(Mind52)- Bhagavad Gita’s way of meditation

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As I discussed a few episodes ago, the ancient Indian scripture namely the Bhagavad Geetha has an entire chapter devoted to Meditation. It is called Dhyana Yoga, chapter 6.

We have already seen the preparatory steps suggested by the Bhagavad Gita for meditation in a previous episode. Just to recall, one prepares an Asana or seat for meditation, sits on that Asana with his torso, neck and head aligned and straight.


Now the meditative part.

Bhagavad Geetha says that after having seated in a specific way as described, one has to keep staring at the tip of his nose.

"SamprEkShya Naasikaagram, dishasca anavalokayan

Keep staring at the tip of the nose without looking around."

There are quite a few interesting things here.

We normally think meditation as something done with eyes closed. But here the recommendation is to meditate with eyes open! But you should note that the eyes are not wide open, but open in a specific way.

When you keep staring the tip of the nose, you unknowingly squint your eyes. The eyes are open but it will be difficult for you to see what happens around you without making additional effort.

Why is this strange way of keeping the eyes open?

You remember the recommendation of Bhagavad Geetha on how you should keep your body? Let me repeat it for you ‘Samam kaayasirOgreevam dhaarayan acalam sthiram’. That means one should sit in a posture where the torso, neck and the head are held straight, without making any movements.

Our body is conditioned in such a way that when we sit in a reclining posture our brain automatically takes that as a cue for sleeping. So also, when we close our eyes. So, if we don’t sit erect or sit with eyes closed, it is likely that we fall asleep instead of meditating 😉

To prevent that, one is normally expected to sit erect with eyes open while meditating. But why staring the nose?

If you keep your eyes wide open, chances are that you get distracted by whatever is going on around you and your mind starts chasing that instead of your meditative target 😉 So, eyes should be open, but partially.

Try staring the tip of the nose. You will get the idea.

Buddhist scriptures are very clear on why one should meditate with eyes partially open.

But as usual, our Hatayoga Gurus want to mystify even this simple common-sense idea and look for mystic ideas.

They say that Nasikaagra does not mean tip of the nose, but actually the root of the nose.

What difference does that make? It does, a lot for them.

They imagine a Chakra at the root of the nose, where the eyebrows meet, called Ajnya Chakra. So, they say that Bhagavad Geetha is referring to focusing on this Ajnya Chakra and not the tip of the nose!

Well, old habits die hard 😉 Let us leave it at that and move on.


What should one do while sitting in such a posture and staring one’s nose tip?
Bhagavad Gita says that

"one should continue to sit with the mind completely calm, and focused on God, the God being the only goal.

Manah samyamya, mccittO yukta, aaseeta, matparah"

For a superficial reader, it may appear that Bhagavad Gita is talking about a theistic way of meditating on a personified God. Not so, if you look at how this God is defined elsewhere in the Bhagavad Gita.

One can see that this definition is identical to the way the God is defined in the Upanishads. It is an abstract concept and not any individual as often described by religious concepts of God. It is said

“Sarvatah paaNiPaadam, sarvatah akShi shirO mukham
Sarvatah shrutimat , lOkE sarvamaavrtta tiShThati”

Meaning

“It (i.e. God) has hands, legs, eyes, heads, faces, ears everywhere. In fact, it encompasses everything that exists.”

So, what is talked about is not an entity called God, but a concept that unifies everything.


With slight variations, the very same meditation technique is also described in various Hatayoga texts, where it is called Shambhavi Mudra. One author of these texts even eulogizes this method as something that needs to be kept secret. He says that Shambhavi is like a chaste woman who needs to be guarded with care!

Unfortunately, some of our modern Gurus have taken these words of Hatayoga texts a bit too seriously. They concoct some random variation of the same technique with some mystic frills added to it, change the name a bit, and even go to the extent of patenting it! They threaten to sue their disciples if they dare to let out their secret 😉

That is what happens when Yoga becomes a business 😉


Let us move on to another method of meditation in the next episode.

 

A series revolving around Mind – Science of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Notions of reality, Mind modulation, Domains beyond Mind, and so on. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2019-2020