Category: Swami Veda Bharati

When we go over to the Meditation Center for silent meditation at 9:00 pm, many people throughout North and South America will join us; at 10:00 pm in the New York area, 9:00 pm in this area and so on – so there is a Guru-field. Many people know of this Full Moon Meditation, but . . .

“I fell asleep.” “I forgot.” But you didn’t forget the movie on the TV. Is this how much you care for the source of knowledge, source of wisdom, source of that grace which can guide us, which can purify us, which can sanctify us?

The word “guru,” in etymological history, is connected to the word “great” and “gravity.” From the moment we are born we are looking for a guru, someone to teach us, to guide us. We are constantly asking: What is that? Who is that?

The ancient rishis sang out in wonder:

“Amī ya ṛkṣā nihitāsa uccā naktaṃ dadṛśre kuha cid diveyuḥ”
(Amee ya RkShaa nihitaasa uccaa naktam dadRshre kuha chid diveyuh)

“These stars that appear at night in the sky, where do they vanish to in the day?”

People ask:

“Ko addhā veda ka iha pra vocat kuta ājātā kuta iyaṃ visṛṣṭiḥ:
( Ko addhaa veda ka iha pra vocat kuta aa-jaataa kuta iyam vi-sRShTih)

O, among all of humanity, who knows of this knowledge?  Who will tell us how we were born?  What is the source of this creation, this creation, the creation of our personality, the creation of our being?”

We ask these questions and we want intellectual answers, but intellectual answers are no answers. Intellectual answers raise more questions, and each answer raises more questions.

Only when the questions are resolved and the answer is a personal experience, a personal experience that we call in the ancient Upanishads, in the texts of the yoga tradition, ātma jñāna,aatma-jnaana, knowing the Self. Ātma-sākṣāt-kāra, aatma-saakShaatkaara, coming face-to-face and realizing this ātman, aatman, the being to whom no adjectives, no nouns, no verbs are attached, no names, no conditions, no spaces, no times, no histories, no futures – eternity alone, infinity alone.

Knowing that Infinite Self is the path of yoga that Guru grants us, shows us if you’d only listen, if you’d only follow, if you’d only practice. And when we truly aspire, truly – not as an occasional interest: “Oh, that was an interesting book. Oh, that was a nice one. I’ll read it for you.” No! Does it stop there? Hmmm?

When you truly aspire, a prayer rises in you. Many of you know the Mahā-mṛtyuñjaya prayer:

Om tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭi-vardhanam.
urvārukam iva bandhanāt mṛtyor mukṣīya māmṛtāt
(Om tryambakam yajaamahe sugandhim puShTi-vardhanam
Urvaarukam iva bandhanaat mRtor mukSheeya maamRtaat)

The key word in that prayer I’ve never explained before. The key word in that prayer is mukṣīya [pronounced muksheeya]: “May I be freed.” “May I be liberated.”

Waking up, wake with the prayer: “Mukṣīya! May I be liberated today!” Go to sleep at night, thinking “Mukṣīya! May I be liberated in a divine dream! May I be liberated in my sleep. May I wake up a liberated being. This morsel of food I eat, may I thereby, mukṣīya, be liberated, be freed from bondages, false concepts, names, conditions, pasts and futures, habituations, imprints that bind us, that tie us down.
In one of my favorite countries, Korea,among many people when they part from each other, the parting greeting is: “May you be liberated. May you be enlightened.”

May you be enlightened. May I be enlightened. When we truly thus aspire – truly!  Not an occasional desire: every now and take interest, drop into the church once a week, come to The Meditation Center . . . Ummm! . . . sometimes. Remember your mantra . . . Ummm! . . . every now and then.

When you truly aspire, when your hair roots cry out,

“Mukṣīya!
May I be freed!
May I be liberated!
May I be enlightened!
May I be freed!
May I be liberated!
May I be enlightened!”

