Friends, from time to time thoughts come. Thoughtscome from within myself. Thoughts come from the writings that havebeen preserved in the great ancient texts, the thoughts that came tothe minds of the ancient Rishis, recorded in the scriptures, handeddown for thousands of years.
Sometimes when I read these, too, that I wouldlike to share with you ancient traditions and scriptures, I'mecstatic and cannot help wanting to share those words with you also,as well as my own thoughts inspired by them.
The thoughts I have been thinking of latelyconcern my meditation hut. Some of you have heard of my little mudhut. A few friends have visited it. But then there is a portablemeditation hut I have been living in for the last 59 years. It'straveling around with me, I travel in it. It is my meditation hut; itis my chariot. But then if I were not so body-bound, I would like tohave a different kind of meditation hut. That is the kind that Idescribe in the following words. These words were originally writtenin the Hindi language; and languages, says the great poet Tagore, arejealous. You cannot really translate. An Italian proverb says that totranslate is to betray. Some of the words, idioms, proverbs,associations, cannot be expressed in another language; they do notsound the same. They do not carry the force. They do not convey thesentiment. Still, I shall try to do my very best totranslate:
I have built myself a meditation hut.
I have built myself a meditation hut, far from thetraffic of planets and their satellites, where even the thoughts fromthe minds of the dwellers of various worlds cannot reach me. At acurve of the vast space beyond, where three space-flowingenergy-rivers converge, there, in a place called tri-kuti prayaga Ihave built myself a meditation hut.
To ward off the invasions of intruding thoughts ofthe world-dwellers I have done many dig-bandhanas by reciting Bhur,Bhuvah, Svah, oh, how many times. These dig-bandhanas I have saved upand of them have I erected the walls of my meditation hut. They'rereally very firm!
On the surfaces of an uncountable number ofearths, the sheets of sunshines and moonlights lie strewn about.They're indeed very light: whoever needs may carry them away. I havepicked up many from several earths, and made of them the roof and theceiling of my hut. It's really very attractive!
On the lily petals, in so many dewdrops, lieimprisoned such beautiful rainbows. The dew dries up, the rainbowsimprisoned therein wilt away and are extinguished. I went around togather these dewdrops. By casting my affection-filled glances uponthem, I opened their doors; and the rainbows, thus released, sprangto freedom and now form the arches for my meditation hut. They'rereally very charming.
The souls who become liberated after attaining thehighest samadhi are like a novice renunciate who drops the clothinghe wore as a householder; and after renouncing he never looks back atthem again. So do the liberated souls drop their subtle bodies andsenses by the wayside and never care for them again. I have gatheredthose subtle-body senses and made of them the doors and windows of mymeditation hut, and I have hung on them curtains made of the pearlsthat the world knows as inspirational revelations but that, trulydrop from the necklace of Mother Sharada, when the music of herselfplaying the veena reaches them; and its ripples vibrate and pluckthem. The pearls that the swans of Mother Sarasvati were unable topick in their beaks were lying plentiful around the lake of Manasa; Ifilled my hands many times over, to bead them to make mycurtains.
At the Hour of God, before the Lady Dawn, Usha,appears with the red cinnabar dot of the sun upon her forehead, I goto take my sacred morning immersion at the convergence of thosespace-flowing rivers. In the vessel made of the silver of rays, Ibring holy water from the milk-river of the galaxy--the same onedrinking which, Lord the Creator, Lord the Preserver, Lord theDissolver have been satiating themselves for cycles upon cycles ofcreation. How much more so of a mortal's mind? Only a few drops,touched upon the limbs of a mortal's mind, cause all thirst, hungerand craving to dissipate and to disappear.
When the gods, the shining ones, come bathing atthe convergence of these rivers, they splash many a star. Thesesprinklings sometimes come through the windows into my meditationhut. I gather them and I tie them in a neat bundle. They serve me forthe night like little gems, casting their glows and providing me withillumination. They do last me a very long time.
Ah, yes, the three flaws of Prakriti, MotherNature, which are called the three Gunas, qualities, sometimes cast ashadow, like clouds, over the roof of my hut. I immediately sprinklethe mantra-consecrated waters upon it and wash the spots away, lestthey accumulate and form for me another mortal, physicalbody.
