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Aptavani-1
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Aptavani-1
Meditation Versus Concentration
There is no end to prakruti. When you become a Purush (Self-realized), prakruti will carry out its own function and the Purush will remain in his own domain. Purush means the Self. Until you become Purush, you will dance according to what the prakruti dictates.
All scriptures tell you to acquire the knowledge of the Soul but none tell you to acquire the knowledge of the prakruti. If you first know what is par-kruti (par = foreign, alien and kruti = behaviour or creation), then you will know the Self. If there is a mixture of oil and water, and if you know the properties of water, you will be able to separate it and after separation, you will come to know what oil is. That is why I tell people to gain knowledge of the prakruti. Know that all that is unsteady and transitory, changing and fleeting is part of the prakruti. What is fleeting? The five senses. The eyes would see even if you do not want to; the nose will smell foul odors even if you don't want to. The body too is unreliable - how? It will jump out of the way if there is a car approaching head on - it does not wait for the mind to make a decision. The mind and the chit are also fickle. You may be sitting here in the satsang and the chit could be wandering at the railway station. The intellect is also fickle and changing. If a woman is taking a bath and you know you should not be looking, the intellect will defy all arguments. And if someone greets you with a lot of respect. your ego becomes inflated with pride. That is the changing nature of your ego. These are all changing, temporary and transitory parts of the prakruti. Once you completely understand all the changing parts and take them away, the remaining portion that is still and permanent is the Self. Kindness, pride, ego, grief-joy, happinessunhappiness are all attributes with duality and they belong to the prakruti. They all change. The Purush is only the steady, unchanging and permanent part. If you know the Purush then you have attained the Self and thereafter you will proceed towards full enlightenment
An engineer came to me and told me that he wanted to attain liberation. I asked him what he had done so far to achieve that. He told me that he practices concentration. I told him that those who suffer from mental agitation and confusion tend to practice concentration to attain mental peace. Who practices meditation? It is those who suffer from mental agitation and confusion. Why do these laborers not need to practice concentration? They do not suffer from mental disturbance at all. Even I, a Gnani Purush, do not practice concentration. I do not have any mental disturbance at all. Practicing concentration is like applying a soothing ointment on a burn, but what does that have to do with the Self? I asked him whether any of his worries had diminished as a result? He was very intelligent and replied that he understood exactly what I was telling him. He told me that his intellect (buddhi) accepted my words and his mental agitation is now gone.
But he was not finished - he told me that he practiced yoga four hours every day! I asked him what he practiced yoga for; was it for something he already had knowledge of or for something he had no knowledge of. I told him he did not have the knowledge of the Self but had knowledge of only the body and that he practiced yoga to discipline the body alone. Would one meditate on a face unknown to him or her? No they would not, similarly how can one ignorant of the Self, meditate upon the Self? Yoga is a physical discipline, how does the Self benefit from it? Liberation is achieved only through Atma-yoga (union with the Self) whereas dehayoga, union on a physical plane, yields only worldly rewards. All my Mahatmas are Atmayogi (united with the Self) and I am Atmayogeshwar (the Absolute
One).
Yoga means to join. Yoga of only the known is possible.
