Summary: Explains that meditation has a vast objective and that inner freedom from reactions is crucial. Further giving the example of Ravana explains that simply being a meditator is not enough, one must seek the Divine alone. Speaks about the resistances that arise in sadhana and the importance of commitment to overcome them. Emphasises that life should also continue to grow in light. Explains that the will to change behaviour patterns should be steady.

Our meditation has a vast objective, and as I have often said not just some singular space. Within the comprehensive realisation of the Reality you have many spaces, many way-stations so to speak – so you have to learn to watch and see everything for what they are.

One of the things to see and watch for in sadhana is your behaviour patterns – to recognise what is behind those behaviour patterns, to analyse and understand the behaviour at any given moment and to master that behaviour; and mastery is between and beyond both, suppression and expression, the two opposites.

It is an inner freedom we are seeking, but before you can get there it requires much practice and work and that is what you do in and with your meditation. Inner freedom must come, inner freedom from all reactions. For us reaction is one thing, response is another; to respond consciously rather than to react unconsciously and impulsively, for as a master you respond, not react. Ordinarily you react, while extraordinarily you respond from mastery. Reactions are natural, as it is experienced by anyone and everyone. Finally response will also be natural. The true state and basis of your existence and being, Purusha – it is from there that response comes. When it is a compulsion of prakṛiti, it is a slavery. This has to change to a mastery. That switch has to come, which is one of the objectives of meditation. That is why it is important to observe anything and everything. It is not just about having great spaces but also to be able to be a master at all levels, even so a master of all spaces. Otherwise one moment in one space it feels good, next moment the space changes and you are back where you have always been. The transformation, the complete transformation and a complete transmutation of your life happens only when at every level, at every moment, in every thought, in every feeling, in every passion, in every sensation, you have become free – that is the progression!

Then a special rhythm starts within you, it starts to transform everything, from the body to the mind, from your feelings, emotions and passions to thoughts, ideas and actions, inner life, outer life; but in doing so it raises lots of dust and storm, hurricanes and typhoons also, and you have to deal with it by facing it.

So, this is what you have to start with: watch everything within you, whatever that comes up, good, bad, ugly, pleasant, unpleasant – you have to objectify; then you go beyond likes and dislikes, you go beyond hate, revenge, jealousy, envy, even beyond love. Nobody wants to go beyond love, no, but you can love freely then, otherwise love always has attachments, love has expectations – then you love all, freely; then there is no after effects of that love, because love very easily can turn to hate, and you have a problem again. Then it will be love for its own sake and you are still free, it does not bind you, you bind no one. That binding is there at various levels: you may be free at a certain level, but at other levels you may still be bound, and that is why it is a progression, it is a journey, an inner journey of freedom.

You find freedom at a certain level, you may have some space, feel good about it, and you say, ‘This is over!’ No, it is not over and you will find out. That is only your first freedom. There are many freedoms you have to reach to, because there are many levels to your being. And to be able to live from that freedom, even in the outside, but from the inner light, from the Divine light, and that is why this freedom is required so that you may open to the Divine and Divine alone, because there is also the anti-divine and certain meditations can take you to the anti-divine.

For example, Ravana is a great meditator, a great learned man, a great philosopher, but he opposes the Divine. Meditation is not so easy, it requires great courage, it requires great will, a will to change and submit yourself to the light of the Divine and the Divine alone, because at certain levels it is almost as if the Divine has no existence. At the level of your desires, at the level of your passions, there are all sorts of things in you that is very little of the Divine.

That is why it requires great integrity, sincerity and the inner freedom to analyse objectively, not because it feels good or pleasant and is enjoyable, for this is a barrier. In fact enjoyments can become great barriers to the realisation of the True, the final freedom, the real joy and the complete transformation, because you never inquire into and question the enjoyments. Otherwise whatever you may have achieved in terms of some space or realisation is open to distortion and misinterpretation. Ravana opposes and fights with Rama, the Divine, for he is anti-divine, but in and from the distortion of his ego he sees himself as God while the divine Rama as ordinary. He had a big ego, a very big vital ego. That is why it is the most difficult jump to make; there must be somewhere innate in you the longing to seek Light and Light alone, the True and True alone, the Divine and the Divine alone.

In the meanwhile, of course, you can do meditation for health reasons, for some space, or to become a great guru, a great master, and so forth, but that is all within the realm of the ego. There have been and are multitudes of meditators, but rare is one, who seeks the Divine manifestation, the Divine will. It requires extra work, greater work and sadhana. That is why in the Gītā, Krishna also says, very specifically, “It is rare for someone to seek and know Me in My entirety.”

Manushyāṇāṃ sahasreshu kashchidyatati siddhaye

Yatatāmapi siddhānāṃ kashchināṃ vetti tattvataḥ

Among the human multitudes a rare one here and there strives

after perfection, and of those who strive and attain to perfection

rare is the one who knows me in the entirety of Truth.¹

It is an ongoing progression, it means opening yourself and your life to the Divine and the Divine only. There will be a lot of resistance within and without, naturally so, because at certain levels, like I said, there is resistance, there is distortion, there is even hostility against the Divine. In fact when you reach a certain stage in your sadhana it is one of the things you will observe and become aware of: resistances and obstacles will come in pleasant forms, and also in very unpleasant forms and ways. If you want the complete truth, then you would have to deal with it; if you do not deal with it, and just seek some convenient space as your idea of nirvāṇa, enlightenment or whatever it may be, you will get nowhere long term. It is easy to talk about the Buddha and his nirvāṇa and enlightenment, but Buddha’s nirvāṇa and enlightenment is a real one, of great height and depth, for which you have to make that kind of investment, that kind of commitment. That is why commitment is so important, complete commitment in your being at all levels. One may desire to be the Buddha, but then, when one discovers the reality of the commitment that would have to be made, many fall away.

That is why in the Gītā, Krishna says to Arjuna, “Of the multitudes in the world, few take to this journey, and out of the few who have managed to find this space or that space, or some truth, it is a rare one who reaches and knows Me completely.” This is because it requires a complete commitment, inner commitment, complete inner attunement to the True, and a long, very long journey of sadhana. It is a progression, of course, it does not happen overnight, because to win over and conquer oneself is the most difficult thing. The Buddha says, “One who has conquered oneself is greater than one who has conquered the world.” He should know! And we too know!

It is the greatest journey to take to, this is the ultimate journey, all journeys are within it, but it requires continuous sadhana, continuous working with oneself, watching oneself, watching anything and everything, really, objectively, with the will to succeed, to know, and to be free from everything, internally. Free from all ideas, conditionings, then you can be free in and of every condition, and in that freedom a special process awakens, which is the process of Yoga, and there is no end to that process, this is our sadhana. There is no end to that process; infinite is the process, infinite is its reach, endless is the process. Has it not continued in this life too, from the past, for me? And it will continue to do so, every life I come. It is a misunderstanding that life comes to an end and the process comes to an end with enlightenment or nirvāṇa. It need not be so, although it may be for some and even many who do not want or have the stamina for the whole truth. This is not only my realisation, but of others in the past and confirmed in the Gītā by Lord Krishna.

What is the Avatāra? If you were to think about it, life now, as it is, is full of ignorance. Is it to continue so? Can there be no life with enlightenment, lived from and out of light and wisdom? Does it mean you have to give up life to reach to enlightenment? Can there be no life of increasing light and wisdom? Surely, this cannot be? Then life would be such a waste. How would there be an evolving life? How would there be divine life? Now there is animal life, there is human life, but what about divine life? Can you not live out of a freedom? Why does it have to be out of a bondage and slavery to our feelings, desires and cravings, much and mostly from ignorance and darkness, or at the most a mix of darkness and light? Why can it not be full light instead of just partial light as it is now? Why can it not be a conscious one, rather than a mixed up unconscious one? Think about it. So if you can never live a life in and of full light, that means this light is limited and a life lived from limited light will always be limited and meaningless. It means that light is limited only to some space and the moment you are in light you cannot live life: that means that light has a limitation. That means that light can only be restricted to a certain plane, or to some space or level. It seems so. There are regions in the consciousness where darkness and ignorance prevail, where distortion prevails, where perversions and corruption prevail, where unhappiness prevails, and that is why as a reaction, to get out of such condition, you seek light. And once you find light, you leave life and all this behind but you do not necessarily bring the change, the transformation and light to these regions. It is like moving to another space and location, that is it! That means you are pushed out of life without bringing any change in and to life consciousness. Of course, in the course of increasing illumination and light, life would not continue to be in the usual way, for one it would not be in the darkness of ignorance, or the arrogance of the ego. Rather, it would be in the light of the Divine consciousness and in and of the power and will of the Divine, and this is what we seek.

So the object of meditation is vast and huge: it includes the whole of your life, every corner of your being, every cell in your body, every thought of your mind, every feeling and every emotion, with a free personality, and therefore, with you as its Master. Our approach is simple, but the end is complete. Because our approach is simple, it does not seem much; travel a little with us, and then you will start to see: outwardly it seems simple, inwardly it is quite complex and you will see how difficult it can get.

Please read the sentence.

F. reading the sentence of the day: ‘Meditation is to be able to see the repetition of the same behaviour patterns.’ – Giridharji

And more!

(Long pause)

When you break your patterns, when you start to live a life of meditation, even your breathing pattern changes, the breath starts to work in a different way, starts to work internally; these are the secret processes of Yoga. It can only be a pattern if it is repeated; obviously it has repeated many times, that is why it is a pattern. So you should not be unaware of it repeating itself, you already know because it has happened before; it is just that you have not lived with full awareness, you do not watch and observe, and you live life unconsciously. It is nothing new, but if you need to make the change you need to recognise and realise that.

