by Sri Bmal Mohanty
VOL No. 14
 Sept - Oct. 2001

CHAPTER FIFTEEN- ON MEDITATION - Part 3

The Benefits of Meditation - on the mind, knowledge and the bliss sheaths

Continued from Chapter thirteen which dealt with The Benefits of Meditation

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

The Lord made it quite candid. He says thus in The Bhagavad Gita (Ch11 -53-54):

Naaham Vedeir na tapasaa na daanena na ca ijjayaa

Sakyam evambidhah drastum drustavaanasi maam yathaa.

Bhaktyaa tu ananyaa sakya aham evamvidhah arjuna

Jnaatum drastum ca tattvena pravestum ca parantapa

Learning The Vedas, austerity, alms giving or sacrifices, none of these will ensure you to see me. But by single minded devotion you will not only see me but enter into me and know my essence.

And then The Self condescends by its grace to reveal itself to us. This descending of Supreme Self, and revealing itself through its own grace is an unique interpretation in the sanatana philosophy only. When The Lord revealed Himself to Arjuna, He bestowed on him the Divyacaksyu - the divine eyes so that he can see. What a beautiful symbolic representation. The Divya caksyu are not another pair of eyes or special pair of spectacles. It simply symbolises the grace of the Lord which the Sadhaka receives.

Till this stage all that we have done is only preparation, making ourselves ready to receive the light . When the mind overcomes its limitations , that is when you unite in knowledge and knowledge embraces you. Those poetic thoughts come to mind here. When Radha overcomes all barriers and rushes to Krishna, the arms of Krishna embrace Radha. There is nothing sensual in that embrace. It is the embrace of the higher consciousness enveloping the limited consciousness.

Nothing matters thereafter. The mind oscillates no more. It has no need to attach itself with one thought and another. It has found its source of complete bliss and happiness and needs nothing else but to constantly meditate on this fountainhead of unlimited bliss - apara ananda. One can understand here that upanishadic similee from Mundaka :

Sharavat tanmayah bhavet - The arrow has now hit the target and lodged as one with the target.

The meditation has now taken us to the final sheath - The Anandamay Kosha - The bliss sheath. In this sheath there is only The Bramhan and pure bliss. Bliss and nothing but bliss. Everything else has merged into Bramhan.

The Mundaka Upanishad summerises the role of meditation in these two slokas:

Pranavah dhanuh sharah hi atma Bramha tat lakshyam ucyate

Apramattena vedhavyam sharavat tanmayah bhavet

The elements of meditation are these. The Omkara mantra is the bow. The arrow is our own soul which is propelled by this bow of the mantra. The target in front of us is Bramhan - the Satchidananda. It is to be hit unerringly by the sadhaka. Once the arrow hits the target it gets firmly rooted in it becoming one with it.

How meditation helps?

Dhanurgrhitva aupanishadam mahaastram

sharam hi upaasaanisitam sandhayita

Aayamya tat bhaavagatena chetasaa

laksyam tat eva aksharam saumya viddhi

Take hold of this missile - the bow - as advised in the Upanishad. Hitch the arrow which is the self Let the mind get absorbed in the immutable Bramhan which is the target. The arrow has to be sharpened or purified by constant meditation - upaasaanisitam and the target is to be hit.

Meditation sharpens this arrow.Such is the power of meditation. Meditation travels from sheath after sheath, through all the layers of our existence.

Often one doubt still bothers all human beings. Will all these ever happen to me? Will it be possible in my own case? Will I ever receive knowledge or will I remain ignorant ever? Am I only chasing a dream? This doubt has no basis in our Sanatana philosophy. The knowledge, the Supreme consciousness, the Bramha Chetana , the goal of eternal happiness, is available to all in the Lord's creation. Each of us is constantly exposed to this consciousness, this knowledge. The level of consciousness, whether one is a saint or a sinner varies in intensity depending upon one's own effort and one's demeanor, one's karma in lives past and most importantly in this present life. The benevolent Bramhan constantly works upon us to lift us out of the pit of ignorance and will continue to do us - with our cooperation - till the final goal is reached.

Reflect upon these words of Sri Aurobindo:

  " The supra-mental principle is secretly lodged in all existence. It is there even in the grossest materiality, it preserves and governs the lower worlds by its hidden power and law. ....its governing presence in the lowest forms assures us, because of unity of all existence, that there is a possibility of their awakening, a possibility even of their perfect manifestation here in spite of every veil, in spite of all the mass of our apparent disabilities, in spite of the incapacity or unwillingness of our mind and life and body. And what is possible , must one day be, for that is the law of the omnipotent spirit."

That says it all. That gives the assurance that the highest goal is one day achievable. The veils of ignorance will not stop us- it will clear away one day. All our disabilities will not be obstacles- they are only apparent obstacles being complexes of our own mind. The incapacity of our body and mind is a false fear once our true immense potential is understood and realized. The worldly demands of life are no hindrances being excuses invented by the mind again. And the final goal of highest perfection is the promise of our birth itself.