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Showing posts with label ahimsa ethics of sant mat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ahimsa ethics of sant mat. Show all posts

Friday, April 22, 2011

Happy Earth Day 2011!


Happy Earth Day 2011!
We Are All In This Together

The vegan revolution will never include violence; it is a celebration of the joy and beauty of life, and an awakening to the beauty and potential of our shared life on this planet. The only strategy for each of us is how to love and give more deeply, fully, and authentically, and in harmony with our unique talents and gifts. Together, we are transforming our world! (Dr. Will Tuttle)


Why Hindus Don't Eat Meat
(Excerpts from, Hinduism Today)
 
By Dr. Jai Maharaj

Vegetarianism is the key to good health and happiness.  The Hindu view is multi-dimensional, including the ecological, medical and spiritual, as is evident in the following excerpts from Hinduism Today:
 
Besides being an expression of compassion for animals, vegetarianism is followed for ecological and health rationales.
 
Reasons
 
In the past fifty years, millions of meat-eaters -- Hindus and non-Hindus -- have made the personal decision to stop eating the flesh of other creatures. There are five major motivations for such a decision:
 
1. The Dharmic Law Reason
 
Ahinsa, the law of non-injury, is the Hindu's first duty in fulfilling religious obligations to God and God's creation as defined by Vedic scripture.
 
2. The Karmic Consequences Reason
 
All of our actions, including our choice of food, have Karmic consequences. By involving oneself in the cycle of inflicting injury, pain and death, even indirectly by eating other creatures, one must in the future experience in equal measure the suffering caused.
 
3. The Spiritual Reason
 
Food is the source of the body's chemistry, and what we ingest affects our consciousness, emotions and experiential patterns. If one wants to live in higher consciousness, in peace and happiness and love for all creatures, then he cannot eat meat, fish, shellfish, fowl or eggs. By ingesting the grosser chemistries of animal foods, one introduces into the body and mind anger, jealousy, anxiety, suspicion and a terrible fear of death, all of which are locked into the the flesh of the butchered creatures. For these reasons, vegetarians live in higher consciousness and meat-eaters abide in lower consciousness.
 
4. The Health Reasons
 
Medical studies prove that a vegetarian diet is easier to digest, provides a wider ranger of nutrients and imposes fewer burdens and impurities on the body. Vegetarians are less susceptible to all the major diseases that afflict contemporary humanity, and thus live longer, healthier, more productive lives. They have fewer physical complaints, less frequent visits to the doctor, fewer dental problems and smaller medical bills. Their immune system is stronger, their bodies are purer, more refined and skin more beautiful.
 
5. The Ecological Reason
 
Planet Earth is suffering. In large measure, the escalating loss of species, destruction of ancient rainforests to create pasture lands for live stock, loss of top-soils and the consequent increase of water impurities and air pollution have all been traced to the single fact of meat in the human diet. No decision that we can make as individuals or as a race can have such a dramatic effect on the improvement of our planetary ecology as the decision not to eat meat.
 
History
 
The book Food for the Spirit, Vegetarianism and the World Religions, observes, "Despite popular knowledge of meat-eating's adverse effects, the non-vegetarian diet became increasingly widespread among the Hindus after the two major invasions by foreign powers, first the Muslims and later the British. With them came the desire to be 'civilized,' to eat as did the Saheeb.  Those actually trained in Vedic knowledge, however, never adopted a meat-oriented diet, and the pious Hindu still observes vegetarian principles as a matter of religious duty.
 
"That vegetarianism has always been widespread in India is clear from the earliest Vedic texts. This was observed by the ancient traveler Megasthenes and also by Fa-Hsien, a Chinese Buddhist monk who, in the fifth century, travelled to India in order to obtain authentic copies of the scriptures.
 
