Krishna's Guide to Meditation | Essence of the Geeta | Episode 82

You are listening to the essence of the Gita. In this episode, Swamiji unpacks Bhagawan Sri Krishna's practical guidance on meditation, revealing the deeper purpose behind the way we prepare and practice. Now Bhagawan goes in details to give us even what place, how the seat must be, how we should sit. Such details Bhagawan is giving now. And therefore now Bhagawan is pointing out where and how to prepare for meditation, then how to practice meditation. First of all, Succhao Deshe, in a clean place. When it is said, cleanliness is next to godliness. In a clean place, find a clean, neat place to meditate. Shankaracharya goes to say that if it is not clean, then clean it up and then meditate. Why? Because if there is dust, if there is fungus, how will you meditate? So clean place, where there won't be cockroaches, suddenly you are sitting meditating and then, you know, I felt something crawling up my back. Do you think my Kundalini was rising? A cockroach was going on your back. And the worst is that when you are meditating and concentrating on the tip of your nose and you see a cockroach there. I am not joking. In my batch there was a Brahmachani and she was from abroad. So she is not used to these creatures that we have in India. We have communal living actually. And she tells me a horror story and she tells me, I woke up in the night and when I looked on my nose, there was this cockroach sitting looking straight in my eyes. Can anything be more terrorizing than that? Tell me. So, Suchao Deshe, keep your home and especially your place of meditation. If you have got a sacred place at home, your puja room. Have you seen people's puja room so badly cluttered? The frames are so falling apart. I mean, you can't afford it, it's fine, but we can afford it. Then first of all it's like a saccadelic museum of gods. In India we love colors, we are not so bland. And God has the least availability of our time. So you burn the agarbati and for most people the whole religion is go to the shop, burn agarbati, my job of God is done. I have done my puja. And that agarbati dust will be all over, never cleaned up. Have you seen the lamp? It will be black with soot. The oil staining everywhere. The dirtiest cloth is put on the altar. When you see such a thing, can you have a sense of peace and beauty? And these days, yeah, I am a monk, I am not finicky. Lazy, that's all. Suchaudeche. At least that place should be clean. Atmana, asanaam, sthiram pratisthapya. Keep your own seat. Now people get so this, your own asan. So these are the things that you are sitting on as an asanaam. And people get so possessive, no, no, you must sit on your asanaam only. Because you know whatever vibrations are there, there and somebody else comes and sits on it, vibration, that's not the meaning here. It means make your own seat for yourself. And it's nice that you sit in the same place in your home. It's called that, just like when a child is naughty, especially in the West, India, immediate. If the child is too naughty, not behaving himself, the result is immediately. A big noise with no hurt, but, ta-da, straightened the child, immediately straightened. Otherwise everybody has got that corner. The child gets naughty, go to your corner. And the corner when the child goes the same way, you have your meditation place. Avoid corners though. Because corners are very comfortable for keeping your back and chanting of om. So, su chau de sheh pradish tapya sthiram. And the asana must be sthirah. Not one of those very comfortable bean bags. Or where you will be shaking, water cushions. Or you are so fast when you sit there, couch. Sthirah it should be. It should be a firm and steady seat. So sthirah asanaam. Na ati uchshritam, na ati nicham. Neither very high nor very low. This is implying that don't go too high up in the Himalayas to meditate, where oxygen is low and therefore certain amount of dizziness and all can happen. And don't go too underground, where will be damp. In that sense it is pointed out. Also, not too high, don't sit on a bar stool with your feet dangling. Because there will always be insecurity that you are going to fall down. And ati nicham means, you know, not something that you will couch into. For our sense that is what. So you see, so fast you go inside like this. Na ati nicham, chayla jeena kushotaram. In this sequence below you keep khusha gras, a mat of khusha gras. On that you keep a deer skin. Nowadays, your children see Shankaracharya sitting on a deer skin. Lord Shiva sitting on a tiger skin. They didn't kill any animal to sit on it. When you are living in the forest, Bhagawan is just pointing out the