Dharma Dhyan Samadhi ( Concentration, Meditation, Trance )

With God’s grace and blessings of guru, I am endeavouring before the august gathering of seniors at ICC Cupertino to be aware that we have either entered Sanyas Ashram or approaching age 75 to enter it, I Implore you to practice with our inherent power of discrimination and renunciation  with help of a guru, a religious teacher, the art of Concentration, Meditation and Trance to achieve highest goal of our life i.e. Bliss and blessedness of God.

Now, with entering sanyas ashram we have completed our worldly duties we must resort to devotion of God and Service to Humanity by Devotion and Practice of CONCENTRATION-MEDITATION-AND-TRANCE. As we are left with only few years to attain our goal of life i.e. greatest lasting pleasure .

To start with  we proceed direct to concentration now ignoring the other stages i.e. 1. Yam 2. Niyam 3. Asan 4. Prayanam 5. Pratyahar; but not defying them and which will automatically come within you with our faith, strong willpower and determination to achieve goal of life.                                                             

The  first step is to sit erect,  according to instruction of Bhagwat Gita,  chapter 6.10 to  6.15. and then pointedly pay attention to some object or Istdev or mantra and then concentrate with full attention of your mind  with love and affection towards this object and see. If any distractions come in way you may remove it  by taking  your thought to a superior object  by any methods given in Gita,  chapter 12.8,9,10,11  or by visualizing an object superior to the original object as per Gita chapter 7.8 to 7.10, and chapter 10.19 to 10.40, that will will bring back your concentration to original object  every time you are distracted.  Til you may practice by keeping  your pointed attention to more than period of 20 seconds which will mean that you have reached stage of Meditation, and still further when you can remain in Meditation for a  period of  20 minutes or more you shall  be in  the field of Trance. Then you shall feel Ecstasy and all pleasures of life in Divinity. But this  is a temporary and passing phase..   

              

Now there are two types of samadhis 1. Savichar sa-sankalpa samadhi e.g. when it is done with efforts due to  inner mental disturbances it is called sa-sankalpa samadhi. 2. When disturbances are absent this is Nirvichar nirvikalp samadhi, when by practice  are able to become stable and you remain in samadhi till you are disturbed from outside.                                                                                        For doing all this you must have faith and sincerely believe that   you are not body  nor mind, nor intellect, nor consciousness or ego but some thing alive which is yourself called  antaratma in hindi, which is a spark of  highest Self, which is called Atma and whole is called Parmatma i.e. all mighty God. which is beyond nature called Maya or Prakriti,  an active form of God energy which works out this world and worldly matters under his directions and control.                   

                                                    

In Vedanta, a Hindu scripture which  is a  sum and substance of  Vedas and Upnishads, talk of Chetna or self   ( life substance of all living beings ) in your cavity of lower heart and Atma or Parmatma ( pure soul or God ) sitting in upper heart  as two birds watching each other. (Mandook Upnishad 3/1-2)

The first represents bhokta (sufferer of all bad and good deeds of this and past lives ) and Atma as Drista (Seer), We as humans  when devoid of Maya, the evil Powers of God, are pure Self e.g. Antaratma which is only a spark ( ansh ) of God which is always keen to merge with God to achieve the greatest state Sat Chit Anand ( truth-consciousness-bliss).    

Now  we are not this body or mind intellect consciousness or ego but pure self an ansh of God, the pure living entity of God. we must realise this and have faith in it. Now this self of ours gets this human body after about 84 million  years after being born in other yonies of inferior insects and plants, trees and animal life, after we get lots of trouble dying and being born again and again and having pains and pleasure,  and other agonies of life. This all hurts us and we are always in distress and  peace and tranquility are absent from our life. So the chetna which is bhokta sees and admires atma which is drista and wants  to become similar to it and take advantage of human birth to attain lasting  peace and tranquility to get ultimate enlightenment.