"These scriptures unambiguously support the meatless way of life.  In the Mahabharata, for instance, the great warrior Bheeshm explains to Yuddhishtira, eldest of the Paandav princes, that the meat of animals is like the flesh of one's own son.  Similarly, the Manusmriti declares that one should 'refrain from eating all kinds of meat,' for such eating involves killing and and leads to Karmic bondage (Bandh) [5.49]. Elsewhere in the Vedic literature, the last of the great Vedic kings, Maharaja Parikshit, is quoted as saying that 'only the animal-killer cannot relish the message of the Absolute Truth [Shrimad Bhagvatam 10.1.4].'"
 
Scripture
 
He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures lives in misery in whatever species he may take his birth.  Mahabharat 115.47
 
Those high-souled persons who desire beauty, faultlessness of limbs, long life, understanding, mental and physical strength and memory should abstain from acts of injury.  Mahabharat 18.115.8
 
The very name of cow is Aghnya ["not to be killed"], indicating that they should never be slaughtered. Who, then could slay them? Surely, one who kills a cow or a bull commits a heinous crime. Mahabharat Shantiparv 262.47
 
The purchaser of flesh performs Hinsa (violence) by his wealth; he who eats flesh does so by enjoying its taste; the killer does Hinsa by actually tying and killing the animal. Thus, there are three forms of killing: he who brings flesh or sends for it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he who purchases, sells or cooks flesh and eats it -- all of these are to be considered meat-eaters. Mahabharat Anu 115.40
 
He who sees that the Lord of all is ever the same in all that is -- immortal in the field of mortality -- he sees the truth. And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others. Then he goes, indeed, to the highest path.  Bhagavad Geeta 13.27-28
 
Ahinsa/ahimsa is the highest Dharma. Ahinsa is the best Tapas.  Ahinsa is the greatest gift. Ahinsa is the highest self-control. Ahinsa is the highest sacrifice. Ahinsa is the highest power. Ahinsa is the highest friend.  Ahinsa is the highest truth. Ahinsa is the highest teaching.  Mahabharata 18.116.37-41
 
What is the good way? It is the path that reflects on how it may avoid killing any creature.  Tirukural 324
 
All that lives will press palms together in prayerful adoration of those who refuse to slaughter and savor meat.  Tirukural260
 
What is virtuous conduct? It is never destroying life, for killing leads to every other sin.  Tirukural 312, 321
 
Goodness is never one with the minds of these two: one who wields a weapon and one who feasts on a creature's flesh.  Tirukural 253
 
Tags: veg, compassion, ahimsa, health, climate change, diet, global warming, save the planet, vegan, vegetarian, go green, be veg go green 2 save the planet, hindu, hinduism, india,





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Monday, January 10, 2011

There is No Vatican of the Spirit


There is No Vatican of the Spirit




There is No "Vatican" of the Spirit --
A Reflection on the Impermanence of Spiritual Movements in a World of Samsara (Changes, Maya, Kal, and Illusion) -- Updated, By James Bean

"The god of time (Kal Niranjan) has put a cover over the teachings of Saints and thus concealed them from humanity." (Swami Ji Maharaj, Sar Bachan Radhasoami Poetry, Volume Two, Agra, India)

As a friend Neil Tessler says: "There is no Vatican of the Spirit." He specializes in writing about the politics of Guru-succession in India, suggesting that all spiritual movements decline and turn to dust sooner or later. It's just a matter of "time" (Kal). Try as they might, spirituality can not be institionalised. Groups usually undergo a process of gradual decline, dispensing with a crucial mystical principals or techniques every so often. Living in a world of forgetfulness and spiritual slumber, how soon we forget. The decline is so gradual, that sadly, most in a group over the decades of their short human lifespan do not even notice, or would rather not be mindful about such matters. Only looking back years or decades later, the lucky ones not completely intoxicated by social status, peer pressure, or "group-think" might perhaps come to see the occasional wrong turn after wrong turn a spiritual group has made, all in the name of progress and good intentions of course:

banning books and teachings of past and recent Masters with an ever-narrowing "satsang template" of "approved" and suppressed writings leading to lost books, more and more out-of-print scriptures, missing spiritual principals, and forgotten history;
building bigger buildings 
with less meditation going on 
in those noisier, crowded buildings; 
getting busier without, yet 
not progressing as far within; 
an overall reduction 
in the percentage of the population 
having inner mystical experiences
of Light and Sound, 
and all in the name of what... 
"saving the world" by becoming less true to the ideals of the Path?