Go aspiring tonight. Go to bed.  Forget what in the morning? Yes? No, wake up remembering. Go for your shopping. Come back laden with your groceries. Put the groceries down, sit down on the sofa, take a sigh and say, “Mukṣīya! May I be liberated.” How about that? No need to memorize the whole 32-syllable mantra, just mukṣīya.

And how? How can that aspiration be fulfilled?

All of you know the Gāyatrī mantra:

OM bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ (in the Earth, Sky and Heaven)
tat savitur vareṇyaṃ bhargo devasya dhīmahi. dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt.

(OM bhoor bhuvah svah. Tat savitur vareNyam
bhargo devasya dheemahi. Dhiyo yo nah pracodayaat.)

Just like the key word in Mahā-mṛtyuñjaya mantra is mukṣīya, the key word in Gāyatrī Mantra is dhīmahi Pronounced dheemahi): “May we meditate,” and thereby may I be liberated. Dhīmahiand mukṣīya. You want your prayer of mukṣīya answered? Okay, then dhīmahi.  What more do you want to know?

But it is a path in which, if your aspiration is a true one, self-purification will happen.

The great Shaṅkarāchārya, who revived our Saṁnyāsī (sanyasi – monastic  order of Swamis) 1200 years ago, wrote voluminous works, and one of his books is, Upadeśa-sāhasrī, upadesha-saahasree, the Book of A Thousand Homilies.

He says the guru’s task is to impart knowledge. But then he has to assess why the knowledge is not taking root. Why is not the disciple grasping, understanding, following the path?

He has to figure out what are the causes, what are the reasons that the child who is his disciple is not rising. So in that particular passage, the great Shaṅkarāchārya explains what you have to look for (paraphrase):

Is this person indulging in non-virtue?
Is he too worldly?
Is he lazy?
Is he being negligent?
The teaching he has heard about discriminating between the eternal and the transient. has that teaching taken root in him so he is not choosing the transient, he is choosing the eternal?
Is he too much involved with constantly thinking of worldly matters?
Is he subject to pride of his group, caste, country, nation?
What is his pride?
What is his ego?

Once the guru has identified that, he says, then create in him the opposite virtues: non-anger, non-violence, non-pride, non-ego – cultivate those.

The guru is like a mother’s womb, hiraṇya-garbha,HiranYa-garbha, the Golden Womb. When the guru light shines, it is like the whole universe is filled with a brilliant golden light. It is the teaching light of the universe; in the West it is called the Holy Spirit, the teaching spirit. It is that teaching spirit to which, on this full moon day, we pay homage.

Our swamis have spoken to you. I have a few other swamis, I have one or two very capable ones in India. I wish it was possible to get visas for them to come and guide you here, but it is not possible.

When I enter my vow of silence, they will continue teaching. Five years of silence starting on March 10th next year (2013), and people are asking me, “Who will guide us?

All these people have been guided. Swami Ritavan has been with me for the last 42 years. Ma Radha has been under Swami Rama for the last 42 years. And many others: Swami Nitya, and there are others.

But let me explain to you that in our tradition, silence is the true teaching. The real teaching is in silence. I invite you to come to the Ashram and be steeped in that silence. We specialize on the art of silence in our ashram.

We specialize on many sciences: the teachings of it, the philosophy of yoga, and the texts, and we have a research lab which is testing, recording brain waves and conditions arising out of meditation, and Śrī Vidyā, shree-vidyaa, which is not easily taught. But our core teaching now is the science of silence. People do not realize that there is a science to silence. I invite you for that.

We will go over the Meditation Center now, because at 9:00 p.m. We sit in silent meditation for an hour with the rest of the entire North American and South American community.

And, what are the two key words that I have given you today? Yes! Mukṣīyaand dhīmahi.

Will you absorb these two words and let them become your aspiration, your desire, your longing?

• This word I am about to speak, does it lead to liberation?
• Is it conducive to meditation?
• This emotion that I’m about to indulge in and express, does it lead to liberation – my liberation and the liberation of others?
• Is it conducive to my meditation and the meditation of others?

That is your test: continuous self-purification. I wish you that purification, and true entry into the gateway of silence.

