Meditation According to the Upanishads -8. Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday 23, November 2024, 06:20.
Article
Scriptures
Meditation According to the Upanishads -7. 
Swami Krishnananda.
(Spoken on January 14th, 1973)
Post-8.

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The Om that is referred to in the Mandukya Upanishad is not merely a linguistic chant. It is not a sound that we make through the vocal cords. It is a vibration that is set up. The Upanishad wants to tell us that the universe is nothing but a bundle of vibrations. It is not made up of things, objects, substances, etc. Today people are slowly realising how vibrations are ultimately the essential constituents of even solid things. Light can be converted into matter; matter can be converted into light. We do not say that light is an object like a stone, but that which we call a stone, or a heavy material, is only a concretisation of vibrations of force. Energy continuum is the universe. Om is not merely a sound; it is not a chant, not a language, not a word, not a syllable, but a vibration. So when we chant Om, we are not merely making a syllabic sound, but are setting up a vibration in the system which harmonises the cellular constituents of our personality so that our body and our personality as a whole are set in tune with the object outside.

The whole problem of life is a problem of the harmony of consciousness with objects, and this harmony is to be brought about somehow or other, by some means. This is done by meditation. Various kinds of meditation are prescribed. One of them is the chant of Om, wherein a rhythmic vibration is produced in the system to set the mind in tune with its object so that when such harmony is established, the three states of consciousness slowly dwindle into a single state. The amatra of Om, its soundless form, becomes turiya, which means that the chanting of Om is a help in meditation. Any mantra is a help in meditation, but Om is said to be the mother of all mantras. All vibrations are contained within it. All the letters of the alphabet can be located in it.

Thus, taking a bird's-eye view of the techniques of meditation in the Upanishads, we finally get from them not only a philosophical analysis and exposition of the structure of the cosmos and individuals, but also a way the individual can approach the Supreme Being. Hence, the Upanishads are both a philosophy and a method of approach. They are full of philosophical reasoning, psychological analysis, and practical suggestions.

These methods of meditation according to the Upanishads are not suited to common minds because they require of the student a high standard of discriminative power and dispassion. The condition, the prerequisite of such a meditation, is also laid down in the Upanishads themselves—though not in the Mandukya, but in certain other Upanishads. We have to be possessed of a Nachiketas element. The story of Nachiketas given in the Kathopanishad is a prelude, as it were, to the requirements of a student of the Upanishads. Such intensity of the spirit of renunciation as can be gathered from the story of Nachiketas is demanded of every student of the Upanishads. The Upanishads do not ask us to do anything else than to merely analyse, understand, and fix our attention on the goal, but with such fervour and ardour of approach as could be seen in Nachiketas. Rejecting the joys, the pleasures and the freedoms of the world that were offered in abundance, the seeker Nachiketas asked for the Atman alone. To seek the Atman is to seek the truth of the Upanishads, though the method expounded in the Kathopanishad cannot be regarded as an example of the Upanishadic technique because it is more akin to the Bhagavadgita and the Yoga Sutras than to the main current of thought in the Upanishads, which distinguishes them from other approaches to Reality.

In Kali Yuga, these meditations are difficult because the minds and the wills of people are very weak. We cannot meditate like this, however much we may try. We cannot meditate like this even for a minute because the mind will slip down, fatigued and exhausted by the very attempt. But by a very beautiful combination of the essentials mentioned here with other techniques, such as those given to us in the raja yoga methods of Patanjali and the methods of bhakti yoga, we can achieve some success. 

Tivra samveganam asannah (Y.S. 1.21): This truth comes to those whose vairagya is one hundred percent perfect, who want nothing else.

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Continued

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