Life-changing, transformative, inner experience, a close encounter of the God-kind, is what the "world" really needs, not yet more branding, photo ops, oppressive manipulative leadership ["the CID of god"], new rules, regulations, and marketing campaigns.

With any spiritual movement, sooner or later, we are eventually left with bones, statues, dust from the past, apostles and prophets that are no more, the shoes and spectacles of the guru who lived many decades ago, and on a few occasions scrolls that are worshipped as holy books, even though these very same scrolls might instruct us to not worship books. Rather, these Holy Scriptures are advising us to be healed of our blindness, go within, develop sight, see Divine Light, and to be healed from our deafness, with ears opened to hearing inner Music - the Voice of God.

All of these great teachers of days gone-by have generally reaffirmed for their generation, the same basic truths and inner experiences. I do like my friend's phrase: "There is no Vatican of the Spirit." I find that to be a useful-if-not-ironic way of putting it. Spiritual movements come and go. Schools of Spirituality and mystics are replaced by polyester prophets parasitically interpreting the past inspiration once breathed by others. Living Saints are sometimes eventually replaced by CEO's of religious companies riding around in very expensive rickshaws of the rich and famous who seemingly are incapable of composing their own inspired poetry or prose like their predecessors. And ghost-writers don't count. All of the organizations associated with mystic-paths at present, rest assured, will meet the same fate as those of past generations, eventually being replaced with vibrant gatherings in diverse locations, new budding branches of the Living Mystical Tree of Life to replace the old, same as always – thank God.

A famous Saint from Hathras, India by the name of Tulsi Sahib used to sleep in the trunk of a tree at night. Read that somewhere. I find that to be absolutely charming as it reveals that Tulsi did not live in a mansion of opulent decadency with four or five Porsche's in the driveway (back then it would have been elephants I would imagine), an image that would have suggested a contradiction between the teacher's lifestyle and his teachings. If I ever travel to Hathras, it will not be to visit the samadh containing Tulsi's ashes, but to that tree that Tulsi once slept in, or one very much like it, and to the places where he spent much time in meditation.

There is no permanent Institution or University of Mysticism, but a decline-renewal process, a continuous pattern of Masters leaving older groups, movements, temples, ashrams or real estate, and emerging in new locations to begin again, to reboot, to reset, to renew the mystic-path on Planet Earth, to keep the torch of spirituality burning bright for another generation or two. Spirituality is the Impulse of Life from the Great Life, the Universal Soul – God – that we as soul are intertwined with, not golden temples, or idols made of wood and stone. The history of Essenes leaving Jerusalem, John the Baptist leaving Qumran, Thomas heading East, Valentinians moving out of Roman cities to create Egyptian spiritual communities in the desert, Tulsi Sahib moving from Poona to Hathras, and so it goes and always has been, an observable pattern of breaking with the past, a time-honored tradition of crisis and renewal, reaffirming one's mystic-path, making a fresh start in new locations, remaining free to exist in genuineness and authenticity. 

Kabir says: "More than all else do I cherish at heart that LOVE which makes me to live a Limitless Life in this world. It is like the lotus, which lives in the water and blooms in the water: yet the water can not touch its petals -- they open beyond its reach."  

From one of the banned and lost Gnostic Gospels from the beginnings of the "Orthodox" period of Fourth Century Christianity: "And there shall be others of those who are outside our number who name themselves bishops and also deacons, as if they have received their authority from God. They bend themselves under the judgment of the leaders. Those people are dry canals." (Apocalypse of Peter, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, online at Gnosis.org)


        An Example of a "Dry Canal" 
 

There has never been an Institution of Gnosis. 
There is no Vatican of the Spirit. 
Resistance is not futile.
Viva the Revolution.
Seneca said: "Every new beginning comes 
from some other beginning's end." 
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Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Inner Lotus Will Wither Without the Water of Love


The Inner Lotus Will Wither
Without the Water of Love






From the Dariya Sagar ("Ocean of Dariya") by Sant Dariya Sahib of Bihar:


Carry on the repetition of the True Names,

taking it to be your very life-breath.

