In this manner, you must teach senses
lessons and control them. When mind begins to wander hither and thither, one
must engage it. If mind does not have anything to do, it would roam the
whole world. "By the time truth begins to wear sandals, untruth would go
around the world and come." Similarly mind, if no work is assigned, would go
round the world. So, before sitting for meditation, one must assign some
work to the mind. What type of work? It has been a known fact that mind is a
mad monkey. To make a monkey busy while he performs other feats, the street
performer would plant a stick in the ground and ask the monkey to repeatedly
go up and down the stick. Similarly we must assign the job of a watchman to
the mind near that part of forehead where eyebrows join. By constant
practice, we can make the mind stay in one place. As one constantly breaths
'Soham', the breath gets controlled. This is the great power of Yoga. There
is no separate effort that one needs to make to arouse Kundalini. When all
the vital air remains outside, in search of food, Kundalini would rise. Some
base 'lamp' as the point of concentration. This elucidates the principle of
'Unity in diversity' and 'Many in One'. This cannot be understood by all
very easily and does not confer bliss very easily. We should construe three
types of pictures - imaginary, mental or one based on feeling and
actualisation.
Example for the first one - you have
seen Swami. If you close your eyes and begin to visualise Swami's hair and
robe, then you would have picture created by imagination or 'Uha'. This
picture goes away in a moment. It appears as though it has been seen but
goes away the moment you begin to visualise further.
The second type of picturisation - 'Bhava'
is not like this. It takes some time. You can picturise Swami from feet
upwards - feet, gown, inside robe, hands, neck, eyes, nose, mouth, ears and
crown of hair. Like this by the time you picturise, half-an-hour would have
elapsed.
If you continuously go about doing this
- picturising Swami from foot to head and vice versa - it would lead to
Sakshatkara i.e. actual manifestation. Upon practising in this manner you
would realise that you are able to see the form for a fraction at least
before it fades away. So, this is not the goal. One should not go by
imagination. One should go by feeling. One should go on painting each limb.
One eye on one side and another eye on the other side-You should not think
thus. Is this eye parallel to the other? - In this fashion, one must
minutely paint the picture. In the process, mind would become totally
engaged.
"Knower of the Brahman becomes Brahman".
If you were to melt silver and pour it into the mould of Lord Krishna, the
feet, hands, eyes, mouth and even hair would be that of silver. Similarly,
when one concentrates and paints the mind with the form, the mind would also
be transformed into the form. When you question as to where the mind is, you
would get the answer - in Swami's feet, in Swami's hair, in Swami's eyes
etc. i.e., mind is totally immersed in Swami's form. Therefore, meditation
is that which would transform mind into the form and not vice versa.
When we sit for Meditation our body
should not be in contact with anyone else's body. When one works with
electricity, one would done some sort of insulation (wood/cloth) to insure
against shock. Similarly, meditation also is a kind of power. It also would
give a shock if two bodies touch. In every body, there is current. The
current goes/gets lost through nails, hair, eyes and speech. In the olden
days people allowed nails and hair to grow because they did not want the
current to be wasted. It is due to that current that hair and nails grow and
eyes and other organs function. What is the reason for Munis to observe
silence? They realised that current gets wasted through words and hence
observed silence. Not understanding this we begin to conclude that in the
forest the saints did not have any facilities to trim their hair and nails
and hence they were unkempt. They were making efforts to convert the current
in the body into Divine Power and hence their appearance. One should not
have contact with another in more than necessary manner. Attachment with an
object or a person might grow into a deeper relationship. They lead to
certain desires. As the desires get fulfilled, ego would begin to sprout. If
the desires do not find fruition, anger would develop. Therefore desires
have ill-effects, either way. When the desires become many, man's sense of
intelligence dwindles. This causes loss of control over the speech and
unwarranted words would emanate from the person, criticising and hurting
others. That would lead to abusing others. The act of abusing is a fuel to
the fire of sin. Therefore, the root cause for sin is relationship. So,
excess of contact should not be had in the first place.