The solitude here is such that only a soul ina-cognitive samadhi can experience. As I said, no mind of any dwellerof the Three Worlds can come here and intrude into my solitude. But,yes, it did so happen once: I was merged into the ocean of the joyand bliss of deep meditation, like the reflection of a full moonimmersed in a ripple-free, absolutely still, crystalline, clear lake;yet the sound of a song,--sung in a feminine voice--sweet, yet filledwith pathos, reached me. She was Brahmani, the lady consort of aBrahma,--the lord of a universe, which existed in a rock on the sideof some mountain upon a distant earth. When my eyes and ears cameinto the half-awake state, out of meditation, she addressed me: "Forcountless aeons, my dear lord, my husband, has been performing hisintense, ascetic endeavors to obtain liberation. Neither does hebecome liberated, nor do I receive the marital joy and bliss that isthe share of a dedicated consort. My internal life has been filledwith agitation, and through that, not only the living beings of myuniverse, but also the forests, trees, vines, grains, plants, suns,moons, rivers, lakes, oceans of all my worlds have become agitated,as though passing through a volcanic quake. I fear what destructionmight be waiting around the corner of time! Is our universe going tobe dissolved, even without my lord, my husband, ever gaining hisliberation?
How could I not, hearing such a plea, melt withcompassion? The passage of time in the rock-universes is immenselyslow. One day of human beings becomes a thousand years in therock-universes. If I had made no attempt to free the Brahma and theBrahmani, the Lord and the Lady of that universe from the travailsand tortures, lasting such a long period, would not the dwellers ofthat universe scorch themselves in all the three kinds of heat ofsuffering; and would not they have created a hell for themselves intheir world? Then, knowing myself to be responsible for suchdevastation, would I have been able to sit in my solitude and enjoymy meditation without any distractions arising out of the memory of aduty not yet discharged?
So I went to that Lady's world with her. It musthave taken us at least as much time as passes in a hundred-millionthpart of a micro-moment. Then the problem arose: on one hand, I, abrilliant, minute photon of light, and on the other that rock-soliduniverse; how was I to enter it?
By the power of my intentness, with the force ofmy sankalpa--resolve, all of it that I could muster, applying theentire force of the concentrations I had learned, I managed to breakthrough that solid state and, making the outer surface of the rocksomewhat thus transparent, I entered into the universe withinit.
The Brahma, the Lord of that universe, using apebble-world for his meditation seat, was indeed making a god-likeeffort to go deep and deeper and yet deeper into meditation, but,because of so many affairs of that universe that must pass throughhis mind, there was no end to the distractions disturbing hisself-contemplation. 18,000 cycles of creation and dissolution hadalready passed. Half of that Brahma's lifespan had already beenspent, and after another 18,000 cycles of creation and dissolution,the final mega-dissolution of that universe would occur, and alongwith it, he too would die. With this abhinivesha, he wasfear-stricken. I gave him the diksha, the initiation of burstingthrough the highest point of the Brahma-opening in the skull andreturned to my meditation hut, and the time that still remained ofthat micro-moment, I utilized in the joy of unbreakableintentness.
Since then, would you like to know what I havedone? There were still some dig-bandhanas left over after I had madethe walls of my hut. With a few more dik-bandhanas added, Iconstructed a fence around my cottage. Now, even the streams ofdistractions from the minds of the Brahmas and the Brahmanis of anyuniverse, no matter how sharp, no matter how forceful they might be,can pierce through these fences to intrude into the secret mystery ofthe seed of my consciousness. Only my Guru-deva, AcharyaHiranya-garbha, whose name means "the Master of the Golden Womb,"whose cottage is quite distant from here, on the mountain peak ofChid-akasha, the peak of the mountain known as the Sky ofConsciousness, when he considers me deserving, unasked, when I amleast expecting it, casts a ray of his light towards me. And thatlight, passing through the fences and the walls of my hut, piercesthrough my Brahma-bindu, the point of Brahman in the skull. This rayof light, sent from the mountain peak of the Sky of Consciousness,frees me, liberates me, burns those lily petals along with theletters written upon them, from A to Ham, from Alpha to Omega ofwhich I have at any time claimed proprietorship, any of which I haveidentified myself with. It makes me truly the son of the goddess whois known as Aparna, the Leafless One, she who when performing herascetic endeavors to be united to her lord Shiva, fasted. First sheabandoned grains. Then she abandoned fruits. Then she lived on leavesand lily petals. And then, having consumed them, she was Sushumna,the slim, brilliant Lady, having lost all worldly weight, a straightsword of lightning passing through the spine, but without any leavesor petals, only reaching a single point from which the universes arecreated and into which the universes dissolve. I truly become herson.
