Sri.P.Vittal

My dear brothers and sisters,

Namasthe.

On this auspicious occasion of the birth anniversary celebrations of our beloved Master SriRamchandraji, Shajahanpur, I am happy to be with so many seekers. In this happy occasion I would like to share some thoughts on aspects of

“The Method of Meditation propounded by SriRamchandraji Maharaj, Shahjahanpur, UP, India”

in the spirit of bodhayanti parasparam and be happy talking about his methods and system.  We are students in this Institute of SriRamchandra Consciousness where the modified form of raja yoga of SriRamchandraji is being taught. His method is an integrated system consisting of meditational methods, prayer, purification techniques and 10Commandments. I will restrict my talk to the meditation proper.

The kingly thing in us is thought. Even so due to the (unregulated) thoughts we feel ourselves disconnected from our true nature. The distracted and wandering mind has been recognized as barrier to dwell upon the divine.  The method in our sadhana that activates the central power inside us and one that employs the purest thought is the meditation. In the meditations aided by pranahuti we additionally take the help of another brother who also seek our spiritual growth.

There are many aspects related to the meditation in our system we can tell each other, re-recognize the efficacy of our method and thereby remember our beloved Master and be grateful to him.

Meditation Stages - Dharana:

Normally in most meditation practices the meditation system will include three stages:

·         a stage of concentration (maintaining attention at one part of body),

·         a stage of meditation (sustained attention on a thought/object) and finally

·         a stage of absorption (a stage culminating into a supra sensory feeling).

The three stages in traditional terms are referred to as dharana, dhyana, and Samadhi – the last 3 limbs of the Sage Patanjali’s raja yoga.

In our system of meditation we can relate to the second and third stages. We tend to ignore or pay less attention to the first stage-dharana.  This is more so because we experience directly the second and third stages in our meditations. And when we read in our Master’s books that to the effect that “concentration is a natural result of meditation”; “we do not concentrate we meditate” the first stage may appear secondary. 

We should note that our system of meditation contains all the dharana-dhyana-samadhi aspects in one integral whole. Master states “Generally I advise meditation on the heart at the point where you feel its beatings, I do not want to expand its vision to the whole of the region of the heart. Therefore, an abhyasi is to know the heart, as said above, to meditate upon.” (SS-88).  Master advises us to meditate on the divine light where the heart beats. It is important that we maintain and confine our sustained attention at this point and meditate on the divine light.  

This steadiness and permanency of our meditation process is important. We need to assess ourselves in this matter. Dharana is important not only in meditation but also in A and B point meditations. Our institute has developed a “trataka” device which can be utilized in improving our dharana.

When we are experiencing several moments or absorption even if our steadiness in posture, attention to heart where it beats, steadiness in maintaining divine light thought etc., are wanting, it shows how much the Center is eager than Circumference and understand that Center if yawning to Circumference.

Meditation - Benefits:

It is generally accepted notion that Divine is remembered more during time of difficulties than happy occasions. When our meditations are disturbing and distracting due to the thoughts and when we feel there is difficulty in doing meditations in right manner - the remembrance of Master must be more during that time. But I feel that when Master blesses the abhyasi with spiritual conditions, his curiosity and interest in meditation improves. In my case as unknown and unimaginable experiences began to dawn despite my mediocrity, it created more interest in meditations and the system. I stated to like meditations. I used to do them during leisure times also. It may appear strange but in my case initially the curiosity and wonder at the experiences occurring in meditations played a major role than the difficulties I faced during meditations in the remembrance.

The thoughts that occur during meditation and the way in which we deal with them becomes a source for developing several useful traits in us.

·        Self Confidence: The foremost trait we should seek and cultivate is self confidence. Meditations in our system are dynamic.  We experience most blissful meditations along with most distracted or disturbed meditations. We may have temporarily lost the art of ignoring the thoughts. By remembering those instances when we experienced wonderful spiritual states due to meditating in right manner, we can develop self confidence.  We should be confident that if we can do it once we can do it again and again.

·        Positive Thinking: When we think that we are losing impressions by way of thoughts and are happy at it instead of worrying about the influx of thoughts – it could lead into developing positive thinking as we are looking at brighter side.

·        Patience: When we bear with all the thoughts and see through the meditation without leaving it midway – it could lead into developing patience.

·        Sensitivity: Meditation also improves our sensitivity. The quest to understand and describe the conditions we are bestowed during meditations improves our sensitivity. In pranahuti aided meditations when we report our meditation session to our trainers and seek their assessment on our reporting it will improve our sensitivity.

