Raja-Yoga Meditation – the Science of Peace and of
Social, Economic and over-all Development
Like many other words, the word ‘Meditation’ has
more than one meaning. This has resulted in much vagueness about the word.
Often the word ‘Yoga’ or ‘Meditation’ conjures up,
in a layman’s mind, the picture of an individual, seated upright in the lotus
posture, with his eyes closed, in an incense-filled room or at the bank of a
river, absorbed silently in a spiritual thought or chanting Sanskrit
incantation. This, however, is not a true picture of Raj-Yoga or Yoga
Meditation.
What is Raja-Yoga Meditation and how does it differ from prayer and other forms of Meditation?
Raja-Yoga meditation is different from all others.
Though contemplation, reflection, imagination, attention, concentration etc.
are employed in its practice yet it is a practice apart from all the rest.
Meditation is based on the understanding that every
human person has two aspects of his or her personality. That which is called
‘Body’ is made up of matter. This includes the brain. This body is the outer
sheath. It is an assemblage of instruments, which are used by the inner
person, who is a conscient entity – a metaphysical being or a conscient spiritual
being. It is the being who thinks, understands, reflects and has emotions.
Brain is one of its mechanisms; it is its switchboard or control apparatus but
certain factors have, in course of time, led the conscient entity to identify
itself with the brain or the body. That which is spiritual has wrongly come to
believe itself to be gross and physical. This is the greatest tragedy, for this
had led to defilement of man’s emotions, with the result that man’s conduct,
behaviour and character have now become infected, to an extent, with what is
negative and is unbecoming. This has caused suffering in various forms and has
led the society to the path of struggle for existence and to peacelessness. It
is, therefore, necessary that one regains one’s real state of consciousness by
detaching the self from the body and stabilising in the self.
One is also given the understanding that, among all
souls, there is a Soul, which is Supreme in respect of moral stature and benign
and benevolent qualities. He, the Supreme soul, is the Ocean of highest
qualities and of spiritual might. By linking the human mind to Him by means of
consciousness and concentration, the human soul can strengthen its will,
regain its original splendour and have deep transcendental experiences and have
release from negativity.
So, really speaking, Raja-Yoga Meditation is
awareness of the metaphysical self and absorption of one’s mind in loveful and
purposeful consciousness of God and concentration on Him and on His divine
attributes. The word ‘Yoga’ means ‘to unite’; Yoga is,
therefore, the practice or art of uniting or linking the human mind with God by
focussing attention on Him as an incorporeal Being-of-Light and thinking of
nothing else but His divine qualities. This takes one into a state of
absorption in bliss and peace through positive thinking. It recharges one’s
self or soul with Light and Might and fills it with creative energy.
The name ‘Raja-Yoga’ is significant. The word
‘Raja’ means the king, the sovereign or the supreme. This Yoga is called
Raja-Yoga because it is the supreme or the highest yoga, being true and most
effective. Another reason for calling it ‘Raja-Yoga’ is that it relates mainly
to Mind and Mind is considered as the ‘King’ that rules over the sense-organs
and the body. Moreover, the term Raja-Yoga also implies that even such a person
as a king, who is very busy and has so much to do, can practise it, and it does
not involve acts of austerities or penances or of renouncing one’s household.
This is different from another yoga, also called Rajyoga, for in this yoga,
there is no need to practise breath-control, physical postures, or use a mantra,
or an image nor does it require one to stop all thoughts, but to stop only
worldly or negative thoughts and to concentrate Mind on God.
The word ‘Meditation’ means ‘to think’. As we all
know, man’s mind is, ordinarily, occupied with hundreds of thoughts of the
world; in Raja-Yoga meditation, one withdraws one’s mind from all the worldly
thoughts, including the thoughts of one’s own body, and one collects one’s
consciousness, at least for sometime, and thinks of the shining and peaceful
self as a point of divine and conscient light and, then, focuses one’s
attention on God as the Supreme Soul, who also is a point-of-conscient-Light
and is the Ocean of Peace. This inhibition of worldly thoughts and the
recollection or recapitulation of thoughts of the luminous self is attained by
directing the flow of thoughts towards God, i.e., the Supreme Soul in His
Supreme Abode or Paramdham, which is a world of divine light; in this
sense, this meditation is withdrawal or reversal of one’s consciousness from
the body and its world to the soul and its silent world, or from the dark lanes
of negative thoughts on to the bright path of contemplation on God, The
consciousness and thought, in Meditation, are aligned to profound and deeper
level of the imperishable self or soul, and to God.