Obtain thereby the True Sound.


Sat Naam is the essence of all.

Recognizing it within yourself,

Cross the ocean of this world.


The Boundless Supreme Lord who

is in the beginning and the end,

Has descended to this earth.



Aeon after aeon
He has been coming
to impart wisdom to you.


Understand His teachings

And be immersed in His wisdom.

When one looks within ones heart,

being awakened,

One is pulled up by a magnet-like Divine Sound.


Without that Sound, a living being

is comprised of mere bones and blood,

Covered with skin on the outside.

In a moment life comes to an end,

And all our kith and kin are left behind.


But if the disciple follows

the instructions imparted by the Guru,

And takes to heart the words from the Satgurus tongue,

Then ones inner eye is illumined

And one finds the Source,

Laden with blooming flowers of immortality.

One then attains the pure-swan state,

And is rid of the vices of the wicked crow.

Such a one joins the family of the pure swans,

And is never lost in the ocean of the world, says Dariya.


Hold fast to the Sound Current,

And offer your body and mind to it.

Have love and endearment for Naam,

And you will not be lost in the ocean of the world.


There can be no devotion without love.

The inner lotus will wither without the water of love.

So long as the technique of love is not gained,

Whatever one talks of knowledge is in vain.

But when one is merged

into the Satgurus tranquil Sound Current,

One automatically obtains the taste of the nectar of love.

Just as the bee is allured by the lotus flower,

And being unable to bear the agony of separation unites with the flower;

Or just as the moon-birds heart is absorbed in the moon;

So should one be in love with the Sound Current

without ever being forgetful.



For More, see the Sant Dariya Mission Website:
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Tuesday, November 02, 2010

You Can Plug Your Ears And Can Still Hear IT


You Can Plug Your Ears
And You Can Still Hear IT
 



Sant Mat Quote of the Day:


The following reflection on the experience of the Mystic Sound is from, "The Sound of Silence: The Selected Teachings of Ajahn Sumedho":


The mind is in a very wide, expansive state of awareness: inclusive, open, and receptive rather than closed and controlled. So notice and contemplate this experience, and then just concentrate your attention on the Sound of silence. If you think about it, think of it like a blessing, grace, or a lovely feeling of being open, rather than as a Buzz in the ear, in which case you think that it's tinnitus or some other disease. If you start contemplating it as the Sound of Angels, as a Cosmic or Primordial Sound, blessing every moment as you open to it, you will feel then blessed. Reflecting in this way, in a positive way helps us to take an interest in it and get a good feeling from it.

Listening to the Sound of silence, you can begin to contemplate non-thinking, because when you are just listening to the Cosmic Sound there is no thought. It's like this -- emptiness, not-self. When you're just with the Cosmic Sound alone, there is pure attention, no sense of a person or personality, of "me" and "mine". This points to anatta ["not-self, no-self, non-self"].

Relax into the Sound, don't try to force attention onto it. Just have a sense of relaxing and resting, peacefulness. Try counting to say, ten, to sustain listening to the Sound of silence: "one, two, three.....nine, ten." The mind is not used to resting in that way, it's used to thinking and to restless mental activities. It takes a while to calm, to relax, and to rest in this silence. (Ajahn Sumedho, Buddhist Teacher)


Shah Niaz: "A Sound is vibrating in the whole of creation. When you open your inner ear you will hear a continuous Sound, which will lead you across all limitations of mind and matter. My Beloved is speaking to you all the time. Alas! you do not hear his Voice."


"All religious scriptures mention the Sound Current or the Word, but unfortunately most remain unaware of it.


