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________________ MEDITATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT CHANDR-PRABH
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________________ MEDITATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT CHANDR PRABH SRI JIT-YASHA SHREE FOUNDATION, CALCUTTA
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________________ Published by: Sri Jit-yasha Shree Foundation 9C-Esplanade Row East Calcutta-700 069 Affability by : Shri Manak Chand Betala, Trustee Shri Amar Chand Betala Trust Madras English version by : Shyam Shreshtha Edition: IInd, 1992 Price: Rs. 15.00 Printed by: Bharat Printers (Press) Jalori Bari, Jodhpur
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________________ CONTENTS 14 24 31 46 52 1. Musk remains inside the navel 2. Let's go beyond the mind 3. Surrender of Frustration 4. Meditation Across Self 5. Knocking at the Door of the Vacuum 6. At the Roots of Existence 7. There is the Path of Purification 8. Come, Let's Immortalize Life 9. Stages of Trance : Solitude, Silence and Meditation 10. Meditation : Nature and Application 11. Under the Shade of Trance 12. Thinking of the Supreme-being through disciplining of breath 13. Fearless Movement in Six cycles 14. Be a Spectator of Consciousness 94 103 113
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________________ Musk remains inside the navel Life itself is the best value of life. It has no other-greater value than life. He, whose eyes are fixed at the life-values, is the most dynamic person of the world. Real life is that wbich is beyond death. Within all of us is such a life that never dies. That which dies, has no relation at all with life. Life does not die. The body dies, thoughts die, the heart dies, and they ought to die. It does not matter if anyone's body is dying, but when the life-values are assaulted, then the person dies from within. If the body is becoming ruined, if the thoughts are dying, the heart is getting the last rites of the body performed at some burning-ghat; that is the happiest incident of life. Life is but a moving current. This current did exist even before birth, and this current continues even after birth. This current would continue even after death. A pond can shrink, but not the river. The current was available even before the birth, add the current is continuing even after death. Life is a current. Current is synonymous to life. Those who desire to get immersed, get lost in their current, they either travel to Gangasagar or trek to Gangotri. To remain static in the mid-Ganga is not the dynamism of life. Sail your boat either towards Gangotri or towards Gangasagar. Going towards Gangotri is going towards the supreme space. Going towards Gangasagar is going towards vastness. Going towards Gangasagar is spreading one's own self, expanding it. Contrary to it, going towards Gangotri is going towards the spot where the
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________________ 2/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh Ganga has originated. Originality lies in Gangotri from where the Ganga has originated, and is going on proceeding towards Gangasagar. Gangotri is but the root, and the rest is making mountain of the mole-hill. These are the xerox copies of an original copy. Positives are many, but their negative is only one. Life has two paths: The person has to either spread himself outwards, or make himself return within his own self. These are the only two routes to be followed by any human being. The journey of outside-the journey of expansion is also not any dangerous journey. For a person, the journey of the external can also be very fine, and the journey of the internal can be harmful too. If anyone wants to expand himself, well let him do so. But he should not stop after spreading himself only to his family and to the locality he lives in. The person who spreads himself only to his family and his locality is putting shackles of attachment in his legs with his own hands, and the person who goes on spreading himself upto eternity, he realizes the greatness of the Supreme soul. Such a person is abandoning himself in the waves of eternity and is also spreading himself. There is neither attachment nor infatuation. There is only the extension and expanse of the waves of the soul. A person gets drowned just where he gets enchained in the waves of the heart. A person who allows his boat to sail in the waves of the soul, expands himself there. If any person expands himself upto eternity in course of his outward journey, then there is no loss. Do go on expanding yourself upto eternity, upto the last extreme of the cosmos, and then when you commence the journey to return within, even those few steps would be excellent. The expansion outward should be upto eternity, and the editing within should be upto zero. Meditation when you are alone, and love when you are in company. If you accomplish both simultaneously, monkhood would be achieved in the domestic life itself. Whenever you find yourself lonely in the house, get immersed in your own self, forget the world, the family. Get so much immersed in your own self that the supreme space becomes incarnate, you get entry into the supreme life. When you find
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________________ Musk remains inside the navel/3 someone near you, then shower on him the nectar of love, coronate him with your kinship, your gentleness. This pure love is the very basic element of non-violence. There are two general traditions in the world--those of meditation and of devotion, Some religion would give importance to meditation, and some to devotion. But the aforesaid method is the equation of meditation and devotion. Meditation and love are the chief bases of the feeling of the supreme life. Meditation is the journey within. The journey within is, but very short, neither a long nor a broad one, nor covering thousands of miles. Even these few steps for the inward journey would be very fine. The only means for the seeking of inside is that when a person enters into his meditation, he should prepare himself fully for that. He should become committed for that; for, without commitment meditation is not accomplished. He accomplishes cent-percent meditation, who enters meditation with a commitment to it. Commitment means concentration of all your energy at some particular point. Commitment does not just mean becoming determined in the heart about something. The things I will say are related to the blacksmith, I shall not indulge in talks related to the goldsmith. The goldsmith strikes slowly for hundred of days and makes ornaments. Contrary to this, the blacksmith completes his work by hammering hard in a single day. My hammer is similar to that of the blacksmith whose one single strike is equivalent to hundred strikes of the goldsmith Either there will take place a metamorphosis in life, or you will be separated from me. I would rather strive to bring about a metamorphosis in your life-a change that would cause the life to get ordained. Therefore, let this hammer of the blacksmith enter deep inside you, because if I use the goldsmith's hammer then it would be futile. The goldsmith's hammer would be effective only where there are golden wires. But, where the iron has got rusted, only the blacksmith's hammer would be effective.
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________________ 4/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh Hence, first of all, I shall see that man concentrates all his energy and power on one point. Only that person who lives by accumulating his energy in totality, can achieve concentration. The fragments of energy are accumulated in the life of that person. Trance is but the accumulation and equation of the mind and the consciousness which are going on getting divided into pieces. The scattering of consciousness is the creation of masks. Only he is honest to life who preserves consciousness in its totality and lives in it. ARHAT MANEESHA has given a good word-pratikraman' (bringing back). It means bringing the consciousness back from all those places wherever it is getting attached. If my consciousness gets attached to you, I shall call it back, because the attachment of home is calling. Memory is calling. Memory of home is the foundation-stone of the certainty of commitment. The most appropriate place to get one's energy concentrated is the centre of light between the two eyes. Concentrate your energy at this centre. If even after concentrating all your energy, there is no vibration of the soul, nor is there any perception of consciousness, in that case one thing that is quite certain is that your conscience will be completely accomplished. Conscience will bloom in full in your mind. The person who concentrates his inner consciousness in the mind, his conscience remains complete. You just imagine-I am also a small creature. I strived and succeeded in concentrating the energy of thoughts and heart. I shall say that if you concentrate all your energy, power of consciousness here for only seven days, then within these seven days, you will begin to perceive the vibration of consciousness. The consciousness which is getting distributed in the body, getting scattered, you would find that getting accumulated at a place. Just as the watch ticks, so also takes place the vibration of self-perceptions. Vibration would be felt too. This light gets accumulated in the mind, and the perception of self-vibrations is bound to occur if a man concentrates all his energy, his consciousness at one place. Even a stone wears away if the flow of water from a tap falls persistently at one particular spot.
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________________ Musk remains inside the navel/5 . Man has divided his energy too. A little energy in money while a little in religion. Spent some energy in earning, and some in building temples. The river within a man has been divided into twenty five parts. How can the river now remain there ? Now, tiny brooks have been formed there. A river will again be formed if we rejoin all these brooks. Electricity--energy -is bound to be produced there, where the river flows in a single current. There is no reason for non-production of electricity there. Have you ever seen electricity being generated ? Go to any dam. You will find that water is accumulated in a reservoir, and then it is released to fall with a great speed upon a turbine. Electricity will be generated if the water-current falls on the turbine incessantly. Where there is one current, intensity and concentration, power or energy is bound to be produced. If you do not get success in meditation, just search your soul, and enquire within where have you defaulted ? If you are taking energy to one place, then there the strength of your arms will be recognised, the strength of soul will be respected. There will be no trace at all of insult and slip. I want that man should totally transform himself from within. Scanty drizzle is not rain. Rain should fall so much as would enable the crop to grow, Of what use is the rain which does not even dampen the dust on the earth ? A nice word is 'Vrata' a religious vow 'Vrata' means becoming aloof. Getting aloof from the act, the consequence whereof is enjoined to the misery of type. People have divided the 'Vrata'. They say one is 'anuvrata' (the atom-vow) and the other is 'mahavrata' (the vast-vow) *Anu-vrata' means-one relinquished something, and also enjoyed it. To relinquish a little while consuming it, is 'anu-vrata'. 'Maha-vrata' is total detachment from enjoyment. 'Vrata' is always 'maha-vrata'. If the tendency to enjoy persists, then the 'vrata' is not complete in the real sense of the term. "Vrata' is liberation from desire. I shall ask you not to have so much faith in 'anu-vrata' as in 'maha-vrata'. In my opinion 'anu-vrata' is just coaxing a
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________________ 6/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh person. Revolution should take place in life. Either on this side of the river or on the side across. Either become a complete thief, or a completely honest person. What is this middle path being followed ? Externally, a man is posing as an honest person, but closetting himself behind the doors, dishonesty is being practised. Man's life should be an open book. Clean and plain like a palm. Whatever he is, he is so with honesty. Life should proceed either to this side, or to that side. Don't put yourself on the middle course. A man gives up cigarettes. Just pay a little attention. A person smokes twenty cigarettes in a day. He says I have smoked five cigarettes less today. He has become an 'anu-vrati' (practiser of 'anu-vrata"). I don't know what discipline of 'anu-vrata' he follows. You have lessened five cigarettes, but still smoking fifteen cigarettes. The desire to smoke and its hangover remains still. Either smoke twenty cigarettes, or give-up smoking completely. It is not giving-up if you give-up little by little. Don't try to apply the trader's trick of little by little. If you think: well, the water-pot gets filled-up with droplets and drops, the whole life will be gone by the time the pot is filled up. And yet, it is not certain if the jar will be actually filled or not. Therefore, fill-up your jar in its entirety. If you have to give-up smoking, well, give it up altogether. A man fears and yet wants to smoke. Forget about smoking, plunge into meditation. Smoking will be automatically discarded. If the nectar of self gets awakened, the attachment to others would be automatically lessened. People come to me and say, 'I lose my temper very much. What should I do to get rid of this?' I show them a way-I ask them to meditate with absolute concentration. They enquire, 'Well, sir! I ask you to tell me how to lessen anger, and you are telling me to meditate. Both these things appear incoherent to my mind'. I explain to him, leave worrying about anger aside; and if you do smoke, then shed-off even the memory thereof. Just forget that you are a smoker. Your only work is to meditate one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. The capsule of meditation which you will take in the morning will
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________________ Musk remains inside the navel/7 remain effective throughout the day, and its evening-dose would remain effective till the next morning. Just practise this for seven days and then tell me if your anger has been contained or not. I just strive for a person to concentrate his energy at one place. Energy has been divided into Cigarettes, you would divide it in money. The more energy is divided, the more desire is born, lust is created, and when lust is born, death comes nearer. Man should strive to accumulate his internal energy. Only such a person is a committed one. A man can achieve something only with a commitment. Therefore, fight-with meditation, clashwith meditation. Forget smoking so that meditation, only meditation remains. If you have to fight, fight with meditation; fighting with smoking is not worthwhile. Once upon a time a lion and a donkey met face to face in a jungle. Said the donkey, 'I shall fight with you'. The lion said'You cannot fight with me.' The donkey said, 'Don't brag too much. Just a kick of mine would fling you far away.' The lion, bore with listening to the donkey's nonsense for some time, and then went away from there. Now the donkey began to beat his own drum, 'I have made the lion flee.' The lion met a fox on the way. She asked-'O, the King of the jungle ! You could have shown the donkey stars in the day time if you so desired. But you retreated, Why? The lion said, 'What has happened to your wisdom these days, O fox? You could not understand even such a simple matter! Why should I fight with donkey which in no way is my equal? If even then I defeat the donkey in the fight, people would not give it any importance. In the fight between a lion and a donkey, the lion must have won. How could a donkey stand before a lion. Where has the lion's wisdom gone? He found only the donkey to fight against. Besides this, suppose by chance the donkey's kick gets me at some wrong place, and I am defeated, the people would say-being a lion he has been defeated by a donkey. Therefore, why to fight beings below my level, why to prove my valour against them ?" This is the difference. If you have to fight after all, fight with anger, fight with meditation. The real lion in life is but
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________________ 8/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh this. Fight with him. I have lions, no donkeys. Come fight the lions. I teach you to fight the lions. Do not think that you have no strength. You do have strength. The only difference is that you have not recognised that strength. The strength lies hidden in your inner-conscience. The need is to seek and recognise it. An old woman used to say, that she had become weak, and she had no strength. She always walked with the help of a wooden stick One night wbile she was sleeping on her bed, all of a sudden a snake appeared there. On seeing the reptile, one does not know whence she got all the strength to jump down the bed, and began to run fast shouting 'A snake, a snake'! The same old woman who could not walk without a stick, regained her strength on noticing the snake. Light will be created where man would concentrate all his energy. New life will be welcome. Meditation means concentrating energy. Therefore, do concentrate all your energy here. Thereafter, make correct use of this energy. You must extend yourself outwards, upto eternity, but first of all know your inside. So long as the inside is not known, 'Ram' (God) can not be identified at all. You wish to recognise Ram, God ? First of all, know your own self. But this is not happening. Man is riding a donkey, and is running too. Someone asked him on the way, 'Where are you going, brother'? He said, 'I am going in search of my donkey.' The stranger laughed, and said, Gentleman, you are actually seated upon the donkey. Didn't this strike your mind ? You are running in search of something upon which you are seated. That thing is with you, you need not go anywhere to search it.' One day some gentleman, interested in meditation and devotion came to me and said, 'I am in search of God.' I felt like laughing on hearing him-- 'You are searching God. When was He lost, that you are searching'? If anything is lost, then it can be searched too. What to search when nothing has been lost ? You need not look for Him. He is sitting near you, and is
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________________ Musk remains inside the navel/9 laughing at your ignorance. You need to only open your eyes, you need not wander looking for him. The lamp is alight. It has neither oil nor wick, and yet it is alight. 'Appa deepo bhava' (Be a famp yourself). You are such a lamp which the storm would fail to extinguish. Recognise that lamp. Its flame, its light is not coming out. The screens, which have covered that light, need to be removed. The lamp was never extinguished; it has been alight since ages. The final end arrives when that gets extinguished. The lamp within never gets extinguished, it is eternal. It has become always alight, it is alight, and would continue to be alight. However virtuous, or however sinful a man becomes or goes into the embrace of death or to the lap of life, this eternal lamp would remain alight. There is no way whatsoever to extinguish it. Even in the worst deluge, this lamp is not to be extinguished. The only thing needed is to open the eyes : "Tero tere paas hai, apne mahin tatol, Rai ghatai; na til barhe, hari bolo, hari bol" [Yours is with you, search it within yourself. Neither a drachm increases nor a grain decreases, such is the glory of God.] The words are very simple. I wish you could look for, what is yours around you, inside your own self. After all, our shadow must be somewhere close to us, not a hundred kilometers away from us. What would you call the man whose purse is in his pocket, and he is going to the police station in search of it. His own eye-sight is connected with outside, therefore the man is beginning his search outwardly. The outside light belongs to someone else; your light is connected but with your own self. Its possibilities exist in your own self. When my possibility is connected with me, then why to search for it anywhere else ? You are Hari (God). Just call yourself with some love. To love your originalities is to find yourself in the spiritual world. One thing more : It is not just sufficient to chant 'Hari-Hari' (God-God). Just by uttering 'jap-jap' (Chant-Chant), 'jap' does not occur. 'Jap' occurs in becoming. Do you know the real meaning of 'Hari'?
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________________ 10/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh People think 'Hari' means God. No! 'Hari' does not mean God; God is but an imposed meaning. The Jainis worship 'Arihant' (Killer of the enemy). They think he is God. Factually, its meanings are very peculiar. Hari means one who removes. The work of a robber is to rob. Hari's work is to remove. He who performs 'haran' (removes) is Hari. He who removes the weaknesses and defects of human beings, is Hari. 'Arihant' means a killer. Who is to be killed? Will he pound the clothes? The victor of enemies one does not know, is proceeding to vanguish which Hitler? Which Nepolean is to be defeated? These are the meanings. Only on going to the bottom of these, the reality is identified. These meanings are lying hidden underneath. Only on plunging in the depth, they can be identified. These meanings are to be found out. Conqueror of the self is the real 'Arihant'. Only he, who removes our defects, is our Hari. As such, when you go to Hari, nothing will happen on just chanting 'Hari Hari'. 'Jap' occurs only on being something, and then 'Hari' is achieved. The existence of Hari is felt only where a person happens to be something. The person chanting 'Hari Hari' is just seeking outside. When we are something, then Hari speaks from within us. The selfrealisation that takes place at that time, is the journey of the speechless. It is there that Hari is realised. The sound of 'para' (the knowledge of the supreme self) echoes there. We get a glimpse of Hari there. We are face to face with the supreme self. The person who tries to seek only outside, should go out but prior to that he should check inside himself. Just search within yourself wherever you are seated. But he, whom you are searching, is never lost. He has been rather found out. You need not earn, that is with you. Put your hand inside the pocket, and take it out; your wealth is in your own pocket. If you put your hand inside, it is yours, and if you don't do so, you remain a beggar even though the money yours. You look for it near me, and I search it near you. This is what man is doing. He is searching the thing that is with him, somewhere else, and the name of this very thing is mirage.
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________________ Musk remains inside the navel/11 It is not a very old incident. A sage was sleeping in his hut. He dreamt of a river four kilometers away. There is a tree on the bank of the river. Some treasure is lying underneath the tree. The sage woke up on seeing the treasure. He thought it was mere a dream. When on the next day, and the day thereafter, the same dream was seen, then the sage could not restrain himself. He thought there must be someting, otherwise he would not have seen the same dream every night. The sage set-out. Just after walking four kilometers, a river was seen. A tree was also seen pear the river. Now the sadbu became anxious how to findout the treasure on digging under the tree. The sage returned back to his but after having waited for the policeman to leave the place. The sage came on the second day, and also on the third day, but returned back again when he saw the policeman not moving away from there. When the sage came there after four days, then the soldier stopped him and began to say--"O great sage, I have to ask you something." Sadhu-Well, ask it. The policeman-I have been seeing a dream for the last three days. The sage--"'I have also been seeing a dream for the last three days and I am coming here only to have that dream come true." The sepoy said--"First of all, you listen about my dream. I have been dreaming that four kilometers from here is the hut of a sage where a 'fakir' (a sage) is sleeping. Plenty of wealth is lying hidden under his bed. Are you the same sage ?" On hearing this much, the sage ran towards his hut. Oh! the wealth was near me and I was wandering somewhere else in search of it. This is what is happening. The sepoy is seeking money in the sage's hut, and the sage is in search of a treasure somewhere else. Here, every person is looking for wealth, the God, between one another. No one is trying to see inside bis own self. God says that to know the wealth within is an attempt to see wealth, he who makes such an attempt is a real wealthy person. If you have forgotten your wealth, you have become a pauper indeed. Come
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________________ 12/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh to me. Plenty of wealth lies buried here. Just know your own self and you would find the extent of wealth lying scattered near you. There is no other wealth of the world comparable to the selfwealth. Just think of the moment when your coffin would be lifted unceremoniously. The self-wealth will disappear, and the worldly wealth will remain behind you here. You are yourself made of earth, but have decorated your home with all the golden utensils. You are a tiny thing but your aspirations are limitless like the sky. One thing is, however, certain that on the day when earth will go inside the earth, neither gold, nor silver will come to your rescue. Even if the worldly wealth is lost, but self-wealth is safe, then take it to be a great fortune. If the original is in our hand, and its photocopy is lost, then does its originally get adversely affected ? To raise one's eyes towards one's own originality is 'sambodhi' (self-realisation). Meditation is the return to the originality of the self. Meditation is the process of coming back in the self. One who returned to his own self, became wealthy with his own wealth. Meditation is just the other name of that wealthiness. If meditation meaningfully succeeds in becoming completely engrossed in self, then it can serve as a knock at the door of 'Kaivalya'. 'Kaivalya' means knowing one's own self. Meditation is the basis for entering in this entire environment. Entry into self is religion, and meditation is the key to religion. Meditation is the essence of religion. In fact, religion originates from meditation. The first formula of meditation is inquiry about the self. The second formula is approval of the self. The third formula is to get immersed in the self. These three formulae comprise the first chapter of all the traditions of meditation developed in the world, and are also the epilogue of the entire expanse of meditation. Man's life is getting finished in meeting with the strangers and in reading a few books. Other's death is a challenge to you. Life: is seeping away drop by drop. Life should be made before it
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________________ Musk remains inside the navel/13 perishes, the eternity concealed within transience should be collected en-masse. After all, one has to go alone. Has to go leaving behind all the relations. It would be better if you express the sense of loneliness while you are still alive. Relations are worldly affairs, and loneliness is monkhood. My call is for that very monkhood. Make yourself detached, like a lotus in water. Meditation would help you in this. Take full help. The sun is to emerge from the sky to make you play. Become dedicated with commitments full of meditation to salvage your pomegranatelotus out of the mud, so that the sun is able to make the lotuspetals bloom. Being so is the tryst with eternity.
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________________ Let's go beyond the mind The spirit is beyond the echoes of body, speech and mind. The perseverance of body and speech is straight and clear. It is the mind which is a pot without a bottom. The mind's habit is to go on hoofing the earth it stands upon like a horse. There is no term of exchange between the spirit and the mind. Spiritualism is liberation from the alternative whereas the mind is attachment to alternative. As such, how can there be any deal between the mind and the spirit ? All the dynamism and liveliness of life is connected with the realisation of reality. What has the mind got to do with realism ? When the reality of his own personality is at stake, how can he accurately evaluate the equation of gold ? The mind is fond of travelling. It is the mind which talks of seeking God, and it inspires to taste the wordly pleasures too. Its work is to move the person away from body and thought, and never allow him to settle down on an arm-chair. It is the nature of the vagabond mind to go on flying like a bee round the clock. It never travels to the burial ground/cremation ghat; all its journey is confined to the liveliness of the earthen body. The mind is but a sieve. The person, who is called 'Buddha' or the wise is a mere fool in front of mind. Man continues to waste the water of his whole life through the sieve of heart aimlessly. Optimism is certainly the basis of living, but where will the grave- . yard of those hopes would be dug for which man journeyed to the graveyard instead of life?
