During the second semester of the Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) in NIT Calicut which I was teaching during Jan-June 2024, I used to regularly attend the 2-day a week Yoga sessions for students. The Yoga trainer intersperses games of 5 to 7 minutes duration prior to performance of strenuous asanas and the students love it. Usually following Pranayama exercise students are directed to meditate for short intervals and they are expected to sit silently in an erect posture. Then I noticed that the attention of a few tended to falter. Was it because they were all tired after the 8 am to 4 pm classes or did they lack the motivation?
I recalled
my struggle to learn how to meditate
during my own Post Graduate days sans a guru. Despite reading half a dozen books on Meditation and cogitating on the
advantages of the same, I couldn’t
master it!
A few days ago, I came across a quote
from Swami Vivekananda : “The highest meditation is to think of
nothing. If you can remain one moment without thought, great power will come.”(Vedanta
Philosophy) This echoes the thoughts of Prof. M. Ram Murty of Queen’s University, Canada, who recently delivered
a lecture entitled the Meaning
of Yoga
at NIT Calicut.
The following
are extracts from his
PPT slides:
The restless monkey
*Vivekananda relates the following
story.
*The mind has been often
compared to a monkey. There was a monkey restless by his own
nature, or as all monkeys are.
*As if that were not enough,
someone made him drink freely of wine,
so that he became more restless.
*Then a scorpion stung him. When a man is stung by
a scorpion he jumps about for a whole day, so the poor monkey found his
condition worse than ever.
*To complete his misery, a demon
entered into him. What language can describe
the uncontrollable restlessness of that monkey?
*The human mind is like that
monkey, incessantly active by its own nature.
Then it becomes drunk with the wine of desire, increasing its
turbulence.
*After desire takes possession comes the sting of
the scorpion of jealousy at the success of others, and last of all the demon of
pride enters the mind, making it think itself of all importance.
***************************************
The role of creative work
*According to Patanjali, the best way to deal
with restlessness of the mind is to put it in creative work and keep it
engaged.
*Another way is to watch the
bubbling of thoughts in a detached way and slowly, as one observes them, the
oscillations decrease.
*******************************
Dharana and Dhyana
*Dharana is holding the mind on to some particular object or
idea. An unbroken flow of knowledge in that object or idea is Dhyana.
*Dharana is concentration and Dhyana
is continued concentration.
*
Many times, we find the mind becomes concentrated and inspired but has a
tendency of not staying in that state
for too long.
********************************
Samadhi or total absorption
*The final stage is Samadhi.
Patanjali writes that the three: Dharana,
Dhyana and Samadhi, comprise Samyama and are to be taken together.
*The process has been compared to
the trajectory of a three stage rocket, where the lower stages drop off at an appropriate time
and the rocket can be propelled
into the higher reaches of space.
*********************************
Breathing and the mind
*Patanjali offers another method
for calming the mind, namely rhythmic breathing. This is called Pranayama, or
the regulation of the breathing.
*When our mind is disturbed the
breathing becomes irregular. At such
moments, Patanjali says to sit alone and calm oneself by rhythmic breathing.
*Once the mind has been calmed, it
is fit to begin meditation on a single idea such as the ‘light within’ or the
‘illumined being’ or ‘pure
awareness’.
*Concentration can also be
achieved by fixing the mind on a divine form or symbol.
***************************************
*The first verse in the
treatise (Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra)
is yoga chitta vritti nirodah. Yoga is the restraint of mental modifications.
*That is, yoga is the control of thoughts and feelings.
*They are restrained by practice
and non attachment (abhayasa and vairagya). Practice is repeated
effort… It becomes firm when it
has been cultivated for a long time, with earnest devotion, Non- attachment is
self-mastery”..
*******************************
*Patanjali writes that the human
is usually in one of five general states:
Wandering (Ksipta),Forgetful (Mudha), Occasionally steady or distracted
(Viksipta), One -pointed (Ekagrata) and
Restrained (Niruddha)
*The last two are referred to as
higher levels of awareness.
*Normally, our mind is in the
first three states.
*The highest state Patanjali refers to as Samadhi, or perfect
understanding.
*It is said to be two kinds: with
image (Savikalpa) and without image (Nirvikalpa).
*The last stage is characterized
by the fact that there is no thought wave in the mind, it is
perfectly still, and supremely aware of itself.
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