texture of your seat. When you are in the forest, the ground will be wet, damp or even crawling with insects. The mat, what you call chatai, which is made up of dry khusha gras, prevents all these ants and insects also to reach you. Because sometimes you are such that you attract every bug to bug you. Some people are very sweet. So they can come to you to bite you, irritate you in meditation and in the beginning days don't say, I have no body identification. So let it bleed, but I will not think about it. I am not thinking about it. Brahman, Brahman, Brahman, Brahman, I am not thinking about it. I am not the body, I am not the body. Even when you are in pain, I am not the body, you try saying it. The more you say it, the more you will think about the pain. So keeping a khusha, a mat of khusha, so that the dampness will not affect you. Otherwise you will get arthritis in long term. Insects will not come. Plus it levels the ground you are sitting on. On that a deer skin means today it would mean a carpet or a mat. Just to give it a certain amount of softness. So it's not too hard when you are sitting on bare cold tiles. It's not suitable because legs will get crammed. You will feel cold. Your circulation will get restricted. In the forest, the best mat that will soften your is the fur of an animal. Not killed, but they are dying naturally and there were plenty of them available. So you put an animal skin. Today it's a crime to even get an animal skin. But the meaning is that texture should be like this. See how beautiful Krishna gives every small detail. Now after you have established your seat, what should you do? Tatra on such a seat, Upavishva, Asanae seated on that seat. See Upavishya, sit. Swamiji isn't more convenient to lie down and meditate. It is very convenient but you will go to sleep. Swamiji, I get leg cramps. Can I stand and meditate? After all we see also in the movies, those Rishi Munis were standing like this. Standing, you will not be able to balance and one like that too also. Sit, sit and for meditation. So you sit. So Upavishya, Asanae. And there where you sit then what should you do? Tatra ekagram manakritva. Making your mind single pointed. How will you do it? Yathachit indriya kriyaha. And Yathachit means controlling all the movements of your body, senses and mind. Sitting on that asana, yunjayat, practice, yogam. Yogam here means meditation. Atma vishuddhaye. Please mark that line down there please. Atma vishuddhaye. It is pointing out the purpose of meditation. Purpose of meditation is not to see something or have some experience. The purpose of meditation is not even to gain knowledge because knowledge is to be gained before. Meditation. Otherwise what are you going to meditate upon? What is the purpose of meditation? These days if you go on to the internet, meditation for greater success, meditation for good health, meditation for what not I will not talk. It is for atma means antakaran, mind intellect equipment to purify the mind intellect equipment. What purity is required there through karma yoga you are free from your likes, dislikes and extroverted desires. Still the deep rooted impression of identifying with the body, mind and intellect. Your deep deep deep rooted vasanas that go to make your particular characteristics. Many many lifetimes of suppressed emotions or repressed emotions. It is for freeing your mind of these. Remember the cause of our bondage and our suffering is ignorance. Ignorance goes only with knowledge. But a mind which is free of vasanas, prejudices, likes and dislikes alone can get knowledge or be rooted in that knowledge. Therefore meditation is for the fine tuning and the purification of the mind. To remove these false notions that I am the which are so strongly rooted that I am the body, I am the senses, I am the mind, I am the intellect, I am this individual. It is for that that there is meditation. So atma-vishuddhaye the purpose of meditation is pointed out. Now if you read this it is in the language of this way people say, in meditation what should I do? In meditation you have to stop doing everything. It's neither doing nor undoing. It is just being. Being yourself is meditation. Without any vestures, without any covering, without any coloring, just to be yourself is meditation. And such a state of being is not an action. Therefore in the highest sense meditation is not something to do. Gurudev said meditation is not a noun. It's not a verb. It's not something to do. It's a noun. It's a state to be in. State is also under quotes. It's a state to be in. It is not to do. Yet at this moment we are all so active oriented that if you say to someone, don't do anything. That's why you know whenever