We have kept today’s guided meditation short, but when you sit for silent meditation, expand on that. Each stage that I led you through, expand on that over time.

People ask why we don’t meditate here in this building. Because that space at The Meditation Center is sacred. Sacred means that there is a Guru presence. And our Gurudeva, Swami Rama of the Himalayas, consecrated that place.

I am hoping that in eight years’ time, when you celebrate 50 years of The Meditation Center – I will be 88 – that maybe I will come and join you. And you will decide for that space to remain sacred and devoted to the teaching and practicing of meditation for another 50 years after that. And that is for you to decide, to determine, to make possible.

God Bless you all. May Gurudeva bless you, grant you grace, mukṣīyaand for that, dhīmahi. With the grace of the Guru: śrīṁ gurave namaḥ. (Shreem gurave namah.)

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Editor’s Note

This is a transcription of the lecture part of the Guru Purnima evening address by Swamiji on 3rd July 2012 at St. Maron’s Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

The following is an interview with Sadhana Journal, a yoga magazine published in Spanish in Ecuador, South America. The interview was given in preparation for Swami Veda Bharati’s visit to Ecuador (and Galapagos Islands) for a meditation retreat, 31st July to 11th August, 2012.

1. In your words what is yoga?

From Vyasa’s commentary on the very first yoga sutra: Yoga is Samadhi — the consciousness in which the union with divinity is experienced.

2. With today’s actual generalization of “yoga” as a physical exercise or stress release method, do you think people are misusing this discipline?

They are not necessarily misusing it even though over commercialization is certainly a misuse. They are only presenting a pebble as the entire mountain. The pebble however is from the mountain.

3. How did you get started with this study?

The newspapers in India in 1947 said that I had brought this knowledge from past life. It was my father’s wish that his son should be a rishi. My entire childhood education was in Sanskrit metaphysical texts and the practices of yoga and meditation.

4. You were a professor of oriental philosophy and Sanskrit, you have an MA [and D. Litt.] etc. How did you learn? Where did you study?

Although I hold the degrees from London and Holland, they do not reflect my true education as I have explained in the answer to question 3.

5. At what age did you decide to take vows and become a monk?

At the age of 6. But took the vows only in 1992 at the age of 59.

6. What is the Mahamandaleshara title you have in Hindu religion?

This title is conferred by the community of swamis upon those swamis they consider to be of exceptional knowledge, etc.

7. At what age is it possible to start learning meditation and yoga?

Three years before conception.  When parents, planning to invite a yogi soul into the womb, undertake intensive Gayatri mantra and other such practices.

8. Is it necessary to have a guide to learn meditation?

Is it necessary to have a guide to do experiments in physics in a research lab?

9. What is your opinion about the so called gurus that teach this discipline and try to become rich?

I better not express my opinion.  I neither call myself a guru nor allow my picture anywhere in my Ashram.

10. Is it negative to ask money for teaching yoga?

Money is essential so that one has the freedom to teach yoga instead of taking a bank job. It should not be a fixed price like a commodity being sold, it should be a love offering from grateful students.  That is the tradition by which I live.

11. We understand that you also direct a meditation research lab and that your master and yourself have done experiments and measures in the lab.  What are the psychological and physical benefits of this practice?

In our research lab we have a bibliography of 3,000 articles from medical and scientific journals detailing the beneficial psycho-neuro-physiological effects of meditation.  I cannot give a brief summary here.

12. Chemical reactions in the body?

Please see answer to question 11.

13. Can a Catholic or a Christian practice meditation?

There is a long tradition of meditation in Christianity. There are many books on the subject written by the Catholics and other Christians.  I may even give a brief summary of this history during our forthcoming seminars in Ecuador.

14. We understand you were in Ecuador many years ago. Can you share your experience of that time?

My memory is of the warmest hospitality, and very positive responses to the teachings. One of the major highlights of that visit was to meet the venerable Padre Davila.  After all these decades, that early meeting is bearing its fruits in my forthcoming visit.

15. Do you think there are qualified schools to learn meditation in this country?  Any suggestions?

I do not know enough about this country.