"When a Master initiates a soul he brings to that soul, at that moment, the ability to become conscious of this Sound Current. During all the millions of years we have been wandering around, lost and blind, we have forgotten our true selves and our Maker; we have lost the way (the Sound Current). Now it will be different. We are to meet our Creator through the Sound Current, which keeps creation in being." ("Encyclopaedia of Saints of India, Volume 19: Radhasoami", By Dr. S.R. Bakshi and Dr. Sangh Mittra)


"The Original Divine Sound, which originated from the Supreme Sovereign, continuously without break reverberates throughout the hearts of the entire macrocosm and microcosm. The Sound will inherently go on for the duration of creation because the evolution of creation depends upon the existence of Sound. Should the Sound cease so would creation." (Maharshi Mehi)


"Through the practice of meditation one can progressively move the consciousness inward within oneself.... through the practice of Surat Shabd Yoga (the Yoga of Sound), the transcending of all the Realms is achieved." (Maharshi Mehi)


"If during meditation Sound appears to come from the left side, the practitioner should try to shift his attention towards his right side, and he should reduce (lessen) the pressure on the left ear or should not press the left ear at all, or should take the thumb out of the (left) ear. Then, he would find that, slowly and slowly the Sound would appear to be coming from the above the centre of the two eyes. Then he should apply, or focus, his attention on that very Sound." (Huzur Maharaj {Rai Saligram}, found in the book, "Santwaani Sateek" {Commentary on Sayings of Sants, Radhasoami Satsang, Agra}, by Maharshi Mehi Paramhans ji Maharaj, here translated into English, by Pravesh K. Singh)


Hazrat Khan's List of Mystic Sounds: "It sounds like Thunder, the roaring of the Sea, the jingling of Bells, running the Water, the Buzzing of bees, the Twittering of sparrows, the Vina, the Whistle, or the Sound of Shankha..." ("The Mysticism of Sound")


"The practitioner may hear sounds like the sound of the Ocean, a Rain Cloud, a Drum, a Kettledrum, a Conch, a Bell, a Horn, a Flute, a Lute, or a bee [Hum]." (Svatmarama Yogindra, the author of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika)


Inner Sounds: "They are similar to the sounds of the Veena (stringed instrument similar to the lyre), the Murali (flute), the Nafeeri (horn instrument), the Mridang (drum), the Mrdal (cymbals), the Singi (a horn), the Sitar (stringed instrument), or the Sarangi (similar to a lute). Other descriptions compare these Sounds to a peal of Thunder and a roar of a Lion." (Maharishi Mehi)


"Sound by its nature has the quality to draw one to its Point of Origin [GOD].........No other means is better than the Sound for transcending the concealments (realms) of creation." (Maharshi Mehi)



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Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Name of God is My Sect - Dadu Dayal


The Name of God is my Sect - Dadu Dayal, the Compassionate Mystic






Sant Mat Quote of the Week:


"I bow before the immaculate, divine Gosvami [Supreme Being]. Through my Guru's favor I have been given all purity. I greet all the Sants: through their devotion I drink the nectar of Ram [God]. There is no end to the number of Sants who appeared in the Yugas [Epochs] of Sat, Treta, Dvapar, and Kali. I sing of the celebrated one I have heard of, and bow my head to all the others." (Jan Gopal, disciple of Dadu Dayal)


Dadu Dayal: "Saints are the true redeemers, they make one see the Creator face to face. Having themselves crossed the ocean of the world, they take others across. They are the saviors of beings."