For this has to shed its ego of doer and he is not doing and then see for himself that actually he is in fact not doing any work  which is being done by three gunas of maya. and then he has to leave desires of fruit of these works and surrender them to God. Then he will rise above Maya and his all karmas done in this life ( kriman karmas, and then prarabdha karma and then sanchit karmas, dissolve in God and he becomes pure antaratma anansh or sparkle of God. At this time he eagerly wants to merge with its anshi God by shedding all curtains of physical, shokhsham and kararan bodies ( i.e. ananya maya kosh, pranmaya kosha, manomaa kosh vigan maa kosh and lastly anand maya kosh. After merging the state is Seer - become and you transform yourself to higher SELF eg God.

This is the ultimate which you get by practice of samadhi i.e. truth-conscience and bliss in the purest form. The goal of is thus achieved.                                                                                                                                                                      

Om Shanti-shanti Shanti.                    

Avdhesh Kumar Mathur  

Senior, ICC Cupertino.

P.S: While this blog was written keeping in mind the elderly, it is equally useful for the younger generations.

Inner Development

It has been noticed that external development improves automatically with improvement in internal development in the fields of 1.Society 2. Self 3.Buisness 4.Spirituality 5. Economics 6.Culture and 7.Total development of brain The inner development of brain is achieved through transcendental meditation also.

Now we shall limit our subject matter  to inner development of self both 1.physical 2.spiritual fields.Different methods are practiced to achieve inner development of one's body and mind. a.kundalni awakening  b. transcendental meditation c.Kriya yoga.d.sahaj yoga e.mona yoga.These methods result in healthy body  and healthy mind.

By internal development we improve our  .1.purity  of thought, 2.wisdom, and 3.compassion by harnessing the great hidden energies in us.By this we get most exciting moments of our lives  leading to insight ,.initiative , creativity and innovations resulting in discoveries and inventions Further we are involved in furthering our physical and spiritual activities..

Your internal world would create your external journey .If there is internal chaos  then your mind and body are both in tension and your thinking power is impaired and you  can not execute works properly or take correct decisions.

By inner  development  we become confident and self asserting  as  our faith and will power in ourselves  increase and we can take bold , correct and positive decisions instantly being sure in ourselves  which will eventually develop and our knowledge   i.e, our internal world creates for our external  journey..When we realize that our happiness and true life is in our inner being, and these are translated into the outer world, our ways of doing work improve tremendously

Your inner development  will create an awareness  of yourself in you  and in a gathering of eminent  persons  you shall be able to throw your learnings as fountain to  to them getting admiration of your  creative and original ideas which you have showered on them.You cannot dictate to people but certainly influence them by your improved  personality and deeper thoughts in all fields of life. .

Now we shall try to learn about different  ways of developing our inner self.

1.Kundalini awakening:-It is an eastern term for an evolutionary energy that exists in everyone, in the sacrum area  of the physical body  as a coiled serpent with its mouth hidden inside its body .This is sleeping and is to be awakened so as this energy  rises upwards . There are three Nadies namely Ingla, Pingla and Sushumna which is in the centre. When by rigorous practice it is made to rise through the Sushumna nadi the energy runs through various  chakras 1.mooladhar 2.swadhistan.3.nabhi.4. anhat -heart 5.kanth 6. Agya 7.Sahastrasar  and passing through Brahmrindra goes out side body,then we  are fully awakened and realize Sat Chit Anand, a state of total Bliss which is our goal of life to attain eternal peace.As the energy crosses various chakras our inner development starts and with crossing  each successive chakra our enlightment is increased and our knowledge of inner self increases and   with it  our external develooment increases.This kundalini jagran has to be learnt  through a spiritual guru of the sect. The regular practice of this kundalini jagran  will of course raise our morality and bring ourselves  to higher of spirituality and we move to highest point in the body and beyond to achieve the total realization of self as sat chit anand and to be one with God., our ultimate goal.

2. Transcendental meditation:-This technique allows you  to effortlessly transcendent yourself and to settle inwards your views to the source of thought to get pure awareness and restful alertness This increases your inner peace and,removes your stresses,and anxieties and give you enlightenment to a higher level of evolution and greater wakefulness and improved health and self realization  leading to allround inner development.This is also to be learnt from specialized gurus.

3.Zen meditation ,It is a buddhist meditation

4.Sahaj yoga It is essentially  raj yoga

5.Pranayam It is control of breath and is to be learnt from a qualified guru.