Whosoever is wearied, whosoever is scorched withthirst, whosoever feels broken-up by the slaps of craving, whomsoeverthe dualities and the principles of opposites have torn into shreds,let him seek his balm of solitude. Let him take to this meditation ashis potion, prescription and provender for the path.
Dig-bandhanas can be performed in a moment. Thereis no shortage of the sheets of sunshines and moonlights strewnabout. In the Forest of Lilies, the dew-drops are uncountablemillion, the rainbows imprisoned in them are longing to be released,relieved, to be allowed to bloom and open up. From the Great Mother'snecklace, the pearls drop like dots of snow from the snow-laden treeswhen a few gusts of wind touch them. Whosoever likes can find one ofthe confluences of space-rivers, for there are innumerable suchconvergences. Let him make a cottage at his own trikuti-prayaga, fillhis vessel made of the silver of rays daily with waters of the milkyriver of the galaxy, touch it to his limbs and be free of hunger,thirst and craving. Drunk on the wine of solitude, let him in thesame way live the life of joy and carefree pleasure, as Ido
since
I have built myself a meditation hut.
Note 1
In the traditions of India, wherever three riversmeet it is a sacred spot. At certain times, millions of people gathertogether to pray and immerse themselves for a sacred bath. Most ofthe most famous where two or three rivers meet are called prayagas.It means a place of intensively-performed sacraments, because inancient times the great Rishis sat in the ashrams and the forests inthese areas and performed lengthy and intensive fire-offerings, andother sacred acts.
Tri-kuti is a triangular place in the upper halfof the forehead, so I have named this place tri-kuti prayaga. Whenyou go up the river it is Ganges... Here suggested you read a book byEdmund Hillary, the conqueror of Mount Everest, entitled From Sea toSky. It is a description of a journey up the river Ganges, and it isnot an ordinary description of an expedition, but one that speaks ofthe Gangetic culture, the culture of the peoples on both sides of theriver. So, One of the places he passes is Prayaga, the modern city ofAllahabad, just west of Benares, which is still in the plains. Thenafter a thousand miles or perhaps more, we come to a place calledDeva-prayaga, where two tributaries of the river meet, and from thatplace south it is called the Ganges. Similarly, further up themountains are Nanda-prayaga and Ruda-prayaga and so on. So here wehave a tri-kuti prayaga, a meeting place of three rivers in atriangular spot in the upper half of the forehead. Where threekundalini rivers have their confluence you may build your meditationhut there.
Notes 2 & 3
Many meditators are familiar with the word,dig-bandhana (tying-up the directions, tying-up the ten quartersaround you). It is an act of sitting down, and, if you want to do itexternally, sprinkling a stream of water around you, or (internally)visualizing three circles of light around you. This is done with themental recitation of the mantra Om, bhur, bhuvah, svah, which is thefirst part of Gayatri mantra. Before one begins one's meditation, thefirst act one performs is to do this dig-bandhana to ward off allintruding thoughts.
Note 4
Of the senses of the subtle body: One may have tostudy the lectures on the gross body, the subtle body, the casualbody, and the seventeen constituents of the subtle body. Some of theexplanation is found in Swami Rama's Lectures on Yoga, and Freedomfrom the Bondage of Karma; in Arya's Meditation and the Art ofDying.
Notes 5 & 6
Two words for the Great Mother of the Universe:Sharada and Sarasvati, the Lady of Wisdom, Music, Knowledge, andInspiration. White-clad, with a swan for her vehicle, carrying aveena, a most ancient and powerful three-stringed musical instrumenton which the Vedic hymns were, and are still sung. When the musiciansof India train, they sit before her icon at the Hour of God in themorning, and make their music a prayer-offering to her. So do thedancers train by giving their dance as homage, as an offering toher.