you give instruction, don't move. You will move. You will in fact ask, how don't I move? What do I do not to move? See how we are so action oriented. Therefore the language is, you set the asan, clean up the place. Now that's all action. That is preparation. Then said that you sit on the asan. Now sitting appears to be an action. But when you sit what happens? You no longer moving. So that's why it said sit. Then sit steady. Unmoving and steady. Two words are used. So Shankaracharya says you can be sitting but you can be moving. Have you seen most people? Even in meditation. Which means your seat is steady and even on the top you are unmoving. When he says, no, sit steady. You say don't move, how? Then what do I do? Sit steady. So it looks like you are putting in an effort to sit steady. But when you sit steady what happens? You are not moving. You are not doing. All ing ing ing ing stops. See the technique is itself. The goal and the means must be the same. So Bhagawan says, Tattra ekagram manakritva. Make your mind single pointed. Means focused on one. How you do that? By restraining your mind and your senses from all different, different sense stimuli and object. Upavishva, upavishva, asane yunjaya, yunjat, yogam atma vishuddhayi. And with all sincerity practice meditation. Not doing anything. You say not doing anything? It is not sleeping. With full alertness do it for the purification of the mind. Now how to make this mind single pointed? That is going to be pointed out. But first of all, withdraw your senses. So it's like an action. When you withdraw your mind from distraction, the mind becomes calm and single pointed. So let's such a yogi samam kaya shiro grivam. Keeping the body straight where your spine, your neck and the head is in the straight line. But relax, not stiff. Why in a straight line? Know that it is through your spine only that all the nerves pass to your brain. When your back is straight, not only your circulation to your brain is there and therefore you are awake, bright. But energies that pass through the body, the pranas, back, neck, head in a straight line. So that even when all the energies are moving in the body, they get a free flow to move upward. I'm not talking about any fancy energies and all that. Your circulation because your legs are crossed and therefore the circulation goes up. The ideal position is the cross leg position in which you are comfortable on the ground. So there is no fear of falling as well as the circulation goes to your head. Now if those who are not got practice sitting on the ground, they've got knee problems, back problems, etc. Don't struggle. Sit on a firm seat where your feet touch the ground. Keep maximum base. Don't cross your feet like this. Keep maximum base so that you are firmly rooted to the ground. The chair must neither be like a couch to soft nor one of those leaning chairs, but where your back is kept erect. The position is very important also in meditation. Sainth Ganeshwar and others who are yogis, the description that he has given. But if you keep it steady like this, you will be alert, you will be vigilant, and you will be relaxed. So keeping your back, neck, head in a straight line, so holding it dharayan, achalam and sthiraha. Still and sthira as I said, that you might be still at the bottom level, but up you can be moving. So therefore achalam and sthiraha, steady and unmoving. Now the body is in this condition. Your gaze, your eyes. Now you will notice that whenever your mind is agitated, that's why when a person is lying also, when the mind is disturbed, thinking, scheming, or thoughts are there, your eyeballs will never be steady. The more restless you are, the more will be your movement of your eyes. So fix your gaze and sugar-achai as though, not literally, and people who do that. And many people who take these quick initiations to meditation, and they always said, the third eye is here and therefore you concentrate here. And then they literally try to concentrate, we are turning the eyes and they come up and say, Swamiji, you know all about health, can you tell us, I am getting severe headaches. I have to ask them, have you started meditating? Were you told to concentrate on your centre of your eyebrows or the tip of your nose when you are kids, when our elders wanted to entertain us, they would show us how they can turn their eyes and become cockeyed, naturally it will cause you a headache. This is just giving you a place where to fix your gaze. Your gaze has to be on Brahman. So it's not literally, you know, your inner gaze should be focused at a point. It is for that in Ashtang Yoga, they point out about the energy chakras and all that. Swamiji, you are not teaching