Before we get deep into the meditation propounded by Patanjali, let us look at some preliminary aspects of Yoga as described by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra.
The Yoga sutra views Yoga as a complete process, consisting of 8 steps. The first 5 steps namely Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara are considered to be preparatory steps. Meditation is the main step, which is the 7th. The step 6 or Dharana is the precursor to meditation. Step 8 or Samadhi is the culminating point of Yoga.
I will skip details on the first 5 steps which you can read about in my book “Ultimate book on Yoga – All that you want to know about Yoga”.
Patanjali starts off his Yoga Sutra by defining Yoga. He says
“Yoga is about restraining the activities of the mind”
“Yogah citta vrtti nirOdhah”
Now let us see some of these words closely.
What is Citta? This is a word used by Buddhists as well as Vedic people to mean slightly different things. In this context, we can take the word Citta to mean mind. What is Citta vrtti? Patanjali talks about 5 different vrtti of the mind. We can take them as 5 different activities of the mind.
But the mind that we talk about in common parlance, is just a subset of the concept of mind talked about by Patanjali. So, when Patanjali talks about restraining the activities of the mind, he is talking about only 5 of them. What are these five?
These 5 activities that need to be restrained are –
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sense perception or pramana,
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wrong knowledge or Avidya,
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information based on descriptions conveyed through words or vikalpa,
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sleep or nidra, and
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memory or smrti.
Though Patanjali does not say so, I guess sleep is supposed to include dreaming, which is also an activity of the mind. Also, the word memory may imply thoughts, since thoughts arise from memories.
How does one restrain these activities of the mind?
Patanjali says
“They can be restrained through concerted effort i.e. ‘abhyasa’, and detachment i.e. ‘vairagya’”
“abhyaasa vairaagyaabhyaam tat nirOdhah”
What does one achieve by restraining the activities of the mind? Or in other words what is the goal of Yoga?
For Patanjali, Yoga can have multiple goals. But the ultimate goal is Kaivalya – a state where the soul is completely free from all entanglements.
With this brief background, let us delve more into meditation. Let us start with the 6th step namely Dharana. Dharana is choosing the target for meditation. And what is meditation? Continuously focusing the mind on this chosen target is meditation. And Samadhi is the culmination of such a meditation.
Patanjali describes meditation under a vast canvas. Neither is he too rigid on the target of meditation, nor the end result of meditation. For example, according to Patanjali, the target could be some God, or someone whom you respect - like your Guru or some sage , or it could be some symbol or sound, or it could be a concept, or it could be some specific place on your body such as meeting point of the eyebrows, and so on. Depending on the target, you may attain different results. Also, the time taken to reach your goal may depend on your target.
But if your interest is in attaining Kaivalya or the ultimate goal of Yoga, then the target as well as the way you progress in meditation become important. How and why is that? Let me explain this through a simple analogy.
Supposing, you set out to see Niagara Falls starting from say, California. Let us say that you start driving all the way. Your vehicle is your support during your journey. It is a long way to go. You need to have lot of determination and you have to put lot of effort. That is the ‘abhyasa’ or concerted effort prerequisite talked about by Patanjali.
But on the way to Niagara, you may come across many other wonderful places which may also interest you. You can change your plans and spend time in those places. Or if you are determined to reach your final destination in the shortest possible time, you need to ignore all those distractions and move ahead. That is the ‘Vairagya’ or detachment prerequisite talked about by Patanjali.
Both these are needed if you want to reach Niagara without getting lost, and in the shortest possible time.
There is another important aspect to this journey towards your destination. As you drive, you should be moving closer to the destination and not moving away from it. Instead of driving eastwards, if you drive, say westwards, probably you will never reach Niagara but get drowned in the sea 😉
How do you know that you are moving closer to the destination? There are milestones all along the way, as well as clear sign posts. They give you an idea about how close you are to the destination.
What is most important is that you need to use a proper vehicle for your journey. This vehicle should help you in your efforts in reaching the destination in the shortest possible time. Wrong choice of vehicle can create problems in your journey, and also delay your progress.
How does this example correspond to Patanjali’s meditation?
Patanjali talks about several destinations for meditation that may not be the ultimate goal, but may fetch many wonderful results. For example, you may acquire many psychic powers. If you go after them, you will be lost like the traveler who gets distracted from his journey towards Niagara. If you are serious about the ultimate goal, you should ignore all other distractions on the way.
Patanjali talks about using the sound OM or Pranava as a good vehicle for your meditation if you are determined to reach the final goal. Why OM? Because that is a vehicle which is least likely to take you astray. This is the Dharana for your meditative journey.