"The lover is converted into the Beloved. That indeed is called true love. Forgetting his own ego, he remains absorbed in the One." (Dadu Dayal)


"Remembering God, life is successful, if spent in the service of others." (Sant Dadu the Compassionate Mystic quoted in, The Life Story of Dadu Dayal - The Book of Janma Lila, By Jan Gopal)


Dadu: "The Name of God is my sect. My way of living is control of the senses. For my deeds - watch my disciples: their goal is to be immersed in Ram [God]." (The Life Story of Dadu Dayal - The Book of Janma Lila, By Jan Gopal)


Video Exploring the Sant Dadu Dayal Dera (Ashram), Naraina, Rajasthan:


Translated Into English: A Beautiful Collection of the Mystic Poetry and Teachings of Sant Dadu, the Compassionate One:


Dadu: "God is within all beings. He accompanies all and is close by. Musk is in the musk-dear, and yet it goes around in search of musk. The self knows not God, although God is within the self. Being deaf to the holy Sound of the Master, sadly does he wander. He for whom thou searchest in the world, dwells within thyself. ... Search for the Lord within thyself, the Imperceptible One hath the Guru revealed."


"Wherever one's thought dwells, there will that person rest. At his pleasure, he may go to the delusion of unreality or he may merge into the Lord of the self. Where thou keepest thy mind while living, to that abode shalt thou go after death. The soul finds lodging in a place wherein it has hitherto been immersed." (Dadu)



"When one's whole being is engaged in repeating the Name, that, indeed, is called repetition. The self then blossoms forth within, and the Lord reveals Himself, O Dadu."


Dadu: "Do the repetition of God and forget Him not. Fulfill the purpose of thy birth by practicing concentration. Be steadfast in the remembrance of God. Practice meditation with love, and sing the glory of God. The human body is the door to salvation."


"One who, turning the attention inward, brings it within the self, and fixes it on the Radiant Form of the Master, is indeed wise, O Dadu. ... Search for the Beloved close to the place where-from the Sound emerges, and thou shalt find Him, sayeth Dadu. There is solitude there, and there is luster of Light. ... Fix thine attention within, O valiant servant, so does Dadu proclaim."


Sant Dadu Dayal: "The one who is merged in the Word, who is pierced by the arrows of the Master's instructions, who is absorbed with the One alone - only that person is rightly set on the Path."


Dadu Dayal: "Anahad baaje baajiye, amaraapuree niwaas. Joti saroopee jagamagai, koi nirakhai nij daas." (Myriads of Sounds are heard; the one who hears gains access to the Kingdom of Immortality (place beyond the reach of death). A genuine servant gets to see the resplendent form of the Supreme Being.)


"The knowledge of the Sound Current imparted by the Guru merges one easily into Truth. It carries me to the Abode of my Beloved, sayeth Dadu." (Encyclopaedia of Saints of India, Volume 25: Sant Dadu Dayal, Bakshi and Mittra, Criterion Publications, New Delhi)


Urgency of Realization

This fragile and transient human life is speedily coming to its end. It is high time that we seek refuge in the Lord of Love. Only while living as a human being can the work be accomplished, not after death. Dadu:


The mind is a deer, sayeth Dadu.
Looking at the green forest of the world.
This foolish one runs around puffed up
with pleasure.
It is destined to be a victim of Kal [lord of time, lord of death], the
hunter.
The body is like a passer-by,
sayeth Dadu.
No sooner dost thou look at him, that he goes out of sight.
Be dedicated to the Name of God
As long as there is breath in thy body.
Hurry up, O passer-by, the journey hangs over thy head.
Delay no more.
What art thou doing sitting idle? Repeat God's Name.
Evening has set in while the traveller is still in the forest.
He must move briskly.
This is not the time to be slack, warns Dadu.
Go Home quickly.

Gone is the time, and lost is the opportunity.
Where shalt thou find this priceless birth once it slips out of hand?
Catching hold of our hand, the Negative Power [Kal] is drawing us close day by day.
The self does not awaken even now.
Its time is spent asleep.
While watching, 0 Dadu, the hair has grown white from black.
Body, mind, and youth are all gone, and even now thou turnest not to God!
While alive one can transcend bodily qualities.
While alive one can be liberated;
While alive one can shed all Karmas.
That truly is called liberation.
While alive one can cross over what is hard to cross,
While alive can one go to the other shore.
While alive one can find the Master of the world,
And can attain discrimination and wisdom.
If the meeting is not accomplished while alive,
If the contact is not made while alive,
If the Lord of the universe is not found while alive,
The one is simply drowned.
One is freed while alive,
One is not freed after death, sayeth Dadu
If one were to be free after death,
Then all will come under that.
Some say one can secure abode in paradise after death;
They preach liberation after death.
They, indeed, are making the world
insane, O Dadu...............

