Acharya Mahaprajna
Inculcation of faith
A man can never be successful in his objective, if he has not inculcated faith in what he is doing. The first condition of success is the creation of faith. We succeed only in the task in which we have developed faith. On the contrary if we fail to develop faith in a particular task we undertake, we will never succeed. The first symptom of failure is the absence of faith.
Knowledge of the means or ways
The second component of training is the knowledge of the ways or means. It is also an essential ingredient of success. If one has faith but is unaware of the knowledge of the ways and means through which the goal can be attained, one cannot accomplish the task. There are many people who do not know what they are doing. They do not know what they want to be. They remain entangled in their own problems. A man was traveling in a bus. He was standing all the time. Others asked him to sit down because his destination was far off. He replied,” How can I sit down? You don’t know I have to reach soon. I have no time to sit down.” Thus, a man remains mired in his own problems and ignorance. He is seized by deluded belief and misperception. As a result he fails to realize the truth. Without the knowledge of the means and the ways the process of training cannot be successful. We need to know the means and the ways to succeed in our aim.
Practice
The third component of training is practice which means knowledge of the means. Human mind is very complex. Its fickleness is a big problem. Even those who are responsible for carrying out formidable tasks are unable to control their mind. The unsteadiness of the mind is one of the biggest problems of the world. It precedes all other problems. The lessening of the restiveness of the mind, its stabilization and concentration pave the way for a state when mind ceases to exist. But this problem of the unsteady mind is also solved on account of our knowledge of the remedial measures.
Faith is inculcated in the camps of preksha dhyan (perceptive meditation). One comes to realize it and becomes aware of the means. A sadhak (prectitioner) stays in dhyana (meditation) for about an hour. When the time allotted for dhyana comes to an end, the practitioner asks, “Was the process of meditation completed in just ten minutes today?” During the period of meditation, awareness of time ceases. When there is deep concentration, awareness of time disappears. It’s only in a state of restiveness that one thinks more of time and nation. These barriers vanish in a state of deep concentration.
Leshyadhyana (meditation on currents of feelings and aura) and rang dhyana (colour meditation) are important types of meditation for the transformation of the heart. They affect our entire state of consciousness. After practising leshyadhyana many practitioners came to me and said, “Today we experienced the calmness of the mind to so great an extent that we didn’t want to move away from it.” I thought, “This is a strange phenomenon. Sometimes one is not able to go into dhyana. At other times having gone into the dhyana, one doesn’t want to come out of it. Some times milk doesn’t condense into curd and sometimes it so condenses that one has to cut it. Both of these conditions are problems. Through the use of appropriate means everything can be done. Without means or efforts even milk cannot be changed into curd.”
We live in the world of modes or alterable conditions. We cannot enter the material world. Our whole life is based on these modes. They are endless and man is lost in them. Modes continue to appear and re-appear - curd after milk, butter after curd, and density after fluidity and firmness after density. All these forms occur one after the other. These different forms of modes of material objects appear and re-appear on account of some or the other causative factors. What I want to emphasize here is that these alterable conditions, which we call paryayas result from our efforts. Through preksha dhyana we enlighten sadhaks about usage or application. They learn the methodology to cause alterable conditions in society or in an individual. How can the mind be concentrated? How can its restiveness be overcome? There are many ways. Colour meditation is one of them. Perception of Chaitanya Kendra is another. Perception of the body is yet another way. Perceiving or seeing something is an effective method for concentrating. Thinking is not that effective a method as seeing is. Thinking is the function of the mind. It agitates the mind and makes it unsteady. Both thinking and restiveness go together. Thinking cannot go on without restiveness and restiveness cannot sustain itself without thinking. Thinking is a form or a mode. Observing is another form. In observation there is no unsteadiness. To see and to know mean freedom from sensitivity, which creates unsteadiness. Knowledge and philosophy, perceiving and knowing eliminate mind’s fickleness or restiveness.
Perception is an important element. The modern perception or modern philosophy is dominated by intelligence and logic. This kind of philosophy leads a man astray and doesn’t help him to reach his destination. The basic meaning of philosophy is the realization of the self. Where there is direct experience, the whole world comes to an end and all barriers disappear. The distance between the known and the knowable is abolished. Here the knower knows the knowable directly, intimately and closely. Both become one. This is the ancient philosophy - the basic philosophy. I am discussing this very philosophy. Preksha Dhyana is a practical experiment of philosophy. It is a process to realize the self. In colour meditation we suggest visualizing white colour on jyoti kendra (center of light), green colour on anand kendra (center of bliss) and blue colour on vishuddh kendra (center of purity). You may wonder how a person will be able to visualize colours with his eyes closed. We have faith in eyes but we must have a new dimension of our faith. We must extend our faith and realize that seeing with eyes is a small thing. We have infinite power. We can see even without eyes and experience that the whole cosmos is full of colours.
All the types of colours that we have in this world have their causative atoms that fill the entire universe. When we close our eyes and begin to feel with deep concentration and profound state of meditation, various kinds of colours appear. Even when eyes are closed, brilliant colours appear on the screen of our inner mind. They look so beautiful and attractive that cannot be imagined by our eyes. In a meditative state we experience and perceive all these colours.
Through perception dormant modes manifest themselves and covered modes uncover themselves. Then begins a cycle of events happening before our own eyes all by themselves. Both the events of the material world and the events of the inner world begin to appear in succession. The events, which take place in our inner world, which we never experienced directly before, appear on the screen of our mind rapidly when we close our eyes and achieve mental concentration. They take the concrete form in our mind. Even the events of the material world begin to dance before our closed eyes.
Let us feel that our consciousness is not confined to our senses only. Moreover, we should also realize that the real consciousness is more expansive than what we get from the senses. Our consciousness is infinite. It has no end. It is without frontiers. By limiting the infinite and endless consciousness man lives a life full of ignorance. Preksha meditation is a process to dispel this ignorance. When ignorance is removed, a new dimension of consciousness emerges and then it begins to expand itself. This extension of consciousness is achieved through special efforts and devices.
