________________
CHAPTER IV, 36.
251
Now listen how one habituated to exclusive meditation attains concentration. Thinking of a quarter seen before, he should steady his mind within and not out of the city in which he dwells. Remaining within (that) city, he should place his mind both in its external and internal (operations) in that habitation in which he dwells. When, meditating in that habitation, he perceives the perfect one, his mind should not in any way wander outside. Restraining the group of the senses, in a forest free from noises and unpeopled, he should meditate on the perfect one within his body with a mind fixed on one point. He
"This is all rather mystical. Nilakantha takes 'city' to mean body,' and 'habitation' to mean the maladhara, or other similar mystic centre within the body, where, according to the Yoga philosophy, the soul is sometimes to be kept with the life-winds, &c. ' Thinking of a quarter,' &c., he explains to mean 'meditating on the instruction he has received after studying the Upanishads.' I do not understand the passage well. 'City' for 'body' is a familiar use of the word. Cf. Gitá, p. 65. The original word for habitation occurs at Aitareya-upanishad, p. 199, where Sankara explains it to mean 'seat.' Three seats' are there mentioned the organs of sight, &c.; the mind; and the Akåsa in the heart. There, 100, the body is described as a 'city,' and Anandagiri explains habitation to mean seat of amusement or sport.' Here, bowever, the meaning seems to be that one should work for concentration in the manner indicated. viz. first fix the mind on the city where one dwells, then on the particular part of it oftenest seen before, then one's own habitation, then the various parts of one's body, and finally one's own beart and the Brahman within it. Thus gradually circumscribed in its operations, the mind is better fitted for the final concentration on the Brahman. As to external and internal operations, cf. note 8, p. 247. The perfect one is the Brahman. Cf. Sanatsu gâtsya, p. 171. As to avasaiba, which we have rendered by 'habitation,' see also Mandukya, p. 340; Brihada. raryaka, p. 751; and the alternative sense suggested by Sankara on the Aitareya, loc. cit.
· Cl. Maiiri-upanishad, p. 100.
Digitized by Google