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________________ Let's go beyond the mind/15 "Umare daraz maang kar, laaye the chaar din, Do aarzoo mein kat gaye, do intezaar mein" -ZAFAR [I had got my life-span enhanced by four days; two days were spent in desiring, and the two other in waiting.] Involvement is certainly the basis of perseverance for life, but it is indispensable to read the epilogue of detachment. Detachment because one day man bas to depart all alone leaving behind each and everything here. On receiving the ticket for departure, the entire society is there to see you off, to cremate you, but no one from the entire world to be a co-traveller on the funeral pyre. On the funeral pyre does not burn one's money, but only dry wood : "Chaar jane mili khaat uthaye, Rowat le chale dagar dagaria, Kahe Kabir suno bhai sadho, Sang chali woh sookbi lakadiyan." [Four persons have lifted the cot, and carrying through the streets, weeping all the time. Poet Kabir says : listen 0, gentleman, the only thing that accompanies are the dry wood.] This death that takes place in life is not a fact, but a recess in the strain and strife of the mind, the realisation of its futility. Even if in any one birth, one could not know the soul, the super soul or the spirit, but he just minutely read and scrutinized the credential of the mind, it can be said that he has traversed a major part of the way leading to the destination. Man does get hold of the understanding of the body and the thoughts but cannot hold the tail of the heart. It is beneficial to catch even a lock of the fleeing thief's hair, but first of all the footsteps of the thief need to be heard. Without knowing the beginning or the end, the man sits down to measure-up the sky. Mind is but fickle moment after moment. If the mind itself be life, then for maintaining it, household and shop-market should
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________________ 16/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh be arranged. If the mind is lifeless, why should there be any hesitation in picking dry wood to cremate it? Whether it is to be maintained or buried, knowledge of its reality is awareness towards one's own self. Creation of the mind is an extraordinary presentation of physiology. The skeleton of the body is formed with the co-operation and co-ordination of several atoms. The mind becomes verbose in it, just as intoxication takes place with the making of wine. The thinkers who have accepted as life-element or soul element, the element that is brought forth by the synthesis of earthwater, air-fire, is not exactly the life-element or the soul-element, but the mind element. Man has no original/verbal existence of its own. It is a meaningless element. Man has kept tending many a crisis along with the mind. He can conceal any sin of his from the world, but it is beyond his power to conceal it from the world. He can somehow throw dust in others' or even in his own eyes, but the mind has a thousand eyes. Nothing can be concealed from it. A man can flee anywhere from the strife and strain of life, but there is no escape from the heart. In order to become free from the external suffocation efforts become possible easily, but he becomes unable to form any front to get rid of the internal suffocation. The crowd of thoughts is more dangerous than the crowd of the people. The mind finds interest in the crowd of the thoughts, and it also feels suffocated therein. The worry, tension and suffocation a man feels due to crowd of thoughts, are not felt by him amidst the crowd of the people. Man can take shelter in a cave to save himself from the crowd of people, but there is neither any cave nor solitude anywhere in the world to be safe from the crowds of thoughts. There is no harm if there is a crowd of people around us, but the crowd of thoughts cause suffocation and suffocation. The suffocation of thoughts is the main artery of the mental tension. To become healthy, it is necessary to keep the heart tensionfree. The perfection of health is connected with freedom from tension of the body as well as the mind. A tension-free man is
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________________ Let's go beyond the mind 17 the traveller of the path of the spirit. One who is enchained with mental worry, he may be healthy and disease-free bodily, but mentally he always feels perturbed and disgusted. He settles down as if in 'Padmasan' (a yogic posture) for the things of his interest, but generally he leads a monkey-brand life. How to steady his legs at some particular place, is not found by man in the book of his experiences. The mind remains expressed and un-expressed too. 'Chitta' is but the unexpressed form of mind. The work of mind remains connected with external life and its systems and customs. The mind leaps and frisks only in the sky of future, whereas 'chitta' is the meeting of the present with the past. The seeds of past memories and past sacramentalities remain on the earth. The episodes of the former life are also understood only with the help of chitta'. The deeper the concentration of meditation, the clearer will be all the sacramentalities of 'Chitta' like a movie, on the screen of the inner-consciousness. The viewing of the incidents of the former birth/life is nothing but the photography of the sacramentalities of 'chitta'. 'Jaati-smaran' (consciousness about caste) is the intensity of 'chittas' attachment with the past; but the viewing of future cannot take place through 'chitta'. 'Chitta' makes the viewing of the future or the present link of the future. Future is the campus of mind. If the concentration of mind is accomplished, man can receive in advance some signals of his future. Meditation is concerned more with mental activities than with 'Chitta'. As such purification of mind is indispensable for meditation. But perfection of meditation lies in making the 'Chitta' free from sacramentalities. The person without 'mun' (mind) necessarily becomes a free man. The vacuum in the 'chitta' makes one feel about the liberation of 'mun'. Therefore, the purity of 'mun' and 'chitta' are both necessary for knocking at the door of trance and 'Kaivalya' (the realisation that only God is the truth). Man should neither feel worried, nor should he get disinterested due to the scattering of mind during the moments of meditation.
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________________ 18/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh He should rather get awakened by it. Supreme awakening is the foundation-stone of meditational attainment. The fickleness that takes place during the moments of meditation is not the state of meditation but the state of dream of a person. Fickleness whether be it in the meditation or in sleep in the form of dream, is a fantasy that is but the misconception of mind. The tour that is undertaken by the mind is just the transformation of the state of dream. The only difference is that in the former both body and mind remain awakened, while in the latter the body remains asleep while the mind remains awakened. Loneliness is rather common to both. Even while in bed at night a man is entirely lonely in sleep, and in meditation too he is all alone. There may be ten persons sleeping in one bedroom or hundred persons sitting in the meditation hall, still his loneliness stays in solitude. Meditation remains not in the fickleness of mind, but in its concentration or emptiness. Just as the wandering of thoughts in the dream is the stampede of mind, so also, the flight of mind while seated on 'padmasan' (a yogic posture), conducive especially to meditation, is a challenge to getting aloof from one's own sitting. Just as sleeping whole night with dreams is not sleeping in the real sense of the term, so also to go into meditation with the stampede of the mind is not meditation. In fact a man should not get attached to the mind in the moments of meditation, but he should examine the mind. In order to form a thoughtless/nonalternative state, it is unfailingly beneficial to view the thoughts/ imaginations with impartiality. The basic principle to maintain the concentration of meditation intact is : ''let, what happens, happen." You just go on watching as the viewer of what is happening. If the mind is not intent upon meditation, it should be noted for good that the mind, wherever it wanders to, away from meditation at the time of meditation, will not remain settled there either. Factually, that is not a durable commodity. In order to live in spiritualism, the detachment of . mind is cent-per-cent acceptable.
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________________ Let's go beyond the mind/19 Whatever comes to the mind let it come. Don't enter into a bond of friendship to it of your own self. To mould the activities of life as per the dictates of mind, is alienation from spiritualism. Those who have accepted this self-deviation, are staking the immortal in the name of the mortal. The involvement of life is both in attraction and in repulsion. Attraction is attachment, repulsion is prejudice. Mind is, after all, filled-up, whether it is with attachment or prejudice. So long as there is water in a pot, it will not be called empty whether the water is clear or turbid. The clear liness of the pot necessitates its becoming completely devoid of water. A filled-up mind is the enemy of a person, while an empty mind is his enlivening friend. The 'Sadhaka' (seeker) who considers himself just an accessory of the nature, goes on gradually getting mind-free. He remains impartial and vigilant in all the situations conducive or adverse. The home of non-attachment is beyond the mind. Spirit is beyond every boundary-line of the mind. It is necessary to get detached from the mind, but it is not necessary to state time and again : "I am not mind, I am not mind" for this also betrays a kind of attachment to the mind. This also is a kind of thought. 'Samadhi' (trance) implies a state of thoughtlessness. To state "I am not mind" is but an alternative of the mind itself. Everything of the mind, occurring during meditation, is an invitation to this alternative. Does one have to say/ chant : "I am a man ?" To state again and again, "I am not body" is not forgetting the body, but keeping the memory of body fresh. The 'Sadhakas' (seekers) have adopted the statement : "I am not body" like a 'mantra' (formula or principle). I have come in contact with hundreds of seekers wbo bave entered the dusk of life while uttering : "I am not the body, I am not the body" and yet the temperature of their attachment to the body hasn't come down. The reality is that when meditation deepens, the practising of the body gets lessened automatically. The elephant, having compassion for a rabbit, remains standing for three days on just one leg. He
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________________ 20/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh didn't have to tell himself again and again : "I am not the body, I am not the mind." One who considers aim to be everything of his life becomes liberated automatically-from aims other than his own. Even after chanting a thousand times : "I am not the body, I am not the mind", the person seated in meditation, cannot bear with the sting of a single mosquito. Can the seeker who becomes irritated by the sting of a single mosquito, possess any enduring existence ? A Sadhaka, who is disturbed by a mosquito, does not possess the faculty of freedom from bodily-senses. Just look at the child playing in the house. His band is bandaged. There is some wound on his hand which causes pain. But can't we attain this realisation, on viewing the smile emerging on his face, that he has mastered the art of living aloof from the body? To forget the wound and the pain, despite their presence on the body, is the primary stage of 'bhed-vijnan' (the science of differentiation). If it is possible to live in daily life, keeping yourself indifferent to the body-pain, then can't you consider yourself above body/thought/mind while seated in meditation ? You are an emperor, and live like an emperor. If trouble and turmoil of the mind are riding on your head, then you are a beggar wandering from door to door. A man's living as per dictates of mind may be acceptable; but a person who has become a hermit/sage after having left his home and hearth, fails to remain with 'Chitta' (conscience) at peace and a mute mind; in that case his renouncing the world is tantamount to cheating himself. The monks and the nuns say, "We are not 'sthitprajna' (the state of remaining unperturbed in adverse circumstances due to the knowledge of reality). We do take our seats in temples etc. to perform meditation, but the mind keeps on wandering even outside the temple. In my opinion a weak determination is the reason behind this fickleness of mind. Those who have taken to monkhood, on getting excited or being influenced just by the preachings of someone, begins to cast his eyes towards his past after ascending a few ladders of time. And then, monkhood instead of remaining vigilant about his detachment from worldly
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________________ Let's go beyond the mind/21 pleasures, gets soaked and contained only in the formalities/ practicalities of the so-called discipline or limitations. It is not that to renounce home and hearth is 'Sanyers' (monkhood); just leaving home, changing the attire or living in solitude do not constitute the complete definition of monkhood. 'Sanyasi' (monk) is he whose attachment to worldly objects has been tamed. The home too become a monastery and the Himalayas for a person in whose eyes the perceptions of meditation and trance have permeated; but if there is a hang-over of worldly enjoyments in the eyes of anybody, for him a monastery and the Himalayas too are home and market place. It is not that only the person who lives in a house is a house-holder. A house-holder is be in whose heart dwells the house, permeates the family and the storm of worldly affairs. A monk has to be "anagar' that is liberated of the house, there is no inkling at all of house and house-hold in his heart. The renouncing committed from the core of heart is the peerless path of life. 'Sadhana' (seeking) is but the other name of settling at one's own centre. If the determinations for the attainment of the state of 'beyond attachment' be quite firm, then liberation of mind is certain. If powers are to be awakened in and invited to one's own self, concentration of mind is preliminary. If with concentration of mind that contact is made with the life-element of any power, if the mental-personality is brilliant and wide-spread, in one's living body also the entry of some other personality is possible. Many a time when I am confronted with many oblique and confusing questions or have to go on discoursing for hours together ex-tempore, on topics unexpectedly wanted by the people, I feel like a flood of logics/thoughts entering inside me, as if the Ganga has descended down upon Shiva's head. I myself feel astonished at what I say. I cannot clearly say that some unknown spirit enters inside me, but one thing is certain that some extraordinary power certainly appears. I would rather call it the concentration of mental personality, rather than a miracle.
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________________ 22/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh If we remain with concentration of mind in our lonely moments, we would hear several surprising sounds and echoes, shadows and sub-shadows of unknown places would be felt to be moving off and on along our mental screen. The semblances of others' minds would be perceived as if emerging on our mental mirror factually, the viewing of divine things can be possible only when a person vanquishes the conscious mind and the eyes of the inanimate-mind open-up. Those who consider only external attainments their all, they deviate from the essential element, being allured by the mirages. The absolute inter-personality of self shines up, when desire is cent-per-cent discarded. It happened the day before yesterday (at Mt. Abu). I had just risen from meditation. The sadhakas thronged around me for spiritual discussions. All had their individual problems concerning 'sadhana'. The discourse became deeper and concentrated on spiritualism. All of a sudden in the body of a 'sadhika' (a womanseeker) Visharada (original name Vinod, meditation-ordained name 'Visharada') entered some other personality. The condition of 'Visharada' changed instantly to a very surprising state. I signalled to two sadhikas--Pardarshini and Yogamudra. They took care of Visharada. She opened her eyes after a little while. The personality that entered her body talked with me. At last, it came out of the sadhika's body only when I gave it my word to be helpful in its salvation. That personality was in fact the spirit (life element) of the Sadhika's dead brother Chandrasen. An immense attachment for 'sadhana' (penance) had awakened in his heart while breathing his last. After scrutinizing the intricacies, I found how the concentration of mental personality remains affiliated to a person. Shedding of power is also beneficial in the beginning of 'sadhana'; but in order to become free from mind, to be 'nirvikalpa' (with no alternative, the awakening of power of one's own self is more desirable than power-shedding. I also tried to walk on the path of power-shedding, but I also got myself detached from it very soon. The experience acquired only tells that due to powershedding, the heart wishes to see only him who performs powershedding. The destination reached through power-shedding is not tional
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________________ Let's go beyond the mind/23 the destination, but just a step on the ladder towards the destination. Yes, the contact and glimpse of a self-awakened seeker should be accepted in the awakening of energy of the self; but this is not a favour, it is just co-operation. This is just the distribution of 'samdarshita' (the faculty of seeing all as equals) of the peaceful mind. The real teacher lives in the intoxication of non-attachment. He is a teacher for you, in whose company your mind becomes peaceful, unwandering and blemish-free. That place is a temple for you, on sitting where your restless mind becomes peaceful. Only he is your God, on gazing at whom your aim does not disappear to your eyes.
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________________ Surrender of Frustration Man is dedicated to the supreme goal. He is proud of every success achieved in life, but also regrets the failure. When, despite perseverance, a person has to face failure, then it is natural for him to feel disgusted with himself. Man is standing on the cross road of manliness and fate. He considers happiness and success to be the nectar of God, but he is not ready to accept misery and failure as the Gift of God. He is fighting with his fate, but if he becomes a kin of the fate, his fight with the fate can come to an end. The epilogue of manliness in the achievement of duty is the dawning of fortune. Man is so much desirous of happiness and facility that every failure/adversity makes his life a hell. The reality of life lies in indifference to bappiness or tension (misery). Becoming unsuccessful in some work is the first defeat, but to invite desire in his heart is the second defeat. The first defeat can be termed as the challenge of fate, but the second defeat is indicative of lack of intellectual vision and awareness of life. A person does go on thinking this or that round the clock. Thinking, be it wanted or unwanted, makes one host it. Thinking towards philosophy of life becomes fertile when failures jerk-up the strings of the cardiac instrument itself. Failure is the mother of dynamic thinking. Revolution in life takes place in the moments of extreme pain. When a person feels helpless, shelter-less and base-less all around, at that time even a little sensibility can prove to be a buoy to the drowning. To the
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________________ Surrender of Frustration/25 emperor who failed again and again, slipping of a spider sixteen times before being able to reach the threshold of its web-home, proved to be an incomparably dynamic formula of successful inspiration. Man should strive for living a life with full success. To live a life of tension and frustration is similar to carry a mobile corpse on the shoulder. Tension is a miserable dream journey. The night spent with dreams is merely whiling away time, not to meet the need of sleep. Why should a person live a life full of frustration despite having wealth, family or other facilities. It is a million times better to live the life like that of a lamp, than to live like smoke. Life similar to that of smoke is but death. Life is the incessant lighting up of the lamp. Man is helpless His helplessnesses inspire him to think for himself. Even in the crowded life, a frustrated or liberated curiosity wakes up. He becomes internally inspired to recognise the existence of his so-called originality. This internal inspiration of his is stepping forward towards spiritualism. If the internal curiosity of a person goes on becoming deeper and deeper still, then he does not only meditate for finding out the truth, but also organises his activities on that path. He asks himself "Who am I after all? What are my life-source, my originalities and my standards? What is this world, and why am I here? What can be the causes of misery and tension despite heaps of happiness and facilities ?" As far as he can delve down in the depths of meditation, he persevers indomitably to touch the bottom. He wishes to discover even that ultimate power, which is the axle of the world wheel. The name of this extreme depth of meditation is the review of life and identification with yoga. The mysticism of poems is connected with some power/ existence glimpse whereof is found by the Yogas within themselves, whereas the poets who churn out imaginations, get its image in the form of thousand faced/thousand armed. Whether you name that
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________________ 26/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh power 'Soul' or 'Super Soul', the feeling of identification with that is the achievement of a Bachelor's degree in meditation. This very power is the originality of existence. Its credentials are unnecessary. Why should there be the frenzy of victory if it is achieved through meditation ? Why to fret for defeat even if it does not vibrate in the strings of the heart ? Does not matter if the money is not in the palm, it is after-all in the purse. After all that is the personality of singularity versus totality. A person had lost his watch. So he began to search it. Even the neighbours came to assist him. He searched all along the street but not even the shadow of the watch was found out. While searching, a neighbour asked. "Where was the watch lost ?" He replied --"Inside the house." The neighbour was astonished. He said - "How stupid ! You are searching the watch lost in the house, in the street ?" The man said-"You are talking sense, but there is darkness inside the house. But light is flowing in the street." The thing lost in the house has to be searched in the house, whether there is darkness or light in the house. Being dejected with the darkness of tension maintained inside if you cast your glance elsewhere, then it is not the quest of truth, but it is just seeking the limit of the sky in the horizons-a mere wandering. If the person, walking round the clock, does not know where is he going; what is his goal; to what extent is he dedicated to achieve that goal, the life comes to an end like this in the journey from morning to evening. He digs a deep ditch with the axe of labour, but he fills it up with his own ashes. What comes to his hand is only earth, not a galaxy of jewels. Man himself is the formula of the vastness of consciousness. He should celebrate within himself the festival of joy after co-ordinating bis dynamic consciousness. Instead of allowing his celebration to acquire the colours of a gala-festival, he has brought himself on the brink of swamp. With this, his frustration, instead of decreasing, has increased a hundred fold.
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________________ Surrender of Frustration/27 It is said that the Aryans are the innovators of a developed civilization. Today Aryanness is itself standing before an Aryan as a question mark. If even an Aryan, who is called a devotee of merit, descends down to dishonesty and rape, what then will be the definition of 'Anarya' (non-Aryan)? The Aryanness of the future Aryans will be so small at some time, was never thought of even by the ancestors of Anaryas. The Anaryas had adopted the Aryan culture to brush-up themselves. Circumstances change faces. The Anarya is proceeding towards the threshold of 'Aryata' (faculty of being an Arya), and the Arya is gazing towards the bottomless well of 'Anaryata' (the state of being an Anarya) 'Amrit' (the life-saving nectar) is required to be found out in the Ganga which has been hailed for ages as the carrier of Amrit. The Ganga, two handfuls of water whereof could sanctify the ponds, is getting soiled herself. The milky flow, descended from the Heaven, has become so much soiled, that a washing centre is being looked for to cleanse it. One thing is certain that however suffocated purities may become, the return of purity is easily possible if efforts are made with concentration of mind and total devotion. My objection is not to the journey, but to wandering. A man's life is like a nomad moving about from place to place. It does not, however matter, if only the feet walk, but if even the mind is on the move then the concentrated integrity of life is bound to be crippled 'Yoga' (involvement) of the feet, and 'biyoga' (detachment) of the mind is monkhood. The devotion to meditation on the level of spiritualism comprises non-winking of the eye-lids of the mind. He is just a house-holder one of whose feet is tied to one house, one family, but the mind is moving about from house to house like a cow looking for a pasture. The name of this tendency of mind is the poverty of the internal world. Of course, the feet should walk on. Walking feet are the characters of the story of 'Karmayoga'. Feet symbolise 'Karmayoga'. The curtain of the drama of 'Karmayoga' falls, the moment the feet stop. Haven't you heard since childhood-"Moving water is clean, it becomes dirty on stagnation."
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________________ 28/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh Water is the symbol of and comparable to feet. The arrangement of mind is just the opposite of the Karmayoga of the feet. If the movement of mind is called the 'Karmayoga' then there is no greater 'Karmayoga' than mind in this world. Even the manager of all the projects of the world would appear dwarfish in front of the 'Karmayogita' (practising of Karmayoga) of the mind. Desirable in life is not 'mano-karma' (activity of mind), but 'manoyoga' (involvement of mind). 'Manoyoga' is the concentration of mind. The mind scattering like the waves of the sea is not 'Karmayoga' but 'Jeewan-rog' (malady of life). The pus of tension and frustration is discharged from the wound of the mind. Therefore, the mind is a disease and cure of the disease is the indispensable condition of the health of life. Mind is fond of conveniences/opportunities. He is against the competition of good thoughts and bad thoughts. Whatever would be find favourable to him, he would consider living with it as 'satsang' (company of virtuous people). Meditation implies silence of thoughts. Thoughts, good or bad, are at the root of tension. Where there are virtues, there are evils as well, where there are vices, there are vitues too. Meditation is just nature-free from good deposition and bad deposition. The person, who is confined to the mind, is irreligious. Nonreligion is moving about in 'vibhav' (non-disposition); religion is in nature. Every setting foot as a consequence of mind is a challenge to one's nature. In presence of Karmayoga of the mind, the opportunism and hypocrisy of a person cannot become invirulent. A man (non-mind) is the secret of preparing an evergreen garden. Happiness and misery are the two facets of the same coin, an interplay of sun and shade. In life is needed that joy, which has no tension since its preface to its epilogue. Life is for pleasure, joy, virtuous deeds, and not for tension or suffocation. In the state of non-mind, mind does not die, but the mind attains assimilation on the level of the soul. The connection of the mind with the body, kissing the entire world by mind is the foundation-stone of construction of the world in life. If the
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________________ Surrender of Frustration/29 'sarvodaya' (Overall rising) of 'Sakshitva' (the state of authenticity) occurs, then the prevention of identification of mind can take place without any 'if' or 'but'. It is said that while passing through a jungle Gautama came across Angulimala. Angulimala was a blood-thirsty killer, and Gautama was the summit of consciousness Angulimala challenged Gautama, and directed him to halt on the pathway he was walking along Gautama smiled and said while continuing to walk, "I am stationary, O director ! It is you who should stop walking." Gautama's statement was dynamic, but for Angulimala, it was an unpleasant sermon. The walking traveller Gautama was calling himself stationary and called Angulimala, who was standing at the top of a hill, stationary. This fact was realised by him later on that the movement of person really comes to an end on that very day on which the crutches of the movement of mind slip away from the hands. Gautama said, "Angulimala! look at the dirty drain flowing in your mind. Why are you asking the stationary me to halt ? Wake up and scrutinize the activities you are associated with. How dangerous can be their consequences ! Life is not for proceeding towards death, not for robbing and snatching; but it is for tensionfree, mirthful super-compassion." It is said tbat Angulimala's heart was transformed. From an axe-holder he became saffron-robbed. It was a novel revolution. Since Angulimala had uprooted many households, had murdered innumerable persons, his enemies were here and there. But a 'sadhaka' (seeker of God/truth) has a friendly disposition even towards death. On the very first day Angulimala set out abegging, people stoned him to semi-death. At the last moment of life he found Gautama near him. He was grateful even though seriously wounded his death-conquering face had a smile on it. Gautama asked him, "O son! What is your disposition ?" Angulimala replied, "O sage, what disposition can the stationary one have ?"