Note 7
When you go for pilgrimages in India, the mostsacred and difficult pilgrimage is to Mount Kailasha, which is thenorthern-most home of Shiva, where he, the Lord of Meditators, sits,though the processions of history may come and go. It is a mountainin Tibet, now under Chinese occupation. A few pilgrims can still go,and they circumambulate this mountain at the height of 18,000 feet orso. At the foot of this mountain there is a lake, known as LakeManasa. It simply means "the mind." The Great Mother drops many ofher pearls in the Lake of the Mind, and those that her swans do notpick in their beaks are left, strewn around, for devotees like us topick and to make curtains from, bead them through strings and hangthose beaded strings on the curtains of the senses. Thus shall youname you have the doors and windows of the sensescurtained.
Note 8
The Hour of God. We call this measure of timeBrahma-muhurta. As the night is divided into four sections, in theancient ashrams and among those very few who still carry out thetradition, the first quarter of the night is spent in meditation. Thesecond and third quarters of the night are for sleeping. And thefourth quarter of the night, from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. is the Hourof Amrita, the hour when the Elixir of Immortality, the Drink of theGods, drops from heaven. Listen to the sound of silence at that hour.Drink the cup of solitude at that hour until the music that riseswithin your heart and mind merges with the music that the birds make.And then rise from your meditation seat. You will need no otherwine.
Note 9
Usha, the ancient Vedic name for dawn. Inspiritual traditions she may represent the dawning of wisdom beforefull daybreak that is enlightenment. "The red-cinnabar dot of thesun" represents the dot of fortune married women of India wear at thespot of the third eye, above the center between the eyebrows. Thechemical name for cinnabar is mercuric sulfide, representing thetotal balance of the universal male (mercury) and the universalfemale (sulfur). In the traditions of yoga, sun is the name of theuniversal spiritual energy, taught and awakened in the solarscience.
Note 10
The Sanskrit word for the milky way isakasha-ganga, the Ganges of Space. The suggestion of milky way andthe Gangetic holiness is combined here in "milk-liver." It is said inIndia's cosmogony that Lord the Preserver sleeps on the coiled upSerpent of Infinity on the Ocean of Light (milk) after the universeis dissolved and before the next universe emanates.
Note 11
Prakriti or Prakrti. Those who have studiedSamkhya philosophy will know that this is what might be translated asUr Nature (the Origin of Nature, the origin of the materialuniverse), when the Gunas (Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas), the three-foldForces of the universe, the three Powers, the three Attributes, arein equilibrium, are in absolute balance. Then Rajas, the agitatingforce, disturbs the equilibrium, and out of a pin-point of light,burst the galaxies. Later they return to the same. Now, there is aplay on words here with the word Guna. In philosophy there are threeattributes or three forces of Ur Nature. In the Sanskrit language andin Hindi, the word guna also means "good quality," and I have alsocalled them her flaws. Her gunas are her flaws. (Actually the Englishword good is derived from the word guna, or is cognate to this word).They cast their shadow upon my meditation hut, and I sprinkle themantra-consecrated water from my vessel, made of rays of silver, towash off the spots, lest they gather and gather, and become thickerand thicker, so that the shadows become spots, and the spots becomenew bodies to reincarnate me into this physical worldagain.
Note 12
A-cognitive, a-samprajnata samadhi, the higheststate of consciousness in which the spirit knows itself unalloyedwith matter. For details see U. Arya's Yoga-sutras of Patanjali: aTranslation and Commentary.
Note 13
Three worlds: bhur, bhuvah, svah; earth, sky andheavens; the first being up to the third chakra in the navel region,second up to the fifth chakra in the throat, and the third one abovethose.
Note 14
The spirit whose body is a universe is called aBrahma; his feminine consort is Brahmani. Just as common mortals viewthe frame of their flesh to be themselves, so may a universal beingidentify with the universe-body. None of these are transcendent orhighest spiritual stations. For detail, see U. Arya's book, God, andhis commentary on the yoga-sutras, pp. 168-170.
Note 15
The three tapas, the three kinds of heat, thethree kinds of burning. Not the good kind of burning known as tapas(ascetic perseverance), which is the ascetic heat to burn impurities,but the three tapas, by which we ourselves burn: the mental ones, thephysical ones, and the ones that exist in our surroundings, in oursocieties in the world, in nature and in the environment. When ourinterior tapas gather together their force and become collectivized,they become the fires of hell. Then truly a hell is created in agiven universe.
