The Mysterious Inner Journey
All these things cannot be explained with a logical mind. We experience, that’s all. Why did it happen? God knows. Why did we feel blissful? We don’t know. Something shifts inside, and all of a sudden, we feel relieved. We also don’t know what shifted. So, the inner journey is quite mysterious.
Just make a note of your experience. After some time, maybe 10 years or so, when you see your own journal then you’ll see your trajectory. Then you’ll be able to understand why you had such a vision. Many things come together later when you maintain a journal and see the trajectory.
What Is the Role of Chanting Mantras in Our Spiritual Journey?
I personally don’t feel that you can realize God by chanting mantras. Of course, chanting can make you feel at peace. It can help you focus your mind and so on, but never to realize God, because in chanting you are there. Not only are you there, but you are busy; your mind is busy. To realize God, the mind has to be transcended. And when the mind is busy, how can you transcend it?
So, according to me, chanting keeps you busy. You are so busy that you don’t allow your consciousness to move anywhere. While, ideally, consciousness should be supple, flexible, and submitted to the hands of the Maker so that He can mold it as per His desire.
Strictly speaking, the chanting of mantras should be taken up in such a way that you transcend your manas [mind]. The meaning of the mantra is that which takes you or helps you transcend. Instead, you’re too busy without understanding the meaning of the word mantra. It’s like asking children to learn by heart the alphabet: they mug up everything nicely. But you can really understand the alphabet only when you’re able to synthesize words and sentences and create a story. Then it becomes useful.
When it descends from your mouth, lips, and tongue into your heart, that is the mantra. There is nothing wrong with reciting Aum, but has it become your inner pulsation? And that can happen only when you’re in absolute silence within yourself. That’s the first requirement. And what do you do with that utter silence? We don’t know how to play with that silence. We don’t even know how to create inner silence. So we need a Guru who, with his abilities, can help remove all this unnecessary garbage from within us and liberate us from the dualities.
Do You Really Have the Freedom of Choice?
Let’s take the example of buying a car. When you go to the showroom, what influences you to buy a particular car? You may like the color your friend has, or your spouse may not like a particular color or model and based on that you choose one. So there are many external factors that influence your choice. I would say, 90% of your choices are influenced by others and hardly 10% are your own. So the choices we make largely depend on such conditioning or preconditioning.
Who we are is the baggage of personalities that we have created over many pasts, and this is what we call samskaras. As we slowly get rid of these samskaras, we free ourselves.
Yogi Kochchar shared his life’s journey and said the time spent with Daaji was the most inspiring experience for him. Daaji then spoke about happiness.
Happiness and Meditation — Are They Connected?
Our journey is forever. Happiness versus comfort, satisfaction versus contentment, it goes on and on. While satisfaction and comfort are dependent on other factors, happiness and contentment are not dependent on anything; they are just attitudes.
In chapter two of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says that every jiva [living being] hankers after happiness and comfort. Whether a cat or a small worm, when it rains, it takes shelter under a small leaf. It wants some comfort, some protection, and that is where it finds happiness for the moment.
Lord Krishna also says that it’s in the state of inner harmony that you enjoy that happiness. If you were restless, would you be happy? For example, if your wife is not well or your health is not good, it topples everything. If your maid’s dog dies and she is sad, that creates some level of sadness in you also. We are all human beings touched by others’ pain, so it’s not only our pain that topples our happiness or harmony, but somebody else’s affliction can change our inner state as well.
So, inner harmony is very important. And you cannot arrive at a state of harmony unless and until you’re contemplative, says Lord Krishna. Further, he says that the contemplative mind is a product of a focused mind. Unless you have a focused mind, you cannot contemplate anything.
What is the difference between contemplation and thinking? Thinking is linear, while contemplation is 360 degrees. For example, I can keep thinking about why the dog died. But if I were to contemplate, I would analyze the situation and see how it died: Did it have an infection? Did another dog bite it? Did it die of starvation or was it killed by accident? So many things are revealed when we analyze any situation with a contemplative mind. Through contemplation, we’re trying to find a solution and get some answers.
We cannot remain focused and contemplative without the mind being trained. And the training of the mind is possible only when we meditate. Thus, Lord Krishna indirectly connects the dots between happiness and dhyana [meditation] – they are connected.
How Much to Contemplate? Can There Be Anything Called Over-Contemplation?
Contemplate enough to get a solution. Once you have thought about it and have found the answer in the very first thought itself, you don’t need to contemplate further.
What Is the Difference Between Happiness and Pleasure?
Pleasure is dependent on something outside. Happiness is not dependent on anything; it’s an inner resource. Pleasure always requires an outside object; you’re dependent, you’re a slave to pleasure.
How Does Meditation Help in Finding God Within?
Can we see God? We cannot, because God is infinite. We cannot see Infinity in a limited form, but we can perceive Infinity within ourselves. And the type of space that we are in can help us understand things for the better or for the worse. For example, the quiet space created through meditation can help us go deeper within ourselves.
The search for God in the outer world will always fail us. After all, He is Antaryamin, One who dwells within.
The State of Aham Brahmasmi
It’s again an experience. You feel as if you are the Creator of the universe, but that’s only a temporary state. In fact, you feel that state at the very first chakra, the Anahat or the Heart Chakra. When you move to the second chakra, the Atma Chakra, you begin to feel that everything in creation is Brahma. And then when you enter the Brahmanda or the Parabrahmanda Mandal – especially the Parabrahmanda Mandal – then you feel that all is from Brahma. So, there are three stages to this revelation.
Parabrahmanda means you have gone beyond consciousness; ‘I’ am no more. It’s a very beautiful experiential journey; it’s not bookish knowledge. And if a person has a true craving or restlessness, I would say, the passion to realize the Highest, it can happen very soon.
