Summary:

Lesson 48 brings further clarity/detail HOW to meditate to establish oneself permanently in Self. We also remove myth of chasing mystical experiences, and answer what it ACTUALLY means to know oneself as limitless ananda (cheerfulness, fullness, not missing anything).

Source: Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6, verse 20, 21, 22, 23 and Patañjali Yoga Sūtrās

Revision of Vedantic Meditation:

1. Vedantic Meditation and Aṣṭāṅga-Yoga:
   • Vedantic meditation utilizes the eight-step process of Patañjali's aṣṭāṅga-yoga for meditation techniques, while rejecting the dualistic philosophy of the Yoga Sūtras, which excludes Brahman.
   • The goal of meditation is mental absorption in the object of meditation, specifically the nature of the Self (ātma-svarūpa / relating with Ishvara in your life).
2. Mental Absorption:
   • Defined as the flow of similar thoughts (sajātīya-pratyaya-pravāhaḥ) focused on the nature of ātma (Self).
   • Meditation should focus on ātma / Ishvara features and avoid topics like family, work, money, and desires.
3. Features of Ātma:
   • Examples of ātma features include:
     • asaṅgaḥ: Independent/non-attached
     • sarvagataḥ: Omnipresent
     • nityaḥ: Permanent/eternal
     • satyaḥ: Truth
     • nirvikāraḥ: Unchanging
     • ekaḥ: One
     • akarta: Non-doer
     • abhokta: Non-enjoyer/experiencer
   • These features are discussed in earlier chapters and are known through scriptural study and guidance from a guru.
4. Purpose of Meditation:
   • The purpose is to recollect and reinforce teachings learned earlier, similar to recalling a first kiss after experiencing it.
   • Meditation is not for generating new thoughts but for solidifying learned thoughts into the subconscious, making them a natural part of life.
   • Vedantic students mentally revisit teachings during meditation, affirming thoughts like “I am the witness of thoughts. I am not affected by thoughts.”
5. Process of Absorption:
   • Absorption in meditation progresses through three grades:
     1. Dhāraṇa: The initial attempt to focus. Struggle.
     2. Dhyānam: Success begins to emerge from focused effort during the struggling stage.
     3. Samādhi: Full absorption, which can be:
        • Savikalpa: Deliberate and effortless absorption requiring willpower. Subject (ego) still present. Can think.
        • Nirvikalpa: Spontaneous and effortless absorption without willpower. No subject (ego). Thinking not possible.
6. Culmination of Aṣṭāṅga-Yoga:
   • The eight stages (aṅga) serve as stepping stones to the ninth stage, nirvikalpa-samādhi (aṅgi), which is the culmination (aṣṭāṅga-yoga-phalam).
   • Krishna provides seven definitions of this culmination in verses 20-23.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, Verse 20:

yatra uparamate cittam niruddham yoga sevayā
yatra ca eva ātmanā ātmānam paśyan ātmani tuṣyati

When the mind, mastered by the practice of meditation, abides (in ātman) and when, seeing oneself by oneself alone, one rejoices in oneself…

2 definitions of samādhi are given…

• DEFINITION 1: citta uparamaṇam: Total tranquility/relaxation of mind, Abidance in tranquil mind
  • Temporary and induced 
• DEFINITION 2: ātma-darśanam (Knowing Self as Self)
  • Silencing mind is not Vedāntic aim, as silenced mind (as in definition 1) gives temporary tranquility.
  • INSTRUCTION: In silent mind, bring Vedantic thoughts into it (sajātīya-pratyaya-pravāhaḥ). Begin recollect teaching) as revealed by guru/śāstra during śravaṇam.
    • Again: can only meditate on Ātma if know WHAT IT IS. Else if don't know, mind will meditate on imaginative ideas of Ātma.
  • CAUTION: There are three different similar words in line 2 of verse 20. Don't get confused:
    • ātmānam: In Ātma/Self
    • ātmanī: In the Mind
    • ātmanā: With help of mind itself
    • Put all words together: With help of mind, one should see Ātma/Self in the Mind itself.
      • Ātman resides in mind as witness of thoughts. NOTE: Ātman is ONE pervading entire Universe. Hence don't think “my” Ātman is different from “your” Ātman.
      • Ātman means: When universal consciousness (Brahman) pervades matter, then Brahman changes name to Ātman. So “Ātman” just means: Consciousness (formless) + matter (form). But remember, matter itself is Consciousness also.

