(QnA-04)- Does Patanjali really teach meditation?

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Before I take up today’s question, I have a small update. 

 

The third part of my audio book series namely “The Ultimate Book on Yoga” is just out and is available in almost all stores and in some libraries. 

 

It is titled “Part 3 of The Ultimate Book on Yoga: How to minimize stress?”. It is a one hour forty-five minutes long audio in which I discuss simple but effective and long-lasting Yogic techniques to minimize stress. It is almost completely explained in an anecdote driven style that should make listening interesting and convincing. As usual, the link to look for is https://books2read.com/UltimateYoga. You can choose your favorite store and search for the book using the title if it is not explicitly listed. I hope that you will find this part interesting and useful. 

 

Now back to our regular Q n A session. 

 

Today's question is  "Does Patanjali really teach meditation?"

 

Patanjali may be a puzzle to many people who dabble around in Yoga. 

 

The person who asked me this question is under the impression that Patanjali who is often credited to be the father of Yoga does not really teach how to meditate!

 

I am not sure whether this person has ever studied Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.

 

In a way he is right that Patanjali does not describe any one particular ‘form’ of meditation. He defines what Yoga is, he describes what happens when someone meditates, he also talks about why that happens and what would be the end-result. But he never says explicitly ‘how to meditate’!

 

Probably, Patanjali did not want to compete with the modern Yoga teachers who keep inventing newer and newer ‘techniques’ to mediate 😉

 

If you ever go to an expert like a nutritionist or a dietary specialist, he would tell you what each food item contains, what nutrition is needed for the healthy development of the body, how much of it is needed and so on. But he would never tell you how to eat! He almost takes that for granted.

 

Whether you eat sitting on the floor using your bare fingers, like what a traditional Indian would do, or eat using spoon/fork and knife sitting on a chair in front of a dining table, does it really make much difference? After all, the end result is the same – providing nutrition to the body. Rest is mere aesthetics and convenience.

 

But if someone insists that you should stand upside down and eat, and that is the only way, then there is problem. That is not a natural way and it can do harm.

 

In the name of techniques, our modern Gurus churn out fascinating ways either by artificially varying the breathing rhythm, or forcing the body into a delicate posture, or making you do some unnatural sounds, or even stuffing your mind with fantastic mental imagery. Are these really essential for meditation?

 

Depending on the mental makeup of the person, some way of doing it may help to some extent. But claiming it to be a great or essential technique does not make much sense. Most of the time these Gurus neither have any logical reasons for doing meditation that way, nor are they sure whether such gimmicks are safe in the long run.

 

So, what is essential is to understand the fundamentals and leave out the details for individuals to choose from. Like the way of eating, there is no one way to meditate. Any or all of them can potentially lead you to the ultimate destination, provided you meet certain minimum criteria.

 

As I have stated in my book “Meditation: Important things you need to know”, most ‘techniques’ ultimately take you to the same destination, provided you meet certain basic requirements. In “The Ultimate book on Yoga”, I have picked some of the typical meditation ‘techniques’ from various schools. The techniques are certainly different and may be most suited for people with specific makeup.

 

To that extent ‘techniques’ have a role. But emphasizing too much on them is claiming too much. All of them finally take you to the same destination.

 

Probably, Patanjali is aware of this diversity and he focusses just on basic things and leaves the choices to the individuals. That does not mean that we can fill the gaps with whatever we like and make Yoga a mysterious system.

 

But unfortunately, many modern Guru make their ‘technique’ their USP. They even go to the extent of patenting them. Legal battles are fought between rivalling factions on who can propagate a technique ‘invented’ by their Guru! Each rival claims to be having an authentic ‘method’ which was secret and revealed only to them by their Guru.

 

In a recent book that I came across, the author claims that mediation is like a vaccine! A vaccine makes you immune to infections. This author strikes parallels between infection and mental stress.

 

He says that meditation actually creates stress in you since you are forced to do something which is unnatural. So, doing meditation in small doses can actually guard against mental stress! It is in the same way a vaccine guards you against infections.

 

What a fantastic explanation! I don’t know which meditation ‘technique’ this author is talking about! Maybe he has invented his own. This is what happens when we don’t understand the fundaments. So, the key is ‘know before you do’. I hope that the Gurus emphasize on this. 

 

 

A series discussing questions and answers on Yoga/Philosophy. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2020-21