Note 16
According to Yoga-vasishtha text the universe,that is our experience of it, is nothing but a projection of thespirit's resolve to ideate, to emanate as an idea in a given form.The more intense this sankalpa, the more "solid" the appearances ofrealities.
Note 17
The worlds are but pebbles flying about as and inmind-time-space-causation co-ordinates.
Note 18
Regarding the life-span of a Brahma, see U. Arya'sGod. This life-span is normally a hundred years only; each cycle ofcreation and dissolution of the cosmos counted as one day; thushundred years means 3600 cycles of creation anddissolution.
Note 19
There may be innumerable minor creations anddissolutions of little universes in a cosmos at any given time. Amega-dissolution, maha-pralaya, is the dissolution of an entirecosmos.
Note 20
Abhinivesha (the fear of death), the fear that theBrahma, the Lord of this universe, had. To understand that, I suggestthat one may read U. Arya's commentary of the 8th sutra of the firstchapter of the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali, available from the HimalayanInstitute. Read especially the last two pages of commentary on thatparticular sutra. Also see sutra II 9. Abhinivesha is the fifth ofthe kleshas (the five afflictions), that are discussed in the sutras.If you need to go further into it, just inquire where you may studythis.
Note 21
Hiranya-garbha, the Golden Womb, is the name givenby yogis to the first guru who is the Spirit as the Teacher, whoseembodiment the personal teachers are. Acharya means a Master WhoTeaches.
Note 22
Bindu, the point, from which the universe emanatesand into which it dissolves. In samadhi it is experience as the Pointthat is God, Brahma-bindu, located in the center of thethousand-petal lotus in the skull.
Note 23
The letters written on the lotus petals from a toham. The word a-ham means "I" in Sanskrit. That is what we have in Soham. So means "that." Aham means"I am that." A is the first letter ofthe Sanskrit alphabet, and ham is the last letter. In the vibratoryprinciple, the different petals of the lotuses of the chakras areinscribed, as it were, with the specific letters assigned to them.You may read about it in more detail in U. Arya's book Mantra andMeditation. All of these vibratory forces put together, expressed inthese letters of the alphabet, a to ham, constitute aham: the "I"with which you identify, the "I" on which you have a claim ofproprietorship.
Notes 24 & 25
Based on the story of Parvati, the eternal consortof Shiva. In kundalini-yoga, when sushumna, the central stream ofdivine consciousness and Life-force, is re-united with the Lord asBrahma-bindu, there are no more emanations of centripetal andcentrifugal forces forming petals in the whirling wheels ofchakras.
Note 26
The pranas, the animating forces that emanate frommind and move the physical forces of the body.
Note 27
This writing is inspired from the great text, theYoga Vasistha. An epic in 26,000 verses of lyrical, philosophicalpoetry, rare in world literature.
Swami Veda Bharati was trained from childhood inmeditation and yoga philosophy and has taught yoga to thousands ofpeople from an early age. He is an expert in raja yoga which is thesource of all branches of yoga. A faculty member of the HimalayanInstitute, he has written many books and articles on yoga andmeditation. In addition to his writing and meditation, Swami VedaBharati has lectured and taught meditation throughout theworld.
Now you can have 5,000 years of wisdom, knowledgeand inspiration in your own home. Swami Veda's taped lectures allowyou to study, meditate and review various facets of yoga science atyour own pace and level.
In 1982, Dr. Arya took the vows of swamihood, andis now known as Swami Veda Bharati. He lives in Rishikesh,India.
You may write for a free copy of a catalog of histaped audio lectures to:
West-Art Publishers, 10545 Main Street, Clarence,NY 14031. Telephone (716) 759-6078, fax (716) 759-7925.
May we recommend some books?
Livingwith the Himalayan Masters, by SwamiRama
Primerfor Those Who Would Govern, by HermannOberth
SevenYears in Tibet, by HeinrichHarrer
ArnoBreker: The Divine Beauty in Art, by B.John Zavrel
Mantraand Meditation, by Dr. UsharbudhArya
Alexanderthe Great, by Robin Lane Fox