Absolute Existence and Consciousness

Absolute Existence

When we say that “I’m That” what we are trying to say is that “I’m” (Individual Consciousness) are nothing but “That” (Universal Consciousness).

So let us try to understand few things before we fully understand “I’m That”. There are two components here “I” and “That”

Firstly we have to understand “I’m”, in-fact we need to know what is this “I” who is this “I”?

So now we will try to understand “I”, take an example of typing this article, now my hands are typing this article on the laptop and my mind is creating thoughts, the ego there by executes the action by associating itself with the body and mind and types the article. But if we observe closely this process of typing we understand that, first my hand is writing the article and my mind is thinking about the article and with the help of intellect to write it in an accurate manner and finally we say that “I wrote this article”. Now it very important to note the statement “I wrote this article”, as it is my body that wrote the article and my mind which came up with this thought, so I’m different from mind and body which has written this article.

Let us go further, we are here saying that my body and my mind, if it is my body and my mind, obviously I’m different from mind and body as here I’m saying that body and mind are mine, or in other-words both body and mind is used as tools by something else to write this article. So when I say “I wrote this article”, it does not mean the mind or body but something else which exists independently to this mind and body, which is using the mind and body as a tool for creating action. It is the cause and mind and body actions are the effect.

So what is this I? It is nothing but the consciousness that illuminates the mind and body. So when I say that “I wrote this article”, it should mean that the consciousness that exists within is the cause for this article and “I wrote” is nothing but “It wrote”, in-short this consciousness is the cause for everything and we should not wrongly identify ourselves with body or mind but to the consciousness.

So from this we understand that “I’m” refers to individual consciousness.

Now let us go to the second part “That”, now what is this “That”? It is nothing but universal consciousness. So now when we say that “I’m That” what it means is that the individual consciousness which is within is no different than the universal consciousness. Now the question that we come up is that how the individual consciousness is same as universal consciousness? To answer this we have to go with basics first. Universal consciousness is nothing but Brahman and per Upanishads Brahman is omnipresent and infinite. When I say that my consciousness and your consciousness, here this statement becomes contradictory to Brahman’s Omnipresence, as when Brahman (universal consciousness) is present everywhere then there cannot be another consciousness like individual consciousness as this will rule out the omnipresence of Brahman given raise to duality, if something is omnipresent the presence of something else defeats the purpose of Omnipresence.

Second argument would be that of infinity nature of Brahman (universal consciousness), if there are two consciousness then there needs to be space for two i.e. Brahman (universal consciousness) and Atman (individual consciousness), now if there are two then Brahman is not infinite as the individual consciousness limits Brahman consciousness.

Hence we say that “I’m That” as our individual Self is nothing but the universal Self and there is not difference between the same. What we have to do is that remove this ignorance from our mind by repeated learning of the scriptures, understanding them and finally bring it to practice by practicing Mahavakyas (Aham Brahmasmi, Tatwamasi etc) which will ultimately give raise to the realization of Self with the Universal Self.               

When and How to do Meditation

When and How to do Meditation 

I have found the below method very useful for doing meditation.  This method consists of various techniques put together for useful meditation. The method covers mostly the techniques taught by my Guruji, but includes some additional points.

Most of the points mentioned below are not followed by us due to odd working hours, life style or eating habits. The points on food are only optional for beginners, as love towards the divine is more important, however they do help us proceed faster. Also once a person starts progressing in meditation he will automatically follow below steps.

Let us start with the timing for meditation and the diet that one needs to maintain for effective meditation.

Aspect 1 – Food and timing

• Meditation in the early morning is useful or in the night, as the disturbance is lower at these times
• Meditation on empty stomach is useful than with full stomach, we can actually see the difference in the concentration when our stomach is full. If we want to meditate after eating food then it is advisable to eat half stomach or eat for sustenance rather than full stomach. This will help the mind while doing meditation
• Do meditation after 90 mins of eating as the energy used for digesting food will be more at the first 90 – 120 mins. The problem with meditation with full stomach would be that the mind is not focused as breathing is more at this time and it is not stabilized as the energy is used for digestion
• Limited intake of food is advisable as it gets easily digested and breathing stabilizes quickly
• Quality of food is important as food that cause drowsiness or hyperactivity will not help in good meditation session
• Heavy fat foods, chips, paneer etc cause drowsiness and food which are spicy cause hyperactivity of the mind hence to be avoided.
• Mild foods, fruits are advisable for better meditation as it keeps the mind and body light.
• Sitting in a place where one is not disturbed is important as when a person is in deep meditation and if someone touches him/her it would be dangerous (panic attack may happen)
• Healthy body helps, as mind can concentrate freely and does not bother about pains and problems

