Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity : 28-5. Swami Krishnananda.

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Chinmaya Mission 

During the holy month of Karthika several Chinmaya Mission centres had special celebrations worshipping Lord Shiva and Vishnu. 

Featuring here the celebrations from Chinmaya Amarnath, Pittsburgh, USA and Sripaadakshetra, Bengaluru, India.

Swami Brahmananda of CM Bengaluru conducted a power packed profound Satsang focussed on Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi’s Upadesha Sara.

In Pittsburgh, over 500 plus devotees and community members came together for the Kartika Deepotsav 500 devotees to witness the festive Deepa Prajvalanam.

Chinmaya Mission Visakhapatnam hosted a Panchayatana Maharudra Yaagam in this auspicious month with daily Mahanyasa Poorvaka Rudrabhishekam to one of the Panchayatana deities Surya, Lalita Devi, Vishnu, Ganapati and Rudra, including a Sudharshana Homam.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2022. 07:00.

Chapter 28: Sitting for Meditation-5.

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The mind, in this sense we have described it as whatever we are, should be roused into total action for the sake of the glorious achievement that is ahead of us. We have to satisfy ourselves with this message: A glorious achievement is ahead of us, a grand thing is before us. We are going to be face to face with a grand perfection, a great fulfilment, and we are going to be inundated with a great joy unthought of by the world. We are going to bathe in nectar; we are going to drink the elixir of immortality; we are going to speak to God Himself. The whole world of nature is going to be our friend. The wealth of the cosmos is going to be our property. I shall lack nothing. Hence, I lose nothing by this yoga discipline. Some such instruction one has to give to one's own self. Otherwise, we shall droop in spirits after a few days. The mind, in its lower form of instinctive appetite, will say something in its own little whispering voice, becoming louder and louder afterwards, and drowning our little spiritual longing. Hence, guarded is the person – upaviśyāsane yuñjyād yogam ātmaviśuddhaye.

Samaṃ kāyaśirogrīvaṃ dhārayann acalaṃ sthiraḥ, saṃprekṣya nāsikāgraṃ svaṃ diśaś cānavalokayan (BG 6.13); praśāntātmā vigatabhīr brahmacārivrate sthitaḥ, manaḥ saṃyamya maccitto yukta āsīta matparaḥ (BG 6.14): In this seated posture, the spine and the neck and the head should be erect in position. There should not be a crooked posture or an uncouth position of the body in the posture of meditation, because the intention here is to bring about an equilibrated condition of consciousness, a balance of outlook and a harmony within the functions of the psyche, which is achieved gradually by effecting the very same balance even in our nervous system and muscles.

The pranas also have to move within the body in a perfectly harmonious manner. There should not be any kind of oversupply or undersupply of the pranas in any given direction. There should be a properly proportioned supply of the energy of the pranas throughout the body because the pranas move through the little tubes called the nerves, and they are connected with our muscular physiological system also. The posture of the physical body tells upon the condition of the nervous system, and incidentally, on the way in which the pranas operate through the nerves, and the nerves tell upon the mind. This is the connection between the mental operation in meditation and the posture of the body. The posture is to be erect, not a crouching posture or a leaning posture or any kind of unbalanced position of the body. That is the meaning of saying that we should be seated in a single posture of meditation with our spine and neck and head erect, maintaining that position.

In the beginning this will be difficult because the spine will start aching after a few minutes because you are not accustomed to sit like that, so in the earlier stages you can have a backrest in a ninety-degree position. That is a good assistance in the beginning. Otherwise, you will find it very hard. That is all right; you can do that. Anyway, it is the final requirement.

Samaṃ kāyaśirogrīvaṃ dhārayann acalaṃ: Without movement. Sthiraḥ: Fixed. How to fix? An interesting suggestion comes from a sutra of Patanjali. Prayatnaśaithilyānantasamāpattibhyām (Y.S. 2.47): Effortless should be the asana. You should not be conscious that you are sitting in a posture. The purpose of this position of the body is to make you forget that you are sitting at all, to make you practically unconscious that the body is there. Therefore, there should not be undue effort exercised in the maintenance of the posture. You should not bend the knee hard and force it into position. Then it will be an object of your concentration and you will think of the knee much more than anything else. A great ache will be there; the back will ache, and many other things. So assume any posture you like which is effortless, provided it is conducive from your own point of view. Antasamāpattibhyām. This is a sutra of Patanjali: concentrate on ananta. Ananta can here be considered as that which has no anta. Anta means ‘end' or ‘limit'. Concentrate on that which has no end. Concentrate on the endless. What are the endless things?

For your own practical purposes, you can think of space. Endless is space. Go further, go further, go higher and higher, go wider, go right, go left, go north, go south, go to the top and go to the bottom – endless, endless, endless, endless, endless. From all sides is endlessness, endlessness. I am melting and I am moving in ten directions. I am becoming as large as space, as big as space, as wide as space, as endless as space. Now you see the body is sitting erect because of the very thought of endlessness. Endlessness is nothing but perfect equilibrium. It is infinity. Endlessness is infinity. So the thought of infinity, endlessness, creates a stability of the posture. There are many other meanings attached to the word ananta. We need not concern ourselves with that now.

Saṃprekṣya nāsikāgraṃ: gazing at the tip of the nose, as it were. It is mentioned that you may gaze at the tip of the nose. Sometimes it is said ‘as it were' – not exactly gazing on the tip of the nose but gazing, as it were, at the tip of the nose. Now, the idea is expressed in various manners by the students of the Bhagavadgita exponents. If you open your eyes entirely, it is possible that objects of sense may distract your attention. Therefore, do not open your eyes entirely and be gazing outwardly. But do not close the eyes entirely, because then you may fall asleep. Neither should you close the eyes completely nor should you open them entirely, for reasons mentioned, so let them be semi-closed. And this semi-closed position of the lids seems to be like looking at the tip of the nose. That is why commentators have used the phrase ‘looking at the tip of the nose, as it were'. But some people think it is really looking at the tip of the nose. That is all right in the beginning because the tip of the nose is also some point which can be taken as an object of concentration. 

It is a part of our own body. It is very near us. And the more generous interpretation of this instruction seems to be that it should be a semiconscious attention of the mind, and not an intensely extroverted consciousness of any particular thing outside or a total subliminal introversion by the closure of the eyes. Let it be a balanced consciousness, neither thinking too much of what is outside nor completely oblivious of what is outside and sinking into the inside. Neither are you an extrovert, nor are you an introvert. You are a balance of the extrovert and the introvert positions of consciousness. Some such meaning we may take for our practical convenience here in this instruction saṃprekṣya nāsikāgraṃ svaṃ diśaś cānavalokayan. You should not be looking around. Do not look in different directions. Do not turn your neck. Let it be fixed erect. Already it has been told, and there is no need for you to look around all sides. In this manner, be concentrated.

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Next-

Chapter 29: The Yoga of the Bhagavadgita

To be continued

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