·        Giving Right Suggestion: It also gives opportunity to belief in giving ourselves right suggestions. In two or three occasions at evening times when I suggested myself connected to our Rev. Sir and be part of his satsangh, I had a meditative experience that I consider unique. The experience I felt was no lesser than one feels when attending satsanghs in person. In addition to belief in our own suggestions it also slowly helped me believing that consciousness is not restricted to a place and all pervading.

There are many such benefits and I put in front of you a brief list of those which are helpful in our journey as well as in worldly life.

Master states “It is a hidden dictum of nature that every soul must lead a happy and restful life” (SDG30).  In Commandment8 he states that a happy state is next to Divine.  We must experience happy states and try to lead our life in that state. During meditations we feel happy due to the presence of Master. The happiness we experience makes us to think of Him and our faith in Him gets strengthened. Sometimes we miss our meditations to accommodate other wishes/activities for some time. We become restless as we miss our sadhana and be in unhappy mood. We should remember that that happiness is not obtained because we attended to our sadhana but because we were thinking of the Divine through the medium of sadhana.  When the remembrance is deep rooted there should be no scope for such unhappiness even if we miss our sadhana for a few hours or days to accommodate other exigencies. 

The restful life that Master meant could more be a contented life. Doing meditations regularly, not only would lead to eventual contentment, but could be a source for rest and relaxation. It has been well researched by the scientific community that meditations induce deep relaxation in our body.  By doing our meditations every day we can have a restful condition for the body which improve our overall health.

Thoughts in meditation – a source for frustration

 “Sit in meditation for an hour thinking that divine light is present in your heart” is all the description for the meditation method in our system. Yet several of us have the notion that we have lot of difficulties in doing it. We do not have the satisfaction that we are learning the art day by day in leaps and bounds. A few things come to my mind regarding the thoughts during meditations which we need to address:

·        The strength and volume of the chitta vrittis

·        The ignorance or fear of diving deep in the meditation

Chitta vrittis:  When we notice that we regularly get substantial volume of thoughts during meditations then it is an indication that the ‘center of thoughts’ i.e., Point B, needs attention. We may not be doing the Pt. B meditation as effectively as we should be doing. While it is our responsibility to attend Pt B meditation, we can and should seek help from our trainers in such cases.  Unless we reduce this volume of thoughts and our attachment to them during meditation we will continue to have possibilities of non-centered meditation and miss the opportunity to go deeper into our self.

Diving: We all have experienced centered meditations several times. Centered meditations happen as we dive deeper instead of staying on the superficial layer of thoughts. Master says that one must dive deep to get pearls. Even a little bit of diving has been very successful for most of us. But if we are constantly hovering near the surface then we are not following Master’s advice. We need to make a conscious effort into ignoring the superficial thought layer and try to go into deeper levels. We should will it so. We should make stronger efforts. Sometimes we may feel breathless during meditations and may come back to the thought layer. Sometimes due to fear of going deep we remain ourselves at the surface. There is no other way other than regularly meditating and making conscious efforts to dive in our meditations to overcome the fear.

Prelude to meditation practice

The frame of mind just before the meditation is a good indicator for frame of the mind during the meditation. If we do not pay attention to this aspect then it may take time to stabilize in the meditation.

We should not simply do our meditation to complete our daily spiritual check list. One way to easily prepare is by giving some gap between the bath and meditation. We use that time to prepare for the meditation. Similarly we do not start as soon as we sit on the asan. There is no race unless we are racing against time due to delay in getting up.

Commandment 2 asks us to sit for meditation with a heart full of love and devotion. We also hear that we should orient ourselves, yield to the Master etc. So we understand that we need to have these attitudes before commencing the meditation. Are they to be cultivated or conditions bestowed during sadhana like viveka or vairagya?  How to develop love? How to orient? How to yield?  They are to be consciously cultivated. Until these attitudes become deep rooted, we strive and cultivate them consciously. We can refer to Shruthi for understanding the explanation given by Master on these terms. Rev. Sir and Dr. K.C.V have written extensively on these topics. These should be read, re-read to adopt them in our sadhana.

Let me share a few of my thoughts on these.

·         We “love” our Master through “remembrance”. We remember him, his mission or cause, his greatness, his support in our sadhana, his unalloyed love to us and so forth.  

·         When we are devoted to our sadhana, when we seek to engage in activities of serving him in his cause is a way of feeling “devoted” to him.