Thus Raja-Yoga meditation is different from prayer
as one does not make any supplication to the Deity but only contemplates
lovefully on God, having attained clear knowledge of Him. It is not silent or
sub-vocal repetition of a mantra or a fixed sacred formula; nor it is
accompanied with any physical movements, but rather it is the name given to
immersion of one’s mind in the holy remembrances, happy memories, pleasant and
ecstatic recollections, or blissful and loveful consciousness of the Supreme
Being in His benign and loving relationship with the souls.
In this Meditation, knowledge (Gyan) of
soul, God, etc. is integrated with love for and devotion or dedication to Him
and has, inherent in it, the spirit of renunciation of that which is evil, and
it is practised even while one is engaged in Karma or action.
In this meditation, one enters into the portals of
intimacy, closeness and experience of being in His presence rather than feel
standing at a distance and looking around and seeking and calling God as most
people do in prayer. Moreover, in this meditation one’s mind is stabilised, as
one has withdrawn from the body and focussed one’s attention on the incorporeal
God as Mother-Father.
Further, Raja-Yoga is not an effort of directing
one’s mind to God, without knowing Him rationally and clearly but rather it is
practised after one has explicit and implicit true knowledge of God and has a
deep urge to be united to Him. In Raja-Yoga meditation, one does not try to
concentrate one’s mind on any image – gross or subtle – of a deity or a guru
but on one Incorporeal God who is a brilliant and radiant point-of-Light.
In Raja-Yoga meditation, one has been so inspired
or briefed that thoughts of deep love for God well up automatically as it were,
and there is no strained effort. Meditation is, therefore, more an act of
being, rather than that of performing.
Considered in this context, Raja-Yoga Meditation is
a discipline, a method, a process and also a way of using mind. It is a
discipline because it is a regulated exercise of awareness. It is also a method
because recollection, contemplation, concentration, attention, etc. are used in
its practice in a methodical way. It is a mental process because the processes
of thinking and intuitively perceiving continue. It is also a way of using
one’s mind in meditation by detaching itself from the mundane, the gross and
the material. In its practice, one uses one’s mind, intellect and emotions in a
special way on a special theme.
Raja-Yoga meditation may, therefore, be defined as
a disciplined exercise of awareness, utilising such processes as creatively
thinking, intuitively perceiving and silently reflecting and concentrating on
the metaphysical truths of self and God, which lead to comprehension and
realisation of the subject. This art or science may be practised at progressive
levels of knowledge, faith, energy and consciousness.
In other words, this Meditation is a technique of
self-exploration, leading to the experience of heightened and expanded
awareness, reaching God and bringing Him into the focus of the soul’s
awareness. This practice involves the turning of one’s mind and the flow of
one’s love in the direction of God, thereby giving one the hot line to
communicate with Him.
Why Raja - Yoga Meditation?
Generally, everyone is caught up much of the time
with worldly pursuits, sense-experiences, gross enjoyments, meeting the demands
of life, discharging one’s social and professional responsibilities and with
pleasures and pains, so that one has little time to think of the unseen soul.
One has hardly any occasion to realise that, beneath the physical Vesture,
there are depths of being in which is locked the untapped potential of the
immortal spiritual self or the treasures of ecstasy. No doubt, there are some
people who are spiritually inclined but they too have only a nodding
acquaintance with the soul and with God. Raja-Yoga Meditation is a spiritual
practice, which enables an aspirant to have a channel for loveful and intimate
communication with God. It enables a person to penetrate deeply and
progressively into deeper levels of the mind and peep into the hidden world of
reality. It opens unto man the portals that reveal the self and God and lets
this benign experience permeate his life so as to give it a new meaning and a
new purpose. It opens a person’s Third Eye of knowledge’.
In short, the principal object of Raja-Yoga Meditation
is to bring the self in conscious touch with God, thus making it increasingly
aware of its divine origin, divine destiny and divine and peaceful real nature
and to experience thereby a state of deep bliss and to gain final release from
negativity.
