By Sri Subbu Venkatakrishnan
Meditation has now become a household term. Whether used in mockery or in seriousness, there is certainly some faint idea associated with “meditation” that is floating around in circles both social and individual. Even killers meditate, it seems, considering their record of pre-meditated murder. Techniques, benefits, workshops of meditation are offered around the clock by people of all walks of life. But for the spiritual seeker, one who recognizes that there is in this world something more than what meets the eye, something great, complete, Self-full, the word “meditation” should signify a specific step in his transcendental search. In order to clarify what the ancient sages intended by “meditation,” we shall examine the process from a spiritual standpoint.
Before meditation even becomes a point of interest to the student of Life, it is necessary that he be molded rightly, that he understands the full implication of the word in his spiritual progress. The Vedas place a high degree of emphasis on the preparedness of the student before he can be considered a serious seeker of Truth. A seeker of Truth should be endowed with the qualifications of: Viveka —discrimination between that which is eternal and that which is changing, Vairagya — having the capacity to objectively reject the ephemeral and hold tightly to the eternal, Shat Sampatti—the six-fold divine qualities, namely, mind-management, sense-management, forbearance, withdrawal into oneself, faith in the teaching and the teacher, and contentment, and Mumukshutvam — an intense desire for liberation. A seeker endowed with these qualifications duly approaches a teacher and asks to become a disciple, that is, he subjects himself to the discipline of a life of intense study.
Having assumed the role of a disciple, he desires to rid himself of his spiritual ignorance, which may be described as threefold. First, in the form of outright nescience: “I do not know the Truth.” Second, in the form of doubts: “How can this be the Truth?” And third, in the form of partial knowledge: “This is not my experience.” In Vedic literature, these three aspects are respectively addressed by the stages of Shravanam, Mananam, and Nidhidhyasanam. Shravanam refers to hearing the Truth from a teacher who is both well-versed in the Vedas, as well as committed to expounding this Truth, with no other agenda but the welfare of his disciple. Mananam is where the seeker removes all doubts from his understanding by reflecting on the Truth, using the logic presented by the Vedas. Only in the final stage of the student's development do we find the word for meditation: Nidhidhyasanam, or Abidance-In-Truth.
From a spiritual standpoint, meditation is a noun and not a verb. It is a state of religious transformation, effected by the willing student's single-pointed devotion to achieving the full potential of the life he has been given. Thus enthralled by the possibility of his own emancipation from the manifold limitations imposed by his own ignorance of his true Self, he cannot but be ever-absorbed in the contemplation upon that Supreme Goal with which he is one. And therefore, all he sees is God, all he hears is His name, all he does is a worship, all he speaks is a song of love. The meditation of the true spiritual seeker is not a set of breathing exercises performed with crossed-eyes on a specific seat at an appointed time of day, but an integrated and continuous practice of remembrance: remembrance of the Truth, remembrance of his true nature, remembrance of their unity. Meditation is love; a love that is neither restricted to individual acquaintances nor buffeted by the winds of unhealthy attachment, but a silent, prayerful, unifying depth of the seeker's being that is in love with everything. He is now attuned to the source of his deepest contemplations, and in that inner Alone-ness, resting smilingly in what he now knows to be Life's divine play, he is utterly, eternally happy.
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