There are many  other types of meditation  including Kriya yoga  and other methods advocated in various religions and theology.

By all of this  we increase our wisdom,purity,compassion,develop our convictions and persistence ,mindfulness ,concentration and discernment and thus our inner self is fully developed  resulting in our outer development and we  live a better life.

Om Jai Jagdeesh Hare (English Version)

This  Arti  (Devotional prayer ) was written  by Sri Amichand, a follower of Swami Dayanand, the founder of Arya Samaj, a sect of Hindu religion. Sri Amichand previous to it was a dacoit just as Balmikiji was a dacoit before writing Ramayan. He wrote it about 150 years back in Hindi

Almighty GOD  is One and not two or three or four as is mentioned in Atharva Veda. So this being divine prayer to Lord of Universe applies to all religions who believe in one God but who  call him  by different names or  words. OM is impersonal absolute ie omnipotent, omnipresent etc and is source of all manifested existence which Hindus call as Parbramha Parmeshwar, when he is formless and without any thought or attributes.

Now read as below:-

Stanza 1:

Oh ,Lord of Universe. Victory to thee. Please forgive me as you are my lord and i'II bestow praises on you. Please remove the troubles of your devotees all at once.

Stanza 2:

Those who meditate on you, they reap good fruits as all their sufferings of mind vanish due to this and their troubles and pain due to hurt and injuries to the body are dispensed with, and they are gifted with wealth, property  and all things required for livelihood are bestowed upon them.

Note:  That sufferings are experienced in mind whereas hurt and injuries resulting in  pain occurs in body is clear from stanza 2.

Stanza 3.:

You are my  father and mother, so we surrender  to you and no body else.other than you on whom we can depend.

Stanza 4:

You are complete and absolute God and you are omnipresent and omniscient. You are superior to all gods and goddesses and are supreme and  you are the master of every body.

Note:- Difference between  BRAHM (Ishwar) and Permeshwar (Purshottam or all mighty God) is to be understood clearly. Where as Brahm  (  God as some body said is Trinity i.e G stands for Generater ( Brahma creates ), O stands for operater (Vishnu is our savior keeper) and D stands for Mahesh  is destroyer ) is God for all those who live in our Galaxy and All mighty GOD is for all living beings who live in universe. Therefore we say Parbrahm  Parmeshwar or Allmighty God.

Stanza 5:

You are merciful and you are the ocean of grace and bliss and keeper of all and nourish all of us. I am an idiot who is full of passion and desires and therefore I pray to you to forgive all my sins and wrong doings and correct me to follow the right path.

Stanza 6:

You  are one and cannot be seen, heard,touched, smelt or tasted by our organs of body senses as you are beyond senses and you reside in our  heart. I humbly ask you how can I meet you as I am ignorant and therefore I pray to you to guide me.

Note-Here it is to be noted God is one and only one. and he cannot be visualized by any of our senses.Though he has no senses but has powers to visualize all this as he is omnipresent..He is one and only one unparralled ,limitless infinite invisible,,omnipresent,omnipotent omniscient etc.                

Stanza:-7.You are remover of our sufferings and specially of poor and downtrodden as you are benevolent and my lord and spiritual teacher and therefore  I implore you to remove my sufferings.I have come to your door steps and pray to you to lift me by  your hands so that my sins are absolved.

Stanza:-8.Please remove my impurities and greed and desire of worldly objects and remove my sins and, increase my faith in you so that I may serve saints and humanity.

                                         -----------------------------

From this divine prayer,  we can perceive and know  about Almighty  God which is represented by  primal word OM .

In hindu, muslim and christian religions where we believe and have faith in God, this prayer applies equally well as it is prayer of Universal God which is One and only one called by different names.

Note: In Jains they have no God but parmeshwar which is collection of souls which attain Nirvana, and in budhist religion they don ot believe in soul  and are silent about GOD, they have also prayers  of different types for arhant, parmatma for Jains and budhist priest to show method to get nirvana.They also meditate for getting Nirvan.

