Yoga Of Hope And Strength In The Gita: Part 4

Hope is born and sustained when delusions and illusions are seen clearly and acknowledged. We are then able to see past them to the underlying core of being. This is the message of hope and strength in the Bhagavad Gita. In Part 4, Swami Niranjan explains this part of the Gita.

Meditation or dhyana enables a clear vision of who we are and what is absolute reality. Experiences are transient and reflect the mental conditioning and programming. They are the illusions and delusions created by the  programming of past experiences. The absolute is pure consciousness which is divine. Realizing this reality is a message of hope in the midst of any troubling experience. We are all deeply interconnected, one. Reading the full article in Swami Niranjan’s words is recommended (he gives the meaning of Hari Om Tat Sat, formless versus worship with form, and more).

“When you see that divine spark in others then you are connected with everybody, without separation or duality. There is an experience of oneness, a feeling that we all belong to each other, and have to support each other and be a source of strength and inspiration.”

Instead of tearing and pulling each other and ourselves apart and down, we heal and lift each other up. We first heal ourselves and see others as one with us through the awareness that arises from a  meditation practice.

“The description of dhyana which Sri Krishna gives is also unique. He says again, ‘By sitting in a stable and firm posture, fix your gaze at the tip of the nose, the nasikagra drishti, see nothing else, and with each inhalation and exhalation, merge your consciousness with Om. Chant the mantra Om with every inhalation and exhalation. … Block and close all the doors of the senses. Do not allow the senses to move at all. Hold your mind firm; do not allow it to move. Concentrate at the tip of the nose and merge your mind with breath and the mantra Om. If the pranas leave in this state of meditation, there is only merger into me.’ ”

Swami Niranjan explains the attitude of a witness or mindfulness:

“The awareness is of me the practitioner; the process of meditation, and the goal or aim of meditation. I am sitting down; I am practicing antar mouna [meditation of inner silence taught in Satyananda Yoga] or ajapa japa [never-ending japa or mantra repetition also taught in Satyananda Yoga] or dharana  [concentration and focus practices are part of Satyananda Yoga], and my aim is to find this. But in the final stage of meditation, the practitioner and the process both merge with the aim and when the merger happens the process disappears, I become the aim, and that is samadhi.”