16. How do you see yourself?

As a small disciple of my Guru carrying on with his work.

17. What are your sources of inspiration? Books? Masters? Teachers?

Books? Vedas, all the ancient yoga texts, all the revealed scriptures of all religions in the world.
Masters? Ancient rishis, saints of all religions, my Master Swami Rama of the Himalayas.

18. Who do you admire?

I admire my Master the most.

19. What do you see as the principal virtue for a human being?

Selflessness and consequent non-violence.

20. Can yoga help us to change the destructive conduct of patrons?

If you practice the first yama, Ahimsa, the destructive behavior will automatically change.

21. How, as human beings, can we transform this planet and turn the negative situations like violence, fears, environmental problems?

If enough of us change, the planet will change.

22. Can a person seeking enlightenment by meditation forget society? What should be the offering of meditators for society?

I am totally dedicated to meditation and totally dedicated to serving the society. Meditation makes you a selfless servant.

23. What would be your reflections on world peace?

Begin with the peace in your own mind. Learn to integrate the various factions that are constantly at war in the continent of your skull. If enough people and the leaders can do that, there will be world peace.

24. What do you think of the Pope? Or any other famous name in religion or spirituality?

Mine is the standard Hindu answer: sab santan ki jaya. Glory to all saints. I bow to them all.

Occasionally this question is asked by curious seekers.

Please read the series At the Feet of a Himalayan Master. So far 2 volumes of memoirs by different disciples have been published by Swami Rama Centre at the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust in Dehradun. These are also available through Lotus Press in USA. The 3^rd volume is now in preparation, soon to be published.

These volumes give out numerous examples of the ways in which Gurudeva Swami Rama guided the sincere disciples. They also record numerous instances when he took many disciples’ illnesses upon himself and either absorbed them into his own physical systems or dissipated them.

I had numerous experiences of the same during my long periods of chronic conditions.

In 1980 he himself took gravely ill, with all his openings bleeding; the doctors diagnosed it as over-exhaustion. He called a few of his disciples to spend some time with him in silence, told us ‘my Master is calling me’ and I must go. He dictated the instructions for his several hundred organizations to his secretaries. He bade us good-bye and left guidance as to what to do with his body if he were to leave it. Then he left the USA to meet his Master.

This was sometime in September 1980. We heard nothing from him after he left the USA. We all wondered if we would ever see him again.

He had also commanded me to move my family from the USA to India and locate myself in his Ashram in Rishikesh. We were to fly out on 17th December 1980. He called on 16th December. I spoke to him excitedly; “Maharaj-ji, where are you calling from?”  He was calling from Hong Kong. With great concern I asked him how he was. He replied:

“I am very well, sonny. But my Gurudeva has left his body. At this time one of us three was destined to leave: he (grandmaster), I or yourself (referring to me). Gurudeva said: ‘My work is now complete but I still have 14 years left to this body. Your work is not yet complete. I transfer these 14 years of life to you so that you can complete your work’.”

Then, after a few weeks I saw him in Delhi. He looked hale and hearty, standing as usual tall and erect. He was ready to embark on his project to build the hospital, but first he chose to establish an ashram in Nepal. As soon as that ashram was established, he left from there, came back to the Rishikesh ashram and earnestly set about to establish the grand hospital for the service and benefit of the mountain people.

I was counting years. 14. Fourteen years passed and he was still in the body and I took a sigh of relief. However, his body had begun to weaken. He started saying, “My Gurudeva is calling me. Now no power can hold me back. My work is now complete. I must go.” We watched his body steadily in pain and looking emaciated, but still tall and erect with no sign of any sadness on him; always inspiring, guiding the final phases of the hospital construction.

The foundation stone for the hospital was laid in 1992. The well equipped hospital was already running in 1996. The Medical College and the Nursing College were already recognized by the Government of India.

There was no shortage of the teams of doctors and specialists around him. At the insistence of concerned disciples many other specialists were called. No definite diagnosis could be arrived at.

Here, permit me to digress.