What is benefit of samādhi?

• EXAMPLE 1:
  • Suppose have clock. It ticks. During daytime it ticks. But don't notice. World sounds are overwhelming it. When sit in meditation/bed, and all sounds gone, suddenly ticking of clock is heard.
  • Similarly in nididhyāsanam: I removed all noises from mind (father “I”, worker “I”, mother “I”, friend “I” all silent). Thus having removing all worries, the teaching has bigger impact in silent mind. And joy of fullness is recognized.
• EXAMPLE 2:
  • In evening, full moon is visible. But to see it, you have to LOOK for it, because it's not very bright. As night fall, moon becomes brighter, more visible. You don't need to look for it. Can we say “moon has become brighter during night? No. In evening, it's light is overpowered by daylight. As obstacle recedes, the moonlight becomes more powerful.
  • Similarly, in nididhyāsanam:
    • Student brings śravaṇam teaching (moon at evening), to nididyāsanam (moon at night), thus same teaching becomes MORE POWERFUL.

What is recognized during samādhi?

• tuṣyati: One feels joy of pūrṇatvam. Because…
  • All personalities have complaints/needs (EG: father is never 100% happy with family).
  • Only ātma has no complaints because it is full. Thus one recognizes ones fullness (pūrṇatvam), and recognizes tuṣyati (cheerfulness).

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, Verse 21:

sukhamātyantikaṁ yattad-buddhigrāhyamatīndriyam|
vetti yatra na caivāyaṁ sthitaścalati tattvataḥ ||

(one should know that to be Samadhi) wherein one appreciates that limitless ananda which is beyond sense organs and which is grasped by the intellect, and remaining ( in which) one does not slip from (his) true nature.

 

• DEFINITION 3: ātyantikam sukham (limitless ānanda)
  • One owns up to the highest ānanda.
  • “Limitless” is totally different to sense pleasures, which are all finite. In terms of: quality, time, place.
    • Evident finitude:
      • Time: It ends. Thus people always say “That day, I had best joy!”.
      • Quality: EG: That day he sang best! Afterwords, never again.
  • Thus “ānanda” doesn't come under experiential pleasure at all. If it is ānanda gained in samādhi, then it's still limited. Thus still not “ānanda” we're talking about.
  • Then what is ānanda? It is ānanda born of knowledge/intellect/wisdom.
    • What knowledge? I am pūrnaḥ (full/whole/complete), during meditation I am pūrnaḥ, I was NEVER not pūrnaḥ, upon death I am pūrnaḥ (continue existing as consciousness which is full and self-luminous by itself and is limitless). Despite this short lived body-mind not being pūrnaḥ, the truth is I (Consciousness) AM pūranaḥ. And the body-mind is only incidental while it's sentient. I need not give reality to this limited shell called body-mind, because the reality of who and what I am is LIMITLESS FULLNESS, infinite ānanda.
    • Meaning whatever cheerfulness undergoes within jñāni's body-mind, is entirely arising out of well assimilated Knowledge of pūrnaḥ. It is independent cheerfulness arising out of the simple, ordinary fact of AM-ness. “I AM” = automatic Cheerfulness.  🙂
      • (NOTE: “AM-ness” needs further explanation in Tattva Bodha, what it actually means. Will cover 100% when expound the text).
    • Thus only ānanda born of knowledge is permanent. Because knowledge can't be displaced by time, nor worldly experience.
      • EG: When unhappy experience, the knowledge of 2 + 2 = 4.  When happy experience, the knowledge of 2 + 2 = 4. Thus no experience can displace knowledge.
  • Conclusion: If ānanda comes from wisdom, the knowledge can't ever be shaken. Thus the sense of fulfillment born of wisdom is called: ātyantikam sukham (limitless ānanda), which is buddhigrāhyam (of intellect), and it's atīndriyam (beyond sense pleasures; finite).
  • vetti:
    • Krisna says “He Knows this ānanda”. And not “experiences”. Indicating “ānanda” is in form of knowledge/wisdom.
    • Meaning: One has simply come to KNOW what was/is always the case, yet was covered by false idea which apparently limited ānanda. Just like cloud only apparently dims out the brightness of sun, not actually.
• DEFINITION 4: tattva-niṣṭhā (firm/steady established in self as self) OR sthita-prajña (CH2)
  • yatra (I am) sthitaḥ na tattvataḥ calati (tattva: ātma, calati: deviates): I am one who doesn't deviate from his Higher nature.
  • Remaining in “THIS”. Meaning “in this absorption”. Abiding in THIS ātma, one does not deviate in anātma.
  • Bicycle Example:
    • Just like learning to ride bicycle in non-distracting place. At start, constantly fall. After some time, abide in cycling knowledge. Then can cycle in noisy worldly environment, and no distraction can cause you to forget cycling knowledge, plus talk on phone with one hand.
      • Non-distractible bicycle knowledge is called: niṣṭhā (steadiness, familiarity with)
      • For non-distractible Self-knowledge, called: tattva-niṣṭhā
  • Meaning, one who practices ātma-dhyānam, never forgets in any crises. Never lose centre of gravity. Never deviates from true-nature.
  • If one does not deviate from ātma-svarūpa DURING world transactions, it's called: sahaja-samādhi
    • EG: Cyclist is in sahaja-samādhi, because it's on auto pilot. Able to exercise the knowledge in most chaotic traffic, while also on phone.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, Verse 22:

yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ|
yasmin sthito na duḥkhena guruṇā'pi vicālyate||

(One should know that to be Samadhi) attaining which one does not consider any other attainment to be superior to that and remaining in which one is not shaken even by great calamity.

 

• DEFINITION 5: ādhyāntika-lābhaḥ (Highest gain in front of which all other gains are insignificant)
  • When person owns up pūrvantvam of ātma (I am full, I don't lack/need anything in life to be complete), one doesn't miss anything in life. Then whatever one enjoys in worldly sense, is only a luxury, but unneeded.
    • Luxury: Enjoy when available. And not miss when unavailable.
    • Opposite: That which I don't recognize when it's there. And badly miss when it's not there. For example, one gets free lift once in a while and it's enjoyed. But when gets it everyday, one stops appreciating the driver.
  • For jñāni, everything in life is luxury. When things around, thoroughly enjoy. When not, doesn't miss.
  • SUMMARY: Having owned up pūrnatvam, anything in life is neither a gain nor a loss. Only luxury. Meaning worldly gains become insignificant before the eyes of jñāni.
• DEFINITION 6: adhyāntika-duḥka-nivṛttiḥ (Gītā verse: yasmin stitaḥ): Total freedom from sorrow
  • Remaining in this ātma-niṣṭhā (self-abidance). Not shaken by even worst tragedy in life. “What > So What!”. Knows all things are subject to arrival/departure.

Another Revision of Meditation:

• Krisna has been talking about Vedantic meditation, as means of assimilating Self-Knowledge. Adi Shankara points out in Brahma Sūtra bhāśyam: “Self-Knowledge must take place from guru-upadeśa, or systematic Vedantic teaching given by a guru”. Meaning Self-Knowledge must first come from a valid source before it can be assimilated properly. This is why śāstra and guru are BOTH important. Else the Self-Knowledge will have no life transforming power behind it.
  • Śaṅkara words to above statement: vedānta vakya deva ātma jñānam udeti
• Meditation is not prescribed for gaining Self-Knowledge. But internalizing/assimilating knowledge, which has already been gained. Meaning assimilated knowledge alone nourishes you.
  • Metaphor: When eat food, what nourishes body is not what you eat, but what body DIGESTS (assimilates/internalizes). For example, some people have problem with absorbing power. Nothing gets digested. Person suffers from malnutrition. In same way, if mind fails to digest the knowledge, the person continues feeling spiritually malnutritioned.
• Meaning: What we listen is NOT what blesses one with mokṣa. It is assimilating the listened that blesses. Swami Chinmayananda used to say “You've gone though 10 Upanishads. How many Upanishads have gone through YOU?”. In other words, assimilating is accomplished by dwelling upon received teaching. Śravaṇam replayed mentally is nididhyāsanam.
• REVISION of Nididhyāsanam:
  1. Dhāraṇā: Withdraw mind from worldly personality. Bring mind to Vedantic teachings.
  2. Dhyānam: Trying to dwell upon teaching continuously. (Not problem solving or doubt clearing as done in mananam, but dwelling upon what's ALREADY understood)
  3. Samādhi: Absorbed in the teaching which talks about higher nature. I forgets my relative personality (father/brother/sister). I let mind be exclusively flooded by aham brahmāsmi.

• Purpose of Meditation: To internalize “aham brahmāsmi” as normal living reality. Just like it's a normal living reality that “I am male, I am female”.
  • You are not a human being with a spiritual experience. But a spiritual being with a incidental human experience. Thus DON'T look for spiritual experience.
  • Meaning I don't want to seek a spiritual experience, but own up fact that I am spiritual being all the time. Human experience is something that comes and goes. Thus need to reverse our wordly experience to match this.
• Ultimate culmination of THREE STEPS MENTIONED ABOVE: Total absorption in “I am satcitānanda svarūpaḥ asmi”. Called nirvikalpaka (knowledge not dependent on senses)-samādhi, which is yoga-phalam.
• What is point of Meditation? Adi Shankara says:
  • “Reflection (manana) is 100x superior to listening (śravaṇa); meditation (nididhyāsana) is 100x superior to reflection; nirvikalpaka-samādhi is infinitely superior.

REVISION of 6 Definitions of Nirvikalpa-Samadhi:

1. Quiet Mind: citta uparamaṇam
   • Mind relaxed, tranquil, at home.
   • Does NOT mean “thoughtless state”. But no disturbing thoughts.
   • Mind thinks of higher nature.
   • Self-Knowledge is a thought, but not disturbance. Else you'll say “I'm disturbed” in every class, while knowledge is being imparted.
   • SUMMARY: Quiet mind with Vedantic thoughts.
2. Taking a STAND in Awareness: ātma-darśanam
   • State where one is invoking in his mind, knowledge received in class. EG: “I am not BMI. I am Conscious principle pervading and illumining the body”.
   • Owning up one's nature.
3. Fulfilment (ānanda) born of Knowledge: ātyantikam sukham (verse 21)
   • Nirvikalpa is highest happiness which I own up the fact that my very nature is Happiness. It is NOT experiential happiness (finite/time bound).
   • Happiness born out of knowledge, that I don't miss/lack anything. I have no imperfections. This understanding alone gives one fulfillment.
   • SUMMARY: Knowledge born fulfilment.
4. Abiding Permanently in True Nature: tattva-niṣṭhā
   • State in which person abides in true nature, that he won't slip out of his svarūpam, even during transaction.
   • Not loosing center of gravity. EG: When experienced cyclist moves, he doesn't get out centre of gravity.
   • Life center of gravity is: aham satcitānanda svarūpa asmi
   • SUMMARY: sahaja-samādhi
5. Coming home: adhyāntika-lābhaḥ
   • Greatest accomplishment in life. Which is coming back to myself.
   • Discover peace/happiness is my nature. Coming home.
6. Total FREEDOM from sorrow: adhyāntika-duḥka-nivṛttiḥ
   • Total freedom from sorrow.
   • That gaining which person doesn’t know how to grieve in life. No more sorrow in life. Worst crises doesn't shake him. Because aware that anātma consists of mind/world.
   • Aware of unpredictable fluctuations of Body-mind-world.
   • Nothing comes as shock. What > So what!