Japi Gobinda bisari jini jai

Do the repetition of God [God's Name] and forget
Him not.
Fulfil the purpose of thy birth
by practising concentration.
Be steadfast in the remembrance of God.
Practice meditation with love, and sing
the glory of God.
The human body is the door to salvation.
Do the repetitions of God, the Creator
of the universe.


A quote from the 16th century Indian Master Dadu,
who outlined the Sant Mat vision of the spiritual life
to be pursued during our time here on planet Earth:

Recognize the Path to your Beloved, O travelers and
take the route of the anguished lover in separation.
Keep the Master's grace in your thoughts, and reflect
upon his pure teachings. Develop love and devotion
with endearment, and keep the thought of the Creator
always before you. Try to merge yourself into God
like water and water. Fix your mind within by
following the Path of the Sound Current. A yearning
will arise; make then an intense and anguished call.
Repeat the Name of your Beloved, day and night,
again and again. With care in thought, word and deed,
you will cross to the other shore.


Main Obstacles in the Practice of Meditation, By Swami Sant Sevi Ji Maharaj

The main hindrances to success in the practice of meditation are the following: procrastination and laziness, activity of thoughts during meditation (day dreaming, fanciful imagination, planning, the rising of any kinds of thoughts).

In addition, the lulling silence during meditation puts many practitioners to sleep. During meditation we should be vigilant and awake. Whatever is our point of focus, we should diligently keep our mind on that goal and we will not be bothered by sleep.

Unless we overcome the magnanimous challenge of procrastination and curb the ever-rising tide of mental activity during meditation, we cannot reach our Noble (arya) destination (state of unity with God). The non-vigilant practitioners usually become engrossed in thoughts or fall sleep. These formidable passes must be crossed for success.

What is the place to be reached? When we close our eyes and see darkness, this is the realm of ignorance. When the light dawns within you, then you understand that you reside in noble regions. In darkness resides ignorance and in light resides Knowledge. For example, as we are sitting in light right now we are able to see one another. However, if the electric power goes out ensuing total darkness we will not be able to see others. We will not even be aware of other people, coming and going. In this analogy light signifies knowledge and darkness signifies ignorance. In the same manner when we see darkness with our eyes closed, we are in the realm of death and re-birth [we are unaware of our true nature]. When we come out of the realm of darkness and enter into the realm of light, we will at the same time transcend the web of death. It is not possible that we can remain in darkness and be free from the net of birth and death. Having achieved inner light we can be liberated from the cycle of birth and death.

Saint Kabir says: "In each house (heart) the light shines, but we are blind [ignorant of that divine Light of knowledge] so we cannot see it. If we keep looking, we will find the Light and will destroy the shackles of death."

Various forms of Dhyana [Meditation Practices]

Without formless or subtle meditation, attainment of inner light is impossible. You must get yourself out of darkness. How will this happen? Prat-ya-hara - bringing the mind back - is followed by dha-rana, sustaining of focus for small periods. At first this will be for even a small time. Pratyanhara is the repeated practice of bringing the wandering mind to a focus. By repetitive practice of pratyahara we are able to focus for a little while on the object of meditation. This focusing for small periods is known as dharana.

When this Dharana continues for extended periods, then the state of dhyana or complete focus occurs. However, mere focus on a physical form or name is not the only type of dhyana. [Emptiness of mind is also dhyana.]

As it is said in the Jnana Sankalni Tantra: "Dhyana (focus on the physical forms) is not known as dhyana; the empty mind is known (focus in empty mind) as dhyana. By the grace of this [focus] meditation, one attains Moksha."
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