This practice of awareness of God opens the greater
orbits of being. One not only gets the first-hand vision and experience of the
ultimate truth and the perennial realities behind all phenomenal realities but
one also feels that one is not merely the creature but also creator of one’s
environment. One’s mind is now occupied with the vision of truth to the
exclusion of all the rest, and one’s way of looking at things now changes. One
now experiences that one’s life is ever in the ascendant and one’s awakened
consciousness is in Paramdham – the region of undiminishing splendour.
Previously, one was leading a life of worldly attachments with mental gusts of
pleasure or storms of pain and delusion and all that goes with it, but now one
feels the profound assurance that God’s gracious hand is on him/her and, under
His umbrella of Light and Might, he/she is in a cool shade. So, it is one of
the major objects of Meditation to have God as one’s Companion, Guide and
Helpmate. If He is by our side and is our Guardian Angel, what better than this
we want in this world?
Meditation gives us mental relaxation and constant
peace and improves the quality of being. We ask: “Who has not felt pressed, at
times, by the turmoil of events or the inanimity of physical and natural environment,
to seek inner calm and peace and fresh resources of vitality within himself?”
Meditation is the sure way for one to experience new zeal, powerful energy and
real and lasting peace and to have in oneself a fountain of bliss.
Those who have not had spiritual orientation or who
are not religiously disposed, would, perhaps, not believe that, by means of
this meditation, one not only develops the positive attitude to life, love for
the fellow beings, sympathy for the suffering souls and purity of mind, but one
also gets his past errors of moral judgement and past acts, vitiated by ignoble
tendencies, washed off the soul, for Yoga-meditation acts as the detergent for
the Mind. Thus, meditation is of great value because it brings a great change
in personality-traits and negative habits. It helps one to act more with sound
moral judgement and clean conscience, which draws God’s blessings on him/her.
Other Benefits of Raja-Yoga Meditation
In fact, Meditation gives to its practitioner many
benefits – some direct and others indirect. Meditation not only enables a
person to rise to the highest level of spiritual experience but it also helps
man to discharge his professional, household and other social duties more
efficiently and with equanimity and better judgement.
In other words, it enables one to become a new
person – wiser, more loving, more concerned about and more responsible towards
the well-being of others. One now acts more meaningfully in regard to one’s own
self and in relation to others.
One now looks upon all as ‘souls’ and as spiritual
‘brothers’ and treats all on spiritual level. This eliminates one’s tendencies
of aggressiveness, exploitation, sensual indulgence, attachment, suspicion and
hate. One, thereby, becomes a peaceful person, spreading vibrations of peace,
having goodwill towards all, wishing all well, doing positive acts and having
positive thoughts. Raja-Yoga Meditation is, thus, the science of peace in one’s
personal and social life.
This change occurs because of three reasons:
Firstly, one gets new understanding of the self and others. This equips a
person with positive and better outlook. There is the resulting change in one’s
belief-system, value-system, one’s purpose, attitude and behaviour.
Secondly, one’s capacity for love and tolerance
increases tremendously. One, therefore, loves and is loved and has moods which
are derivatives of love and consideration for the uplift and well-being of
others. So, one now leads a life of mental satisfaction. One is now free from tension.
Thirdly, change in one’s nature and behaviour is
rapid, thorough-going, persistent and lasting. Some, therefore, consider
meditation as a formula or technique of changing a sinner into a saint. This
over-all change in nature releases new capacities and qualities of being.
Because of all this, one’s personality develops and
enhances. There is now tremendous expansion of one’s mind because of release of
new energy, which previously was being spent partly in unnecessary or
purposeless pursuits.
Further, one’s mind being now free from non-issues,
one has intuitive insights and ‘touchings’. Meditation clears the beclouded
mind, so that one now has a clear mind that can see and can have higher and
truer vision. One’s Third Eye of knowledge’ has now opened. One now has more
objectivity and better concentration, so that one now has easy, better and
quicker access to Reality. One now has an understanding of the present, the
past and the future and of the Beyond and has practical wisdom.