Swami Vivekananda died of diabetes.

The Great Raman Maharshi died of cancer. When the doctors were trying to heal his cancer, he is reported to have said something like: “Here, I am trying to rid myself of the big disease called the body by using a small disease and you all are trying to rid of this small disease that is my instrument”.

The great yogi Totapuri (whose name is well known to the students of the life of Paramahamsa Ramakrishna), like many other yogis, changed his name several times. With his last name he left his body around 1958. He was reputed to do the same thing Swami Rama did throughout his life, taking on people’s illnesses upon himself and dissipating them. But he did not cure himself of the diabetes he took on from someone. He was asked why he is not healing himself. He replied, “At a certain time I have to leave my body. I am keeping this last arrow in my quiver to use at that time”.

So, back to Swami Rama. The surgeons at our hospital were happily surprised that when they asked for his blessing for a difficult surgery the surgery would go smoothly easy flowing.

Yes, at the insistence of concerned disciples, specialists were consulted from different parts of the world to look at Swami Rama’s ailing body. None of them could agree on a diagnosis. The liver specialist said it was liver disease. The cancer specialist said it was cancer of this organ or that.

I asked him why these specialists cannot agree on a diagnosis. He replied in disgust:

“Quacks, all!!”

Much earlier, I tried to organize a yajna (fire offerings ceremony) with mrityunjaya mantra for his health. He said “What will the japa of others do for me? I am the one who has given the mantra!”

I said, “But, then, Swamiji, you have healed so many in life. Why do you now not use that healing power to cure yourself?” He replied, “This kind of use of power for oneself is not permitted in the Tradition”.

I said, “Maharaj ji, then grant me the healing power and I will use it to heal you”. He laughed gently and said “but then, it is my power you are using for me. Not permitted by the Tradition.”

This was to us a lesson in what total selflessness of a yogi means.

To the last day of his life he was doing the rounds of his hospital.

Finally, on 13th November 1996 he left his body.

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Editor’s Note

The above is an excerpt from Swami Veda Bharati’s planned book about Gurudeva Swami Rama.

Many times seekers ask me questions about spiritual upbringing of children.

Often these questions are asked after a baby’s birth whereas the right time to ask the question is even before getting married.

I have answered these questions in some detail in lectures and writings. Gurudeva Swami Rama has written giving some necessary and inspiring messages.

However, the questions are still repeated. So, I shall repeat here what I have taught before but in a summary form. At whatever stage of the presence of your child you are at, you may start on these suggestions/instructions applicable to that stage.

First principle: children do not need to be trained. Parents need to be trained. All adults need to be trained. Children will pick up spirituality the way they pick up language without being taught. What is the level of spirituality in your joint life, dear parents?

2. A child’s education begins minimum three years before conception. You are responsible for the samskaras you are are creating in yourself during that period. Three years of intensive gayatri mantra practice, and your child will be so intelligent that he will never need to go to school. I have similarly taught appropriate Buddhist mantras to people from Buddhist communities as three-year preparation for conceiving a child.

3. In the ancient Vedic Indian society, of which a few rare fragments are struggling to survive today, there is a (a) special sacraments performed just before conception. There are (b) (c) two sacraments performed during pregnancy. In the absence of formal sacrament, or as an addition to it, keep your meditation practice with your diksha mantra (mantra received at yoga initiation).

4. As soon as you know you are pregnant (this is addressed to both parents), ask for gayatri mantra initiation and practice the same throughout pregrancy. People of different religion may ask their spiritual guides to do similar practices each according to his/her religion.

5. During pregnancy,

A. you are not only nourishing the child’s body through the umbilical chord. You are (a) creating his/her pranic body, (b) nourishing/creating his/her mind.
Whatever thoughts, feelings, emotions you carry in you, whatever impressions you give to your mind, are passed on in a subtle way to the child in you.

B. So, see what pictures you hang in your rooms at this time, what movies you watch, what books you read, what discourses you listen to. Do use this time to read the life stories of spiritually advanced beings.

