie deep within.
Where is our life force? It is not outside; it is inside…. And what about the intellect through which we earn wealth and gain respect? That also is not external, but, an internal potential. We don’t see introvert and often keep wondering why God has befuddled mankind by giving us instruments of perception of the external things and events but no fine-tuned instrument of knowledge of the inner world. We never notice the immense treasure of talents, virtues and divinity, hidden inside our own self. What is easily seen by us is – my child, my material property, my this, my that, and what not! But we can’t see our future; The Omnipresent God and our souls are also far beyond our perception. What to say about the inner world, we can’t even see many components of our own body. We can’t look at out own eyes. Let’s we just try to see (without a mirror) how is our nose, how are our eyebrows? How do our eyelids look like? If we can’t even see these gross external parts of the body, how will we see what is inside? When we peep into our inner world and attempt to know it, we perform some kind of dhyana. In fact, dhyana yoga ध्यान योग is the best method of seeing inside.
Well, so what should be the focus of dhyana ध्यान? Who to meditate upon? One’s inner self or the Almighty God? These two are not really different. Enlightened evolution of the inner self is God. Our ultimate spiritual evolution is – shivoaham, शिवाहम sachidanandoaham,सचिदा नन्दहुम tatvamasi,तत्वाम्सी ayamatmabrahm, अयामत्म्ब्रह्म pragyanambrahm. प्रग्यानाम्ब्रह्म These five great maxims of Vedanta वेदांता affirm that the soul, in its absolutely pure form, itself is God. Take the example of coal and diamond. Except for a minor difference in the atomic structure, the two are quite the same. Diamond is thus a refined form of coal. The soul and God are also basically the same except for the fact that the former is expressed within a limited identity (confined to the individual self) whereas the latter is unbounded, infinite. One is manifested in a tiny domain, while the other is gigantic, unlimited…. One is bounded by the thralldoms of maya माया , while the other is absolutely free. This is the only difference between us and The Divine. This difference is there because of the mist of ignorance covering up the resplendence of our inner self that keeps us cut off from our eternal origin. If we refine and illumine ourselves (by the purifying radiance of virtues and righteous knowledge) we can attain our soul-reality and also God-awareness. This is why (during the dhyana yoga) we meditate upon light; focus our attention upon the inner self, upon the sublime roots of our being and its ultimate goal….
That is why Rishi Muni ऋषी मुनी and our ancestor advised us to meditate upon the rising sun?". The brilliance of rising sun is a symbol of divine light. We may feel its radiance in our mind during this meditation, or may get a reflection of Goddess Gayatri गायत्री . It doesn’t matter if instead of sunlight we experience the deity’s image or some divine reflection. That only shows the degree of progress of our dhyana ध्यान . Don’t mistake the physical light as some of we might interpret. Here it means the divine light, or the sublime glow of pure knowledge. It is not the physical illumination; rather it is the radiance of spirituality and true knowledge. We pray "Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya" –"तमसो माँ ज्योतिर्गाम्या" ‘O’ Lord! Take us from the darkness towards light; here again, we mean from ignorance to knowledge. In spirituality, the word "light" is always used in the context of enlightenment, pure knowledge. (This is what should be understood by us in reality).
We should feel and imagine the sunlight presence. The sunlight focused successively at three points – the navel, the heart and the brain (especially the deeper core inside and above the centre of the forehead). These three regions contain the sublime nuclei of power for our three bodies – the physical, the subtle and the astral body. All these points should be enlightened (in our imagination and inner experience during this practice of dhyana yoga ध्यान योग); the brilliance of sunlight should enter all the three bodies. What does it imply? It implies the inherent philosophy and practical aspects of the three principal yogas योगा .
Karma Yoga कर्म योगा taught through Dhyana Yoga ध्यान योग:
In the first step of this practice of dhyana yoga ध्यान योग, we should imagine and try to feel as though the glow of sunlight is being absorbed by our navel. It means that the spark of praña प्राण should enter our physical body from the navel and flow in every vein, every artery and every cell…. Why from the navel? Because this is the connecting point of the umbilical cord between the mother and the fuetus and is therefore regarded as the energy centre of the body. As the vital elements from our mother’s body, that enabled our healthy birth, used to enter our body from the navel, the light (strength) of God is also induced in it through the same centre. When this light will be infused in our body, our bones, our blood, our flesh, all will shine. By this illumination it will induce energy, enthusiasm, alacrity, courage, and commitment to responsibilities, industriousness, and zeal for hard work, motivation for altruist service and love and joy for selfless fulfillment of duties. These qualities will help us accomplish our karma-yoga कर्म योगा. The "Karma-Yoga" is the yoga योगा of the body that means, this yoga योगा pertains to the worldly domains of our life and our deeds. One who meditates upon light in the navel region cannot sit idle. He will always be busy in good actions.
There are three streams of yoga योगा– karma-yoga कर्म योगा, gyana-yoga ज्ञान योगा and bhakti-yoga भक्ती योगा . It has been told that this is to be inculcating the practice of all these yoga’s योगा through the medium of light. Whenever the light of divinity will descend upon a person, it will inspire karma-yoga कर्म योगा in his physical being, in his conduct. Then the person will become more duty-bound; work will be ‘worship’ for him. The deeds of worship, service, social welfare and the actions pertaining to transactions of responsibilities, adoption of moral ideals, etc fall under karma-yoga कर्म योगा. These teach us that when our body absorbs the light (of praña प्राण ), we should become hard-working, our every action should be devoted to selfless duty.
It conveys that – one who meditates upon light should not be lethargic, lazy or dishonest. One who eats and earns without being sincere to his work is equivalent to a thief. We may find great joy in sitting and relaxing at home – doing just nothing, when our son is grown up and he is earning for the family. But this is a sign of lethargy; slothful luxury is worse than dishonesty. It is the worst abuse of our human hood. Insincerity to work and sluggishness are the most disgusting blots on the dignity of mankind. We may argue– "but I have worked so many years and now I am getting pension after retirement….” No, we should not sit idly and make merriment. Till we are alive (and able to move our body), we must do some work. We may have enough resources for our self and our family. But, there are others in the society, who has nothing; so we should work to give something to these others. Our children have studied and are well settled. But, there are many youngsters who are not able to go to school. So we should rise up from our narrow mindedness and lethargy. Try running a night school and teach the children of others.
So! When the light, which we meditate upon, will flow in our body as energy and alacrity, we should work like a karma-yogi कर्म योगा; apply the best of our efforts and hard work towards transaction of our duties as a good human being, towards noble aims till the last breath. We are all bound by our duties towards the society, nation and religion (ethics); we should bear these responsibilities gracefully. If we adopt this attitude and transmit it into our deeds, then only we are karma-yogi कर्म योगा, and have truly learnt to practice the dhyana yoga ध्यान योग.
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