One major and important benefit of meditation,
therefore, is that one is able to realise the self and the ultimate goal of
life, for the practice of meditation leads man to the heights of
soul-consciousness and transcendence of time and space and unlocks the door,
thus giving the soul the entrance into the presence of God. Meditation
illumines the self as a lighted candle illumines another candle, which now
finds its own fuel. This yields subjective experiential knowledge and
self-actualisation. The peak experiences lead one to highest bliss, noblest
qualities, ecstatic states and salutary changes in the deepest layers of the
self. Meditation also leads to discovery of fundamental truths and basic
values, awareness of higher and subtler existences and sense of sacredness. One
now has authoritativeness and grasp of Reality.
One’s mind having been liberated from wasteful
habits such as smoking, taking alcoholic drinks or intoxicating drugs, spending
time and money on obscene films, etc. and one’s concentration and efficiency
having increased and relations and capacity of adjustment, tolerance and
endurance having improved, one’s social, economic and over-all development now
takes place.
Basic Understanding about the Practice of Raja-Yoga Meditation
As mentioned earlier, anyone who aspires to
practise meditation, acts upon the conviction that there is, beyond all the
transitory, mundane and phenomenal world, a subtle realm of reality of souls,
the Supreme soul and the Soul World, which can be experienced by means of
focussing attention, or by mental concentration, on them. He also believes
that the Supreme Soul is loveful and compassionate and is ready to embrace us.
Now, the first step taken so as to enable him or
her to start the practice of meditation is to have clear knowledge of what is
meant by ‘soul’, ‘Supreme Soul’ or God and ‘Soul World’ or Parlok (or Paramdham)
and, thus, bring to end the vagueness of their definition or connotation.
Prajapita Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (PBKWSU) is helpful in this
task by giving clear knowledge or concept or by definite delineation, presented
in experiential terms, of the realm of consciousness that comprises man’s
immortal selfhood and God’s immortal existence and the existence of ‘Soul
World’. Through short studies in the university or its educational centres, one
arrives at a summary grasp of the fundamental truths about the soul, the
Supreme soul, the Soul World, etc.
One is here given the understanding that the soul
is an infinitesimal point of conscient and immortal Light and that (i) Mind, (ii)
Intellect and (iii) predispositions or personality-traits (Sanskars)
are its three inherent and everlasting faculties, which are three aspects of
manifestation of Soul’s Consciousness. The deep centre of the self is radiant
with the mystery of power of life. Thus, man’s soul is an ever luminous unit of
conscient energy, originally divine in nature and potentialities, and is
eternally existent. (It may be remembered in this context that even the unit of
Matter also is a point of light or energy, which cannot be totally
annihilated.)
One is also given a refreshing knowledge of God as
a Loveful Being-of-light. God is perfect in knowledge and purity and has no
physical form whatsoever and is above the mundane birth or death. He is full
of Bliss and is there to help and guide those who seek Him only in a
metaphysical and metaphorical sense, and not in a worldly sense. He is the
Soul’s Mother, Father, Friend and Philosopher, or better call Him its spiritual
Guide and Master. He too is a self-luminous, infinitesimal point of conscient
and non-physical or incorporeal Light. He constantly radiates vibrations of
love, peace, divine Light, spiritual Might, Bliss, etc., which a soul can
clearly experience when it has established its metaphysical or mental link with
Him. He, the world’s most beloved Mother-Father, abides in Paramdham or
the Soul World, which is also called the Highest Heaven or Fifth sky in certain
religions and which is far beyond this phenomenal and ephemeral world of
Matter. He is beyond the sun and stars and the universe of Elements and in a
realm filled with divine light, called Brahm. Brahm shines in its splendour as
one sees light in the horizon at the time of sunrise or sunset.
He, the Supreme Being, is perfectly divine and
benign and salubrious in His nature. There is no one equal to or better than
Him. He is known as ‘Shiva’ Yahewa, Jehova, Allah or God. One has to have a
link with Him, a living relationship with Him and an affectionate
communication with Him through Meditation, and ought to obey His advice or
commandments for these are beneficial as these uplift the soul and lead it to
its own perfection and beatitude.
