[Advaita-l] Your views and advice please

[Ramesh Nagarajan]

CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS RESPONSE

Secondly, before we sit for concentration (Meditation comes after that), we
should choose a deity or idol or Guru and focus on this specific object.
One important point is the deity (can be Krisha, Rama, Gayathri devi,
etc.,)  , or an object that we choose for concentration should be a primal
importance to us.  That means we should be have a strong conviction this
deity or idol can only help me to attain realization (attain peace – end of
suffering).  We shouldn’t have even a single iota of doubt about that
deity.  So it is recommended to choose only one deity that we believe that
deity is everything and has potent to take us to attain salvation.  If we
have multiple choices on deity, we will find that our mind bound to linger
on them, failing in the concentration.

As we discussed earlier, the senses and the mind doesn’t allow us to
concentrate on a single object.  Since we know that each sense can
potentially think of different objects, we need to substitute the same
perception / information of the same deity across all the senses.

For example if we are planning to do Gayathri Japa, when we sit for
concentration – we should use the all the senses + mind perceive information
on Gayathri Devi.  The mental eye (eye) will visualize Gayathri devi roopa,
mentally we chant (tongue) Gayathri Mantra, mentally listen (ear) the mantra
that we are chanting, mentally we smell  (nose) the flowers (it is better to
have incense sticks at the meditation place) offered to Gayathri devi ,
mentally perceive that Gayathri Matha is inside our body - heart (touch).
Since we have consciously substituting a single information of a single
deity, we could see that our concentration gains slowly.

Initially, we may need to suggest the same object to all the senses.  As we
make progress we can gain concentration without this aid.  This purely
depends on the stage of the spiritual seeker.  If we still find that there
are a lot of disturbances physically (unable to sit), mentally even after
practicing considerable amount of time then we have to take a step back and
start from previous stages of yoga.

As far us gaining concentration on our daily activities, the same rules
apply.  In fact, when we sit for concentration or meditation we will come to
know more about us?  Depending on the stage of a seeker, we will find
multitude of thoughts bombarding us. If we are able to sit and concentrate
and meditate for a considerable amount of time then we can take it for
granted that we should be able to focus on our other tasks at ease.

To summarize concentration can be gained slowly by practicing the previous
stages.  This starts from the goal of concentration and meditation.  Our
goal should be only one that is to realize the truth.  This conviction
should be brought by repeated listening to sacred scriptures, books related
to spirituality and satsang – This is Viveka.  Secondly, we need to
contemplate on the scriptures that  we have learned.  And this should be
coupled with Vairagya (indifference to the material world – based on
Viveka)   Yama and Niyama provide guideliness to practice Vairagya and
contemplation.  As we practice vairagya and contemplation, slowly and
steadily, our body (senses), energy (prana) and emotions (mind) comes under
our control.  This will lead to pratyahara, where we loose interest in
accumulating information from external objects, mind turns inward.  When the
mind turns inward the existing vasanas (latent tendency created by mental
impressions that we have already accumulated) will sprout out.  But with
concentration (dharana) we focus on a single entity.  With steady practice
it takes us to meditation (dhyana).  In pure meditation, we don’t perceive
objects, we simply become aware of the objects as they are, without any
judgement (perception and analysis).  Finally, the spiritual seeker
experiences the samadhi state.

The important point is vairagya and contemplation has to be practiced
throughout the waking state as much as possible.  If we just do the
concentration only for an hour during the meditation period, this won’t
yield results as we are under the control of senses and mind for the
remaining period.


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Pranams to all,

I would like your views on the issue give below.

I observed that when I do prayers (Gayathri sandhya), my focus is not fully
into performing it meticulously. Not sure whether I have lost devotion and
doing this meticulously. Could any of the members share their views in
overcoming my problem.This has been the case not only in prayers but in
other aspect of material life and studies.

God bless you all
Best wishes
MN