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________________ 30/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh Gautama said, "I salute you son ! Your death is not that of a dacoit, but it is a gala superfestival of 'Arihanta' (the vanquisber of the enemy). You are attaining salvation, becoming a 'jin' (one who bas conquered desire)." The person, who has been indulging in vices in a state sleep throughout his life, if on waking up performs even a small virtuous dead with his complete totality, then the prospect of salvation can not be ruled out. The opening-up of internal eyes in the awakened state is the prologue of meditation. Meditation is the Shiva's eye (the third eye). If that eye opens up, the personality becomes Soordasa (without eye-sight but capable of seeing more than those having eye-sight). Life is made-up of suffocating struggle and meditation is the means of liberation from it. Man has woven a screen of good-bad thoughts. That very curtain is the cause of suffocation for him. The name of raising that curtain is meditation. Trance is the capacity to peep across the thoughts. Trance is peace; peace of the thoughts, sagacity of the mind. This reaction as well as the attainment of the state of liberation from struggle is that achievement of proper peace in life. Meditation is the moment of 'Prasad' (divine gift) a sip of joy. It is such a joy as is felt by a child in his childhood. He is happy while sucking his thumb, building a small house of sand; or even in picking pebbles. In that situation, in his internal world remains neither any thought nor the turbulence of thoughts, remains only the divine gift/joy. Meditation decreases during moments of happiness. If meditation is accomplished, then the person would remain, the world too would remain. Only the screen of thought would be removed from between the union of the both.
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________________ Meditation Across Self Meditation is the process of recognising one's own self. Meditation is related to the control of the functionings of the mind, the speech and the body. The soul never diminishes, nor does it ever develop. Shrinking or expanding lie in the shape and kind of the wall, in the distance and proximity of the extension of light, but not in light itself. The soul is but the conscious light. The brilliance is lying covered under layers. The light of a lamp seem to be dwarfish in a small room, but the same appears pervasive is a palace. Does the sun differ in respect of the light ? But the screen of a small cloud conceals all the sun's brightness in its arm-pit. Meditation does not imply getting the light of the sun, but it means shedding of the coverings. The rocks need to be removed, to make the source of water appear. Therefore, meditation is the adventure of unmasking one's own self. Meditation aims at entering the superspace, casting off the peels. A man has to live in his life like the petals of a lotus. Staying in the world is not an invitation to danger. There is, after all, no place which is separated aloof from the world. Friends think that the cave-life is the real monkhood. A cave, of course, bas benefits, but the existence of the cave is not separate or cut off from the totality of the world. It is rather impossible for a person to renounce his household and become a cave-dweller. That meditation is a hard nut to crack, to accomplish which a man has to live only inside a cave. Meditation is but the shadow of life. Where can a man flee to
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________________ 32/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh after deserting his shadow? How would he be able to cut his shadow down with a sword ? It is likely that in his desire to cut down his shadow, a man might injure his own legs. Meditation implies making life unblemished like a lotus. The first step towards self-awakening in life is not allowing any of his petals to touch the mind. Many a people become co-passengers in the caravan of life, for many others the poems of separation get composed. Not to photograph on one's mind, the dispositions occurring between this passing and getting separated, is 'sadhana' Meditation is not only for those people the bullock of whose life has become old. For meditation is needed energy. Youth is the father of energy. Meditation and Youth are intimately related. Before him, who made the hand of his Youth with the hand of Youth, all the tempests of life remain defeated. The seeds of tension are sown in youth. Childhood is beyondthe-tension. Meditation does not imply making a person senile; meditation makes one return to the childhood. God is more near the child. He has unlimited love for the children. 'Sahaja Yoga' (easy yogic practice) is but the alias of making life always clean, honest and simple like a child. This is the 'Yoga' which has before it the pathways of all the Yogas of the world. Man should free himself from the influences of others if he wishes to practise 'Sahaja Yoga'. I would influence others-it is this desire which re-inforces the foundation of worldliness. Influence can be durable only when it giggle spontaneously. The influence which has been imposed externally is not the expression of the inner conscious but the outcome of status or money. Influence is the desire of the mind and nature implies absence of desire. Meditation is the finest art of rising above mind. Selfawakening means rising above mind, rising above thoughts and rising above body. The consciousness-philosophy is across all mind, speech, body. It is not that the body is for the soul. The body is not due to presence of soul; on the other hand the presence
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________________ Meditation Across Self|33 of soul is for attaining body-lessness. There is no health where there is the awareness of existence of the body, even if the awareness is a healthy one. The real attainment of health is there where there is no possibility at all of the feeling of the body. Fellow-sadhakas consult me regarding the philosophy of consciousness, for sensing the eternity. My advice always is to raise one's own self. If you must get the brightness of pot, then it should be rubbed clean first. The only way to see yourself alight is to have a glimpse of yourself is non-body, non-speech, non-mind. Unless you are capable of seeing across solids as if they are transparent objects, you would not be able to reach yourself. If you wish to know even me, see across-the-body. Because I am not a body. I am inside a body, but I am not a body. View your own self too in this manner--across the screens of the body. The experience of body-lessness is the keyhole, through which the glimpses of the originalities decorating the chamber of the inner life, can be made available. Body is inanimate, and the burial of the feeling of identification to the inanimate is obligatory. There is a huge crowd of words and deafening noise inside the mind. He rises above the mind of every body, who rises above the mind of his own self. The see-through of the mind doesn't just see himself aloof from the body, the speech and the mind, but also evaluates others' life with the vision of the soul. Differential science is but the name of this scientific initiative of the soul. Meditation is our eyes. The life of a person, who loses grip of meditation, turns from 'shiv' (the supreme power that brings wellbeing) to 'shav' (a corpse). The poor fellow will have to be called a blind man, who has lost his eyes, but the bigger blind is be who has pierced the needle of recklessness in the eyes of meditation. Just this morning, a gentleman came to me. Said, I have been meditating for the last twenty years, daily for four-five hours at that. My teacher has taught me meditation. I asked, how is that? Promptly he sat in the 'padmasan' posture made himself motionless like a statue. I said, "Your photograph in this posture would be unique. But what kind of meditation is that which converts a person into a statue ?"
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________________ 34/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh He hesitated. I said : firstly, despite meditating continuously for twenty years, meditation could not be attained. Doing is an exercise. Despite studying for twenty years, you remained a student, could not become a teacher. Secondly, meditation can not be limited by the boundaries of hours. Meditating for four to five hours is not done becoming the festivity of the internal, but burden the internal externally. Meditation should be round the clock. Wherever someone asks--"What are you doing?" Your reply should be, "I am in meditation." 'Padmasan' (being seated on a particular Yogic posture, breath-control, concentrating the mind on the light-centre, sitting motionless for two hours-all these are but the capsules of medicine. Taken in the morning and in the evening to feel its intoxication throughout the day/over night. I have received brightnesses from meditation, but I remain immersed in the meditation which does not confuse me, but which makes me joyful. Meditation does not just makes the boy, sit stiff, nor just to have intense restraint on breath. Meditation is not separate from daily life. The lyrics of concentration are heard in every act--whether one works in the office, measures cloth in the shop or cooks in the kitchen. Meditation is the production of concentration. There is meditation where there is concentration, and there is the identity of life where there is meditation. He who misses meditation, misses life; and, he who gets associated with meditation, gets associated with life. Meditation implies absolute concentration of life. Live; life is to be lived. Life is not just strolling between life and death; life is for joy, for festivity. Life is not just for movement, but for music too. Infuse music in life, make the internal strengths tension-free. Eat but meditatingly, drink but with meditation, rejoice but after having meditation assimilated in your soul. Embracing awareness and detachment in life, like shaping up a sentence with appropriate words is tantamount to creating one's 'Veda' (religious scripture) with one's own hands. Walking, sitting, sleeping, eating, speaking meditatingly lead one towards the destination of trance step by step. Most of the seekers' problem is that despite their interest in meditation they can not renounce the society/the world. In my
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________________ Meditation Across Self|35 opinion, renouncing is not obligatory. There is no harm if these are renounced. There is no need to worry if these are not renounced. This worry is also a delicate kind of tension. Meditation is rather beyond every tension. To make one exceedingly free from tension is the responsibility of meditation. 'Tripti' (original name Tradil Auntie, ordained name Tripti, Berlin, West Germany) also got confused in this tension. After having studied Mahavira, she did get impressed by Mahavira. She thinks of following the meditational path of Mahavira, but not by keeping herself aloof from the society. I would rather say that Tripti did not understand. Mahavira is not the harbinger of rebellion; he is the harbinger of the true knowledge. Mahavira did well; he lived in the jungles, and when 'sadhana' was attained he returned to the cities. It is good if you can become Mahavira, but every person cannot go to the jungles to live in. If every person marches towards the jungles, the jungles too would take the form of cities. Places would be changed, the realities would not be unveiled. By just changing places, cities would become jungles, and jungles would become cities. A man does not change just due to changing of the places. Nature does not change if masks are changed. Violence does not die just if one gives-up eating meat. But if violence is banished from the hearth, meat-eating is bound to be given-up. Therefore, pass your proposal of confidence in the transformation of the internal. Haven't you heard : If the heart is pure, the sacred Ganga can be contained in a bowl. If the change fails to transform the internal, then the entire change is similar to the wolf camouflaging itself with the deer-skin. Any conduct, without un-poisoning one self in the inner-conscious, is similar to a scorpion talking logic. Meditation enables one to see his own self; it is being seen by one's own self, inside one's own self. Hence, meditation is the art of viewing one's own self, lifting it up from each and every angle. When the end of the body, the speech and the mind is arrived at, therefrom begins the journey to eternity. Let us get immersed within ourselves so that the Beautiful One, that dwells inside us,
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________________ 36/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh emerges; the eternity of the Universe invites in the waves of eternity. The invitation of the eternity is not such a thing as ought to be missed. See across through your own self. Body, speech and mind are, of course, the achievements of life, but they are nothing more than the earthen lamps. Raise your eyes even above those earthen lamps where the flame is bathing the earthen lamp with light. Flight of the light, up towards the sky is the ascent of consciousness. There is no better value of life than the identification of the light. The identification of the immortal in the mortal, is bathing in the 'Amrit (reviving nectar).
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________________ Knocking at the Door of the Vacuum Life is alive not in speech, but in emotions. Emotion is the pulsation of the heart. Life can also be of mute, but a heartless life is merely a mobile corpse. Where there is no heart, the taking/ giving an invitation card is a mere ritual, a stark formality. The heart is emotion-filled. Words may be shallow. Language is, after all, limited. The heart is the vastness dwelling within the dwarfish body. The tears emerge from the heart. The tears are seen with the eyes, but recognised with the heart. Anything, if said by the heart, will be the vocal language of the life. Both kinds of scripts are found on the stone-writings of life-of rise as well as of fall. Life is a long and extensive history of the rise and fall and bitter-sweet experiences, 'Swadhyaya' (self-study) means studying and scrutinizing this history of life. "Aao baithein taru ke nichey Parhne ko gatha jeewan kee ! Jeewan ke utthan patan kee Apna munh kholein jab sara, Jag hai apni aankhen meechey. Arghya baney the wey jeewan ke. Ank charhe the wey anchol ke Aao bhool isey aansoo se Ab nirjeew jadon ko seenchein. Bhaw bhara ur shabd na aate, Pahunch na in tak aansoo paate, Aao trin se shushk dhara par Arth sahit rekhayan kheenchein Aao baithein taru ke neechey.
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________________ 38/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh [Come, let's sit under the tree to read the epic of life, of the rise and fall of life. Let us open our mouth when the entire world is keeping their eyes closed. They had become the offerings of the temple, they had ascended on the lap of the goddess. Come, let us forget that, and water the lifeless roots. The heart is so full of emotions that words have no place there. Tears cannot reach them. Come, let us draw meaningful lines on the sultry earth devoid of grass. Come, let us sit under the tree). Sitting under the tree means reading the history of life with a peaceful mind. To think, if you have already read it and to attain 'Sambodhi' (knowledge of the truth/reality), if it has already been thought about. You should know the experience oriented indispensability of all these processes in order to ascend the summit of trance. The 'Sadhaka' (seeker) sits at the summit. A peaceful mind is but the other name of his trance. The eyes of 'prajna' (consciousness) should not remain asleep. "Kaivalya-darshan' (view of the only-ness) comes nearer only when conscience has its eyes wide awake. There ought to be less eagernesses for the external. Indifference should be explicit in his conduct. If indifference is visible on the detached face, then the sweetness of the internal can be tested. In order to make the 'Dhruva' (super-seeker) form of one's own self, this is desirable. The meaning of indifference is non-involved. If you adopt the finesses of indifference, it would be easy to knock at the door of 'Sadhana'. Indifference does not come from leaving, it comes from being released. Leaving is related to outside and being released is related to inside. 'Leaving' and 'being released are not the same. But yes, if one gets released, he would not be required to beat his head to leave. Indifference is but the synonym of 'being released'. Just by uttering "I am free from body-sense", the body consciousness will not leave you. You will automatically become free from body-sense if the body-consciousness leaves you. The deeper the meditation, the livelier will be indifference.
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________________ Knocking at the Door of the Vacuum/39 Consciousness of the self, and unconsciousness externally-this is the fundamental depth of indifference. Just looking haggard is not indifference, it is rather knocking at the door of vacuum. If entry into indifference is the first step of 'sadhana' (seeking), attainment of indifference is its last stage. It is a fact that only that 'Sadhaka' (seeker) is able to rule over the seat who has adopted indifference to untruth. Seat means bed-stead, and indifference means such a bed-stead which should be above the world, stationary, lotus. Only he is going up the ladder of 'sadhana', whose seat is aloof from the world. Being indifferent means uplifting the seat. Being indifference implies rising above hope and wish. After all, indifference is but the campaign of attaining liberation from the web of illusion. Adopting 'Sanyas' (monkhood) in life means freeing one's seat from the web of illusion, raising it above the jungle-like fire of the world. "Sanyas' means death of attachment. Mother, father, brother, wife, children--all these are the family-members of attachment. 'Sanyas' means distance from the family. Therefore, a person's 'Sanyas' implies cutting off with scissors the relationships tied up by silken thread with his family. He has to live at the summit, means he has to live above the world. And then, whether swords clash at Haldigbati or Chakravyuha (Strategic placing of army) is being formed at Kurukshetra, the 'Sadhaka' will be unaware of all these. He would remain unperturbed. There will be all the scenes, but he will not be the buyer of any scene. The viewer views, he does not act. To view the world like a movie as a mute viewer is the inception of the inner-awakening. The mind also exhibits its fickleness, but if we achieve the viewer-sentiment then the mind will be our servant. Myriads of thoughts stroll in the mind. It is bound to hoof like a horse. If we follow the dictates of the mind, then it will be said that we have been led astray by someone else. We shall be prosecuted if we do according to the mind. If we differentiate between the viewer and the view, if we remain aloof from the mind, then there would be no apprehension of punishment. Following the mind is similar to stitching up patches in the sky. If there is indifference, then there
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________________ 40/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh will be no reaction even though there may be seeing, enjoying, touching. That act towards which there is no reaction in the inner consciousness does not lead to bondage. Attainment of trance implies freedom from reaction. Those who adopt desire-oriented or despise-oriented reactionary tendency towards wealth-land etc., get entangled/suffer. To act is movement, but to react is to stumble. His state is like that water which is destined to descend downwards. I would ask to ride, but to ride upwards. Journey upwards, towards Gangotri. The symbol of ascent is light. Light has its birth in the vacuum and culminates in the vastness. Light always strives to touch heights, and water, despite being raised higher, must fall flat. Ascending is the characteristic of light and stumbling down is the characteristic of water. Consciousness is but a form of light. Don't consider it to be that water which descends from the summit towards the ground root. Flowing is akin to death. He has embraced the state of being lifeless. The affability/liveliness of life is only in this that we should learn to swim, not to flow. He, who flows in water, is helpless. Last rites of the strength of his arm has been performed. A friend 'Sadhaka' is sitting in gay abandon on the summit under a tree. We may say he has taken a seat, but he is seated inside himself. While seated inside he is surveying himself. Rotation on the surface of 'prajna' (super consciousness) has commenced, similar to the rounds made around a temple. But his feet are not the harbinger of 'charaiveti-charaiveti'. Some scenes spontaneously come in his closed eyes, as if some stranger is taking birth from the world under the earth. He is after all a seer; the scenes which come and go are just like the gush of wind passing by his side. FIRST SCENE A pregnant woman is going towards a hospital. In the midway she is attacked by the pangs of delivery-pain. The newly-born child begins to cry. After all, all come to the world crying. The family members arrive and take the mother and the child with them.
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________________ Knocking at the Door of the Vacuum/41 SECOND SCENE The 'sadbaka' sees such a person who is walking on while coughing all the time. A cigarette is held between two fingers. Suffocating smoke is coming out of his mouth. His chest is burning; cough is not stopping. But the infatuation for the cigarette and its smoke is persisting. He stumbles down there. In the hospital, the doctor's words come to his ears-"Cigarettes not for each-other but for cancer." THIRD SCENE An old man is walking. A stick in hand, neck down, waist bent, gasping breath. This time a peel of banana came under the stick as he kept it forward to proceed on. The stick slipped and the old man fell down. Somehow or other he gathered himself, stood up and began to walk again. But this time he collided against somebody. The man screamed, "O ye old man, are you blind ? Can't you see what is before you ?" The old man replied, "I am old. My eye-sight is feeble. But you are a youth. A real blind man is he who collides against another person even though he has eyes." FOURTH SCENE That traveller to eternity has had no expectation. Amid the painful eyes of the people the journey was silent. The traveller was alone on the shoulder of his companions. The eyes were closed in the open eyes of the crowd. Himself was decorated from tip to toe, the companions and fellow-travellers were uncovered. The life-partner (wife) has bade farewell on the threshold of his house. The ticket had been obtained. Encampment was made at the cremation ground. All were burning him, he was getting burnt down. None got burnt-down with him, for whom he burnt down his life. A saint passing near the cremation ground said, the world is an inn. Why tears for the travellers staying in it ? Not for him, cry for your own self. It is to you the intimation of your death. Be the seeker of your well being ere the light gets extinguished. That is your path.
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________________ 42/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh The sequence of scenes came to a close. These four scenes are the photography of four days' life-span. The 'sadhaka' seated under the tree saw all the scenes like a witness. Opened his eyes. Therein was a mild smile. The mysterious smile echoed "Ye aish ke bande sote rahey, phir jagey bhee to kya jaagey ? Sooraj ka ubharna yaad rahaa, Aur din ka dbalna bhool gaye." [These devotees of lust remained asleep. Later, if they woke-up, it was meaningless--for they remembered rising of the sun, but forgot fading out of the day.] Man got entangled in wealth, land, beauty, enjoyment. The wallowing person remained constantly in a slumber. He never recognised his slumber, his sleep. He remembered driving the car, but forgot to apply the brakes. He kept the memory of the birth and the birthday alive but the worry about death and the death-day did not at all occur. Only he can utilize the sun of life, who remembers both the states of its rising and setting. Life goes on getting closer to death. Here the journey is death and the destination too is death. Death is surely death, but life too is for death. Man remembered birth and life but forgot death.] If you have learnt anything from the world, then death is obligatory. Death is the perfection of meditation, and comm ment of trance. Death not of life, but of the dust of sacramentality gathering day by day on the mind is to be made to occur. Man should die every day, every next day is birth. If yesterday and the things of yesterday die, then the hold of mental and thought-related wrestling would go on loosening. Every next day you would be a new-born child. We are fortunate that we remember things of only this life. It is the kindness of God that we do not remember things of the previous life. The hold of the mind does not extend upto that, otherwise man would have been required to strive hard to discard the gone by past from the mind. Just think of the widespread and extensive campaign one would have been required to
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________________ Knocking at the Door of the Vacuum/43 undertake to cleanse the mind of the sacramentalities of many lives when one has to struggle so much to nullify the sacramentalities of merely a single life. Witness towards the past, and awareness towards the present, make knocking at the door of future easy. I have given the improved advice to be seated under the tree in order to examine the present with the eyes. The tree is liveliness, greenery. There is song of life in every leaf. There are the beats of 'tabla' (a kind of Indian drum) waves of voice, and the dance too. Free is a meditator. He himself too is a meditator. He is the monk of the past and the spectator of the present. He has forgotten the past. He is suffering/enjoying as the seer of the present. There may be enjoyment, but if the seer-sense is awakened, then that enjoyment cannot be contradictory to "Yoga'. A seer remains impartial amidst every activity. The tree is impartial. Impartiality is justice. A judge is synonymous to impartiality. He sees the truth. He remains impartial to both the parties. He listens to all, sees many things, but supports only the truth. Those who risk lives for truth, continue to fill the nectar of truth in the pot of life till their last breath. Let everything happen, but in that happening if there is only the support of truth, then that really is the unfolding of the true meaning. I would not ask any one to give up seeing, give up listening, give up sniffing. For, these actions continue even when trance becomes his maid servant. Therefore, I would say, "Stop holding." Even if you would close your eyes, plug your ears with cotton wool, the mind would see, hear, say. The mind has access to the closed eyes as also to the open eyes. We have just to ensure that seeing is confined only to 'seeing'. If what has been seen has been invited/etched in the mind, then that seeing would be the trespassing of the tendencies of our mind. Let the lotus live in the mud; it must live in the mud, but wisdom lies in keeping a round the clock vigil to ensure that the mud does not get on the lotus.
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________________ 44/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh Be free, be free from the mind. Be that sky in which everything remains beyond touch. If a storm blows or the clouds thunder, whether the day rises or night falls, the sky remains untouched by all these. If one remains untouched by everything, he is free from mind. 'Raasleelas' (pleasure-plays) may go on, but they should not be reflected on the mind of a person. Even the pleasure-play, being indulged in after one has remained in the state of a seer, would itself beckon indifference. It is in this manner that the journey from the vacuum to the summit takes place. Super-awakening is extremely helpful in the journey towards the summit. We should understand our hang-over. Let us identify our slumber and wake-up. This is the secret of very big bells being sounded in the temples. Sounding the bells is common. Are you, by sounding the bells, informing God of your arrival or taking the initiative of waking-up God, thinking that He is asleep? The bell is sounded in the temple not for God, but for our own-selves. It is sounded to awaken that mind which is immersed in the slumber of the whole world. In order to know what is in others' hearts, to reflect one's own sense-waves in others hearts, self-awakening is the topmost. Its excellence has no other alternative. The trance, while awake, is the gateway of meditational trance. If the awakening is lively, every event of the world would take the self near the self. It would inspire to walk inside one's own self. 'Brahmacharya' (celibacy) implies walking of the self inside the self. If we place the lamp of awakening at the threshold of life, then both the outside as well as the inside would be lit-up. And then the world would be helpful to us in not getting in bondage, but in getting liberated. In the wordly sea full of waves of birth and death, the self awakened man would be a lamp, flame of a lamp, dynamism, infusing of life. Let us learn to listen to non-word. Meditation is but living in the non-word. Taste the pleasure of being solitary in the crowded world. Let us make our eyes meaningful. There is an open invitation to friends and brothers to walk on the path of renouncement" and the supreme meditation.