Having understood this, when a person begins his
first meditational session or practice, thoughts well up naturally in the form
of words as: ‘I am a soul, I am eternal, immortal, conscient, radiant and
self-luminous infinitesimal, tiny little star or point, a nucleus-like point of
eternal spiritual energy, with qualities of peace, etc. Yes, I am, I came into
this phenomenal world from a spiritual realm, from beyond, from what is known
as the Soul World or Paramdham, which is filled with divine crimson
light, serenity and calm.
Thus, recapitulating the summary knowledge, one
endeavours to enter into its meaning, penetrating behind the words and ideas
into the transcendental reality they signify. One begins to be free of all
thoughts of body and the environment and the worldly affairs, and one is
engaged totally with the awareness of God and His grace, His attributes, His
divine and salubrious acts, His spiritual relationship, etc. Getting, thus,
immersed in these thoughts to the exclusion of all others, one feels union
with the Divine. By means of this steady flow of tlioughts on God, one reaches
a mental state or stage, which transcends all ordinary thoughts. In that state,
one’s mind is seeing no other forms, images or goals but only the splendour of
God. In this state, one experiences bliss, which cannot be described in words,
This experience, which one gets because of steady
flow of loveful thoughts with regard to God, invests the soul with meaning. The
soul begins to understand or realise God in an experimentative way, through
proximity. Its consciousness now touches God who is now no longer a distant
object. Mental and emotional distance disappears, and there is a sense of
metaphysical union with Him and also expansion of consciousness. The barriers
of time and space have been broken and, at that moment of absorption, there
would come some stillness of thought but the consciousness would be alert,
active and dynamic as it would be absorbed in experience. The mind would now be
emptied of all other thoughts of the gross world and its objects and persons
and, in its those free moments, it would receive information, prompting message
and blessings from the Divine and would experience pure intuition. One will now
have spiritual or divine insight, which will transform one’s
personality-traits. One will now have visions and realisation of deeper
reality.
Soon, it will establish a deeper and intimate
relationship with the Supreme and it would be almost impossible to look on
one’s life without Him. One would now feel mental dissociation with one’s past.
Such being the state of one’s mind, where does lie the need to concentrate
one’s mind on the tip of one’s nose, or on a point midway between the eyebrows
or on the lotus of the heart or the image of the deity, or the breath coming
and going out, or to chant a mantra and sit in a particular position as some
yogic Literature saggests? One also needs not or, in fact, must not close one’s
eyes because closing of eyes brings passivity to one’s brain and leads a person
to sleep and is only unnatural and uncongenial to active thought-processes. One
also needs not have any image because one basic principle of Raja-Yoga is not
to be conscious of any physical form, may it be in the form of one’s own body
or in the form of body of any deity.
If one’s mind gets caught up in superficial
day-dreams or inconsequential thoughts or filled up with turmoil, fear,
worries, anticipations of memories of the ephemeral and the trivial, or is
clouded by prejudices and biases or it flits from one point to another like a
butterfly, then it means that one has no consummating love for the Supreme,
there is no real urge for the sacred union, no earnestness for embracing the
Beloved One or there is lack of conviction about the basic concepts. So, there
is the necessity to have love and to have intellectual conviction and the help
of an experienced yogi in the initial stage to put one’s mind on the track.
If the condition of stability of thought and the
upsurge of love for Him is not present, then it means that one has not
fulfilled certain basic conditions. One has either deep love for God or has
attractions of worldly things and of persons, so that these distract one’s mind
and one finds these irresistible. These attractions may be in the form of
sex-lust or savoury dishes, fashionable goods or other things that give pleasure.
One should check up why one is not attracted to God with bigger force than one
is attracted by worldly objects and should have Godly knowledge from an
experienced yogi so as to eliminate such thoughts and also thoughts of sorrows,
sufferings and woryies.
Purity of Mind, Harmlessness of Behaviour and Habits are Valuable Assets
Let the aspirant know that one’s life-style,
associated directly or indirectly with violence, hate, vengeance, anger,
harshness of speech, sexual impulse, etc. is the breeder of delusion; such
habits and tendencies as these easily deflect one’s mind from God. There is a
sacred saying that ‘‘the treasure (attainable through Meditation) is guarded by
faithful demons’’. The ignoble tendencies referred to above are the demons.
