Pranayam

Pranayam is generally required to do fine meditations. However, this is not always necessary. One can directly do meditation without doing pranayam. There are so many practical things to know. But you may not need to know all of them provided you understand. That's why I consider Gyan yoga as highest form of yoga. Whatever is the total configurational change by doing thousands of pranayam can be achived in a second by knowledge. Knowledge is the most powerful, it simply bypasses all the minor yogic pratices. However on the contrary, pranyam is not considered as minor yogic practice. At least that is what happneed to Janak. But you need that much ripe consciousness to understand what's going on...But unfortunately the average consciousness of the humanity is much lower than that of Buddha, Jesus etc. Jesus will not do pranayam. Because hee understands. You should do paranaym coz you don't know. There is a possiblity that pranayam can open another dimension for you.

Essentially what pranayaam does is to expand the pran. There is concept of Pran in Yoga. Pran means everything. Sarvam Pranmayam Jagtam. Whatever you see is the manifestation of pran is what they say. They are right. But for our purpose we relate pran with breath. Pran and breath are related. So, pranayam regulates the breath which in turn controls the pran. The final aim of pranayam is attain kumbhak. Kumbhak is the state no breathing. Rather I should say no appreciable breathing. Breathing frequency is too lesss. In samadhi, effective breathing frequency could be once in a day. Patanjanjali has given an excellent forumula to monitor samadhi. Usually 12 prayanyam is 1 pratyahar. 12 Pratyahas is 1 Dharna. 12 Dharana is one Dhyan, 12 Dhyan is one Samadhi. 12 Samadhi is one sanyam. Sanyam is final. Don't go to sanyam state. That's too far. I would recommend to go upto Dhyan state and come back. That takes approximately 3 hours of paranayam. So basically if you do pranayam for approx 3 hours continuously that should log you into Dhyan. Remember body should be standstill for 3 hours. No movements at all. That's not easy to do. So there are many meditative psotures to do that. Padmasan is the best. Buddha used to use Padmasan for his meditations. So try to sit longer time in padmasan. Then do pranayam. Again there are many ways to do pranayam. Choose on your own what suits your best. What Buddha suggest is to observe the breath. Just observe. You can choose anything u like. That's how pranayam aids in meditations.

More on meditation

I described two meditation techniques in the one of previous post on meditation. In this post I will write about philosophy behind meditation and possibly few more techniques too. Let see how it goes...

As I said, if you understand then you don't need to meditate. For example Buddha understands. So, he doesn't need to meditate. Like you don't have to travel if you are at the destination. Meditation is like a journey whose final destination is the liberation from the cycle of birth and death. So, you don't have to meditate provided you understand. This is what is called Gyan Yoga. Gyan means you understood that - that's how it is. Now there is no scope of further analysis here. All analysis are done due to incomplete understanding. If you understand by 100% then analysis vanishes. It has to vanish. Gyan yoga is very high form of yoga. It needs very mature very ripe consciousness to understand it. Some people have that level of consciousness. They are born with that level of consciousness. Meditation helps you to rise you consciousness. It opens another doorway of the consciousness. The five senses you have is not the only senses in the entire universe. Meditation can open different dimension to you. It can levitate your consciouses to higher level. But, if you already have higher consciousness you don't have meditate. And also, the more you understand the more meditative you will be. Mind you, I am not talking of understandings you get by reading junk books. Those are different. Here, by understanding I mean understanding by the consciousness.

As I said - meditation is the journey. It's not the destination. It's a way. It's one way. There are many other ways. One way is bhakti. Athato bhakti jigyasa. In Bhakti you surrender to your lord completely. That's also a kind of meditation but usually they don't call it as meditation. Hinduism says God has two form - personal and impersonal. Personal means those whose images have been made. Impersonal means God whiteout image. I personally am the worshipper of impersonal form of God. This is topic of debate between personalist and impersonalist that who is supreme - Brahman (Impersonal God) or Krishna/Shiva/Ram (Personal God). Such debate doesn't interest me. But I personally feel Brahman is the highest God. Krishna/Shiva/Ram is not even parts of partial of Brahman. Even Ramakrishna paramhams ultimately realized that Brahman is the highest God. God with form is duality. That means two thing should exist. One is God and other is devotee. As at the time of truth two should exist. God and his devotee. And whenever two separate thing exists so what is the cause of their existence. Two things means a change. Means a difference. Difference between God and his devotee. So, what is the cause of the difference? How did devotee became devotee and not God? So, there are many unanswered questions at the time of duality. So, the idea is to marge them - only one will exist. Either devotee or God. Because if only devotee exists then God is merged into devotee and if only God exist then then devotee is merged into God. And that's what I call it as - existence. You can call brahman or anything doesn't matter. So, according to me existence is the only God.

So, if you meditate at the existence that will be the most effective. Because, everything is coming from the existence level. Initially you won't understand everything. Because, there is an ego. Even meditation is also kind of ego. Ego of meditating. But slowly and slowly the more you meditate ego will dissolve into the existence. Source of ego is a separate topic. One practical thing I want to state out here is - if you meditate you will feel god, and if you don't meditate for long time the effect of last meditation will decrease slowly and slowly. And finally it will become to same moron state. So, again you have to meditate and rise you consciousness. So, basically you have to constantly meditate. If you leave it in between it won't be helpful much. Because, your consciousness will again go down. But once it reach to certain level then it won't go down. For example water boils at 100c only. No matter how many times you boil upto 99 degree Celsius. To boil the water you have to boil 100 degree Celsius. Similarly in meditation you have to keep meditating unless the consciousness rise to a certain level. If you reach to that level then it won't fall down or more accurately the probability of it's falling is very less.

More on it later...

Philosophy and Practical

You do anything and it will become frustrating one day. I tried it. Enlightenment is the only thing which will never become frustrating or boring. Because, at the time of enlightenment "I" doesn't exist. Remember one thing- Either you exist or Truth exists. Both cannot exist together. No possibility. At a time only one will exist. Either you or truth. And mostly you exist. Because, truth is so subtle that even the slightest perturbation can wrap the truth. Can hide the truth. That's why society could alter the truth. You never know whose fault it is - it's a truth's fault or it's society's fault. Sometimes, in spite of so much knowledge and understanding about life you still don't know what's happening. I have become bored of knowing the things. Society taught us that the more you know the better you are. According to me the less you know the better you will be which society won't like. Some of the professors didn't like me for the reason I refused to know more. But when I was knowing more, topped in the school they liked me. But their liking was conditional. Anything conditional is ephemeral. Because, that condition can vanish one day.

Coming to practical...

The one very fundamental thing I wanted to state out here is - see, if you understand then you don't have to do anything. You are done. You don't have to do Pranayaam and meditation provided you understand. This called Gyan Yoga. No need to meditate on the Agya Chakra if you understood. And it's so easy to understand that you can't understand. Because, society has always prepared you to understand difficult subject. So, our ability to understand easy thing is lost. Look at the Ramanna Maharshi. He was not a Yogi but still his knowledge was of very high order. However, it's always recommended to meditate and pranayaam. There is no harm in that.

In Hinduism they talk about 7 chakra energy centers. Muladhar, Swadhisthan, Manipur, Anahaat, Vishuddha, Agya and Sahasrar. Eeach center has it's attributes. Meditation on these centers are very helpful. It's said if your Sahasrar is open then you are almost God. These centers are described in the ancient Yoga scriptures. However, as I said - you may not have to know all these once you understand the core of the existence. Because, these are just expansion of the existence. Existence is root. Rest are just details. So, I don't give much stress on Chakra meditation rather I have stresss on the existence. Know the root of the roots. Rest will all follow...

Meditation

One of my friend asked me to write something about meditation. Also got feedback about previous post that it was too heavy to grasp the subject matter. I understand. The topic itself was abstract. No worries if you couldn't grasp my previous post. So, in this post I am writing about meditation.

Meditation is the key. Nothing happens without meditation. All these philosophy are valueless without meditation. Again I would refrain myself from talking philosophy behind meditation. Rather I would concentrate on practical aspect of meditation. Meditation is easy if you are good in Pranayaam. I won't talk about pranayam in this post. The main thing pranayam does is to attain the kumbhak. Kumbhak is state of no breathing. A simple procedure to start meditation could be something like this - Sit in any aasan, comfortably. Close your eyes. Then concentrate on your breaths. Just watch your breaths. After some time breath should calm down. Once breath is calm and you are also relaxed then look at the space between the two eyebrows keeping eyes closed. When you close your eyes we still see something. In yoga it is called "Chidakash". That represents the whole of the creation. So, the meditator should concentrate on the space between two eyebrows. Space between two eyebrows is very important in Yoga. It is usually termed as third eye. Space between two eyebrows is the doorway of Brahman. This is the door from where yogis enter into Brahman. Anything below this is vyakt. Anything above this is ayakt. This is where ayakt and vyakt meet together. This is the point of transition. So, basically meditating at the space between two eyebrows will be very effective. There are many ways to meditate. I just described one which I think is very powerful. In addition to that one can also chant OM while meditating. As and when you progress ahead you may not need to chant even OM. You would automatically hear universal sound OM. In yoga it is called "Naad". You can meditate on that sound also.

Nothing happens much if you meditate for half and hour. But if you meditate for 2 hours continuously many things can happen. Actually, it depends on your current spiritual status. I would suggest to go deep into meditation. But don't go very deep. Very deep meditation can create trouble also. Meditation is like you are diving into ocean of infinite depth. The more you dive in it the more it becomes deep. So, there is chance of drowning in it. The amount of pleasure is so high that you might not want to come out of meditation. Lol. This happens rarely but can happen. So I described two method of mediation- 1. Meditate at the space between two eyebrows, 2. Meditate at OM sound. You can choose any method you like better. :)

Deep Meditation

I am not supporter of deep meditation from practicality point of view. Whenever you talk about something. It has two aspect - one is practicality other is transcendental. If you have liability like family, friends, kids, wife etc I would not suggest you to go very very deep meditation. Ask why?

Because, in deep meditation you get connected with BRAHMAN. And BRAHMAN is infinite. It's ocean of infinite depth which has no beginning and ending. The ocean on the earth has beginning and ending. It Has finite depth(11 Km Max) . BRAHMAN is the ocean of infinite depth in all direction. So, in deep meditation your consciousness starts accessing BRAHMAN. Mind is virtually stop. Only I remains - Savikalp Samathi. There will be some trace of I-ness. I-ness in that state has no idea where it is, what he is doing, and how to get out of that state. That is the problem. It happend to me once. Meditation was so deep that I was not able to come out of it. It had almost touched to source of I-ness. From where feeling of I-ness arise. Only I-ness was there. Fortunately (fortunate for my liability, unfortunate for me), that I-ness didn't disappear. If that I-ness disappeared then? Then soul will release the body and I-ness will be merged into BRAHMAN. The game is over. But I didn't want game to be over. So the trace of I-ness remained and ultimately came out of meditation.

The point I am making is it becomes difficult to come out of deep meditation. Because meditation is so deep the feeling of I-ness starts disappearing. You should only go into deep meditation when you really really really want to go. Very similarly when you go to a sea shore. You play in the less water. But if you go ahead into deep water you will be drowned right? But if you really decided to drown then go ahead. Similar thing happens in the meditation. Indian philosophy describe it in layers. There are 5 layers of consciousness. 1. Annmaya Kosha 2. Pranmaya Kosha 3. Manomaya Kosha 4. Vigyanmaya Kosha 5. Anandmaya Kosha.

You can go upto Vigyanmaya Kosha. Ananadmaya kosha is the last. There is no way to come out of it.

:)

One Meditation Technique Developed by Me

Although, I am not a hardcore supporter of techniques, methods etc. But, I feel these are required from practicality point of view. Practicality and absoluteness is totally different. The society you live is practical, absolute is transcendental. Absoluteness doesn't worry much about society. That was one reason why society had always suppressed the absoluteness.

Techniques and methods are sequential process. I am not believer of sequential process. I believe in the parallelism. Because, sequential process spread the time. Sequential process will show you a goal. It will show you a milestone. It will give you a feeling that something great gonna be happen in the future. It will drift your mindset to future. Sequential process are the genesis of cause and effect. On the other hand parallelism is just opposite. It happens in the present. Cause and effect will happen together. Basically, both will disappear.

Just to temporarily accommodate practicality methods and techniques are required. Later when you master the technique it will dropped automatically. So, these days I had been working on one meditation technique. This is not a great invention or discovery. Many meditation techniques exists. But I developed this technique getting ideas from other techniques.

This technique is related to breath. Because, breath is very important in yoga. Breath is the bridge between you and god. This technique involve imagination. I will talk about imagination sometime later. Somehow imagination word has earned bad name. For the time being just take it as granted if you would like. Before I formally describe the technique, reader would need to know about Chakra System. According to Indian Yogic System. There exists primarily 7 chakras and 3 channel in the subtle body. These channels carries pran. So the basic idea is to regularize the movement of pran across these channels. It might sounds you disgusting. You can simply stop reading in that case. So, I developed one technique which will enable you to harmonize the movement of pran in these channels. Please note all these phenomena are happening in the subtle body which in turn will effect the physical body.

Take a deep breath in. And imagine that pran is moving from Muladhar to Ajna through Ida channel. Then exhale and imagine that pran is going from Ajna to Muladhar through Pingla Channel. This become one step. Repeat the steps as many times you want. Then do it in reverse order. That is when you inhale imagine that pran is moving from Muladhar to Ajna into Pingla channel. Exhale will follow accordingly. This way both Ida and Pingla channel should be balanced the pran should move inside Sushumna. This technique would need strong imagination. The basic idea is to balance the pran flow in Ida and Pingla. You can device any technique to do that.

Disclaimer: I do not take any solicitation if the technique shows side effects.

Mind

Mind is not always helpful. It has to be dropped. I never wanted this much intelligence. I wanted billionth fraction of my current ingelligency. Now it's like a burden in the head. You have to drop to the extent that you have nothing else to drop. Mind is so treacherous that it can act like a heart. Mind is the supreme controller of the body. Buddha dropped his mind. He went beyond mind. And after mind only existence remains. A pure silent existence. In the modern psychology, there is no scope after mind. Mind is the last. In the east, mind is not the last.Existence is the last.

Mind works on logic. And every logic has a counter logic which can negate the use of mind. Mind only knows the past. Your current mental status is the function of past. Mind is never in present. It's in either past or future. None of them exists. So mind doesn't exist. What's all there is just pure present existence. Nothing more can be done than the existence. Impossible. Nobody could do. Existence is the last game. There is nothing beyond this.

Heart is slightly better than mind. Heart is life. Heart is love. Better. Much better than the logic at least. Because logic is always incomplete. Both positive and negative number exist together. God and bad exist together. Both are part of existence. Actually, good is not good, bad is not bad. Good and bad are taking social parameters into account. To society certain things can be good or bad. But to absolute it makes no difference. And since our consciousness is not at the root level so mind becomes active. And once mind is active you will see the dualism. You will see difference. Huge difference. Such a big difference that even you mind is not capable of handing that. When you are at root, mind is inactive else its always active.Let me tell what happened with Buddha. Buddha did intense penance for 6 years. But nothing was happening. He used his mind. He applied many techniques. He started taking extremely low food intake. His body became like thin skeleton. Still no sign of divinity. He thought if I am the consciousness then why do I need food? But later he understood that the body has it's own demand. Finally he became tired. He sat under the Peepal tree in Bodhgaya. That time he had nothing else to do. Nothing. He had tried a lot. Nothing worked. Now his mind has nothing to work upon. Now there is no place for his mind. Remember mind always need something to work upon. That time Buddha's mind has nothing to work upon. So where will the mind will go? The mind will simply vanish. Only pure consciousness will remain. There Buddha's mind dropped and he became infinite. He remained in that super consciousness state for many days. Once can get inspiration from Buddha's life.Mind always need something to work. Because you are always working. You are always thinking. Society has made you a thinker. Buddha was an observer. He was not a thinker. Thinking is opposite of meditation. In thinking mind is active, in meditation mind is inactive.