Aspect 2 – Pranayama

• Breathing exercise plays important role in improving meditation quality drastically. If a person is able to hold breath for 60 sec per breath easily then the progress is very fast
• Pranayama controls the flow if Prana (vital breathe), erratic movement of breath is the cause for unsettled mind, more the breathing more the thoughts.
• Hence it is important that one does pranayama to stabilize his or her breath which will eradicate unnecessary thoughts
• So you can follow Win hof method (google it) of breathing exercise, this is very useful in improving breathe holding capacity and quieting the mind, this also improve immunity
• Alternatively do Nadi Sodhana pranayama along with the breathing exercise mentioned in the next point.
• Second is to follow abdominal breathing where we breathe from both the nostrils for 4-5 counts for inhalation and 10-15 counts on retention and again 4-5 count on exhalation and again 4-5 hold holding, then repeat the process. One thing is that while inhaling our stomach should expand (come out) and exhaling stomach should contract (come in).

Aspect 3 – Mantra Chanting and Meditation

• Once the preliminaries are done, start chanting mantra that one is initiated with (if not initiated meditate on OM).

• Concentrate the mantra first on the forehead (ajna chakra point on forehead (between eyebrows)), meditate the mantra on the forehead point for couple of minutes, you will feel slight sensation, Now what has to be done is that start the meditation of the mantra from your forehead ajna point (between eyebrows) and slowly shift the focus from forehead to inside the head where the actual ajna chakra is located (if one draws a perpendicular line from Sahasrara and Ajna point on the forehead, the meeting place of these two points is Ajna chakra.
• This takes around 15-30 days to master, so we have to shift our focus from forehead to inside the head, after few days we can sense pressure or tingling sensation at a particular point inside the head at the Ajna chakra position. Hold on to that point and meditate on the mantra at this point
• When this practice becomes stable, our thoughts gets reduced drastically and mind starts becoming calm, at this state we will not feel like chanting the mantra, at this stage stop mantra chanting and start meditating at that point or stay at that state where your awareness is at ajna chakra.
• Slowly you will lose consciousness and come back to consciousness, this will happen for a fraction a second, and this will start improving to 2-3 mins and once we become proficient we will be in this state for 45 to 60 mins. It is at this state that realization happens within Samadhi.  

The Supreme OM

The Supreme OM

If we start reading any Upanishad the one unifying topic that it touches upon is that of Supremacy of OM. In the 8 chapter of taittiriya Upanishad the importance of is explained as below.

To begin with Om is a three syllabled with A, U, M and is symbolically represented as OM.

“OM is Brahman, all is OM”, this means that OM is nothing but the representation of Brahman and it encompasses all sounds, it is both Saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman. When one chants OM it means that he starts to learn about Brahman and any teachings starts with OM with the intention of “May I obtain Brahman” and by chanting the same leads to reaching the same. Any ritual starts with OM and any chanting should also begin with OM (meaning any mantra should start with OM and if the mantra does not start with Om, we have to add it)

In Mandukya upanishad Om represents as the Past, Present or Future, all these happen within Om as it is Brahman, and anything beyond past/present/future is also be Om. Om is the first sound to arise when the universe was created (Vedic Idea of creation – read Spandakarika).

Further the atman within is Om (manifestation via sound), the symbol Om, consists of three letters A, U and M which represents the three state of living, i.e Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep. Hence it is for this reason Om should be meditated upon as Brahman (Atman) to achieve the same.