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________________ Knocking at the Door of the Vacuum/45 I would not like any person to be handicapped humanitarianally. No moment of life should suffer from the agony of pain and sorrow. No part of personality should become paralysed. Life is a great achievement. It has to be lived with the feeling of happiness and place. No moment of life may become meaningless. To take life to the destination with extreme credit is tantamount to expressing the spiritual life in the conduct. This is the instructional revolution of life. Awaken the intellect of your own self. If you keep your intellect idle then I will not be required at all. The scripture would not be able to become the discipliners of life for us. What use is the mirror if one has no eyes? I feel like welcoming him whose heart welcomes the sense of awakening. God is at our door, let us sing the song of welcome, offer Him 'aarati' (wield a plate with lamps placed on it before Him). Awakening in the conduct should be so lively that the differential-science would not remain aloof from it. The supreme may come Himself in the form of non-letter in the vacuum of mind. Trace may become fellow-traveller in every rise and fall of the breath. Then automatically there will be award to the eternalworld of mind. Our own short fingers would draw the boundary line of that eternity.
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________________ At the Roots of Existence Nietze's words are : "Man cannot live without lies." The basis of this statement is psychology. Do you know what a lie is? Man is not a lie. Man is the truth. He is the supreme truth of existence. Existence, whatever it be, is complete in itself. Numberless glaciers, planets, galaxy of stars and elements like the sky are but the manifestations of existence. Just look at the perfection of existence : When a child takes birth it comes along with the provision of milk. Before the blooming of flowers the thorns become posted as their body-guards. The sun and the moon are always on the move to maintain the balance between coolness and heat. The time-cycle of birth and death continues incessantly, and yet neither a single bead becomes less nor a single head increases. The number of people dying equals the number of people being born, or you may also say the vice-versa. The completeness of the cosmos can not be challenged. Existence is complete. The truth is that every person is a complete existence in himself. He possesses limitless energy. His vastness then attains its original form when, in course of his nonstop journey of life, annihilates his infatuation for all the materialistic constituents and towards materialistic objects. Meditation helps in this. As such, in order to enter a new life, the irrelevances over-shadowing life, have to be brought to the door of death. This vision of the conscious energy is the beginning of a joy-riding beyond mortality. We have to move in the very roots of existence. Existence, whatever, it be, is real. Each one among us is an independent existence. Every existence has an originality of its own. Every
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________________ At the Roots of Existence/47 existence is so personal that even his nearest relations are separate from him. That is why nobody follows any body. A particular path which proves to be favourable for any person, may not necessarily prove to be correct for others too. Had it been so, neither thousands of philosophies would have been born, nor swords of logic would have clashed, nor new and new doors of thinking would have opened. All would have followed each other like a flock of sheep. Thousands of philosophies have been developed in this world. But not a single philosophy could remain invincible. Every man has his own religious philosophy. We have to follow and support our own religion. All the religions of the world are our own but no religion of the world is superior to selfreligion. Other people can guide us, but the responsibility of proceeding on the path remains with the person himself. The supreme science of life is to accept existence in that very form in which it exists. Mental tension and the wandering of life is due to the non-acceptance of one's own role. To consider the present of life unhappy and await the happiness of future hopefully is tantamount to lose the obtained for the unobtained. Incompleteness is the expression of mind. Hope is the mirror of mind. Enhancement of hope is a challenge to perfection. Hope is due to heart, and dreams are due to hope. To live in dreams is to kick the truth. The happiness of dream is a slap on the face of a person. In dream, one got much while asleep, but the mind boggled on waking up; only emptiness, paralysis of sentiments and disappointment came to hand. What does one obtain at all if he obtains fortunes in the dream? The dream is deceit, wandering, falsehood. Man is habituated to live in dreams. Life has become hazardous without dreams. The invisible call emerging from his heart is heard by him as a shout. He becomes pitiful and engages himself round the clock while awake, while asleep and even in dreams, to have his heart's longings fulfilled.
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________________ 48/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh Dream is consolation, and every consolation is a lie. A man goes on pulling life forward, holding the rope of falsehood. Falsehood has become so intimate with man that he can not live without falsehood. It is said that an emperor purchased some ordinary cloth at an expensive rate. The minister did not like it. He said, I can weave such a cloth as would be admired by every sensible person, but it would take months of time and excessive money. The emperor curiously permitted the minister to weave that kind of cloth. It was the day of Holi (the Indian festival of colour). The minister said : "Your Majesty ! The dress is ready. The emperor thought it fit to wear such an expensive garment in presence of the courtiers. The minister began to dress him up with the new garment. The minister was making such gestures with his hands as if he was attiring the emperor. But the courtiers were aghast, astonished too. Neither was there any garment, nor cloth. There was only acting. The minister inquired of the courtiers : "How did you like this dress ?" None dared to speak out the truth. Would any one like to be called a fool ? Because, only 'sensible persons' were supposed to appreciate it. Everybody said : "Excellent ! Extremely beautiful !! A novelty, indeed !!!" The emperor said : "Since all of you are admiring, this dress has been decidedly made the finest. I must award the minister." But when the emperor looked at himself in the mirror........? The emperor said: "What is this?" This The minister said, "I pray your pardon for the mischief. is the truth. There is no dress better than nudity." The light of life rests on truth, not on falsehood. It depends not on hope, but on existence. Existence is the truth; to accept existence is to believe the existence of God. Dream is atheism.
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________________ At the Roots of Existence/49 Dream is not existence, it is just the hope for the incompleteness being felt in life, an imagination, yawning of the mind. Dream is the television of the future in the present. But, does a dream ever come true ? Man sees things of several strange places in the dream. He also sees even a glarce of whom he has never seen. A blind man was saying: "Today I have seen the Heaven." I said: "What a wonderful thing you have seen; You haven't seen your own self, while you claim to have seen the Heaven." Even a blind man has started seeing such distant things. Those having eyes could not see, and the blind man has seen the Heaven. He said, "That I had not seen in reality, but in the dream." I said, "Congratulations! For the first time I am listening that even a blind man sees, but you must remember this much that this is not seeing, but an illusion. This is not vision, it is perversion which continues to take birth. If the mind is properly utilized, then that would become 'yoga' and meditation for a person. Mind can invent slavery, and it can also be a source of independence. It becomes the entrance of the world, and its exit too. If it makes one see the dream of Heaven, the Hell is also due to it. He who becomes master of the mind, performs the last rites thereof. If a lion is bound in your shackles then he shudders on seeing you, it behaves sheepisbly. Where, then, is the existence of his lion-ness? This state shall be called the death of mind. You are unhappy due to superiority of mind; you are tensionridden due to the mechanism of mind. You are unhappy; therefore, you see the dreams of heaven. Heaven is the hope of happiness, and hell is the fear of sorrow. Heaven and hell are both the sciences of the mind. Salvation is beyond heaven and hell in the form of truth, consciousness, joy. . Heaven-hell are not the basis of life. Heaven-hell are the stages of the activities of the mind. The basis of life is the existence of the person itself. Accept whatever you do in whatever form it is.
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________________ 50/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh In this very acceptance you would become filled up with a sense of exaltation. Self-acceptance is the festival which would fill-up a novel smile/joy from tip to toe. This festival is that of the energy equation. This is the utmost prestigious summit of meditation. He is the richest among the rich who is active in such a festival. Every human being is an emperor, richest among the rich. One seems to be poor and distressed because the sense of mastery has slipped off. Do you think it a trifle that the supreme soul has remembered you, and that His divinities are coming near you. Let the super soul/supreme form be nearer than the nearest to you. You are a creation in yourself, and the Creator is engaged in his creation. You are a complete existence. Don't under-estimate it by calling it atom. It is vast, welcome it. Every atom is complete in itself. Atom is the smallest unit of the world; but every unit is filled-up throughout. The history of Nagasaki has been written in the atom. Please don't push away its prospects and capabilities with your feet. Atom is only a unit. Inside man there is prospect of energy such as those of innumerable atoms. From the seed has spread the banyan tree with its innumerable arms. Just see how many seeds have been produced by one seed. If you observe one fruit of banyan, you would find that hundreds of seeds are lying hidden in a single seed. The banyan has born fruits with fruits. Man is the source of not one but innumerable seeds. Please recognise your powers, awaken the energy sleeping comfortably in bed. Man is an earthen lamp. Not just an earthen lamp, but also the flame of light. The body is the earthen lamp, and the soul is the flame of the light. It is necessary to evaluate the earthen lamp to have a view of the light, but a lamp without light is just the coffin of a corpse on the man's shoulder.
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________________ At the Roots of Existence/51 Concentration of vision on the earthen lamp is self deceit. After all, the value of earth is limited only to earth. The definition of aura but rests with the flame of light. All the values of upliftment of consciousness depend upon the light. The paths of whose upliftment have been blocked, there remain just the mass of earth, not life. The nectar of immortality is where there is the initiative of joy-riding beyond mortality. Friends! my invitation is for that very life-giving nectar where the flame of light remains smokelessly alight under the shade of trance. Just make yourself the emperor of the message so that you may unshackle the prison-bonds of the internal world.
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________________ There is the path of Purification Humanity is the best policy of the world. It is the eye of the world, the halo of existence. Respecting humanity is batbing in the nectar of immortality for the world. The first step towards world-peace is to liberate humanity from internal conflict. How is conflict related to humanity ? Humanity is the staging of light; whereas conflict is the staging of darkness. Darkness begets darkness, and light begets light. Darkness can never be driven away with darkness. The advent of light is but the means of disarming darkness. Internal conflict is a challenge to humanity. It is entitled to peace, not to conflict. Conflict is related to man's mind itself. If the mind itself is torn into pieces and dumped into the dustbin, then the dirtiness of conflict would not spread in the internal house. There are only two alternatives to get rid of the conflict-either, the documents of death are read out to the mind, or it is made ship-shape by washing, cleansing, dusting-off, making it neat and clean. In order to experience the super-vacuum and super-peace in life, both these methods are the blessings of the eternal. Mind is a got-up conspiracy of the microscopic atoms. Its purification is the beauty of life. The awakening of determination, in the person engaged in decorating the house in order to make the heart-chamber beautiful to look at, is the basic-preface to the rectification of complexes. To remain getting jolted between desire and lust is but the life's world-tour at the door of death. Desire must. be born so long as the mind is there, and the lust would also be born so long as the body is there. But to engage mind in running
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________________ There is the Path of Purification/53 the mind's errands, and to get the body entangled only in playing with the body is the sign of a man's meanest intelligence. After all, the prospects of halting are present even beyond the body and the mind. To spread the arms of the mind for fair complexion and to ignore honesty for illicit money is the internal incivility and lewdness of life. We have to make the internal world bloom and smell like flowers. Man's responsibility extends even to perfuming the lives of others, but if one's own feet have got stuck in the swamp, then the path of purification will be said to be invisible to eyes. Let us learn from flowers to smell and to make the garden smell. It is necessary, in order to invite fragrance to the entrance of life, to have the mind and its tendencies washed and cleansed in some Ganga of holiness. Our existence becomes worthwhile only if every policy of our life becomes a realistic-ideal for others. Blemish comes to the mind through the back door of the weaknesses of determination. It is natural that dust would gather on utensils. If it is cleaned with a cheerful disposition then the purification would be pleasant too. With disdainful heart the mind can never be made to get the company of God. If God is the image, luxury is His lustre. Would anybody's mind be reflected in the mirror covered with ashes? For viewing the image, the brightness of the mirror's visibility is indispensable. God is a festival and a festival should be celebrated with eagerGod is manifested in festivity, in nectar. Saturation with nectar is the foundation-stone of concentration. ness. One thing is certain-the mind is not the doer; mind is a means. Mind has neither wrapped itself with the dirty blanket of impurity nor will it take the initiative of purification. After all, the person has himself dissolved poison in its pot, and he himself is responsible for de-poisoning it. The initiative of purification can be done only by him who has been instrumental in making it impure. The person will have to carefully ascend up those very ladders, from which he has slipped down.
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________________ 54/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh Mind is in itself a power, and this power is solely due to consciousness. If we accept the mind to mean the inner-consciousness, then the boundaries of purity would become easy and straight. The senses perform their work, but it is the mind which is the director of the establishment of the senses. The senses execute the instructions it receives from inside. The light of the senses is connected with outside. The eyes, the ears, the nose have their own horizons. They are not directly related to purity. They are but the means to carry the tea-cup from the shop to the office. Therefore, if the mind becomes pure, then the purity of the senses would be spontaneously possible. After all, the lesson of taking bribes is receieved by the peon from the office-bearers. The internal purity is the basis of external purity. Man imparts a concrete form to the waves of the internal emotions in the external world through the senses, but mind is the basic clue of all his activities. Therefore, it is the director of the sense-organs. If one thing strikes the mind that the mind has to offer salutations to the soul, even though it is the director of the sense-organs; and, if the seer-sense becomes lively, then the traditional noisiness of the mind would become feeble. Man serves the feet of a person who is non-aligned to worldly affairs. We come to know of the mind through its actions. If it becomes grievous, then all the activities of the body are bound to be influenced by it. Even if the eye-sight is correct, the decision after viewing is always taken by the mind dwelling within. It is due to connecting the wire of the activities of the sense-organs with the mind that the 'ti-vi-tut-tut' noises of the bamboo-groves are heard. The biggest impurity of life is man's coming under his mind. That person, who has capably held the reins of the mind, is the emperor. Mind is the seed of the crop of thoughts, sacramentalities, opinions. They are, wbether good or bad, the stumbling blocks in experiencing the supreme vacuum If one goes either to Ayodhya or to Akuri in thoughts, he would only cover the external distances. If detachment is mastered, then the person would remain neither in support of the mind, por against it. He would remain uninfluenced/ untouched by the adverse situations of life.
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________________ There is the Path of Purification/55 After accurate identification of mind, the inclination remains, but habit does not. Inclination/tendency is obligatory, habit is slipping off. Habit is the frisking of the mind. The tendency of a person unbound by mind, does never fetter a man inconveniently. Habit can become perverted. Meditation is the campaign for liberation from not only perversion but also from thoughts. Perversion is the lust of mind. Lust is projection. The value of commodity lies in man's lust. A stone is not only glass, it is diamond too; how would diamond be glorified and glass be condemned if the fire of lust gets extinguished. It is but due to the dwelling of lust in thoughts that the man's life has become confined in the iron-safe rather than in some parrot. It is lust that has dampened the mind. Rinse the mind somewhat forcefully for its drying up. In order to get entry into the house of eternity vacuum of mind is indispensable. I am a Hindu, I am a Muslim; I am a male, I am a female; I am happy, I am unhappy; I am a renouncer, I am an enjoyer of lust-all these are but the thought-lines of the internal. Every line is the beginning of a crack, and every crack is the sign of disturbance. Disturbance will have to retrace its steps if vacuum/mind purity of thought takes a seat within us. Thoughts/sacramentalities emerge more prominently, when someone tries to sit down peacefully. Meditation is the first step to sitting with a peaceful mind. The thoughts that come during moments of meditation are not different from the dream-movies seen while one is asleep. It is necessary to go through the credentials of the mind in order to get freedom from mind. His habit of having dreams begin to get dismantled automatically, who tries to scrutinize mind. Wandering of mind comes to an end if the mind itself becomes mute. Although dreams are the perfumed colourfulness of the rainbow seen after the whole day's miserable life, the stomach does not get filled-up with the cakes of the dreams. Dream is not the truth; it is just an image of the conflict of thoughts, that becomes visible in the waves of the sea. If the influence of meditation acquires
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________________ 56/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh a stronghold on the mind, then fickleness will be frozen, and stability will open its eyes. Self-purification is the balanced step of the journey within. Self-purification is rather the purification of life. Purity of mind is the obligatory condition of purity of life. Those who are after achieving, renovation of body does not at all think about renovation of life. Purification of body, thought and mind is the preparatory stage of self-purification. If one's cup is cleansed, then only one can derive the pleasure of drinking the nectar of immortality. Symbols such as the mass-current, light of the lamp, rays of the sun, image of the supreme soul, power of words are selected for mental concentration. These supports are helpful in the whole world to do away with wandering. The prospect of the supreme peace/power of the supreme soul is within the person himself. No arrangement is needed to light up the lamp within. That is already alight. There are veils around the lamp. Unveil the lamp, the light will pierce across. Meditation is but an attempt to unmask one's own self. For attainment of meditation, cheerfulness of mind is indispensable. An unhappy-- pained person would write the preface of a tragic story even while in meditation. Knock at the door of meditation only when you feel cheerful. The moment of utmost happiness is the appropriate time of meditation-may that moment be connected with the night or the dawn. The real pleasure out of meditation is derived when it becomes our enlivening friend. Observing the breaths or viewing of thinking is not meditation. To eat, to sleep, to walk, to talk--meditatingly are all meditation. No act should be bereft of meditation. Mental concentration and power-density should be used while performing any act. Meditation is a part of our existence only when without it life becomes a poem of a woman away from her lover. Mind is but the wheel of the internal. In order to attain internal concentration, the speedy dynamism of the mind has to be checked. Concentration means bridling the scattering habits and fickleness. The initiation of purification of mind is necessary to erase the cracks on concentration.
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________________ There is the Path of Purification/57 Many caravans of the sacramentalities pass through the road of the mind. It is extremely necessary to be careful so that sacramentality cannot pollute memory. Promote love instead of enmity to make the mind neat and clean. Instead of making a transparent crown of tears that flow on remembering your defects, try heart and soul to infuse merits in yourself. Bitterness, lust, fear should be evicted out instead of suppressing them inside. In case you feel like speaking ill of anyone, utter 'Om' aloud. Instead of throwing stone on anybody, finger the beads of rosary. Also, stay away from those mediums which make the mind blemished/perturbed. Apply energy in the right direction. To engage mind in the right direction is the positive and creative utilization of life. The supreme-power of the soul becomes evident only in the purified state of mind. What is need:d is to cleanse the mind cheerfully, to invite fraternity and courtesy in life. Form an equation of the consciousness that moves about outside. If we get soaked-up in meditation by all means, trance will lovingly embrace us. At first drops of trance would trickle, thereafter rain would come. And, a day will come when we shall be found submerged in the flood of trance. But, in order to get the green shade of this tree of meditationaltrance, first of all we shall have to salvage mind from that swamp which is related to non-trance and vagrancy. Teaching the lessons of civilization and culture to the perversions of the internal world is the beginning of purifying mind. Let us teach mind to be cultured. Studying Sanskrit is a different thing, but to become cultured is a noble campaign for getting rid of perversions. An unblemished mind is the background of freeing humanity from the clutches of conflict. Mind is like a mirror. The dust of impurities and thoughts gathers on it. To wipe off that dust is akin to the knocking at the door of cleanliness in life. Man's first encounter with impurity of mind takes place when he tries to engulf external glamour within himself. Wherever man
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________________ 58/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh imposes non-essence in essence, and essence in non-essence, he proceeds two steps further towards darkness. Man's ignorance implies considering inanimate to be animate, and animate to be inanimate. Considering is a mere illusion. The dawn of knowledge is wanted in life. Knowing is a novel revolution. By taking inanimate to be animate does not make the former infused with the energy of consciousness. Inanimate can never become animate and vice-versa. Incorrect imposition of one over the other is tantamount to spreading a layer of mud on the mind. Applying wisdom of life to commodity, condition or situation is the original impurity of mind. If the sensibility regarding differences between man, material and consciousness is procured, then impurity has to move miles away from the internal world. Meditation is the philosophy of conscience that shows this original difference. Those, who are habituated to smoke; or, are surrounded by anger and irritation, or, in whose inner conscious tension has forcibly encamped due to some external disease, must take the medicine of meditation in the morning and in the evening. To live with totality in meditation by centralizing energy is the legal banishment of the impurities of mind. Purity of mind is the foundation stone of internal peace for man. Humanity loves peace, and the world loves humanity. Peace is the personality of the world, and it is the duty of man to dedicate himself in all respects to that personality. To connect the totality of life with the values of humanity, is to give-away the scroll of honour to the world with your own lotus-hands.
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________________ Come, Let's Immortalize Life Mind is a mass of atoms. It is a personal belonging of every man. A man has, it is said, only one niind, but many prospects are hidden in that one. The mind has a society of its own. The more the contacts and imaginations, the more widespread is the society of mind. As such, mind is not our home, it is rather our territory. It has several lanes. Many rooms. It has its own garden. It has several schools. There is no dearth of friends and foes. Mind is the mirror of a person's endless imaginations and prospects. Man remains generally with a mind. The state of being without a mind is akin to a lake becoming calm. Mind is but the movable property of a person. If one experiences the state of being without mind/the state of immovability, then he has had the experience of the state beyond trance. In the non-mind state the atoms of mind do exist, but there is no conflict of the atoms. The pond remains full to the briin with water, but aerial waves are no more. They waves of thoughts and imaginations that arise with intervals are the fickleness of mind. When the aerial imaginations become obstructed, the chamber would become a vacuum; at that very moment the prospect of immortalisation of life would brighten up. Immortalisation of life is a state much more highly placed than immortalisation of body. Immortalisation of life means purification of body, purification of speech and purification of mind
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________________ 60/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh taken together. Self-purification is but the other name of immortalisation of life. That person is miles and miles away from immortalisation of life, who was fickleness of mind as his quality of choice. To flow with mind is akin to death. Liveliness manifests not in flowing but in floating/swimming. Man always followed the dictates of mind, that is why he has not found any destination even though ages have gone by. On the path of truth there are hundreds of destinations; but despite there being a destination at every step, not a single destination has been found. The wandering is but the play of mind in the name of wandering. Just understand the mutually opposite meanings of the mind. "Yehi zindagi musibat, Yehi zindagi musarrat (anand), Yehi zindagi haqueeqat, Yehi zindagi fasana." [This very life is a distress. This very life is a joy (pleasure). This very life is a reality. This very life is a fiction). I have heard that someone asked another person, "Where are you going, brother ?" He said, "Wherever this donkey goes to." The man was riding a donkey. The inquirer could not follow what the donkey-rider said. "I go where this donkey goes to." Should I then inquire of the donkey where is he going? "Will it give an answer ?" He said, "O brother ! I could not understand what you said." The donkey-rider replied. "The donkey is not under my control. I am under the donkey's control. When I want to make him move to the right, it moves to the left, and vice-versa. When I want to go home, it proceeds towards the market, and when I turn him towards the market, it proceeds towards home. I considered, the situation has become a disgrace. People must think that the donkey is not under my control. I am more worthless than even a donkey.