                                  Om shanti shanti shanti

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Avdhesh kumar Mathur,Senior member ICC Milpitas and Cupertino

Om, ie, Omkar

With God’s grace I am attempting to trace the origin OM and deliberate on it. It is said that OM existed from the beginning and  in modern theory it may be sound and vibrations when universe came into existence when Big Bang occurred. It is a resonating sound  associated with its uniqueness which in Hindu religion known as Sanatan Dharm , is a symbol of worshiping the Universal God which belongs to all
irrespective of faith.

OM is an imperishable word. Om is the Universe. Every thing is Om.  All present, past and future is Om. All that can exist beyond bounds of time is OM, whether inert or living.That is our concept of All mighty GOD. In Short the symbol is OM. Also known as Omkar.

It is therefore very surprising that  we do not find its mention in  Rig Veda described as first Veda out of the four Vedas which  were assorted by Rishi Ved Vyas from Shruties which were visioned and heard by ancient Rishies and each shruti is named after the Rishi who visualized it while meditating and transferred it to his disciples  orally and so on. For example Gayatri Mantra  was visualized by Rishi Vishwamitra. And OM, though it was from eternity, was only brought to knowledge by Lord Vishnu. It is first mentioned In  Yajurveda and also many Upnishads such as Chandogya Upanishad, Katho Upnishad and Taitarya Upnishad and is prevalent in Som Veda and Atharva Ved. Atharva Veda specifically mentions that there is only ONE God and not two or three or four or five and so on. So this ONE God is nothing else but OM.

Now we observe that popular Mantras were initially mentioned as Namo Shivai,  Ganpati Namah (Yajur Veda), Bhur bhuvah swah tatsavitur varenium bhargodevasya dhi mahi dhiyo yonah prochodiyat (Rig Veda) etc are now modified as Om namo Shivai,Om Ganpati Namah, and Om Bhur bhuvah swah tatsavitur varenium bhargodevasya dhi mahi dhiyo yonah prochodiyat by adding Om as prefix showing that we are actually worshiping only ONE God.

Now we encounter various names in Vedas and Upnishads. These names are only qualities of ONE GOD which are now separately worshiped as gods and goddesses themselves. Creator, provider and destroyer are qualities of the ONE GOD too but treated separately as different gods (Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh) and we think that in Hinduism there are many gods and goddesses - that we do not believe in one God.This is totally baseless and shows our ignorance. The One
God OM is only seer or drista and he does not perform any work of creator, provider or destroyer.These names (gods and godesses) are his energies known as Maya (Para and Apara) shaktis inherent in him; but due to ignorance, we consider them as different entities which appear to be different from the ONE God.

But, there is nothing else in this world except One Almighty God  - the God of universe, nothing but OM. Even all living beings including human beings and all inert things are but a manifestation of him which we realize when we are aware of ourselves and when we are enlightened and liberated. We are only a minutest part of him and this becomes clear only when we realize ourselves as his ansh and are one with him as is a drop of water with the ocean. His inherent Shaktis or energies are in whole are known as Maya, i.e. Illusion, and it is of two kinds Para Prakriti and Apara Prakriti or  nature. It is through All mighty GOD’s power that nature works and it is because of illusion that we do not realize him as we cannot feel or see him through our five senses.

As somebody said, the three letters of GOD stand for Generator (Creator), Operator (Provider) and Destroyer,  that is the same as Brahma,Vishnu And Mahesh who as trinity or Iswar are responsible for the running of this World and Universe. The Almighty God gives them power and is the seer of all this. After we realize ourselves the illusion gets dissolved and we see OM the Almighty God stands as existence, consciousness and bliss.

So, "Om is the imperishable word.Om is the universe and this is the exposition          of OM. The past, present and the future - all that was, all that is and all that will be is OM. Likewise all else that may exist beyond the bounds of time is OM." says Mandooka upnishad.

First drista of OM was Vishnu himself. Now the word OM has spread all over the world as result of the spread of yoga, as the cosmic word is chanted with cosmic vibrations before the beginning of yogic exercises all over the world. We pray  to OM to give mindfulness awakening and devotion and find love so that we realize ourselves to be same as he.

Om shanty,shanty,shanty.

- Avdhesh Mathur