The letter A in Om represents everything that exists and this letter is included in every sound uttered. It marks the start of the language. This is the letter to achieve whatever one desires. (The word used is Vaisvanara or the waking stage characterized by the individual gross body or sthula-sarira in the upanishad)

The second letter U represents the Dreaming state and U is superior to A. It is the link between the Waking and Deep Sleep state and acts as an intermediary state (Taijasa is the term used - Taijasa or the dream consciousness which has the subtle body or suksma-sarira as its object)

Finally M is the deep sleep state of a person (prajna is the word used in the book, prajna means the state of deep sleep, the Atman, limited by Prana, the vital breath, is called Prajna.)

The state of existence beyond these three is called as Turya (4^th state) where the atman shines and the Atman becomes aware of itself is the state of supreme consciousness is nothing but OM. At this state the mind is inactive and there are no thoughts at all, this leads to a state of pure awareness where the consciousness becomes aware itself and understands the falsity of illusion of this Mind and body. This state of being as I’m told cannot be explained but only experienced.

Based on the above we can easily say that one who meditates on Om verily realizes Brahman. There is no need to chant any other mantra or do any rituals. Just meditating Om will give as everything as it is both Saguna and Nirguna Brahman

Why do we love others / Why should we love others?

Why do we love others / Why should we love others?

This may look like a strange question to many of them, but is a very pertinent one. The reason we have think about this topic is very important at this juncture of time in the world. It is a very important point that each and every one of us has to ponder upon to remove the hatred and aloofness that people are exhibiting now everywhere. If this goes unchecked the future looks bleak.

Now let us start analyzing why we love anyone or anything. We love anyone or anything for a sole reason that it gives us happiness. Just think about it, you love to talk and play with a child because you feel happy playing with the child. Will you play with anyone if you don’t like them? The answer would be no. Now understand this that we only love/like those people/things which makes us happy and we ignore or go away from people whom we don’t love or like.

So whatever we do in the above case is for our happiness (so that we are happy either by association or disassociation), we like to be with the person whom we love because it makes us happy and we leave the person whom we don’t like, as we want to be happy and that person/thing is obstructing the experience of that happiness.

Above situation is very apt in the current scenario as most of us are isolating our-selves from others to avoid the pain caused by them and to be at peace. But this is leading to a bigger problem of loneliness and depression as we don’t know how to deal with our thoughts and emotions.

So coming to the point, now we know that we love because we are happy by loving, we would not have loved anyone if it does not make us feel happy. So now the question would be why should we Love others then? The answer is simple; if we hate others then we are not happy. When we are shouting at anyone or bear hatred in mind how can the mind be at peace? It is not possible. Hatred is against the very basic nature of our true self as it leads to mental trauma and ultimately it manifests into physical ailments (in short unhappiness).

Thinking from other perspective what is the use of hating someone? There is none actually as we are engrossed in an emotion which is counter active to our peace and happiness. It does not mean that we have to take all hatred that comes to us and do nothing. It is only that we can fight back and move on with our life by not carrying that emotion further as it is detrimental to our happiness. Just to take an example we can see that people are jealous of the other because the other person may be rich, healthy etc. But what would the person get from being jealous of the other when he can use that time to channelize his energy to become a better person, if he remains in the state of jealousy he is wasting his energy to be unhappy which is totally unnecessary. What is the point in hating when ultimately the same is the cause of our unhappiness?

So we have to be more practical in life and understand that love only increases your happiness, it does not mean that we should not fight back with others who are troubling us or to absorb all everything that is directed towards us and succumb to its negativity, but to simply defend ourselves and move along in your life so that we are free from these impressions and memories why will make us ever happy.

To look at this from Advaita Vedanta point of view, the entire world is view as Maya (illusion – as this relative world is just a projection of consciousness, alternatively the world and us are temporary in nature) and we are the Self covered by Maya. When everyone and everything around us is the manifestation of the same consciousness, how can the same consciousness hate each other? This would become illogical. The mind of each and every person is attached to the same consciousness and it is like saying I hate the other self and love my own self (which would be Ludacris). It is only the mind which differentiates each of us as separate to each other, but in reality we are just a projection of one infinite being. When we say that we hate the other person it would mean that we hate ourselves. So the point is self-evident that there is no reason for a person for hating each other, as all are one consciousness

Who is the Doer - Why God's will is the only truth

We often wonder why elders say that they are not the doer of anything but God makes them to do all the things. They are in-fact trying to convey the meaning that we are just an agent for God’s will and some go to the extent of saying that everything is God’s will and there is no individual will, meaning everything is happening because of his will and there is nothing other than God’s will. This sort of behavior always seems strange to people like us, for us the point that keeps running in the mind is that how can one say that God is making us to do these things when we are actually aware of what we are doing at a particular point of time, in-fact we become aware of the choices that we make and proceed with life.