C. It is the duty of the spouse, the whole family and society, that they provide a peaceful, calm, non-agitating environ for the pregnant one because you are doing this for the child, that is, for the future constitution of the entire society.

D. I wish that the world economic system was not so intentionally hostile to women, to mothers, to children. I wish it was not geared to destroy mothers and children. In some societies, like India, mothers have three months maternity leave. In some crass and over-exploitative economic systems they do not have a weak!

I wish that economically, and without harming their professional carriers, it was possible for mothers to take the entire nine months off to concentrate on the child, and for the fathers also to be able to take a long paternity leave as is happening in some societies.

E. Parents, family, meditate together at least during these 9 months.

F. Do remember that the major education of a child is during the nine months of pregnancy. It is during these months that you are creating the child, forming/shaping the child.

6.

A. The fourth sacrament of a child is soon after birth when (a) the parent or the family Guru first recites OM into the child’s ear (b) the mantra

Tvam vedo’si
Thou art Veda; thy name is Veda (Wisdom, Knowledge, divine inspiration)

Is recited into the child’s ear and (c) a bija-mantra is written on the baby’s tongue with a gold stick dipped in honey – that’s not easy but the thought counts.

B. Thereafter there are many sacraments the details of these may be studied elsewhere.

7. In many societies

A. it is felt that the child’s sub-conscious is still tuned to his/her past life. S/he is not yet yours. In these societies no one makes purchases of child’s clothes and things before birth; does not start pulling the child’s consciousness to us that early. They swathe the new born in some sheets and that is all. Till later.

B. No one in these societies chooses the child’s name beforehand for the same reason. The time of the child’s birth is immediately given to an astrologer. The astrologer matches the time with one of the 108 stations of the moon. The figure of 108 is arrived by the spaces between constellations each divided into four quarters. Depending on in which quarter between which two constellations the moon was at the time of the child’s birth, accordingly, a matching syllable is chosen as prescribed for that constellation-quarter. You may name the child beginning the name with that syllable. It is commonly called raashi-naama, constellation name, and is kept secret, like a mantra, except for ceremonial occasions. These days this rule of secrecy is not strictly followed and the same may also be the popular name.

8. Form the habit of relaxed, deep, diaphragmatic breathing. Every child is born breathing diaphragmatically. Later s/he sees that parents and other adults are chest breathers and s/he quits the in-born nature and picks up the bad adult habit. Then, later in life, s/he has to go looking for yoga classes of the Himalayan Tradition to re-learn diaphragmatic breathing.

If the parents have formed the habit of diaphragmatic breathing and then hug the child, his/her natural habit is re-enforced, confirmed as correct and s/he continues to breathe the way s/he did upon birth. Otherwise, many ailments like asthma may occur. My surmise, for which I have no scientific data, is that it is the chest-breathing adults who cause asthma i half the cases of that disease in children. So. Hug the child, breathing diaphragmatically. That is his/her first lesson in yoga.

9.

A. Spend some time daily this way: wrap your meditation shawl over the child, hugging the child while doing your relaxed deep breathing and mantra.

B. Here an aside: the women in India have the anchal – free-flowing corner of the sari, or a dupattaa or chunree over the shoulders. This serves as a source of emotional protection and feeling of security for a young child; it is like the continuity of the placenta outside the womb. It also solves teh problem of modesty when suckling the child in public.

Place the sari-anchal, dupatta or your meditation shawl over the child and do your mantra and relaxed breathing while suckling the child on the breast. Fathers, you, too, wrap the meditation shawl around the child and sit silent, doing relaxed breathing. The child will learn quietness of the mind. That is the most profound training in meditation.

C. Hum or sing sacred hymns and verses or mantras, or prayers of your own religion while holding the child. Recite these often.

D. Play the appropriate recordings of the above as well as softer kind of classical music even as a child is falling asleep.

10. Once the child begins to understand verbal thoughts,

A. Hold the child in your lap and hum, sing, recite from sacred books. A large number of children are still brought up in India listening to the mother reciting the Ramayana. Fathers need to do the same.