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________________ Come, Let's Immortalize Life/61 I have therefore loosened the reins. Let it move about at its sweet will. At least I would not be disgraced. My prestige will not be auctioned." Then the man asked, "Well, where after all has the donkey taken you to ?" The donkey rider said, "Since the morning I am proceeding towards the village from the town". "I have not reached anywhere, so far. I am standing near the bell of the town. I have reached upto the Akoodi (the garbage dumping ground)." The inquirer, while moving on said, "Brother, I am proceeding onwards, but you must find out this much : who among you two is the donkey ?" Man is living just this kind of life. He fears disgrace. A person follows wherever the mind leads him to. Whither would a direction-less journey lead to ? At most from shop-to-house and from house-to-shop. From house to the 'gbaat (place beside a pond or river where clothes are collectively washed). Invaluable moments of life are wasted between these two. Mind is inanimate. The person himself is animate but how strange that the driver does not drive the car, rather, the driver is being driven by the car because the brake has failed. In this situation is there the possibility of any destination ? Is there any terminus ? "Taab manzil raastey mein, Manzilein thein saikadon, Har kadam par ek manzil thee, Magar manzil na thee." [On the way to the destination there were hundreds of destinations. There was a destination at every step, but there was no destination]. Journey on the path of truth takes place when a person rises a little above mind, becomes non-mind, immovable. But, yes, it is not that 'Yoga' would be attained just by becoming non-mind. Even being with-mind can become a knock at the door of consciousness.
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________________ 62/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh Roughly, there are only two prospects of the mind. He is either shaken-up by 'Mar' (beating) or is moved by 'Ram' (Lord Ram). Mind choses any one from the two-'Mar' and 'Ram'. To have a mind at peace is the entrance to trance. 'Mar' (beating) provides fuel to lust. Ram is the echoing of liberty. The mind's becoming 'Ram' is not its "Viram' (halt). It is not its last camp. That is just applying the brilliant energy of the mind on the path of tryst with the Supreme Soul. Halting of mind is suppression and suppression is the preapprehended preparation of the earthquake. If the mind gets moved by Ram, then there is no other helper in attaining 'sadhana' (seeking) and in knowing Him, who dwells within his own self. The same mind becomes a very forceful helper, as clutches, to the broken and bewildered legs in proceeding onwards. The same boat that had so long kept us mislead, becomes helpful in getting ashore. If we fail to get moved by 'Ram', we would land in the clutches of 'Mar'. If 'Mar' becomes effective, we would have to lick the knife on which sweetness is sticking. To swallow the sweetness sticking on the knife is tantamount to take poison in the name of sugar. It is akin to taking poison in the name of 'amrit' (the enlivening nectar). 'Mar' is but an intoxicating pill. He who takes it, his condition would become like a heroin addict. If one takes heroin, takes the risk of death in the lap of life. If he does not drink, he pines, he feels like getting roasted. It is a storm emerging in a tea-cup. Let us first understand 'Ram' (Lord Ram) and 'Maar' (beating) 'Maar' does not mean slapping. 'Maar' is the reverse alphabet-order of the word 'Ram'. Break-up the word 'RAM'--R, A and M. Reverse it-M, A and R. When A is added to M, 'MA' is formed. And, addition of R to MA makes MAR, MAR is absolutely the reverse of RAM. If you understand these two words carefully, then a big portion of the scriptures will be understood by you.
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________________ Come, Let's Immortalize Life/63 'Mar' is the god of lusty desire. To get someone entangled in the clutches of someone else is the act of 'Mar'. 'Mar' is the attraction of the opposites. 'Mar's achievement is to tie up two opposite properties in one knot. Its personality is hybrid. Man is one kind of property. Woman is another kind of property. Both are opposite to one-another. The lustful relationship of two opposite elements is 'Mar'. 'Mar' is absent there, where Ram is present and vice-versa. Have Ram and Ravan ever lived together? Ram and lust are both, mutually and eternally, foes. Only one king, not two kings, can be seated on one throne. Getting influenced by 'Mar' is public-dedication of one's own self to the world, and getting influenced by 'Ram' is application of mind on the supreme path of the supreme soul. Let aside the sensible persons, the general mass is in the clutches of 'Mar'. 'Mar' is the foundation of 'Charvak' philosophy. A man may have been born in a Jain, or a Buddhist, or a Christian or a Parsee or a Hindu family; and however much he may talk of principles, by deed he is a 'Charvaki' (follower of Charvak philosophy). Those who talk of the soul and the supreme Soul; those who describe the transience of the body and the world, and leading a life of 'eat, drink and be merry' as propounded by Omar Khayyam. Many big stalwarts are made after 'Mar'. The general people are decidedly following the signals of 'Mar'; this evil even carries off those people, whose mind is moved by Ram. It brings some Apsara (Heavenly beauty), and makes him slip off from the onward path. Menaka (a heavenly dancing beauty) is but an illusion of 'Mar'. Please understand the politics-Versus-diplomacy of 'Mar'. 'Mar' is nothing but a person's own weakness. Basically, 'Mar' has no existence. It is but the weakness of a person. 'Mar' becomes a Satan where it finds a person weak. It is said 'Ram is the strength of the weak." It is just a consolation. Devilry makes one so weak as is not done by strong persons. Where a person is
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________________ 64/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh strong, there the satan is scarce. The satan is there where a person is weak. 'Mar' is just there. The weaker a person, the more influenced he will be by 'Mar'. Only those are suffering from sex-diseases and AIDS who are weak. He who bas known his strength and sources of his strength, his mind would never be shaken by mind. AIDS is weakness. Weakness will be promoted in the company of the weak; strength will brighten up in the company of the strong. Just make a piece of glass face the sun, electricity will be produced even in that. If you focus its rays on the eyes of some other person, he will become blind in a moment. In fact, 'Yoga' is the name of becoming strong. Becoming strong is becoming restrained from all sides, and a life full of restrain is the biggest achievement of existence. The manliness of the weak is to fight against darkness. Whatever is seen by him is tantamount to a blind man's seeing. What an irony is this that a blind person can see distant things in the darkness. When this mind is moved by 'Ram', then it is certain that 'Mar' has become lustreless in front of him. 'Mar' can sound a little in front of 'Ram'. Both 'Ram' and 'Mar' are the smells of life. But 'Ram' is the fragrance of life, whereas 'Mar' is the odour of life. 'Mar' over powers ore who is weak. The conscience of the weak remains buddled up under the blanket of 'Mar'. A strong man is a yogi, and yoga is the name of becoming strong. Therefore, don't ever think that women are foul, or they are the entrances to hell. This mistake is being committed for centuries gone-by. Man did not recognise his own weakness, and therefore he considered women to be obstacles in attaining salvation. This mistake of the men folk, did immense good to the womenfolk. Whether it was a sage or a scripture, whoever dared to say so, did not recognise human weakness. It is an unpardonable crime towards the womenfclk. For salvation, or for 'Sadhana' (seeking the real truth) neither the man nor the woman becomes an obstacle A sadhaka (seeker) is the weakness of himself, powerlessness of
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________________ Come, Let's Immortalize Life/65 himself, 'Mar' of himself. If a person dares to blame the woman for concealing his own weakness, then in fact he is threatening to explode a bomb in the same aeroplane in which he is himself seated. Many of the persons, who come to me to learn the art of meditation, and to fly in the sky of trance, tell me what has happened with them. You would feel like laughing if you listen to their autobiography. Only yesterday, a gentleman said that he had stopped visiting the temple. When I asked the reason thereof, he narrated the real reason. It is not that I don't like a lie. But a man would not indulge in self-deceit by telling a lie in front of me. Where would you describe the truth if you conceal the facts even before the teacher? There must be repentance for the deeds.. In my opinion confession has a great value. Do you know what did the gentleman say? He said, "On going to the temple whenever I see any beautiful woman there, my eyes become impure. Concentration becomes hazy. I thought, my vision is unable to remain pure here, so stopped going to the temple". I said "That is your insensibility. If you have to change at all, change your vision. Why do you stop visiting the temple ? Without recognising your habit and your weakness, you are putting the blame on some beautiful woman, on the temple of God. Neither the woman nor her beauty is guilty. You are yourself guilty. Your own weakness is the guilt. You are yourself a thief and you are imposing blame on others. When you will sit down to meditate, then the fickleness of mind would be seen to be emerging. But in reality, that is not at all the fickleness of mind. Since you are seated in solitude, the mind would like to tell you something. It would tell you your own story. Have you read your autobiography? Those who read the autobiography of Gandhi or that of Tolstoy, should some time go to be seated in a solitary place, and go through their own autobiography. Remember in your mind the entire history of all
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________________ 66/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh the good or bad which you have done since your birth till now, study it minutely, and learn from it some thing as you do from Gandhi's autobiography. You would be surprised that no revolution has come so far on reading Gandhi's autobiography, but while perusing your own autobiography, in a single day life ascended on the dais of Gandhi. It is better to read your own autobiography once than reading others' autobiography a hundred times. If at the time of meditation you feel that the mind is becoming a vagabond, then do not run away from meditation, but see and read by making the personality of the mind a witness. Understanding the nature and the activities of the mind is the unfailing means of keeping the mind fixed. The mind is anxious to tell something. It is eager to say something, but it would say that to the person in a solitary place. He will tell you, only when you are willing to hear. When the eyes are closed, lips are silent, body is motionless only then can the mind murmur something in your ears. Try to listen to the murmurs and the whispers of the mind. The mind would never come to say good things. It would not itself teach, but it would provide the means to learn. It would inspire and encourage to learn from the person's past that had turned into misfortune. It would show the clippings lying dumped in its pocket. The mind would sprinkle a palm-ful of water to awaken the manliness of self. It would make the person meet those aerial imaginations, which the person has himself caused to sprout. He has done so throughout his life. As such the fickleness of mind that occurs at the time of meditation, is factually the photography of the person's insatiation and desire. That is why I say: Try to understand your weakness. Try to realize your lust, and your sexuality. The mind would become unshaken with burden the moment you would realise your weakAll its movement would remain connected with 'Ram', and ness.
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________________ Come, Let's Immortalize Life167 not with 'Mar'. Whenever a person becomes unhappy, it is due to 'Mar' but now he has become so much accustomed that he is feeling a pleasure in scratching the itches. Even if anyone calls it a pleasure, it can never be the pleasure for those who have eyes. This pleasure is sans vision. The experience of the pleasure found by scratching comes to memory again and again, and then you become ready to itch again. But just remember a little that pain, that agony, that pus and that blood which are the outcome of that itching. Why to walk on the path that is leading you towards a dark-bottomed well ? Instead of washing a cloth with soap after soaking it with ink, it is better not to soak it with ink. The Ganga is pious, bright; but only so long as it is in its own form. Its contamination with the opposite is a challenge to its purity. If the cup of mind becomes calm, then it is of course 'trance and if it is influenced by lust, then there is storm in that very cup. And, if it is moved by the Supreme Soul, then the Sky is contained in that very cup.
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________________ Stages of Trance : Solitude, Silence and Meditation It happened very long ago. Once Mahavira called his Chief disciple Gautama near him. Mahavira said to Gautama : "My dear disciple! I know that you love me very much. If you have to choose between the wealth of the three worlds, and the feet of Mahavira, you will certainly prefer to offer your devotion and worship to the feet of Mahavira. I would not ask you not to love me. I would rather ask you to love yourself as much as you love me. Accepting one's own self is believing in the existence of God. Mahavira explained to Gautama, "Don't negate your own self for my love. My love would be definitely helpful in your welfare. Attachment for me would certainly help you to desist from the attachment to the world. But you must keep in mind one thing that 'attachment' is after all 'attachment. Therefore, go and first of all make your life a 'life'. Before the death comes and embraces you, find out the wealth of your life. Before the fragrant flowers in the form of life, wither away, do make meaningful uses of the same. Today 'Jineswar' (Lord Jin who has vanquished desire) is standing before you. If in his presence you could not do any good to yourself, then there will be no worse wretched person than you". This is but the trend of a common man. When living greatmen, 'Tirthankars' (Jain prophets), sages come his way, he remains asleep, and when they go away, then he makes their idols and worships them. Today you would not get any thing from me, and when I will go away, you will make my idols and move about worshipping them. Today 'Jin' is in front of you. In ages
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________________ Stages of Trance : Solitude, Silence and Meditation/69 to come people would say that no 'Jin', virtuous person is visible to us. Those who are visible are also not unanimous. Today you have met a sage of one view, hence improve your future. Attain trance during my life-time. When would you light a lamp, if you don't light in the presence of a lamp ? I too would tell you but this that there is no certainty of life. It is getting spent up. Its passing away is a challenge to us. After living for even fifty years man thinks that life still remains. He does not think what the future has in store for him. Would my tomorrow become my today or my death? This thing is not certain. Therefore, I would but say that 'drown life as much as you can. Drowning is emergence. Getting drowned upto the bottom is to know the mysteries of the deepest. Death is to be felled, before it comes to us. The existence has to be embalmed in myths of immortality in such a way that saffron remains. After the myrtle has been soaked in, neither the greenish colour will be seen nor the reddish colour. The only colour 'Saffron' will be in view there. Coat yourself with such a colour that it is myrtle while applying but ultimately a third colour would emerge.' You would perform 'Sadhana' and meditation but the consequence will be 'Samadhi' (trance). Trance is the supreme thing. It is the supreme eternal heritage of life. The person who has attained trance and gets immersed, he has certainly achieved something in life. Every life is standing in the 'Q' of death. It is unknown whose turn comes in this 'Q'. Before our turn comes, we have to get away from the verge of death, and has to infuse immortality within, because trance is the path of paths, the solution. Nothing remains to be attained after trance. Supreme life, salvation and liberty of life are but other names of trance. Mahavira calls 'samadhi' (trance) in his language 'moksha' (freedom from taking birth after birth), and Buddha calls it 'nirvana' (salvation). What is called trance/salvation, I call it supreme life. A life that would be life even before birth, life even after birth, and
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________________ 70/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh would remain to be life even after death. That which was always there and would remain. The name of that very life is the supreme life. Trance is but the consequence, not the path. Supreme life is the consequence of those who wish to enter trance. When I deeply examined the path, I found some of its stages. I have felt that if any person wants to proceed on the path of trance, it has a few stages too. I have known the paths of trance in three stages. These very stages are the important formulae of attaining trance. Let these stages descend within yourself. These three stages are : solitude, silence and meditation. These are the three stages. There is no other stage beyond/across these steps. All the paths converge on these three paths. Solitude is utilized to forget others, Silence is for snapping the relationship with speech, and meditation is useful for shedding off one's thoughts. Solitude is there where a person forgets others; silence is there where the relation with speech has been snapped, and meditation is attained there where thoughts have descended from within. Solitude is useful to make you feel the existence of 'I am one'. Solitude does not just mean that a person is seated somewhere inside a room. Solitude occurs when a person feels that he is 'one' (alone). Crowd of people is dangerous. But there are numerous means to be safe from this crowd. There are jungles, halls and rooms, but there is no cave to be safe from this crowd. A man goes to be seated in a cave, but the crowd of thoughts does not leave him alone even there. There too the man is seated in a city. Solitude is the only way to get rid of the crowd. 'I am one', all the companions and comrades are false. You say 'she is my wife', 'he is my husband', but do you claim to work according to the 'husband' or the 'wife' for whom you sacrifice yourself? Or you would do according to what you say ? A person feels his wife is pleased with him, or her husband is happy with her, but you can not say what situation is going to be created at the very next moment. Wife was happy when you had come home. After some time you go out but it cannot be said
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________________ Stages of Trance: Solitude, Silence und Meditation/71 that your wife would be found pleased as before. You cannot forecast regarding your wife what and how would be the next minute? Since this is not possible then why the attachment, and why the infatuation? Leave alone others, a man cannot claim about himself what the next two minutes have in store for him. Two persons were intimate friends, but certain matter made them mutually blood-thirsty. A man has not been able to trust himself. How can he forecast any thing about others? What are you so proud of? Nothing is stable here. Every thing is transient. Wife, who is pleased now, can become angry the next moment. Here success and failure come our way every moment in life. Don't be proud on being successful and don't bring tension in your mind on becoming a failure. The highest 'Samadhi' of a person is not to be carried away by either success or failure when both these come in life. You might have seen the trapeze-artiste performing on the rope. With a bamboo in hand, he goes on walking on the rope, striking a balance on both the sides. If the balance of any side, the right side or the left side, is lost, he will instantly fall on the earth. To maintain the balance of both the sides is the real 'Samadhi'. Happiness-misery, attachment-detachment, foe-friend balancing is necessary whatever be the situation. The bird is flying. It would be able to fly if both wings are intact. It would drop down if even a single wing breaks down. The formula of 'Samadhi' is to spend every moment of life with such a balance that one becomes immune to when any calamity comes or when moments of happiness prevail. Let me narrate an incident. In my own life a revolutionary change has come due to this incident. It struck to the mind of an emperor to know about all the religions in the world. He was an emperor after all. How could he get time to pursue the scriptures of all the religions. The emperor summoned the pundits, the maulavis, and the chiefs of other religions and asked them to write down the essence of their respective religion in a single line, so that he could know about those religions. The pundits and the learned men of every religion handed to the emperor, the essence of their religions, but nothing convinced the emperor's mind.
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________________ 72/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh One day the emperor heard that such a 'Sanyasi' had come outside the village, who lives in solitude. He does not speak anything to anyone. He is spending his time in supreme meditation. He does not deliver any sermon, does not speak to anyone. The emperor thought he should visit that 'Sanyasi'. May be he would provide some formula. The emperor went to the monk, and said, "O Faqir (hermit) I want to know some formula so that I may understand the essence of all the religions and which may become a successful formula for my life. Just give me such a 'mantra' (formula), please". The monk understood the mental condition of the emperor and told him : "While breathing his last, my mentor had given me a talisman which remains always tied on my arm. My mentor had told me that this talisman contains a 'mantra' (formula) which narrates the essence of all the religions in one line. My mentor has also advised me to open this talisman only when you feel yourself helpless from all sides; when all the paths become closed. So long such a situation had not come before me; as such I haven't opened this talisman. I give away this talisman to you, but remember the condition. Open this talisman only when all the paths become closed and you find yourself helpless". In my opinion when a man realizes the last 'Vedana' (agony) of life, then only the 'Veda' (the divine scripture) of bis life is born. Only reading and memorizing the vedas are meaningless. This will be only parroting. The real 'Veda' of life comes forth only when a person feels agony all around him. Therefore, the 'prasad' (sacred offering) of life is never received in moments of happiness. The 'prasad' of life is received only in moments of agony. I do always pray only this to God to let loose this or that trouble against me, so that I may continue to feel the agony in life. I shall be able to attain the real experience of life in only those moments of agony. I shall attain my faculties of seeing and witnessing. To remain calm even in moments of agony is the basis of expressing joy.
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________________ Stages of Trance : Solitude, Silence and Meditation/73 "Nothing will happen if there is only happiness, only joy around a person". The monk further said, "Open this talisman only when the clouds of misery overshadow you from all the sides, you become disappointed, and no path is left". The monk gave the talisman to the emperor. Thereafter, the emperor used to remember the talisman now and then, and he felt like opening the talisman to read the 'mantra'. But at the same time, he also remembered the condition laid down by the monk. A very long time passed off. The emperor forgot the talisman. Unfortunately the ruler of a neighbouring Kingdom invaded the emperor's. The emperor fought bravely, but he was defeated and fled for life on the horseback. The enemy soldiers were following him on their horses. The emperor was running away fearfully listening to the hoof-beats of the enemy horses. At last the king reached the dead end of the way. He thought : 'What will happen now? I will be killed'. The enemy soldiers were closing in towards him on their horses. Suddenly, the emperor's palm fell on his arm, and he remembered about the talisman. The monk had told him to open the talisman and read the 'mantra' written within when he felt helpless from all sides. The emperor immediately opened the talisman, and read the 'mantra' therein. On the paper was written-'This would also pass off'. On reading this the emperor suddenly felt infused with a new strength, and he found that the hoof beats of enemy horses were also not being heard then. The emperor heaved a sigh of relief and thought : I was an amperor. Now that time is no more, and now I am not an emperor. This time would also not last. This moment of distress would pass off too. The king got a new strength and he re-organised his scattered military power. He invaded the neighbouring Kingdom and regained his lost crown and territory. On an auspicious new moment the coronation of the emperor was being held when suddenly he remembered about the 'mantra' and became sad. His face withered. The people seated in the royal court inquired : "While being crowned, you are standing unhappy. What is the secret of this ?" The emperor said, "It is such a formula of life, such an experience which I have recognised
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________________ 74/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh Everything is to pass away. in moments of agony. What exists today, would cease to be tomorrow, and what would be tomorrow, will not exist the day after." Life and death-all are but passing away. Nothing is to remain. Nothing is permanent. The only permanent thing is what we may call the knowledge of existence. Knowledge of this that 'I' remains eternal even after life. Only this element can make a man experience trance. This element would make a person feel, in the last moments of life the necessity of maintaining his balance, whatever be the circumstances. The stream of life is very thin. Even if unbalanced a little, you would instantly fall down. It is said that a sage's life is similar to walking on sword's edge. Keep trance on one side, and also walk on the sword's edge on the other side. Life is similar to walking on a sword's edge. I would rather ask you to forget even the sword's edge. Just think that you have to dance. Life is a sword's edge and one has to dance on it, since life is only for dance, for joy, for pious deeds. You have ascended the rope. The rope is tied to bamboos. You have to take your life across by walking on the rope. Trance is but the name of this. Just a little unbalance would create non-trance. Others are to be forgotten to come into solitude, because the three lower cycles are to be got rid of. Only thereafter would you be able to enter the three upper cycles. The first cycle of a person is his body, lust. The second-cycle is that of 'Kashaya' machinery. The characteristics of the third cycle are attachment and privilege. When a person enters the fourth cycle after having traversed all these three cycles, therefrom begins the reverse journey. In the fourth cycle, the lust of the first cycle that was attached in form of male or female; would give way. The cycle of mind and heart in the fourth one, gets attached to the soul, that would
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________________ Stages of Trance : Solitude, Silence and Meditation 75 get attached to the person's soul-element. In the fifth cycle the person would enter the state of desirelessness and non-mind, forgiveness and non-violence are born where a person enters bis fifth i.e. the 'throat cycle'. At that time a person proceeds towards the sixth cycle and enters the 'Order cycle'. Indifference is the characteristic of this cycle. And, when a person enters his thousand-lotus, in his cosmos, in his upper world--there occur 'moksha' (salvation) and 'nirvana' (attainment of freedom from the cycles of birth after birth). It is there that 'Kaivalya' (onlyoness) comes and kisses the person, and the supreme knowledge embraces bim. To attain this supreme stature the first medium is solitude, the second is silence and the third is meditation. These are the three stages of trance. You are seated speechless. Looking nice, you are all grownup, but you are looking like a child since you are seated speechless. Why does a child look nice ? Because it is beyond vice and talks less. A two-year old child looks very lovely. A two-day old child would appear even more lovely. That is why I say that all the people here are children because they are seated speechless. When a child is born, it does not know how to talk. This it learns later on. Silence is our real characteristic. Get immersed in it. Get immersed so much that speech becomes non-existent. Let our relationship with speech be snapped. Why does a person speak? To please others. Therefore I said that 'solitude' is the first step of trance. Get distanced from others. The next step is 'silence', so that our thoughts become pacified. A man is not honest in speech, but he is honest in silence. Speech can be a lie, but silence is always the truth. All the dishonesty has come with speech. Where a person remains engrossed in himself, there garbage does not find accommodation. The person who tells lies, transfers the garbage of his brain into the brains of others. Would you like if someone dumps garbage in your house? Does it please you if somebody dumps the garbage of his head into your head ?