How do you drive this Pranava vehicle? Patanjali says that you need to focus your mind on the Pranava sound and the abstract ideas associated with it. He says
tat japah tadartha bavanam
that is
you need to keep mentally repeating this sound again and again along with associated concepts.
This sound Pranava, or OM chanted in a specific way, has the ability to calm down your mind. That would minimize all the distractions. But at least in the beginning, the mind needs something to munch on. If that something is some worldly thought, the chances are that you would once again get distracted. Instead, one can focus the mind on abstract ideas about OM as described in the Upanishads. That is what Patanjali means when he says ‘tadartha bhaavanam’.
You are on your meditation journey towards your final destination. You are driving your Pranava vehicle. But how do you know that you are moving towards your destination? What are the milestones or sign posts?
Patanjali talks about two types of mile stones or sign posts. As the milestones in any road show gradually reducing distance to the destination, these meditative milestones also show a gradual progress. What are these milestones?
First set of milestones are something that you can perceive. Patanjali calls them Samprajnyata – that is, milestones which you will be aware of.
To start with, you will be aware of gross attributes of the Pranava that you are using as your vehicle. What are those gross attributes? It is the way the Pranava sounds, the component characters or sounds of Pranava, and so on. Patanjali calls this milestone as Vitarkaanugata.
Your mind is calm to some extent. You are also well focused on the Pranava sound. But at the same time, you are aware of the variations in the sound patterns, and other gross aspects of the Pranava sound etc. The calmness of the mind fills you with bliss. You experience that too.
The next milestone is when you start focusing more and more on the meaning rather than the sound patterns of Pranava sound. The sound patters take backseat. That is when you come across Vicaaraanugata milestone.
Even here, for the same reason of calmness of the mind, you experience bliss as before. But your attention on the gross attributes of Pranava or Vitarka has taken a secondary role.
As you move on, gradually, even the attention on subtle aspects of Pranava or Vichaara seems to fade out. There would neither be Vitarka nor Vicaara. But the bliss you experienced all through in the earlier two stages would still continue. Patanjali calls this milestone or stage of meditation as Anandaanugata – one with just Ananda or bliss. You have left behind Vitarka and Vichara.
In the next stage or the milestone, even this experience of bliss ceases. You neither pay attention to the sound variations, nor on the hidden meanings, not even to the blissful experience. What is left? You are left only with the awareness of your existence.
This awareness of existence is called Asmita. So Patanjali terms this milestone as Asmitaaanugata – the one with awareness of existence alone – neither vitarka, nor vicaara, not even Ananda.
Observe how at each stage, the activities of the mind gradually dampen out. That means that you are moving in the right direction and closer to your destination. Also note that all through these stages you were aware of what is happening. You were not sleeping or frozen like a zombie 😉.
But unnecessary activities of the mind have been gradually switched off. That is in anticipation of total absorption of the mind in the final destination. From here on, things start moving on their own and you are almost at the destination. Asmitaanugata is the last milestone in the domain of awareness. Patanjali calls all these 4 stages as Samprajnyata or stages with awareness.
What happens next can not be explained since that is outside awareness or in Patanjali’s words – Asamprajnyata. You keep moving on, except that you would have no awareness of what is going on. When you are very close to Niagara, you no longer need any milestone nor any sign post. The ambience of the final destination just draws you towards it. So, you keep driving, even without worrying much.
But how are you sure that something really goes on and you are not just dozing off? Patanjali says that what goes on further is known (i.e. later) by the side effects it produces. It is going to gradually transform your mind. That result is something that you can experience even after you come out of meditation. But that happens gradually as you pursue your meditation practice.
And that is briefly about Patanjali’s meditation.
I think I will stop here without getting too deep. You can find all these details and more in my book “The Ultimate book on Yoga : All that you want to know about Yoga”.
The most crucial observation that one should not miss out is that Patanjali’s meditation neither employs forceful mind modulation the way some of the Buddhist meditation methods do, nor it uses any auto suggestions, nor thought control, nor passive observation of the thoughts, as employed by many modern meditative ‘techniques’.
It achieves its goal of ‘restraining the mental activity’ or ‘citta vrtti nirodha’ indirectly by directing mental focus on some chosen target or DharaNa. In doing that, rest of the thoughts get subsided on their own. But Patanjali does not insist that such a target should be some personified God or Saguna Brahma, theway our swami insists. It could even be a sound such as Pranava with associated abstract ideas. So, Patanjali’s meditation is religion neutral. That makes it very broad based and widely accepted.
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