Humility, Purity of Mind, Chastity, Vegetarian Food-Habits, Enthusiasm,
Contentment, etc. are mounted guards, so to say, that protect one from the
demons on the soul’s journey towards her beloved God, and it is these,
qualities, which take one to the Treasure. When one practises meditation, these
qualities naturally emerge and when these emerge, one is better able to
practise meditation.
These conditions having been fulfilled, when one is
engaged to God in the totality of the self; then, one simply is in meditation.
The question of harnessing one’s mind or refining mental processes or
controlling one’s emotional reactions to the environment or holding the body in
a particular posture do not arise in the mind of one who is drunk with
intoxicating love for God, for his mind, through keen aspiration, is brought to
the state of a placid lake in no time. His mind is instantly clear and calm
like a mountain pool. It is unruffled by the winds of prejudices and hate,
aspirations and desires. So, it reflects, in its depth, the light of God, the
Spiritual Sun. Meditation to Him is like switching on the consciousness and the
moment he does this, he feels that the flow, from the Highest and Holiest Soul,
of the strong currents of love, peace, power and bliss coalesced.
Practice of Meditation
In order to practise meditation, a beginner, first
using his power of recollection and abilities of concentration, stabilises his
consciousness in the belief, acquired earlier, that he is a soul. In other
words, his mind now has the thought; ‘‘I am a soul, a conscious point of
metaphysical light, an infinitesimal, luminous being, full of divine
potentialities. My original nature is of peace. I am an eternal child of God,
the Supreme Soul. God is Light, Might, Purity, Divinity personified. He too is
a brilliant point of conscient Light. He is transcendental in His nature and is
perfect. He is on-high. Beyond the light of the sun and stars, there is an
infinite world of self-luminous element. In that world that the Supreme Soul,
my most beloved Mother and Father, abides.’’ Thus reflecting, one stabilises,
in silence, on the Supreme. One intuitively sees the Supreme Soul as a shining
point-of-light in the Soul World, which is beyond. One meditates on God’s
divine qualities and on the spiritual relationship with Him and also the
salutary and salubrious nature of His acts.
He recapitulates the affirmation thus: ‘‘I am a
soul, a conscient point of light, eternal, immortal and originally peaceful in
my nature. I am a child of God.’’ Then visualising God as point of conscient
light, he should address God lovefully in such words as: ‘‘God, my most beloved
Father, You are peaceful, You are blissful, You are loveful, You are Almighty,
You are knowledgeful. You are absolutely pure. You are the Bestower of the spiritual
inheritance of purity, peace and prosperity. You are the Saviour. I get Your
Love, Your Light, Your Might, Your Bliss... O my most beloved Father.... .’’
One should occupy one’s mind with such thoughts with deep feeling and love and
should, thus, shut off all worldly thoughts. This practice is called
Meditation. These thoughts would take one to the realm of experience. Then,
instead of repeating the affirmations such as ‘I am soul, I am peaceful.....!
God, my Father, You are Light, Might, Loveful, Peaceful..,.’, one would really
experience oneself as soul and would then be stabilised and would feel oneself
surrounded by divine light and one would be in a spiritual peace and bliss. One
would experience strong vibrations of spiritual Light and Might from God,
charging and energising one’s self or soul. These experiences would become more
and more intense and deep and thereby would bring transformation in his life.
One should, besides having special sessions of this concentrated practice, practise it for a couple of minutes every hour or every two hours or as frequently as possible. One should try to maintain consciousness of God as much and as best as one can. One should also practise looking on others as souls in bodies and not as mere bodies. Such practices would enable one to have more intense meditation when one goes in special sessions of practice. In fact, one should start it from the early morning. When one is first awake and when one’s eyes first open, one should have such thoughts: ‘‘I am a soul, I am eternal, immortal and peaceful in my original nature.’’ One should turn attention to God and think, ‘‘God, my beloved Father, good morning!...’’ Such thoughts would work as good foundation for one’s routine. These would set one’s proper mood for the day.
This art and science of meditation, which is based on rationality and truth of being and on philosophy and psychology, brings about an inner transformation. It penetrates deeply into the layers of the mind and removes the ignoble, the undivine and the extraneous and, thus, energises the soul and renews it. It leads to self-illumination and to a life-style, which gives one satisfaction of leading a fuller, meaningful and useful life.
You are whole heartedly welcome to
Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya