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________________ 76/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh This too is similar to dumping garbage in your house. Make up a little. Be vigilant. Would you accept that garbage or not? Do you have to get yourself engrossed in silence or not? Man is poor in speech but rich in silence. He does know to talk much. That is why much ovation is accorded to the leaders. They talk much. In my opinion, the more a person talks, the more he is backward in respect of 'Sadhana'. If a person exercises to talk less, then half of the miseries of life would be automatically gone. Speaking is the expression of energy, and silence is the compilation and editing of energy. Meditation is the ascent of energy. Man is energy. Energy is his personality. Without energy he is a corpse. Meditation is one's friendship with his own energy. The friction of energy with energy is anger, and attraction of energy by energy is lust. Meditation is getting attached to one's self energy. Neither suppress energies nor bring about their friction. The existence of energy in the energy-form is its perfection. Solitude is the preparation for the journey within. Silence is the basis for staying lonely even in a crowd. And, meditation implies getting lost within self, inter-tuning. These are the three stages for 'trance'. Trance is exaltation, a festival of joy beyond description. Invitation is for that very festival. Come get immersed in your own exaltation, in the exalted form, in trance.
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________________ Meditation : Nature and Application Life is music, noise too; life is a festival, suffocation too. Music of life, festival of supreme satisfaction, is evident on the face of the child, smiling and giggling on the lap of inother in the house. If the art of creating music is mastered, then life becomes poised towards heavenly festival. For common people life is but the disintegration of music and swamp of misery. Narrow and lifeless outlook towards life become the inspirer of suicide. It is impossible for him to suicide who is drenched in the joy and simplicity of life. A man begins the journey of life since his birth. He is alive somehow, but he is not able to peruse the lessons of life. At every step, its documents are lying, but to dissolve these witbin leads to the unfolding of the mystic philosophy; a preface to beware before getting a jolt. Man is being grinded in the grinder round the clock. The vigilance of the day is completed in the shop, in the office and the night snorting on the cot. All do walk on the path of life, but rare are the people who can collect the lively essence of life. People weep during journey to the graveyard, bis eyes are damp ('diya Kabira ruye': Kabir burst into tears) sandwiched between the two grinding slabs ('do patan ke beech mein'), due to mistuning of life. From misery to non-misery and from non-misery to misery; from dream to non-dream and from non-dream to dream in this struggle-wave a person has become converted into a double-faced
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________________ 78/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh man. He has become so much accustomed to wearing coloured masks, that he does not even remember to wash the dirt that is covered under the layers of powder and lipstick. Masks have become a part and parcel of his life. He does not know where his original face is lying camouflaged. We have to find out that face which existed before the birth, that face which would remain intact even after death. If we find out that face in life, then it would be hailed as a novel initiative of immortality in the history of mortality. Death, whenever it arrives, is to be received with a smiling heart. Death is our birth-right. But what a wonder is this! The life that is being brought up in the lap of mortality, is unable to gather the awareness of even mortality. The first initiative of 'Buddhatva' (the state of becoming a Buddha) begins with the awareness of transience. Man may, of course, fear death, but so long as there is life, it is our responsibility to arrange and preserve its dynamism. Man is struggling, sensitive too, but peace is his first and the ultimate aim. His life-long worship is for the notes of the flute of peace. Manliness of body, completion of building, nutritiousness of food and sufficiency of wealth are desirable, but values of commitment to life are also in addition to all these. People collect wealth, build houses, maintain families, understand the instability of the mind, but there is also some base/doer/ witness of this entire environment. Every person is the carrier of that energy. All the possibilities of life are linked to that in the form of seed. How much has the banyan tree fruitioned and flowered? It has blood-relation with many many branches, it has also extended much its cool and kinship. It has a fully developed family. But do you know all this is the consequence of extension of the seed. The banyan is laden with leaves/fruits. Every fruit is the consequence of a single seed, but there are hundreds of seeds in a single fruit. The seed of the banyan is still in the form of seed.
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________________ Meditation : Nature and Application/79 Innumerable seeds spread from it, but it is a seed after all. That, which was the first is the last too. How can I forget that friend of mine who was alone at the time of death, who bloomed and bore fruits well, spread love, and was totally neutral at the time of death. The seed did not consider itself a seed-this very thing was its deviation from the Centre and unawareness. Remembering of seed in the tree is not only the foundation stone of propriety and rational awareness, but also the return towards the origin. Seed is the symbol of 'mool' (root) and tree symbolizes 'tool (exaggeration). Just as there are scandals of a fact, banyan of a seed, so also there is exaggeration of root. 'Mool' means Centre, and 'tool' means expansion. Turning of 'tool towards 'mool' is 'pratikraman' (crossing over), while adoption of 'tool' by 'mool' is trespassing. For those living in the atmosphere of trespassing the application/awareness of crossing is a correct step at the door of life. The occurrence of awareness of seed is in fact 'sambodhi' (rational awareness). Meaning of 'sambodhi' is attainment of awareness, becoming a 'Buddha'. Gautama became a 'Buddha'. Attained awareness, hence he is hailed as the Buddha. Every body can be a Buddha. The rational totality of awareness is but the foundation of the Buddha form. The prior step leading to awareness is curiosity. Curiosity and awareness accord a person the company any nearness of truth. The trust that is done without awareness, in a state of non-awareness, is the formation of a blind establishment. That trust is worse than non-trust which repeats the prayer of devotion externally, and nurtures distrust in the womb within. The trust done without questioning and awareness, remedially makes him a believer in the existence of God but non-belief in God remains, incarnate in his inner conscience. The person standing on the suspected brink of trust and distrust in God) is 'abhavya' (non-grand).
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________________ 80/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh Therefore, from curiosity to awareness, from awareness to belief and from belief to attainment--this order is the commencement of a new and rational park in life. Instead of having belief right away, opening up the path of inquisitiveness and perusal is tantamount to proceeding two correct steps towards truth. The first preface to every discovery has been curiosity only. Without curiosity a man will remain hollow and stupid from within. I am in favour of curiosity. The belief born from inquisitiveness and awareness is homage. Belief is an intellectual thing, while homage is related to heart. Therefore, don't believe right away. Because, in only two ways belief makes its dwelling in the mind-either traditionally or by imposition. The thing that is received traditionally is not one's own production, and the imposed thing is the forcible imposition by somebody. The flower blooms spontaneously, naturally. If it is wrong to believe without ascertaining any fact, then it is also improper not to believe. It is generally a wise thing not to believe something that is not known, but to disbelieve without making inquiries about, is carelessness. What, after all, can be the value of that belief, to maintain and upkeep which a man has to sacrifice his full/half life, but just a single jolt paralyses bis entire belief. Every man trusts many many persons in his life, but in the world treachery is mostly committed by those who are being trusted upon. Therefore, we should lay the foundation stone of life on that surface of earth, which we have examined and tested. Meditation is but the touchstone of that surface. Meditation is not death, but it is entry into the totality of death. Meditation does not nullify energy, it rather enhances energy hundred-fold. Really, meditation is a curiosity towards truth, a preparation for its attainment, a pond to be drenched in its entirety. I admit that body is truth, thought is truth too, mind is also truth. We also bave the myriads of tip-to-toe experiences of these truths. But the burial-ground of this city puts a question mark against the truth of these truths. It awakens a new inquisitiveness, a new curiosity. It says, these truths are but
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________________ Meditation : Nature and Application/81 mere lilliputs in front of that truth, due to which these truths appear to be truth. My request is for that truth which prevails as an entirety, for that truth which is the mute spectator of every falsehood. We did not try to proceed even two steps towards that reality, which remained a witness to every disgraceful shame of the mind and the body. After all, that is the foundation of life. The deeper the inquisitiveness that is awakened towards that, the thirst of the inner consciousness will become more evident. The jurisdiction of meditation is to keep the torch of that thirst constantly alight, and not to let it extinguish. The deeper the hold, the more successful would be the efforts. At the entrance of 'Yoga', that very entirety is invoked. The smile appearing on the face is the speaking tongue of that entirety. The entirety of life is the density of energy. That man is dead, who turns away from the energy-revolution. Energy is the basis of every activity. Energy can never be finished in the world. Why only creation, even the deluge is not possible without energy. Energy is prevalent in the entire cosmos. There is no world, where there is no energy. Many many holy books say that 'God is the founder of the world'. The grandeur of the world cannot be denied. The world is uniquely beautiful. Beauty should be worshipped. He who protects the world's beauty, keeps affectionate eyes towards it, is factually full of sense of worship towards God. That person is God's greatest enemy (sinner) who shoots cartridges at the grandeur of the world, who makes sieves of its entirety, smears ugly blots of blood, mauls up forcibly. The world is worthy to be loved. Religion is but the extension of friendship and love. Religion has composed the 'richayen' (cantos) for maintaining all. It is the responsibility of a man to maintain bis family, but humanity demands something else. That is not something to remain written and confined only
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________________ 82/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh in the books. To mould it into life is the conduct of religion. My mind is overwhelmed towards those, who respect the values of life for other people. This field-action is the religious and original personality of a man. In every person, so to say, is the prospect of the supreme soul. Take this as a 'aarsh vachan' (sagacious statement). 'Aarsh Vachan' means the statement which has been proving in every age. 'Aarsh Vachan' is that which doesn't need to be proved. The possibility of supreme soul emerged with the awakening in man of curiosity to understand the philosophy of life. Supreme soul is the expression of self-progress. Supreme development of man is the sounding-meaning of the Supreme Soul. In this respect every human being is the Supreme Soul; he can be so (in future) if he is not (at present). The supreme blooming of individual consciousness is the Supreme Soul. Every person is proceeding towards becoming the Supreme Soul. Not only human beings, but also animals and creatures, rather even the trees and plants and mountains, are proceeding towards this goal. Sooner or later, all would become the supreme soul. That day will be the most fortunate and making the earth a heaven when the entire totality of the cosmos will take the form of the supreme soul. It would be such a day when even mud touched by a man would be transformed into gold. Today when somebody touches even gold, then it is converted into mud. The efforts of a person should be directed towards goldenness. Even if he be standing in the darkness, he should be persistently searching and striving for light. Meditation is an invitation to that supreme possibility. This is for the Supreme Soul form; for the protection of one's own dignity. Let us get immersed in meditation. Let tears flow, if they do so during meditation. That will spill out the internal suffocation. If light emerges, welcome it. It would fill us up with new energy. Decidedly, the applications of meditation may impart to the world a new energy and a new direction.
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________________ Meditation : Nature and Application/83 Man is intellectual. He should be active on experiments. Experiment is the creative step of science, and meditation is the founder of the path of experiment. Meditation is related to experience, and experience is the synonym of experiment. Experiment and experience are but the same. Experience is the experiment of the internal laboratory, and experiment is the experience of the external laboratory. Meditation is the internal experiment in the world of experience. Everybody should meditate. Due to meditation not only the mental suffocation moves away, it also makes you acquire a new dynamism and a new energy. Energy is man's power of consciousness. Meditation is the accomplishment of that energy. Meditation is just not an internal sojourn, it is also an effective campaign for cleanliness of the soul and for discarding pollution, A man's interest towards virtues increases. Evils leave him without any effort. When the consciousness of mind would address, would turn towards itself, then the inclination towards evil would automatically come to an end. When a person is completely silent from within, then not only high ambition rather any mere ambition would not croak like a frog. Meditation is the building up of the establishment of internal discipline. The consciousness of man wanders throughout the world; to make it seated on the throne of the Centre is the internal discipline. Evils such as injustice, anarchy, violence cannot be uprooted without self-discipline. Meditation commences to give it, at the very preliminary steps, an internal discipline. If selfcentralization is completed then that is really the gala festival of the conscious world. In the beginning a person has to meditate, but later on he happens to be inside meditation. Doing is an effort; but being is spontaneous; ease. One has to do something to become something. In the beginning one has to learn driving a car with effort, but on driving continuously the car can be driven with ease. Attainment of meditation is also an effort of this kind. The more you would be attached to it, the more deeper would become its density, Then
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________________ 84/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh it would seem as if meditation is not any yogic exercise, but a part of life, like your shadow. Since meditation is related to life, therefore it is not subject to time. There is no restriction of time for it. And yet, one should meditate twice a day-morning and evening. The time when the sunrises, helps to fill up the petals of life with energy. Every sunrise is a new childhood. The meditation performed in the morning is for awakening one's dormant energy and for collecting new energy, wbereas the meditation performed in the evening is for compiling the scattered energy. The sun is the representative of light. It rises with entirety of energy. It is a call for awakening from nature to the human being. That is why the exercises, the processes of yogic postures and sunbath are important. Allowing the transparent rays of the rising sun to fall on the body is sun-bath. Energy is strength and the human strength is extremely balanced with the sun. Therefore, I shall advise that the light of the rising sun should be utilized to the maximum Meditation establishes the 'sadhaka' in self-unity by raising him up from the noise of the crowd. Therefore, meditation is the concentration of self-unity. This can be done alone, and also with others. At the time of meditation a special kind of waves emerges around a person. This can also be called a halo. It is the vibration of energy, an accumulation, recurrence. If several other persons also sit in meditation with us then we should not object; we should rather welcome this collective meditation forum. If several persons sit together and meditate, then these waves of halo can be more dense, and more effective. The atmosphere outside it can also be favourable for us. Be fresh after toilet and bath. It is better if 'Yogasana' is performed. A new spirit is acquired from it. Be seated no an easy posture, keeping your waist upright. In the first stage, the body-energy is to be stabilised. For this, we should pronounce aloud 'OM'. Repeat it again and again and meditate on it. Try to centralise yourself, your energy on
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________________ Meditation : Nature and Application/85 your forehead, between the two eye-brows, or at the central region of the heart. In the second stage one has to get rid of the activeness of the mind. For this we can take the help of breath. Enter first of all in the deep, then fast and later on in easy respirations. Tbe consecutive acceleration of the breath should continue until we are exhausted. Respirations would continue. Let us be established in the seen form; forget our body, our mind. This very forgetting would make us enter into a divine peace and vacuum. In the third stage the existence strolls. Entry into such a depth occurs which is two steps beyond even the experience. We have to identify with our energy with the strength of consciousness. Here, when we go beyond the body and mind, a deep quietness of life emerges. Let us co-operate with whatever is taking place at that time. At this time wherever we are within our inner consciousness, whatever is happening is a tryst with our reality. This stage in reality, develops in life the loftiness of trance for 'sambodhi' (rational knowledge). This state is an extremely virtuous act of life. We have been filled-up with a supreme feeling, supreme satisfaction, supreme energy, supreme music. We have come across the intra-speciality of life, with self-luxury. You become joyous, mirthful. Thank your own blessedness. Such a sunrise is awaited in life, every day. The dawn invites you to participate in this festival of life, with best wishes.
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________________ Under the Shade of Trance Dawn is birth, morning is childhood, noon is youth, evening is senility, night is death. Life is a non-stop journey. The sun that has risen in the east proceeds towards the west step by step. Every one earns something or produces something in life. Unfertility is considered a misfortune. Whatever is earned-saves externally, remains lying nearby. To pass away without producing anything is nothing else than one's own infertility. Night is the full-stop of the life-story. Evening is approaching. It is the maturity of experience of the grey-haired ones to make the evening meaningful before death ridicules them. Much of the life has passed off. It would be a very precious achievement if eyes get opened even in the small portion of the life that still remains. It is not necessary that what is not accomplished in the whole life, can not be accomplished in a short period. Does a student persever throughout the year ? As the moment of examination draws nearer and nearer, accordingly the mentality begins to get prepared. During the examination days, time is little but dedication is more. This very dedication is the foundation of success. A person should slice off some time from all his work, and devote a moment or two to meditation. For organising internal strengths one must activate himself, at night while going to bed, and while waking up in the morning, in meditation. The effect of a moment's meditation remains vibrating for twenty-four hours. Even a single pill of medicine can spread the waves of health all through the day. Once the person is coated with the paint of
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________________ Under the Shade of Trance/87 meditation, it does not peel-off easily. Who would desire to drink sea-water after drinking milk? Meditation is the golden sun-rise on this earth. Meditation teaches us the method of returning home, the process of coming back to nest. Mind is a heap of atoms. Atoms do not live life. Meditation is the provision of making mind conscious. People think that meditation is death, is teaches us to negate the mental tendencies. Factually it is not so. There is no life better than meditation. It does not teach us to stop or to obstruct, but to return back. It rather instructs to infuse dynamism in it. Acquire the maximum possible speed. You would become a 'sthitprajna' (having an unflinching real knowledge) if you would enter yourself. We would know all without going where we want to go now. The entire world would be reflected in our soul. At the mirror lying in our house would be reflected the shadow of every activity of the world. This is the real life. This is the life in which the heat waves of running-chasing, riots and disturbances, terrorismextremism do not blow. Here prevails peace, supreme peace, evergreen. Mind is active. Meditation does not imply usurping the activity of mind; mind is not made inactive like a corpse. Meditation goes on developing mind at different dimensions of consciousness. The lotus-petals of the mind which are still touching the mud to some extent, mind makes them unblemished from the mud. Rising like the sun it makes them bloom in its natural form. That is, meditation gives the mind the fragrance of reality. This is not the process of imparting inactivity and inanimateness. It rather introduces the tendency for development. The 'Kundalini' is asleep in the navel. Meditation awakens it, and makes it break through the cycles. When a person breaks through the cycles through meditation, then he journeys from down below to up above. It is the ascent, scaling Mt. Everest. Breaking through the six cycles is the breaking through the six human vices. Across these cycles is the indifference to attachment where the 'sadhaka' hears 'Brahmanaad' (voice of God), the melody of onlyness.
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________________ 88/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh Meditation in fact is the high-way to recharge the battery of the power of the soul. Now, it depends upon us when to switch the battery on, when to use it, and utilize its powers. Today, not only the external dangers have increased, but internal dangers have immensely increased. The truth is that the internal dangers have increased much more than the external dangers. Therefore, today meditation is the unfailing panacea to solve the puzzles of problems. If we don't get much time, we should meditate daily for 24 minutes in the morning. Try to stop thinking about the enemy-side, and enjoy the things decorated in your house. No sooner the 'ras' (interest) to return home is born, then the concentration of mind will be attained. Waking up of 'ras' is necessary 'raso wai sah'. 'Ras' (interest) is a form of God. One's own house would be likeable when interest towards it will be awakened. Total interest is the foundation of concentration. Let us go on drinking cup after cup of this nectar of interest, so that meditation may succeed, and through meditation we may get our home, our aim, our destination. Trance is but a complete interest of self. Concentration is the synonym of nectar-fullness. Lack of nectar-fullness is the fickleness of mind. Just as grey hair is the tale of a long life, so also the maturity of nectar is the polished story of meditation. Without meditation a person has no existence. Meditation may also be that of a debauch. He concentrates his mind upon lust and upon the points related to lust. But this meditation is vicious. Because, this meditation gives birth to excitement, agitation and anger. That is not the summit of the Himalaya, but the ox of the street. That meditation is auspicious which makes you self-content and joyful in the eyes of your own self. It is not an escape from external struggle. Meditation gives strength and peace too. Strength is an encouragement to manliness, and peace is its destination. The meditation performed in the morning is a knock at the door of strength, and the meditation performed in the evening is a knock at the gate of peace. Morning is the waking up of the
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________________ Under the Shade of Trance/89 energy which was lying asleep all through the night, while the evening is the identity of the consciousness tired and exhausted after a whole day's labour and toil. Morning means rational flow and evening means rational meditation. Morning/strength is the beginning of the upwards journey of consciousness from 'Kundalini' (the coil of supreme strength). Evening/peace is the culmination of that journey. 'Padmasana', 'siddhasana' (yogic postures) and 'pranayama' (exercise of the breath) are also the helpful advisers for waking-up of strength, and for the rising of peace 'shavasana'-'sukhasana' (yogic postures) are also good participants. Meditation with 'asanas' is the preliminary of attainment of health. Physical health is indispensable for meditation. 'Asanas' are performed just for this. 'Asanas' are related not to meditation, but to body. 'Asanas' are meant, in a way, for exercise. 'Asanas' are essentially meant to create appetite, improve digestion and purify the body. Meditation is not purification of body, but purification of mind. For meditation, that 'asana' is the best on which we can remain seated firmly for two-three hours. The spiritual 'asana' is spread on the stage of a healthy mind. Mind's freedom from disease is necessary for the spiritual health, and the fasting of vices is beneficial for the immunization of the mind. Detachment from luxuries is the origin of fasting. Attainment of health can be imparted to the mind through forgiveness, politeness and contentment. Trance is not the opposite of health. It assists in the attainment of health, by giving accumulated energy to the body. Disciplining of the breath, prevents the scattering of the mind, and to leash the hazards of the senses-these are the special objects of trance, and these are the strong bases for enhancement of life-span and nourishing life. 'Asana' is the solitary 'Karmayoga' of the body. It is the dedicated enterprise of keeping the body habituated to labour. He, who works with concentration, takes several kinds of means with him. Spiritualism does not necessitate giving up all the work
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________________ 90/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh and duties, but the dynamic approval of spiritualism is for doing a work with concentration and vigilance. Inactivity never became the identity of spiritualism. Non-lethargy is the gate-way of spiritualism. To work heart and soul, by discarding lethargy is a great industry of this field of work. 'Udyog' (industry) means 'ud'+'yog', that is, high-level performance. Labour is the foundation of industry and labouring is a high 'yoga'. If labour is proper, how can industry be a vice? It is rather a necessary facet of the 'sadhana' of life. To eat the bread earned by one's sweat is not sweating out of one's manliness, but it is to keep the body away from getting rusted by making it sweat by using it. The easy way to attain salvation is to work with one's own hands with complete concentration. It is more creditable to do any work yourself instead of making others do it. To remain in senses while eating-drinking, rising-sitting, sleeping-waking is to make yourself firmly occupy the seat of a householder-saint. This is the practicality of meditation-yoga. Day is the word, night is keeping eyes shut towards it. Extend you activity during the day, so that the activities of life may not come to stand-still; and, while the evening approaches, then just as the sun gathers back its rays, this is the expansion and limitation of the mind. Even if you have slept dream-free at night, it is but the concentration of mind. The work of mind is to provide dream-free/vice-free mind. If meditation is attained without being seated in any yogic posture, then it is the very revolution of life. When meditation becomes an inseparable part of life, above practice and principle, then only it becomes a medium of the supreme soul's dwelling in the internal mind. Clean meditation is the process of seeing one's own self, in one's own self through one's own self. Meeting one's own self is 'atma yoga'. Meditation is an internal sojourn. It makes one know of the inside. It tells of every active sense of mind. Wandering of mind during meditation is not a slip, but a reflection of the thoughts suppressed and accumulated in the inner consciousness. If meditation is superficial, then it would project only the superficial thoughts.