It’s like this I’m aware that I’m now writing this article, so how can one say that it is the God’s will that is making me to write this? In-short this leads to a subtler meaning that it is God who is doing this activity and there is no existence other than God, the individual body that this mind is identifying with does not exist really/impermanent (Maya) and all is one and the same i.e. Brahman/God.

The above statement when uttered in front of a layman will appear to him as if the person who is talking like this is mad. Moreover an important question will come up that if everything is God’s will then what is happening here, what are we seeing here in this world? , what is this experience etc.

Let us try understanding one point at a time. The substratum of this existence is God/Brahman/It, we can call it God or anything, and the name does not matter. So anyone when starts finding the source of their creation/existence or of the world it will lead to a common denominator (this is what the modern science is trying find now, to find a common substratum of all – though it is not advisable to compare science with spirituality), which is the source of all and there is no source to it. In Vedanta we denote this as Brahman. That’s why when describing Brahman it is said to be biggest of the biggest and smallest of the small, it cannot be touched, felt or seen, and it is neither existent nor nonexistent and so on. The point that is being conveyed here is that the source of all is something which is indiscernible and from this the apparent world has come into being, this world which may exist for a very long time, and is not permanent as it has to go back to the source and dissolve itself in it. When everything comes out of this source and exists with the support of this and finally mergers back into this, how can we actually say that we are independent of this source/God. Meaning the most direct way of knowing that God exists is just looking at our-self as we cannot exist if there was no God/source of all. Given the above understanding how can one say now that he is the doer of everything, where we actually know that all that exists is only God and nothing other than the God.

Now second question that comes up is that of the awareness of doing the activity and taking decision. Meaning I know that I’m writing this article now, so what is making me to think that God is not doing the activity but it is me (Ego) who is doing this work then?

So let us try to understand what is happening here, when we start to enquire who we are first we will feel that we are the body, but body is useless as it is active only when the mind works (some instructions are given to it) and it is the mind which makes the body do everything and it does not exist in dream/deep sleep. So with this we understand that we are the mind now. But when we are in deep sleep the mind is inactive and yet we exist, so it will lead to a question, who are we? As we can now understand that there is an existence without body and mind which can exist in spite of the mind and body but the former cannot exist without it (God/Source). So now when the enquiry becomes complete we understand who we are, meaning we are God who is encased in this body and mind complex (which is created by God). Then what makes us to identify ourselves different to God? The answer is the mind, the mind which is outgoing in nature looks out side and forgets (ignorance) its source and starts identifying itself with the external creation, thereby creating a false identification in the form of Ego. But when this ignorance of false identification is removed by self-enquiry of who we are, Ego dissolves and mind realizes (in no-mind state) that it is just a creation of the source and it will finally merge back to it eventually. So now based on the above we can understand that we are not the doer of the activity but it is the Self/God within which is the source of all actions and it is due to our ignorance and mind/Ego we forget this truth. Forgetting the truth does not negate the fact that God’s will is supreme and there is no individual will.

But in practical life due to the presence of mind and its mis-identification we have some amount of freewill to lead our life (due to divine grace), the actions performed by wrongly identifying our-self with Ego and not God, leads to action and reaction (law of causation/karma). So it becomes very important that one should not identify our-self with mind/ego and identify with the lord within as this will not give rise to the law of causation. This can happen only when a person loves and surrenders to the God within. The only thing that is needed is that all our freewill and thought should be focused internally to first understand who we are (we are God at the subtlest level/consciousness level which uses this body and mind) and once we have acquired this knowledge then stop falsely identifying with mind/Ego (The source of these is the Self). For a realized person freewill does not exist and it is only the God’s will that exists

Based on this we can understand clearly that we are not the doer and it is due to Ego that this differentiation arises and hence this is the reason we say God’s will is the only truth.