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, Verse 23:

taṃ vidyād-duḥkhasaṃyogaviyogaṃ yogasaṃjñitam|
sa niścayena yoktavyo yogo'nirviṇṇacetasā ||

One should know that (state) which is dissociation from association with sorrow to be known as Samādhi. Dhyāna yoga leading to that should, be practised with firmness and with tireless mind.

 

• DEFINITION 7: duḥkha saṃyoga viyogam: Disassociation from association with unnatural sorrow.
  • Given to avoid confusion, which comes in 3rd Definition.
  • Person may think that Self-Knowledge and practice of samādhi will bring highest happiness in life.
  • If think that happiness will come from meditation, committing mistake. Because anything born in time, will end in time. Any happiness (1) Sense pleasure, or (2) born out of Meditation, then it will last as long as Meditation lasts. When over then samādhi-ānanda will end also.
    • For above reason, Vedanta says: Never seek mystic pleasure. Will be subject to loss.
    • Even people in nirvikalpa samādhi will say: “I HAD greatest pleasure in nirvikalpa“.
  • Infinite ānanda is that which NEVER arrives in time/place/condition. Only possible if it is here and now.
• How to get infinite ānanda? If you get it, you will lose it!
  • What is meant in above question is: One will “get” it by removing superimposed sorrow upon one's svarūpam. Meaning owning up obstacles/false-notions of who I am.
    • Just like no doctor gives you health, because body nature is healthy. Doctor only removes obstacles preventing health. Disease is incidental which we have acquired.
    • When get health again, I haven't accomplished health, but obstacle/intruder has been removed.
    • That's why in Sanskrit, health is defined as: Being natural / remaining in one's own nature (svasthaḥ)
  • ānanda is our nature. Thus to enjoy ānanda, is not to acquire anything, but to abide in natural state. Sorrrow is acquired by wrong thinking/misconceptions.
  • Thus all Vedanta does is REMOVE sorrow-bacteria/microbes, thought antibiotics called: ātma-jñānam.
• duḥkha saṃyoga viyogam: (Answers what is samādhi)
  • ANSWER: Disassociation from association with unnatural sorrow.
  • samādhi is remaining in natural state of pūrnatvam by negating unnatural sorrow.
  • If analyse sorrow, will discover it's unnatural, because it always belongs to world/body/mind.
  • One needs not associate with happiness, because happiness is our svarūpam.
• saḥ niścayena (with perseverance) yoktavyaḥ: Krisna gives advice to all Vedāntic students
  • Means: One should practice this Yoga. Else study will be mere verbal gymnastics. What is point of another text.
  • Point of Gītā: Transformation of personality.
• anirviṇṇa-cetasā: How is it to be practiced?
  • With a mind which doesn't develop pessimism. With an enthusiastic/optimistic mind.
  • Because worries comes out in meditation out of subconscious. Which creates frustration. Thus Krishna says “Never get frustrated“.

Keywords: adhyantika, ananda, anirvinna-cetasa, antaranga, asanga, asangah, ashtanga, astanga, atma darshana, atma svarupa, atmana, atmanam, atmani, atyantikam, bahiranga, basya, bhashyam, buddhigrahyam, catcidananda, dharana, dhyanam, duhkha, ekah, jnanam, jnani, labha, labhah, moksha, nididhyasanam, nirvikara, nirvikarah, nishtha, nistha, nitya, nityah, patanjali, pravaha, pravahah, sadhana, sah niscayena, sajatiya, samadhi, samyoga, sarvagata, sastra, satchitananda, satcitananda, satya, satyah, shankara, shastra, shravana, sravana, sthita prajna, sutra, sutras, tushyati, tusyati, upadesa, upadesha, uparamanam, vedanta, vedantic, yogah, yogasevaya, yoktavyah

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• After class questions

Credit for help in Bhagavad Gita teaching is given to Swami Paramarthananda

Recorded 7 May, 2019