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________________ Under the Shade of Trance/91 They do not actually perform meditation who say that their minds do not become steady at the time of meditation; they are just indulging in a formality in the name of meditation. Thoughts would go on becoming deeper with the deepending of meditation. Those would be the fully matured and ripe fruits. The thoughts occurring during the moments of trance are the vibrations of wisdow. The thoughts that emerge in the tranceful life are the godly expression of one's own self. Trance is the centre of solutions. Solutions are but of thousand types, but trance is the solution of solutions. It is the answer of answers/non-answer. How can the brightness be in the planets and stars, what is in the sun. The cloud can not cover the sun's brightness. Therefore, trance is the perfection of the development of the inner-personality. Meditation is helpful to it. To offer relief to the inanimate mind is the joy of meditation. To make the mentality and joyousness germinate even in the tension-ful daily life is the original contribution of meditation. Meditation and trance are no miracles. They symbolise friendship of concentration and reality with the mind. Miracle can also be an illusion, but trance cannot be magic and jugglery. Every person cannot perform a miracle but every person can perform trance. The moment the stupor is gone, one steps on the threshold of trance. Somebody asked me why are the bells tolled in the temple ? Is it to awaken God ? I said, no. Bell is tolled in the temple to wake-up one's own self, to salvage one's own self from stupor, so that he may concentrate his mind in the temple by checking the scattering and wandering of the whole world. Temple is the abode of our homage. That is a bright state of the sense of our mind. That is a temple, where the mind embraces peace and trance. The tolling bell is the alarm time-piece for the inside. If you wake up on hearing it, then it can be said that God has been awakened. How can you awaken God, if you are not awake? He (God) is awake for the awake, and asleep/invisible for the sleeping one.
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________________ 92/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh Meditation keeps us awake round the clock. The stupor of lust cannot shake-up the meditation-sentinel. Man is hackled in the clutches of lust. Lust is deep-rooted. The deeper the lust in mind, the stronger should be the desire for salvation. Only then the cycle of re-births can be uprooted. Lest the flower of life should wither while sleeping-- to remain vigilant in this regard is the duty of life. To forget the obtained chance in lethargy is to disregard the present. Only the viewer of the present is able to write the correct history of the future in the name of the past. Receding away from the present, moving life like a pendulum between the past and the future, is to remain hanging in the space. The present is the originality of life. It is not the body, it is life. Seated cross-legged inside dark/fair body is a life-seeker. To recognise it is to enjoy the truths of life. There it rains without clouds, the lightening dazzles without collision. Language/speech is mute there. In the water of experience there is no sound, there is only the bath with the enlivening nectar. Trance is the meeting with that life-seeker. To attain this state we will have to cross the stages of trance. Trance is not the path, trance is the goal, the destination. Trance has three stages-solitude, silence and meditation. Solitude is the distance from the world, silence is the freedom from expression, and meditation is the release from thoughts. All the members of the entire house have gone out to their respective work. We are all-alone in the house. This for us is an opportunity of solitude. For sometime even the house can provide the fun of a cave. If the expression is stopped, then the social relationships of friendship and enmity remain incomplete/balted. Do the mutes bave any society or relationship ? When one does not have to speak anything to anybody, why/how would the thoughts vibrate ? Thought-free meditation is the gate-way of trance. A person does become the seeker of silence throughout the night, but while asleep. During day time there is no sleep, there is awakening, but the mind remains vociferous. Solitude is useful to enter the spirit and the silence is the art of remaining alone even in the crowd. By adopting silence in life, practical quarrels and miseries would also be lessened.
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________________ Under the Shade af Trance/93 Silence is not the decrease in the strength of thoughts, but it is the accumulation of thoughts. Language turns out the internal energy, but silence is the medium of saving-energy. Silence is the door to enter the internal world from the external. To make one's new energies emerge, silence is the preliminary stage. Therefore, silence in itself is a meditational seeking. It is the sentinel of the discipline of speech, a store for saving strength, and the formula to keep truth intact. He is the see-through and brilliant 'sadhaka' of truth, who has closed the doors of mind, speech and body. He is keeping a stupor-free vigil on these entrances. His gaze remains fixed at the entry of the internal world. The guests of the external world enter through this very door. Unworthy and unwanted guests do knock at the door, but he does not respond to all the knocks; he just listens to the knock of the truth. He receives only those people, who may enhance the prestige and glory of his internal world. Trance is happy-go-luckiness of inside. It can be observed in the happiness of consciousness that becomes visible on the face. It is not the palatial golden construction of any particular place, nor does it imply becoming the lord of any place, but it is the hang-over of an extraordinary pleasure in the open eyes of the internal being. It is a smile even in defeat, it is firmness of a palace even on earth. Trance is the indicative of becoming monumental from nil. Trance does not brighten up if a pin is pierced in the lust-filled eyes, but after all the clouds and the fog of the dark sky of inside are removed, it emerges in the form of rays. Trance is also a state; there are no inclinations. The possibility of tendencies can not be ruled out, while the glimpse of trance can be viewed after the screen of mind is torn off. The joyous sojourn of consciousness is beyond every alternative of the mind, He who lives in trance is a cent-percent non-mind, but not nonconscious. Consciousness is lush green there. Every possibility of consciousness becomes founded (introduced) by the association of trance. He does not have to remember who is he. All his queries are drowned. Whatever happened was just following in the footsteps of the answers.
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________________ Thinking of the Supreme-being through disciplining of breath Man has erected dimensions to maintain the managements of life. Shoodra, Vaishya, Kshatriya, Brahmana-all these are but the ladders made by men. Any person does not become a Brahmana just by taking birth in a Brahmana family, nor one becomes a Shoodra just by taking birth in a Shoodra family. Mankind cannot be divided on the basis of birth. Taking birth in a Shoodra family is not the basis of hatred, and getting born in a Brahmana family does not make one respectable. A man can be a Brahman even on getting born in a Shoodra family and he can be a Shoodra even on being born in a Brahmana family. Therefore, do not try to divide men on the basis of birth. Brahmanatva In my opinion, every man is born a Shoodra. has to be attained. Even who has taken birth in a Brahmana family is born as a Shoodra and also he who is born in a Shoodra family is born as a Shoodra. The truth is that a person does not become anything by birth. It is a crime to call him a Brahmana, and a crime also to call him a Shoodra. If I consider any one to be a Brahmana and a Shoodra, all the bases and standards of that consideration is related to life, and not to birth. There are four bases of our body. The first basis-body, second-mind, third-soul and the fourth basis is the Supreme Soul. The person who lives in the body-sense is a Shoodra. He who lives in the mind-sense is a Vaishya. He who lives in the soul-sense is a Kshatriya and he who lives in the Supreme Soul-sense is a Brahmana.
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________________ Thinking of the supreme-being through disciplining of breath/95 A man is born with the body, and goes on living in the bodysense. Therefore, the major part of a man's life is spent as a Shoodra. The person who thinks that he is only body, is surely a Shoodra. He may be a Buddhist, a Jain or anything else, he is but a Shoodra. "I am a body-form, I wash my body, decorate my body--so long as this sense will persist, a man will remain a shoodra. A person transplants attachment within himself due to body, due to something inanimate; in the language of Mahavira the name of that transplant is falsehood, and in the language of Shankara that is illusion. Let alone the world, even the beginning of the life of a common man can not take place with illusion and falsehood. It cannot take place without learning nor with ignorance. It begins with rationalism and knowledge. It happened long ago. A 'faqir' (a muslim sage) arrived near the palace of the emperor Brahmin and told the gate-keeper posted there--"I have to stay in this inn." The gate-keeper laughed : "Are you in your senses? This is a palace, not an inn." The 'faqir' became adamant : he would stay only in that inn. By chance, the emperor, seated on the balcony above, was listening to the dialogue of both. He called the faqir inside and asked, "On what basis do you call this palace an inn, and insist on staying in it?" Instead of replying to this question, the faqir put a counterquestion, "Who lived in this palace before you ?" The emperor said, "My father lived here before me." The faqir asked again, "Who lived here before your father ?" The emperor said, "My father's father." "And before him ?" the faqir asked again. This time the emperor said, "Before that my father's father's father lived here." Now the faqir said, "When so many persons came here, stayed here and left, then it is only an inn. Today, you are here, tomorrow your son will reside here. Isn't it an inn then ?" The emperor had no reply. Said, "O faqir ! Really you have made me understand that it is just an inn." The emperor knew himself and from there started his 'Brahmanatva' (living in the supreme soul sense). Brahmanas should feel themselves, how much Brahmana they are ? Please do not erect the standards of life on the basis of life,
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________________ 96/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh because the standards of life are formed on the basis of life; please do not measure them on the basis of birth. By birth, every person is a Shoodra. I would rather say that a man is not a Shoodra just by birth, because a Shoodra is he who lives with the body-sense. You bathe, wash your face, shave daily. Look at the mirror. How strange! A mirror (body) is looking at the mirror. You have taken a bath but a black spot is still there. The blemish would not go off even if you continue to bathe throughout your life. "Aakhi umar lagaye lidhi, Lux Rexona saboo, Pher bhee Kalo-ro-kalo, Raigyo Jagjivan Ram Baboo." The external blackishness would after all be shed off, but what would you do of the internal blackishness? You have embarked upon turning coal into gold. How can it be possible? If you have to remove darkness, light up a lamp, brightness would come up. But, how would you destroy blackishness of the body? Attentiveness towards body does make-'Shoodratva' (the state of being a 'Shoodra') rise. Infatuation for the body is but the 'shoodratva' of a person. Women have menstruation. Do you know why? Because women have a very deep infatuation for the body. Therefrom begins the menstrual period. She who feels herself beyond the body, even while living in a woman's body, her menstrual periods cease to occur. The root of all the miseries is the infatuation for the body. Menstruation occurs due to attachment towards the body and madness occurs due to attachment towards mind. You might have seen the lunatics. You must have found that ninety nine out of hundred lunatics are males, while one woman lunatic is seen. This is the reason attachment does not leave him. It is necessary to rise above it. The person who rises above a Shoodra becomes a Vaishya. Vaishya is the representative of mind. The function of a Vaishya to get goods from some place and send it to some other place. He goes on filling up his godown. This is the very
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________________ Thinking of the supreme-being through disciplining of breath/97 nature of mind. It desires always to have 'more'. Therefore, he continues to remain a Vaishya who lives in the nature of the mind, whatever the family he is born in. In reality he is but a Vaishya. The demand of the mind is more than that of the body. Mind has no stomach, that is why it is never filled up. There is a limit even to the desire for bread and clothes, but the mentality of a person never gets filled-up. Mind is limitless; limit of mind is beyond every sea. Even God looks dwarfish before the 'Karmayoga' of mind. The speed of even God would not be the same as the speed of the mind. So gigantic is the desire of mind that even God appears to be dwarfish before it. The more it gets, the more it wants. This is but the definition of the mind: "Subanna rupassa pavvaya bhawa, Siya hu kelasasoma a sankhya. Narassa luddhas natchi kinchi, ichchha bu agassama ananliya." Even the Kailash mountain of gold and silver is acquired, it is nothing to a person entangled in the greed of desires. he who lives in the mind, is but a Vaishya. Therefore, Steady the indicator at one place. It is such a radio in which music is heard at only one point. Would you hear any music if the indicator fluctuates. The first beginning of sadhana starts from here. Centralize mind at one point, so that some music be heard, so that the sound of some 'flute' or 'sitar' may be heard. The indicator in the radio is fixed at the Vividh Bharati Station. Songs are coming from 1.30 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. Some other programme comes up after that. At last, very late at night, the voice stopped coming from that point. Likewise, after the time is finished, you would feel that at the termination of time-limit, you have entered into the field of an indescribable peace, entered the supreme space. There thoughts end, only peace remains. There occurs the advent of the Supreme Space. In this state there remains nothing, and then something begins to be acquired. It happened in Udaipur. A journalist used to come to me. He was a sub-editor in a daily newspaper. He had a great attachment towards meditational 'sadhana'. One day he said that a
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________________ 98/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh variety of thoughts rise when he is seated for meditational 'Sadhana'. I can't remain at peace in mind. Prescribe some way. I have become worried. The more I try to control mind, the more fast it runs. I studied his inner consciousness. Told him-Okay, do a thing from today; when in the evening you are seated to perform meditation allow those thoughts to come that come to your mind. You work in the capacity of a journalist. Assume that you have been sent for reporting and some leader is making a speech. You go on noting down those thoughts in your diary." He asked"What will happen from this ?" I told him-"Do just try. Leave the rest to me." He went away and did as instructed by me. Next day he came to me, then I asked him-- "Have you brought what you have written ?" He nodded assent. I told him : "Now you write the same thing for fifteen days." After a fortnight when he came to me, his diary was filled-up. I took the diary and asked him to perform meditation regularly. Again after about a fortnight I got all that he had written in his diary typed and sent with a note for publication in the newspaper of the same journalist. When he read those typed pages, came running to me and said : "Maharaj Shree ! (Your Exalted Honour)! You are a very learned and a wise person. But what these absurdities have you written and sent for publication in my paper ?" I explained to him that you have today at least acquired this knowledge that these things are absurd. O brother ! these are not my thoughts, but they occur in your mind during meditational 'sadhana'. Just go and read it in solitude. This is your autobiography. Even if you read the autobiographies of Gandhi and Tolstoy for fifty times, but you haven't perused your own autobiography of the inner self is better than reading Gandbi's autobiography fifty times. If you read your own autobiography all your meaningless thoughts would disappear and you would feel angry with your own self. The current of forgiveness originates, when a person expresses his anger upon himself. Bereft of this all his forgiveness are mere
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________________ Thinking of the supreme-being through disciplining of breath/99 formalities. Forgiveness emerges as a real current only where a person becomes angry upon himself. The person goes on becoming cleaner only when he admits his smallness. After all, how many thoughts come to mind. Hundred kinds of thoughts do not come. If you settle-down for meditation, five-ten-twenty kinds of thoughts may come. In fact, the internal path is the corridor of thought. Its path is demarcated. The thought too walks on those demarcated paths. You might have seen that when a farmer from a nearby village sets out towards the town, he loosens the bullock's reins. The bullock proceeds-on along the demarcated path. Similar is the mind. One goes from his house to the shop, from the shop to the bank, back to the shop from the bank, then to the temple. Comes back home from the temple. He just went to some selected places, and came back. Let him move on, and you try to see him, test him as a witness. On doing so, the waves of mind would begin to concentrate spontaneously. There, the centre of 'Chitta' (inner consciousness), the layer under the mind, would go on peeling-off its layers. Please note, there is a difference between mind and inner consciousness. Mind is that which always knocks at the door of the future and 'chitta' is that which maintains its foothold at the door of the past. That is why, the mind never goes in the past, aad 'chitta' (inner consciousness) never peeps into the future. Man remembers his past life only through the inner conscious. Mind is just a wave that lives in the present and goes on thinking of the future. It is a heap of atoms. Contrary to this, layers have gathered on the 'inner conscious'. 'Chitta' is a sacramentality, traditions. Layers of sand (time) go on gathering on the traditions of the past. As you go on peeling off these layers, you would find yourself free from tradition and sacramentality. And, with this, you would go on getting freedom from mind. Go on peeling off the layers of an onion, the ultimate remainder will be zero. What have been called thought and mind, modern science has named them as the 'Conscious' and the 'unconscious' mind. There is the 'hathayoga' if concentration of the body is desired, but it is necessary to take the help of 'mantra-yoga' to attain concentration of thoughts. The person, in whose mind a storm of throughts
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________________ 100/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandi Prabh blow, he should try to concentrate his mind in a peaceful disposition. After this he should breathe-in with 'Pranayam' (discipline of breath), and view and review breaths. While inhaling and exhaling chant 'Om'. From this would be created such a musical note and tune, as would make you feel that all the thoughts have been lost. Absorb 'Om' in your breaths so much that only 'om' remains. You may feel that you are inhaling 'Om' and also exhaling 'Om'. By doing so, such a kind of music, such a musical vibration will be created as would totally separate you from thought, from the body. You will feel yourself separate from the mind. 'Pranayam' keeps the different elements of life in separate cartoons so that life may awaken us and vibrate us from within. By and large, it will be sufficient if we perform only, two or three kinds of 'Pranayam' such as Anulom-Vilom, 'dirgha shwas' (deep breath). 'Saumya-mastrika' and 'Kapal mastrika'. If we exercise any of these three-four 'Pranayams' we would find that expulsion of the internal dirtiness has begun. You will find yourself in space, the body would go on becoming lighter and you would become tension-free. After performing 'Pranayam' in your breaths, with inhaling and exhaling, add also the lyricism of 'Om'. You would feel as if you are adding word to speechlessness. At that time 'Om' would echo. The name of that very state is self-realization, and tryst with seif-vibrations. The concentration of mind is attained there. In reality, the aim of 'dhyan-yoga' (meditational yoga) is to keep life arranged with its liveliness. The aim of meditation is not to lead a person towards death, but to bring back towards life. There is no achievement greater than life before life. Prospects do not emerge by dying; life is necessary to give birth to any prospect. Can it be done by death? What can be done by life? If I have asked you to perform 'Pranayam', don't take it just as a physical exercise. 'Pranayam' is a preface of meditation. Meditation is done not only with concentration of mind, but also with concentration of body. Concentration of body does not
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________________ Thinking of the supreme-being through disciplining of breath/101 mean infatuation for body; it means preparing the body for meditation. We don't have to dry-up our body; rather we have to keep the body always prepared for attainment of self. A very good formula is 'Shareermadyam Khalu dharma sadhanam'. Body is but the door to enter into religion. And, Pranayam makes the body completely dedicated and attuned for meditation. 'Pranayam' is mainly related to breath. Breath, i.e., beginning of life, foundation-stone of life. A child may be mute or even handicapped by birth. It can also be blind by birth, but no one can get life without breath. The action of breath is in reality the process of life. That is why just as body-restraint is necessary for a good life; so is the breath-restraint. 'Pranayam' is a mode of breath-restraint. 'Pranayam' is comprised by the actions of taking the breath in, stopping it and releasing it. Inhaling is 'poorak' (filling), keeping of the breath in 'Kumbhak' (storing), and exhaling is 'rechak' (purgation). man. A All these three modes of Pranayam are related to common Not only with man, but with the entire existence. The lower the speed of one's breath, the longer is his life-span. Have you seen how does a dog breathe? How fast does it breathe ? In a minute, it breathes nearly thirty times. A rabbit breathes even more; it breathes 38 times in a minute. The more the frequency of breath in a creature, the shorter is his life-span. rabbit, supposedly, lives for eight years. A dog lives for thirteenfourteen years. Darwin says that man evolved in slow motion. The breath gets such a motion that taking of breath is not even felt. The turtle takes only five-six breaths in minute. The performance of 'pranayam' bears a great similarity with the consciousness of the turtle. Restraint of breath promotes restraint of body too. By controlling the speed of breath, a person can also decelerate the speed of his vices. This is the discipline of yoga. 'Pranayam' brings about a live transfusion of consciousness in the entire arterial cycles, in the nerves. The energy to work is enhanced. It have also found that even the fibres of knowledge are cleaned by it.
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________________ 102/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh A person complained that he felt like committing suicide over and over again. I advised him 'Pranayam'-cum-Meditation. As a consequence the tendency to commit suicide was transformed into self-realisation and the thirst for trance was awakened. Body be at peace, slowness in breaths, and attuning of 'Om' in thoughts are the preliminaries of joy-riding through 'Brahma' (the supreme soul). The prospects are eager to welcome, just peep inside the eyes of your inner consciousness. He, who is present within, is calling you. To hear his call is the tryst with 'Sambodhi' (rational knowledge).
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________________ Fearless movement in Six cycles A discovery of Darwin is considered very important. He had said : man has been evolved from monkey. Man is but the improved form of monkey. According to Darwin, monkey is the ancestor of man. Contrary to this, the Indian thinkers say that man takes the next birth as a monkey as a consequence of the evil deeds he does in life. Please understand this philosophy. Darwin discovered that man is born from monkey, whereas the Indian philosophers have said that monkey is born from man. It is man who according to his deeds is born as worm-insect, monkey, donkey in subsequent lives. If your deeds of this life are good then you get heaven, and if you have done evil deeds, then you land in hell, become bird, beast, animal. Darwin is correct in his place and Indian thinkers are correct in their places. I shall strive to take steps more than Darwin did. In my opinion neither Darwin por Indian philosophers could say what they wanted to, properly. Neither monkey is born from man, nor man is born from monkey. Man himself is nothing but a monkey. By seeing external size, form and appearance no much difference can be found between animal and man. Plato has stated too : "Man is a two-legged animal without feathers. Man is after all an animal. Some are four-legged and some two-legged.". It is not necessary that if you do evil in this life, then you will be miserable in the next life. As the consequences of good or bad deeds man becomes happy or miserable in this very life. If a man searches bimself, he would know whether he is a man or a monkey ? Man or God ? It is a different thing to be a monkey after death. I feel that man is a monkey even right now.
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________________ 104/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh Darwin said, man got his birth from monkey. But, is man born yet? Much remains to be attained yet to become man. He has taken birth of course in the form of monkey. When man becomes a man, then nothing remains to be done by him. Please centralize all your awareness with a witness-sense, a seer-sense at your centre-sense. You would feel that your inner conscience is still a monkey. Man is not yet born. A monkey is sitting alive in the form of man. When man will look inside himself, he would find that he has not been able to become a man, he is still a monkey. The mind is like a monkey, moves on sometimes at this tree and sometime on that tree; sometime descends down, and sometime ascends up the top of the tree, but his jumping and hopping are continuing. Heaven-hell are psychology; creations of the mind. While the mind exists, the alternatives of heaven and hell would continue to emerge. Salvation is beyond mind, beyond heaven-hell. Life is but the heaven and the hell. To attain salvation is the total success of life. The possibilities of heaven and hell are not beyond life. Don't think that you would become worms-insects after death. The person who is entangled in illusion and attachment, is even now but worm-insect. Just as a worm is born in the mud, and breathes its last after completing its life-span in that very mud, a man entangled in illusion and attachment is similar to that worm. He has not been able to become man. What can be a more miserable and hellish condition ? A son asked his father : "I want to study medicine. Please advise me if I should become an ear-specialist or a dentist ?" Father said, "What is in it to be of two minds? Be a dentist. Since teeth are thirty two, they would bring more profit. Ears are but only two". Let us visualize what type of worms-insects are we? The perfection of man lies in his becoming a man. A man is wrong if he thinks that he would die, and thereafter his condition would become miserable on account of his deeds. In my opinion, in that case we would not be able to make correct use of our lives. We
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________________ Fearless movement in six cycles/105 have accepted that man is born from monkey, and what did remain if man is born? Man is to be made to take birth from inside as well as from outside. In life where the lamp on the threshold becomes alight, just there humanity is discovered. All the relationships of 'sadhana', meditation and trance have been connected with a man's inner conscience. That is why a man goes on committing sin from inside. The work, the wrong deeds performed by the body are crimes, not sins, and the things thought of by mind are sins. There is a great difference between sin and crime. Sin is related to mind, and crime is related to body. I thought in my mind that I would slap you. I didn't actually slap, but thought of it, therefore it became a sin, and, if I actually slap you, then it becomes a crime. To think of good is virtue, and to think of evil is vice. Good act performed by the body is a good deed, and a bad deed is a crime. Therefore, law penalises not for sin, but for crime. Religion-meditation give punishment for sins. For religion-meditation, crime has no significance. In order that man may be connected with the world within, I describe the internal cycles. They are very fine. If we go on making the internal tendencies from clean to cleaner, then the ascent of the 'Kundalini' (the coil of supreme power within man) would occur spontaneously, since 'Kundalini' is nothing but the sense-body dwelling within this fluid body. Man has six cycles. Now, we shall try to touch the depths of meditation due to which man remains a man and the monkey inside him dies. It is similar to opening up the petals of one's lotus. There are six cycles inside a man's body. Before understanding this, please know that there are nine doors in man's body. These nine doors are: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, anus and urine tract. Man expels out all the filth of his body through these doors. When we go to a temple we chant 'nissihi''nissihi'. It means, we have come here after having discarded the filth from our mind, through the nine doors. Its original meaning is mental purgation. Spill out the illusion, the evil-machinery from within yourself.