us all about that, don't worry. These are only points for our concentration, not that the Atma is here or the Atma is here. These are points of concentration so that there is some centre where you will concentrate. Why the middle of your forehead? Because that's the place, whenever you are intensively thinking, do you go, I am thinking. Where do you start? You feel here, but you think from, what was that? Let me remember, this is your physical centre of concentration in the body. There is a locus, so fixing your gaze there, as though, not literally, where it says, nasika grama, tip of your nose. Now there are also people are confused, something. And there are people who teach these meditations also. Look at the tip of your nose, you try looking it, you will get a headache right now only. So half close eyes but keep looking, this is as though looking. Are there tip of the nose means? The bridge of your eyebrows and your nose, that, and there is a thought of eyes there. Thought of eyes will open, don't worry about that. If it is there, it will open. So some priksha nasika grama swam and Krishna himself says, why? He says, because disahacha anava lokayan, so that you are not looking here and there. Because wherever your eyes go, your mind also goes. Keep your eyes steady, your mind also becomes steady. Saying that, now Bhagawan goes to point out what should be the inner atmosphere. Look at the details, having pointed out which place, which type of seat and how to sit, how to fix your gaze so that you will have concentration. Because how do you become one who is yatha chit? So fix up your gaze in one place as though. And then Bhagawan says, that brahmachari vrate stithaha, one who is firm in his vow of brahmachari. Now brahmachari, suddenly everybody thinks that the only translation now we have of brahmachari is one who is a celibate. So therefore if you have to meditate, you have to be a celibate. Then family people go through this major guilt complex, and I don't know what not. Brahmachari vrata means the very word brahmachari. Brahmavacharati iti brahmachari. One who behaves like brahman. So brahman is same, then behaves same with others. Brahmman is all, oneness, love is loving. One meaning is that. So the highest meaning really speaking is that behaves like brahman. Sees everyone and therefore what was pointing out, samachitta. Also brahmachari means student, a seeker. One who stays at the ashram with the guru, following instructions is called as a brahmachari. So whatever the instructions the guru has given, at that moment you are just the disciple of your guru. Seeking only brahman. And if you are seeking only brahman, then obviously that you are not worried about all sense objects, including food etc. Without a sense of possession, this is called as brahmachari vrata stithaha. So free from that. And when you think yourself at that moment that I am a brahmachari, and therefore at that moment sense indulgence is not my priority. Such a person, prashant atma. One who has thus become serene. Because causes of agitation are not there. Vigata bihi very important, fearless. People I tell you in meditation also what what fear happens. Swamiji, you know if I meditate and my body consciousness is gone, then what I can't come back to my body? What if I fall down? Vigata bihi fearless. Brahmachari vrata stithaha. Manasam yamya. Mastering the mind. How will you master? Matmachittha. Keep your mind on me. I have explained that in the end of the fifth chapter. Keep your mind on me. Because the mind needs something to think. If it will not think about the Lord, it will think about something else. So give your mind something to hold on to. Machittha. Yukta. Such a person, self-control, balance. Asita matparaha. Considering me as the supreme goal. Shankaracharya even gives a commentary on that. He says see somebody might be sthichitta, tvchitta, chitta. Their mind is constantly on woman, or on wine, or on tv. Those who say tv is not there, but today on our smartphones, or on messages, this is called as mesechitta, sthichitta, tvchitta. But be machittha. You can be constantly remembering someone, but you don't consider your wife to be, you might consider but to be the supreme. You don't consider tv to be the supreme. So consider me to be the supreme. Because when you consider me to be the supreme, otherwise you know, whatever your mind considers as supreme, your mind will finally go to that only. So both devotion, love and reverence. Love is there when you constantly remember your beloved. But devotion is there when there is also reverence, considering me as the supreme. See the complete mental atmosphere also is being pointed out. This is how you meditate. Thank you.