Yoga and Meditation - that leads to gaining Enlightenment in
this life?
What kind of Yoga and Meditation leads to gaining Enlightenment
in this life?
Every process of Yoga... neigh meditation that frees us from the
clutches of attachment... bondage or Moha, whatever we may call
it... Is the right process on the path of gaining Enlightenment.
Are Yoga and Meditation two different words with different
meanings? No, the truth is not so... we need to understand that
it is the path of yoga which shall lead us to gaining
Enlightenment within this life. And what does yoga itself mean?
The word yoga has been derived from the Hindi root yog and which
in Hindi means synthesizing two things. In Hindi two plus two
equal four... and the effort of our soul (the atman within) to
merge with the super soul (the Parmatman, the Almighty God) is
known as yoga.
Yoga in other words is the effort of every soul to merge with
the Almighty God at the earliest. And for this to be achieved we
need to follow a routine of yogic exercises and also meditate
(perform yoga) on the Almighty God. This process of meditation
can be best understood once we are able to understand the
meaning of Meditation. Meditation in Hindi means yoga. Never
otherwise or vice versa!
To be able to rightly perform Yoga (Meditation) we need to
concentrate on the basic belief of life and that is... the basic
building block of the total Cosmos is an atom. A cluster of
atoms grouped together are called as molecules and a cluster of
molecules is what the whole complex Cosmos comprises of. Truly
speaking... the whole Cosmos is built up of clusters of atoms
and molecules and there is nothing solid in the whole Cosmos.
Everything in the Cosmos has a gaseous formation... a form of
energy. As we have seen in the Star Trek serial during the
deportation of human beings from one place to another... they
get transformed into pure energy for a temporal phase.
This is the only vital truth of life we cannot get away with...
seeing from the senses point of view... things appear to be
gaseous and also solids but in the cosmic domain it is only the
gaseous formation which holds good. Once we are clear with this
issue in respect of every human being and every living being
(Jiva as we call it in Hinduism) living on mother earth being
gaseous formations... we need to understand that it is only
after having gained control of the senses and the mind shall we
be able to transcend the earthly plane and be able to truly
visualize whatever was pictured in the telly serial Star Trek.
Performing Yoga (Meditation) is the process which enables us to
cut across the shackles of the senses and the mind and to be
able to come free of the senses and the mind... one needs to
perform yoga (meditation) in a manner that the dross within our
soul (atman) reduces at a faster pace. The complete dross having
removed... one would have gained absolute control over the
senses and the mind! This is the stage of Nirvikalpa Samadhi as
we know it in Hinduism. The stage of Nothingness... it is when
the senses and the mind have lost their entity and the purified
soul engages itself in one to one dialogue with the Almighty
God, the super soul.
Now... the question arises is how-to perform the Meditation
(Yoga as we call it in Hinduism). And the meditation can best be
performed by lying in Shavasana pose (the death pose) and
following the path of Neti (not this... not this). And by doing
this what are we trying to achieve? Is it possible to gain
Enlightenment by this process? Yes! It is a foolproof process
which shall gain us Enlightenment in the end.
What is the Shavasana pose? In yogic exercises the Shavasana
pose carries the most importance for one on the path of gaining
Enlightenment. It is this process of Shavasana in which one can
lie down in the death pose and concentrate on the process of
breathing. While lying down in the Shavasana pose as we
gradually realize the ultimate truth of life that it is not the
body which is inhaling the requisite essentiality (the pure air)
but it is our soul (the real self within) the body which needs
the pure oxygen... the body tends to lose its meaning.
We become more and more aware of the real truth within us and
that truth is our soul (atman) which resides within our body.
Slowly one more fundamental of life shall dawn upon us and that
it... it is not the body which has taken the soul but it is vice
versa which is the absolute truth. As we realize that our
existence as a body is merely a covering... a garment for our
real self... our Soul (Atman) within us... we would ultimately
come to the conclusion that why not retain our true real self
alone. What of the body then? Is it to be discarded? And if the
body is discarded... the manifest self of us... our existence in
this world would die!
Proceeding on the path of spirituality through logical
conclusions as in the dialogues of Plato... cutting one untruth
after another leads us towards higher planes of spirituality.
Becoming freer from the clutches of the senses... we find a
gradual change within our personality. The ultimate truth having
dawned upon us that the present body is merely a garment for the
inner real self of us... our desire of gaining Enlightenment
within this life becomes stronger.
What is Neti? The path of Neti as practiced and followed by
Maharishi Ramana! While lying down in the Shavasana pose is it
not worthwhile to concentrate on the existence of God. We have
come to a conclusion earlier that everything is gaseous in
nature and what then? We would slowly realize that the only
existence in this gaseous formation is of different souls and
the Karta, Parmatman (as we call it in Hinduism) the Almighty
God himself. There is nothing else apart from the souls, the
Almighty God, the ether which comprises of the vast Cosmos.
Now if we desire to gain Enlightenment in this life... then we
have to negate the existence of everything in our physical
manifested world. The process of Neti (not this... Not this) is
the process of negation as practiced and advocated by Maharishi
Ramana... the one and the only path to cut across the shackles
of the senses and the mind. It is only following the path of
Neti while lying down in Shavasana pose that I realized God
one-day. Having traversed the path... I can with hundred percent
certainties say that the Shavasana pose and the process of Neti
is the best form of Meditation one can ever imagine of.
Summarizing all... I can only quote of whatever I have
personally experienced... I have nothing more to say!
May God bless all those on the path of Enlightenment!