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________________ 106/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh Drowning too would be a must, if water goes on entering the boat. The boat can save us only when we close its holes, and spill out the water filled in it. After having understood the nine doors, just delve a little deeper. There are six cycles in man's body : first-'mooladbar' (original base), second-'swadhisthan' (staying at one's place), third-'manipur' (the city of jewels), fourth-heart cycle, fifth-purification cycle and the sixth-last cycle is the sense of order-centre, sense-centre. Across all these is 'sahasrar- just in the middle of a man's mind. The spot of 'shikha' (at the back of head where a small bunch of long hair is left over while the entire head is shaved off.) The reproductory organ is at the lowest in human body. The spot below it and above the anus is the place of 'Kundalini Shakti'. After this comes the 'swadhisthan', that is our pubes. Then come the navel, heart, throat and the sixth place is that of 'Ajnan Chakra' (the Order Cycle) on the forehead. The spot of Shiva's third eye is Ajnan Chakra. After crossing it comes 'Sahasrar' exactly at the centre of the human mind. Firstly, the lowermost element is that of the earth. Above it are water, fire, air, sky and above these is the 'ajnan chakra'. It is here that all the elements of a person come and get centralised here. After crossing over 'ajnan chakra'a person enters his 'sahasrar'. Kundalini remains at the lowest. It appears just as a snake, sitting coiled in the snake-charmer's basket. "Kundalini' too remains asleep in this posture. Besides this, there are 'ida', epingla' and 'sushumna' nerves. 'Sushumna' extends from 'Kundalini' towards 'Ajnan Chakra' straight, and with a slight curve too 'Ida' and 'Pingla' are but curved. 'Ida' and 'Pingla' are connected with 'Kundalini' below and with 'Ajna Chakra' above. All the three nerves terminate here. 'Ida' is yellow-coloured, Pingla' is light-red and 'sushumna' is deep red. When a man brings all these three and centralises them at the centre of his brain, then the divine-music of 'Om' grows resonant there. This very resonance is the 'Brahmanaad' (the music of the supreme being) what a person experiences here, is named knowledge. This experience occurs at the 'Jyoti Kendra' (Centre of light).
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________________ Fearless movement in six cycles/107 The person who wishes to awaken his 'Kundalini', should concentrate his entire energy at this sense-centre where the consciousness, all the actions and powers of mind and speech will be centralised; from there the 'Kundalini' would get a jolt and it would begin to wake up. Man should proceed sequence-wise. After the first cycle, he should cross the second cycle, and the third one after the first. If minutely observed, the first three cycles remain already awakened. If the 'Kundalini' crosses over the first cycle, don't be deceived that you have succeeded in attaining 'sadhana'. This is not success. Here you have got defeat. Now, just the internal evils have begun to wake up. In the first three cycles, a person keeps on trying to stoke the fire buried under ashes inside him. True 'sadhana' begins only when entry inside the fourth cycle takes place. It is said that God dwells in the heart. This exactly is the fourth cycle. The very first experience of soul takes place in this cycle. As man goes on crossing one cycle after another, his purity would go on increasing. Come, let us try to enjoin these cycles with general life. When a person enters into the fourth cycle, then his third eye opens. What in 'Yoga' is called 'the third eye', is also called 'Shiva's eye'. Here is the language of Mahavira, Shukla Leshya (bright virtues) begin to get released. As the person goes on mounting himself higher and higher, his feelings tend to become deeper, and his cleanliness too goes on increasing. After this a man goes on ascending upwards on the ladder of suceess. Every person has such a power as would either come out, or would rise upwards within. Let it ascend once, let consciousness rise up. Just understand this thus : To flow is the property of water, downwards. However high you take it up, it would certainly come down. That is the nature of water, but if you take it up and confine it inside a tank, then it would stop. Likewise, after three cycles, we make the energy, the water-river within us, enter the fourth cycle, then that energy would itself construct its path of ascent. The name of this very process is the upward ascent of
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________________ 108/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh consciousness, and also the name of this very process is the distribution of consciousness. Mahavira has told some tales of sensibility in his life. Mahavira was the practiser of silence. He enjoyed the internal pleasure in keeping mum. If he remained silent much, he also spoke too much. What a good name he gave to a 'sadhu' (sage)-'muni'. It means someone who is 'maun' (silent). He who is silent from mind is a 'muni'. So once Mahavira told a 'bodh katha', tale of sensibility: Once upon a time six travellers were passing through a jungle. Understand the six cycles even in this form. The travellers became exhausted while walking. All of a sudden, they saw a big tree which bore mangoes. The travellers were really hungry. One of the travellers, on seeing the tree, thought in his mind, "I am feeling very hungry. I shall uproot this tree, so that I may eat mangoes to my heart's content." The second traveller thought"I shall cut its trunk.' The third one thought, "I would cut its branches". The fourth one thought of cutting down its sub-branches. The fifth one thought, I would pick-up the fruits of this tree and eat them. The sixth traveller was thinking some thing different from them. He was thinking: I would eat if I find some mangoes lying fallen under the tree. ,, Mahavira's 'bodh-katha' just ends here. Neither any one uprooted the tree, nor any one cut down the trunk, nor anyone ate mango, but each of them did complete a cycle in their respective limitations. The person, who was thinking of eating the mango if he finds any fallen and lying under the tree, has in Mahavira's language touched the 'ajnan chakra' (order cycle) of the sensebody. The traveller who was thinking of cutting at the very root of the tree, remains entangled at the very original base. Mahavira named this original base 'Krishna Leshya' and termed the order-cycle 'Shukla Leshya'. According to Mahavira, man travels from the 'Krishna Leshya' towards the 'Shukla Leshya'. If he crosses even the 'Shukla Leshya', then he would get the view of 'Sahasrar'. And, when he attains 'Sahasrar', it
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________________ Fearless movement in six cycles/109 means he has attained the state of non-attachment. He has inside him neither vice nor virtue-happens to be beyond both. Mahavira has stated three 'leshyas': 'Krishna' (black), 'Neel' (blue), 'karot' (dusky), 'tej' (brightness), 'padma' (lotus) and 'shukla' (fair). Of these 'Krishna' to 'karot' are inauspicious 'leshyas', and from 'tej' to 'Shukla' are auspicious 'leshyas'. Likewise, 'Mooladhar', 'Swadhisthan' and 'Nabhi'-these three are inauspicious cycles. On the other hand, heart, throat and brainorder cycles are auspicious cycles. Man gets the 'auspicious' when he gives-up the 'inauspicious'. But it is not the end. It is not the tryst with the destination. inauspicious' is The 'auspicious' has also to be left after the discarded. In order to get rid of the journey of the darkness, one will have to do the journey of the 'Shukla Paksha' (the moonlit fortnight). But, later on, one has to be free from this too, because there the tendency of mind, speech etc. still persists. We have to go across colours, whether they are violet, blue, black or any other. The colour of earth is brownish. This is the colour of 'mooladhar' and also of the 'Krishna leshya'. When a person thinks of the 'Shukla leshya' then there only the white colour remains, all the other colours are absorbed in it. The colour of 'sahasrar' is green. You can experience this when you wish to. Train your irises, between the eyes at the tip of your nose. You will see an unprecedented, extraordinary aura. It begins from the very navel-cycle, but its perfection begins from the knowledge-cycle. As the person goes on making himself cleaner and cleaner still, his halo too gradually begins to become evident. The Soviet Union has made a discovery in the field of photography. They have named it 'Kirliyan': This also is a means of viewing the halo. In this all the colours become clearly visible. Likewise when a 'sadhak' enters the order-cycle, then only the white colour is seen. But do you know that all the colours of the
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________________ 110/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh world are diverged from the white colour and are converged in it. You can experience it directly. The light of the sun is of white colour. But soon after the rain, when this light falls on the dewdrops or on the droplets of rain, then the attractive rainbow of seven colours begins to become visible. Likewise, make the light pass through a piece of prism in its image you would find the emergence of many colours. Those who think of getting on just by eating the fruits fallen under the tree, they are entering, in the language of Mahavira, the 'Shukla leshya'. They are preparing to enter the order-cycle. Contrary to this, the person engaged in cutting-off the very root, he is in a state of unconsciousness, and is engaged in self-deceit. Where there is attachment, unconsciousness, a person thinks only of striking at the root of what is in front of him. Tree is but a symbol. Man wants to cut-off the very leg of the other person. He becomes very bappy, if the other person becomes bankrupt, thinking-well, one more is gone. He gives a false consolation to his mind. This is what man has been doing, and this act of his bas not stopped; it is continuing. Man wants to cut-off others, uproot them. I am giving an example. You can experience it too. Go near a tree and think in your mind. 'I would cut it down.' You would find the tree trembling only due to your thinking so. Why not it be so ? A tree is, after all, animate. You go on looking at the beauty of a flower, but as soon as you would think : 'I would pluck this flower', the entire flower-plant would become sensitive. The leaves would begin to wither automatically. Those who have studied Darwin and Basu deeply, they can understand that if you just think in your mind, that mere thinking of yours would make the plant shudder. When I was travelling in Tamilnadu, I once saw that some vultures were biting-off the flesh of some carcass. We were quite far away. All of a sudden, two boys came running from behind us. They caught hold of a vulture. Those boys writhed the neck of the vulture, peeled off its feathers, and began to chew its flesh
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________________ Fearless movement in six cycles/111 raw. Although, seeing this condition of a vulture, other vultures should have flown away, but they did not fly away, they became stunned. They forgot that they should fly away otherwise their turn may also come. This is the situation : he who wants to uproot others, is binding up 'Krishna leshya' within himself. He is but lying in the very 'mooladhar' (original base). His 'Kundalini' does wake-up, but he does not get the benefit of it. Only then consider the awakening of the 'Kundalini' useful when it enters the heart-cycle. Awaken the 'Kundalini by centralizing the senses, through 'Pranayam' (disciplining of the breath), 'Yoga', breath-observation; but you must keep in mind one thing that it enters the 'ajnan chakra' (order-cycle). Get across the colours. What the colours are, after all ? Colour means 'raag' (attachment), and different from colours is 'Viraag' (detachment). This is the very meaning of entry into 'sahasrar'. Colour is the halo of a person. Don't think that the halo is always bright. The senses in which a person lives, the cycles and the 'leshyas' he touches, determine the colour of his halo. The halo can be blue, it can also be yellow. When you get up in the morning after having slept through the night, look around your body carefully. It will seem to be blackish, soiled, smoky, darkened. The more vigilant a person would be at his 'leshya' centres and sense-centres, the more clearly visible would be the colours of his halo. Only you would be able to see your halo, but where the halo would touch the extremes of its brightness, there it would be visible to others' eyes too. You must have seen the pictures of the saints. Have you even thought what the round thing visible at the back of their heads is ? That is, in fact, the evidence of the supreme ascent of the Kundalini, the strength of consciousness. We have to walk on in the brightness of the colours. Thereafter, beyond the colours, in detachment, in the quiet lake of the inner-self. Every life is the image of all the three worlds. You can view the prospect of the world, in the mind of your own self. The portion below the navel is 'adholok' (the lowest world). The
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________________ 112/Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh spot of the navel is the mid-world. We are alive in the mid-world. Travel towards the upper world. Walk along the path of virtue, beyond vice. But when you would be immersed in the experience of self-perfection, virtue (religion) would also be left behind in the moment of salvation of life. After all, religion is also a path, and salvation of life is the destination of that path. Dissect the inauspicious with the auspicious, but in the performance of purity the inauspicious would certainly be left behind, and even the auspicious would automatically move backwards. Meditation is not the goal, it is the entrance to the goal. When you would enter the palace of the goal, then meditation would become automatically separated from yourself. Start the journey in your own self, in the upper world of your own self, in the vastness of life.
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________________ Be a Spectator of Consciousness Thought is the basis of act, and mind is the birth-place of thought. Crop is the result of germination, and germination occurs due to seed. The three are mutually akin to each-other. The depth of relationship is so much that the movement in any of them, influences the rest too. Mind, speech, body may be inanimate, but all the functions of consciousness are under the strategic arrangement of these three. 'Chitta' (inner consciousness) is but a level of consciousness. Take it like this: 'Chitta' is the gate-way of consciousness. 'Chitta' is the caravan in which the friend-foe of good-bad walk on together. The conflict that takes place between good and bad is the mental tension. Meditation is the discipliner of "Chitta". Without this 'ankush' (restraint) the elephant of "Chitta" remains out of control. Mental health is possible only through the controIling of the good-bad determination of 'Chitta'. Thought is the micro-wave of the mind. Act is nothing but the expression of the micro-waves of the mind. What can be the act of a paralysed mind? The flowing of the waves of thoughts depend on the machinery of the mind. If the fuel of contact is not received from outside, then the mind's silence would be spontaneous. How would the vehicle be able to run without petrol? The movement of the vehicle depends on the curtailing or enhancement of the fuel.
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________________ 114/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chandr Prabh I shall introduce mind to the imagination of the future. 'Chitta' has its existence separate from mind's. 'Chitta' is the ruins of the past, and mind is the imagination of the future. The present is the span between the prologue of the past and epilogue of the future. Whether the vision goes to the past or to the future the 'sadhak' (seeker) would be said to have deviated from the 'sadhya' (goal). The past is the 'Chitta' and the future is the mind. The present is the footstep on the path adjoining the past and the future. The present is the personality. Before the present becomes the past, and the future knocks at the door of the present, the present should take the initiative to attaining eternity. My faith is in the present, from the present. Why the lethargy in the present? Who prevents you from sleeping? But is it necessary to sleep to-day ? Sleep is to be taken tomorrow. Today, let the withering leaves wake up. Today's awakening is the pleasant sleep for tomorrow. Trance is but the other name of that sleep. 'Sambodhi' (rational knowledge) is the first step of trance. The awakening that takes place with sensibility is the definition of 'Sambodhi'. To read the past is sensibility and disallow future to settle down as a layer of 'Sanskar' (Sacramentality) on 'Chitta' (inner consciousness). Sensibility is related to the brain while sacramentality is related to 'Chitta'. Sacramentality is the wave of thoughts. The caravan of sacramentalities is formed/enhanced by the external joy-strolling of the consciousness. It is good if the lake of thoughts remains at peace, asleep. Even if a small pebble is thrown into it, doesn't cause just a single wave, but it moves the entire lake, literally the last drop of the lake. The entire lake becomes vibrant and moved-up. Therefore, man should get out of thoughts, just as the railway train gets out of the jungle.
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________________ Be a spectator of Consciousness/115 The friend is seated in a cave. Is that escapism? Fugitives do escape. Cave is a symbol of revolution. That is the planningchamber for the independence of the nation within. Cave-dwelling is the campaign for the return of consciousness. If mind becomes peaceful and motionless, then even a city enters a super-cave. Then, one's face is reflected in the mirrors but the tendency to see the 'Vimb' (image) in the reflections comes to a close. Before the mind inspires the body to act with waves of thoughts, its direction should be changed. 'Pratyahar' brings back the life-force expanding through 'Pranayam' (breath-control). 'Pranayam' brings about the extension of life, and 'Pratyahar' effects return towards the original source. 'Pranayam' is the outgoing of breath, and 'Pratyahar' is intake of breath. The attuned sequence of 'Pranayam' and 'Pratyahar' is life. If this process becomes combined with consciousness, then endless bright possibilities may materialise. A person should take himself outside upto eternity, and should take inside upto zero (vacuum). The dovine wealth of supreme life lies in the internal vacuum and external perfection. For initiating, it is essential to form an assemblage of the life-powers within one's own self. 'Kumbhak' means to make the internal powers 'sthitaprajna' (rationally steady). This journey of ours, to the summit of consciousness, is the honouring of the action-machinery. Body, mind, thought, inner consciousness of brain-whose originality is therein all these after all? Who is originally within, and whose flow is there-there must be curiosity towards it. He who tried to know the origin/source of his life; who he is, is a character proceeding on the path of 'sambodhi' (rational knowledge). Curiosity is the companion of 'sambodhi'. Trance is but his, whose efforts to know his own self has taken the certificate of success. Trance is that sea coast, to reach which one has to fight against many storms. For him who is prepared to dare the storms in all possible ways, for him, every wave is the sea-coast.
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________________ 116/Meditation and Enlightenment: Chanbr Prabh The sea of trance is not separate from life. There can be separation for a few moments between life and trance, but the footsteps of eternal separation cannot be heard. If a man is determined, and is dedicated to his commitments in all respects, then the boating of trance can take place even in the stormy ditches without any hindrance. I have to attain, after all, what I really am. The attainment of that 'I' is but the opening of the gate of the supreme life. If even death occurs in the attainment of 'I', that would be the martyrdom embraced, for me. 'Arihant' is but my extreme and the death of 'arihant' is not the death, but the gala-festival of the supreme life. I am lighting such a lamp on the grave, which would give death-free light of life. screen. We have to get across every boundary, every border, every After all, the boundless can be found only across the border. The encouragement given to one's own self to go across the borders is the monkhood of life. You have to expand yourself, extend your hand upto eternity. If you have become fed up with expansion, then bring back your own self to the super-space of life which is situated across the body, across the thought, across the mind. The dissolution of the co-ordination with the body is experiencing body-lessness. To follow the 'maunvrata' (the Observance of silence) is the organisation of 'munittva' (sainthood) in life. Crossing over the mind is but to get the signal for ascending the inner consciousness. 'I' am rather two steps ahead of even the mind. I have to rise up many ladders now. The source of the soul is lying choked with the black rocks of the co-ordination of mind, speech and body. To remove these stones is the basis of the release of the source. It is necessary to discard the screens and remove the veils for viewing beauty. 'Hath Yoga' (form of Yoga which aims at attaining supernataral powers through torturing the body) is there to discipline the
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________________ Be a spectator of Consciousness/117 body, and 'mantra-yoga' ('Yoga' of the 'mantras") is there to acquire control over the mental fickleness of thought. Those who have control over the body and discipline over thoughts, are the 'Yogis' even without 'asanas', 'yogic postures and 'mantra sadhana'. The truth is that to control the external and internal environments of life is actually a meeting with the 'Yoga' of life. The Yoga of life is above all the Yogas. Even the 'Raj-Yoga' (the denstiny of becoming a King) is not even two inches higher than "Jeewan-Yoga'. 'Raaj-Yoga' is for attaining 'Jeewan Yoga'. Looking at one's own self being separated from self ("Vipashyana' or 'Preksha') is also for 'Jeewan Yoga'. 'Jeewan Yoga' means meeting with that element, which remains alive not only during a person's life time but whose last rites cannot be performed even after the person's death. That soul-element is the basis of 'Jeewan-Yoga'. The nails of death cannot even scratch it. Death is not the truth, it is a lie. Its reach is limited to the change of specis-form. I am but across every accessibility of life. Body, thought and mind are matters, whereas soul is the energy. To utilize fully one's own energy, for one's own self is the journey within. This journey begins from one's own self. Friend : just ask yourself : who am 'l'. ? 'Who am l'is not a 'mantra', it is a question. 'l is not the symbol of ego, but it is an address to that possibility whose originality is connected with life from its tip to toe. The concentration of life has blossomed due to 'l' on the shoulder of its totality. I takes the form of ego, when it is nourished by the external environment of life. Where the language wants the internal life to define 'I' there the ego rather gets a kick; but where
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________________ 118/ Meditation and Enlightenment : Chandr Prabh the ego's head bows down, there wakes up the sense of asking the originality of self from self. 'l' is across-my body, my thought, my mind. Ascent on the inner consciousness is across every activity of mind, speech and body. Therefore, ask yourself: 'Who am I ?! To vibrate speedily the 'Who am I ?'- brand music from each and every string of heart is an open assault on the 'l' born out of ego. This assault is an effort to find out the original 'l' of life. This question asked of one's own self expresses one's inquest for 'Chaitanya darshan' (philosophy of consciousness). It is necessary to post a sentinel of self-awakening round the clock on the threshold of life. 'Sadhana' is not alienated from life. Life is the credential of liveliness, and liveliness is the own sister of awakening. The mutual relationship of awakening and liveliness has to be maintained without any hesitation. What can be the relationship of sleep, with awakening? A foe ought to be saluted from a distance. The sleep is taken by the body, but the yawnings of the inner conscience is the background of lethargy. Trance is but the name of the sleep that is awake. In order to make trance the shadow of life we will have to make vigilance with 'Sam' (rationality), the heart of life. Rationality is needed to prevent ourselves from being unperturbed and unbalanced. Rationality is to be utilized for balance. The land of life is very uneven. At every step there is the obstacles of stonechips and brick-bats. On the path of life ahead, the obstructive signs are not impossible, but to proceed on towards the goal, without being perturbed by those obstacles is tantamount to strive bravely for self-commitments.
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________________ Be a spectator of Consciousness/119 To maintain one's internal balance in the right-left directions of every success or failure, favour or disfavour that come in life, is the practicality of trance. Haven't you seen any artiste dancing on the rope tied to the bamboos ? Balance between right and left is the basis of the rope-dance of life. Therefore only he is entitled to get entry into the tension-free empire of peace who had made balance (rationality) an inseparable part of life. After all, trance too is but the extension of rationality. 'Samwar' (beautification) is also originated from 'sam' (balance or rationality). 'Samyakatva' (propriety) and 'Sambodhi' (the rational knowledge) also giggle on the lap of rationality. If rationality is placed in the middle of every tendency of mind, speech and body, then materialism also would be devoured by spiritualism. The love of mind, thought, body and deed that wakes up from the inner consciousness is the prologue of the 'Chaitanya darshan' (philosophy of consciousness).
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