For example, let us look at addictions, people have various addictions – obvious examples like alcohol addiction, tobacco addiction, and other not so obvious kind of addictions like addiction to each other for instance which may not be beneficial to either and needs to change. There are many others which are not so obvious; it may be to me, but to you it may take a little while to see them. (Laughing)

Usually consequences tell you, but it may not be enough that the consequence is the parameter by which you see, you will have to observe and analyse the consequence too, as to the nature of the consequence and why it is there. For instance, if one is an alcoholic, it adversely affects one’s life, the family and one’s health as the consequence. It needs to change, you see it, but then the addiction is there to the behaviour pattern with its compulsiveness. Addiction is a pattern and there is a compulsive force behind it which needs to be dealt with. As Aurobindo says, “Regularity is a force in itself.” When you become regular with one thing then it has a force, it has a life of its own, and to alter and change it requires a lot of work. First, one should have the will to change, otherwise you can keep thinking, ‘Yeah, I should change.’ Many people do, but then they keep repeating the same pattern, that is why it has to move to the next level. First you see and make the observation, that is one level, next you realise and understand it needs to change, that is the second level, and third, you have to put in the effort to change it. Otherwise most people express helplessness and keep saying, ‘Oh, I know, but I cannot help myself.’ There must be a will to see and observe, a will to realise and understand, and a will to change it through the required effort.

To begin with, one can take help from the outside, but you will have to bring the force from within, the strength of will, that is why we talk about the conscious will, the power of the will. That is what is called the sincerity of purpose, integrity and sincerity of purpose and commitment. Are you committed? If you are committed then you have the will but if you are not committed you will see people making many promises like new year’s promises and vows but it doesn’t last. They make promises and take vows because they are in a moment of inspiration but over time the moment passes and then it gets difficult and that is where the will comes in. In a moment of inspiration you are feeling on top of the world and you make this promise and maybe it is something that you do because you want to impress somebody, or whatever. That is why you have to be very careful, do not try to impress anyone otherwise later on you will end up in a compress! You have to be objective and realistic and also if you need to impress anyone it is you, yourself that is to be impressed. Otherwise as soon as that moment of inspiration is gone, your old mind and self comes up again with all its force and suggestions, ‘Come on, it is alright, you can do it once more,’ or whatever, and all kinds of excuses like ‘Yeah, I might have said so, but you know…’ (Laughing) This is what happens and that is why there is another level where you have to then work this out and this working out is what stands you in strength, which is your will and commitment.

Meditation is to also develop this will, commitment and progression. Life tests you in various ways. You have the choice and the freedom, of course, to make it quick or slow. Sometimes you manage but sometimes you don’t, and end up backtracking to the old mind and self again, ‘Well, I did resist for some time, ok, one more time giving in won’t do much harm.’ It all comes up within – so you observe yourself and through all that you have to find your way, you have to make your path and journey, and keep travelling. These are the ways of life.

So if you seek inspiration, seek for inspiration within, do not seek it from your wife, girlfriend, husband, boyfriend, whatever, because they are also variables. You will never know when the girlfriend may change, or the boyfriend may change, or the wife may change, or the husband may change, yes, these are variables. (Laughing) Suddenly you may feel this moment of love and you may feel inspired, but a seeker and meditator is watchful of these moments. He knows that this is nothing but a moment of frivolity – only a moment of emotion, or passion, or whatever, that is all, and it will change, so he does not get carried away so easily. The inspiration, the commitment, should come from the soul. It is like a steady flame – that is why you have to guard it, so that the winds of emotions and passions do not blow it out. You have to protect the flame, you have to put a glass of protection around it, so that the light continues to shine and the wind does not blow it out.

Meditation is that flame, it is your soul, it is your commitment, it is the source of your inspiration, it is the light that will show you the way. You have to protect it; otherwise you will end up shipwrecked. The other day I was talking about the lighthouse: your meditation is your lighthouse around which the ship of your life will travel. And the ship has to find its way through storms, winds and hurricanes whenever they appear. Sometimes there are calm and easy moments, but then there are moments of storm, too. That is why you need the lighthouse, to guide the ship of your life; otherwise, shipwrecked straight on the rocks. Then from one hard rock to another hard rock, rock to rock, life of hard rock and roll! So you must find your lighthouse within, then you can rock and roll without getting shipwrecked.

U.: How to deal with other people while we are rocking and rolling?

The other people are rocking and rolling too, it is the journey of life; it takes a while before you can steady your ship to the light of the lighthouse for there is lot of rocking of the ship in the storm winds of life. The ship rocks from one side to the other but you continue to take steady bearing on the light of the lighthouse, so that the ship keeps to her steady course on a straight line and does not end up on the rocks. Just so, there are emotional storms, storms of passion, and turbulence of thoughts – all sorts of thoughts, and events and situations that rock the ship of your life. But you have laid the course on the chart, you have to keep to that course, then you can deal with the winds and the storm.

That is why you need the radar of the will and the steering wheel of commitment to keep you on course. If you have no radar and the steering wheel in a storm, what is going to happen to you? Shipwrecked and sunk!

So let your meditation guide you, let your sadhana guide your life. Let the ship of your life be guided by the lighthouse of your meditation, the lighthouse of the Divine light. Then you will never be shipwrecked, and even if your ship gets wrecked, you can always swim, for you are not the ship but its master!

Arya Vihar

7 Aug 2010