Hari
Om
Monday is AUM-day; in search of meditation
For the next stage of our investigation on
meditation, we are going to study - and practice! - japa as a means to tame the
mind and we shall investigate the Gayatri Mantra.
Regularity
and sincerity are the secrets to success, whether that be in spiritual pursuits
or occupational. In our careers, we get nowhere by simply 'treading water' or
looking for others to do the work for us.
Watch
that monkey mind does not steal off with your focus; strengthen the mind
against all pointless distraction, excessive desires, selfishness and passions.
Become aware of how easily the mind would bind itself to these things; also to
happenings of others and circumstances in which it need not involve itself. No
matter how many times we are told of this, the mind is a thief and a spy and
readily attaches to the world. Thus, during japa, we have to be ever alert to
the unintelligent wanderings this little monkey!
Gather
the best of yourself and offer it to the japa, as if in worship of this act of
worship itself. This will invoke all the best out of the japa and bring its
blessings upon the japist. When graced in this way, meditation comes also, as
if by second nature.
It
is the case, then, that effectiveness of japa saadhana is as much dependent
upon the intention and surrender within the seeker as upon the physical act of
rolling the beads and reciting a mantra. Indeed, it could be said of much in
life, that intention is everything. When surrender is mentioned, don't think
either that this has to be some kind of over-emotive, sentimental bowing and
scraping or such. Spiritual surrender is not dramatic in the least, but a
simple slipping from the sense of 'me' to a sense of 'we' as it becomes clear
that we must join with the Higher Essence in order to heal. Prostration,
though, is difficult for some, even a foreign concept to many - partly because
it has been misused over history in terms of servitude and slavery. Lose all
notion of this in regard to spiritual pursuit, however. Know that surrender
here, is no sacrifice at all, but is in fact one of the most freeing things you
can ever do.
Take,
for example, a typical Iishta-mantra; Om Sri Rama NamaH, or Om Namo Naaraayana,
let's say. The namo or namah here means 'my prostrations'. Hence, To the Glory
of Rama I prostrate, or In Glory, my prostrations to Naaraayana. In Sanskrit
culture and modern Indian society also, it is standard to bow to one's elders
and to priests and before the images of the Higher in the multifarious forms -
hence the usage in the mantras. However, it is not simply about keeping the
head lower than those considered socially higher, it is also about making the
heart humble and the intellect supple. Prostration at the mental level is about
discovering the deeper, greater part of ourselves, identifying with our better
nature. Through this form of surrender we tune ourselves with nobler intention
and higher values.
The
very nature of prostration says that there has to be a sense of lower and
higher. We all of us identify with our ego personality and it is this which
baulks at the concept of surrender, for the ego never permits us to think of
ourselves as being 'lower'. What must be understood, however, is that within us
there is also the Higher Essence, obscured by the presence of the ego. The only
way to see H.E. is to drop the 'me'!
This
is the purpose of the japist; to overcome the lower, ego-self, in order to
unveil the Higher Essence, the supreme Divine Self. The mantra is but a formula
which not only tells of the devotion to the Higher, but tells how to reach to
that Essence - through surrender.
SAADHANA
Continue
to practice aasana, breathwork and beadwork. Do not let up on daily practice.
Make japa a part of life such that it is sorely missed when not there.