·         To orient is to turn to.  In our prayer we start with O Master!! To call him we need to turn to him. Even though he is all pervading, for purposes of orientation, it is best to fix our gaze in our heart where he resides. To constantly fixing our gaze and looking inward towards the divine in our heart is the way to orient.  

·         Another important attitude that is also required is openness. We may think we are open but our inner psyche may not be so.  It is not possible to be open if there is fear. We cannot be open to anybody if there is fear of being open, fear of letting the other person know about us and our thoughts.

Another way to prepare for sittings or meditations is by way of sincere suggestions.  We can give ourselves various suggestions during preparing for sadhana such as:

·        Let my mind not wander and let it dwell on the Divine;

·        I shall meditate on the Divine ignoring all the thoughts,

·        Let me be open to my brother completely and seek his help etc.

It is my experience that these suggestions given with a right frame of mind do work and can make our practice effective.

Notions related to Meditation:

The very basis of traditional rajayoga is restriction of chitta vruttis so that the union/yoga occurs.  Therefore it is presumed in traditional yoga sadhana that presence of chitta vrittis is a bar for the union.  It is a common experience in our system that despite the awareness of the thoughts, because of consciously ignoring the thoughts, we experience unique meditative conditions such as absorption, oneness, mergence etc. These experiences are an indication of the union with SriRamchandra Consciousness.

Another aspect of the traditional system of raja yoga is dharana (concentration) and a sustained form of it may be construed as dhyana (meditation).  In our system of meditation we refer to “attention” on the heart instead of “concentration” on heart.  Similarly we suggest to ourselves once only that the Divine Light is present in our heart without resorting to repetition or concentration of the same. Without having to concentrate on the heart, without having to concentrate on the divine light, we are still enabled to have samadhi experience. This possibility is not anticipated in traditional approach.

The system designed by the beloved Master SriRamchandraji has effectively showed the limitations of the traditional yoga.

Meditation - Help in Commandment4:

The fourth commandment asks us to be plain and simple.  How to strive and cultivate the simplicity?  The daily meditations if followed earnestly aid us in developing simplicity. Master states “Meditation on the simple, pure and Ultimate alone can save man in his crisis. This surely makes him more and more simple, bringing him closer and closer to the Original Home. As you think, so you become.”  The simplicity in the experiences we have during our meditations and our endeavor to own these states make us simpler and simpler.

Meditation – A medium for insights

The conditions we are blessed with during meditations such as peace, calmness, lightness, floating, expansion, silence, etc are to be taken as perceptions relating to the presence of the divinity. I noticed that when a condition is experienced during meditation and upon gradually owning it also reflects in material plane. For example suppose we feel expansion during meditation and endeavor to own it then eventually that condition gets reflected in our life. We notice that we feel more and more concern for others.

Meditation is one of the medium in which we can be bestowed certain profound insights.  Profound thoughts we have during meditations is what I consider insights.  Even though Master asked us to ignore thoughts sometimes we feel that some divine oriented thoughts occur and stay for a small moment with a subtle feeling. These thoughts may carry a purpose or meaning towards our sadhana. Many times we ignore such thoughts and forget them. We need to note such thoughts and contemplate on them for their relevance in our sadhana.

A Modern Method for Modern Times: 

We meditate on the Divine Light in the heart as our Master asked us to follow. Divine light is a supra sensory object that the mind cannot conceive. Yet it is not something non-existent or abstract. One may consider it as an expression or the form of our object of meditation. We are able to do this meditation without much difficulty and it must be admitted that it has been an overall successful practice from the time Master has introduced the system.

Universally several traditions did not devise or recommend a meditation technique based on the supra sensory object of meditation. The meditation method preferred by Lord Krishna, the Sufis, Grand Master and to an extent Sage Patanjali, was different from what we are following now.  In that system of meditation the sadhaka need to have familiarity with the living Master, his habits, actions and develop intense feelings of love before embarking on the meditational practice.

Recognizing the serious requirements and potential difficulties for modern era in following traditional methods, our benevolent and beloved Master SriRamchandraji has devised a system of meditation that is simple, efficacious and one that does not have any limitations.  The only requirement is willingness to transform and giving the method a fair trial.  Our Master goes to the extent of even saying that one does not need any faith in him to test the system. Faith develops after sufficient practice. We and mankind at large must be thankful and grateful to such a greatest Master for giving us an innovative and efficacious system of sadhana.

PRANAMS.