Hari
OM
Monday is AUM-day; in search of meditation.
Meditation & Life, with Sw. Chinmayananda
(Gurudev).
We are now exploring the writings of Gurudev on our focus subject of
Meditation. The book is a thorough treatment of the subject and extends to over
170 pages of closely printed text. No attempt is intended, here, to present the
text in its entirety. However, important paragraphs and quotes will
be given, within a summary of each section. You
are encouraged to use the links on sidebar to obtain a copy for yourselves from
CM publications.
Please remember
that each of the posts under this title is part of a thought flow and it is
important to go back and read the previous post in order to refresh and review
the context.
4: Spirit Enveloped in Matter
"For the superman to emerge
from a frail mortal, a scientifically complete and philosophically true
investigation into the subject is unavoidable. We find the clearest and most
extensive inquiries into this subject in Vedanta...the Rsis declared that each
person is not merely a physical structure, but also a four-forked entity
consisting of four distinct personalities; the physical, the mental, the
intellectual and the spiritual."
Our Multiple Personalities.
Are you the clothes you wear? Is she the jewels which adorn her? Is
that child the toy with which they play? No. These are accoutrements, matter
envelopments which are adjuncts to the body which uses them. We can comprehend these are extraneous to the
'truth' of the body. Similarly, the Rsis understood - and any who follow their
line of enquiry - that the naked body consists of several layers of matter, in
the core of which is the spirit. The comprehension being that all matter is
extraneous to the 'truth' of our being.
When life, clothed in layers of matter, walks out fully clothed in the extra material to face the
climate and a world of plurality, it is said to be a human being.
Gurudev now makes an observation which is so very pertinent in our
current world state; "The modern world, in
all its activities - domestic, communal, social, national or international - is
at best feeling its way through the immediate darkness to reach still greater
darkness when the government planners draft manifestos of human rights under
the false conclusion that each individual is but a mere physical
structure. Materialism served by science
can come only to the conclusion that more food and clothing, better shelter,
more leisure and entertainment, and probably a little more education, will
ensure happiness for everyone. In short,
people are considered not much different from mute animals who are aware only
of their body existence. However, if we analyze the human being into three
personalities in addition to the body, we can find out how these four act and
react with each other, and how they can be developed and integrated through the
process of divine contemplation and devoted meditation."
It is not difficult to understand that the gross body is nothing
with the spark of live within it. It is
matter. All matter is inert until such time it is given some form of energy to
enliven it. No sooner has life flown from the body, than it falls and starts
decomposing into the very elements from which it was formed. Thus, the 'life
centre' in each one of us is the sacred spot from which all activities
emanate. With that factor, even the mind
and the intellect are nothing.
In Vedanta, the 'life centre', the Divine Spark of Life, is called
the आत्मन् /aatman. The various envelopments are progressively more gross. The
outermost 'envelope' being the body; which we call 'ours', so identified with
it are we. To rise to a full understanding of even our intellectual selves can
be a challenge; how much rare it is, then, to find those who can identify with
the aatman within. There is much discussion in modern thinking as to whether
mind is inert matter, or nonmatter having full consciousness. One wit has been
quoted as saying "It does not matter if mind is matter and never mind if
mind is not matter, for all that matters is that it does not matter!"
All schools of philosophy in India accept that the mind is made up
of subtle matter and the body is gross matter. Aatman presides over both and is
the subtlest of the subtle.
In the diagram, OM represents the aatman; our Self, our True Nature,
omnipotent and omniscient. The drop into matter is represented by the
panchakoshas, the five sheaths of matter from subtlest to grossest. You see
that aatman, then, stands above and is not actually part of the matter-stuffs;
it has no attachment to these things, but it is only because of its presence
that the matter becomes aware or active at all. Whilst the two dimensional
diagram shows this to be a pyramidal structuring, it ought to be taken more as
an ever more internal process. From the body inwards to the lungs, inwards to
the mind, inwards to the intellect then to the vital spark...yet this is also
rather inadequate. It is simply about the subtlety of each matter layer. The
more subtle the sheath, the more pervasive it is. An example might be a cube of
ice. As ice it has defined shape and size; as it melts it returns to water,
which of course can move into other spaces which the cube could not; the water
when boiled becomes steam and thus can enter where even water could not and so
is the subtlest form of water, whilst still remaining in the field of matter.
For us, the body is the grossest and least pervasive. The praana (vital airs)
can occupy not just the body but the space around the body, this is more
pervasive. The mind can go places the body and the praana cannot - it is thus
more pervasive again. The intellect can visualize places which even our mind
could not, thus subtler still. Subtlest of all, and therefore the most
pervasive, is aatman. It has the ability to be in and through all matter, but
no matter can be in It. It is all-pervading, all-seeing, all-knowing, declare
the Upanishads.