B. There are graphic art cartoon books of spiritual stories available by hundreds to show to the children and to read to them from those.

C. Tell the child the stories of the spiritual accomplished ‘heroes’ like the Buddha, St. Francis, the Sufi saints and so on.

D. You may devise games of enacting the episodes from these inspiring lives.

11. When the child is 3 years old, or may be a little older, it is time to put him to sleep for a siesta or a night’s rest by giving him/her a relaxation practice in a soft meditative voice. For this to succeed, the adult’s own mind needs to be calm.

12. Some cultures have lost the habit of the family praying together and eating together. If you have lost the habit, restore it; it is URGENT and important. There is nothing like meditating together and eating together — besides playing together — to create family bonding. Later, the child will not go looking for drugs.

If you follow the above, and add your own improvisations, by the age of five you have completed the child’s spirituality training. The rest is filling in the intellectual niches and continuing to the above practices as much as possible.

Some may ask: What to do with the effects of negative thoughts that may have arisen. For example, someone worries that she had thought aborting the child in the early stages of pregnancy but then changed her mind. What undesirable unconscious effect would it have on the child’s psychology and development. The answer is : do not worry about few moments of dark thoughts that occurred. Moonlight wipes off darkness. Follow the above guidelines, improvising on the basis of the principles implied. The human mind is very resilient. Do not sit there and flog yourself for some past negative thought. Rejoice in the current moonlight.

Above all, as I said in the beginning, it is the spiritual training of adults that is important; the children will pick it up the way they pick up your language.

Also important:

Do NOT

force the child; let him/her develop;
over-protect from undesirable company; simply explain. Children have good judgement if they have been given proper values.

DO

let the child experiment with alternatives and choose. If the foundation you have given is firm, the edifice will hold. TRUST in the child’s innate wisdom.

So, from before conception, through all these periods of ‘child training’, it is important that you learn your own Personality Orders like:

saumyataa: generating moon like calmness and pleasantness,

saumanasyam: beautiful-mindedness,

chitta-prasaadanam: making the mind a pleasant, thereby a clear, space.

As it develops in the adults, so it will impress itself upon the child’s mind.

This is not the end of the story but it is a good beginning.

Enjoy the peacefulness of your child’s mind.

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Editor’s Note

The article has been written based on (a) author’s own upbringing (b) experiments in rearing spiritually inclined children in USA.

Q. Swamiji, can you explain the reason for taking the five year vow of silence?

A.

(1) I have been travelling, teaching, lecturing for the last fifty-five years, I started in February 1947, and it is time for me to close my mouth. I have said enough, and it is all recorded. We have 5000 hours of recordings, we have 45.000 pages of transcripts and Swami Ritavan will tell you where they are. So there is enough said, enough spoken.

(2) Then silence conserves both physical and spiritual energy. I’m taking this vow at the age of 80 years, and it is time to conserve the energy. When we speak we spend an enormous amount of energy: every word we speak is several breaths. When you say: “I love you” you have used three breaths. If you put your hand in front of your mouth, you will feel three puffs of air. So you have used three breaths from your life long allowance. So just the conservation of energy becomes important at certain points in life and then using that energy more spiritually.

(3) Third, for someone who is dedicated to a life of meditation, what we call antar-mukha, turning all the senses inwards, is most important. To give oneself the opportunity to turn all the senses inwards, so we close our eyes, we still our hands, we still our body, and we close our speech. But it cannot be done without an emotional peace within oneself. I have no struggle with that part, fortunately, by Guru’s grace, so I can then use that conserved energy for my inwards spiritual breakthroughs.

(4) Then the other reason is that I need to spend time in undisturbed writing. There is some work that has yet to be done. That is another additional reason.

(5) My body is not well and does not have the strength to continue to speak. But the most important part is my next breakthrough in my meditation. I am still working on the art of dying. I do not know, well I have a rough idea, of how many years I have. This period of silence, by conserving my breath, will prolong my years of life. It’s a secret many people do not know. And then it will give me more chance to write, to meditate, and serve at a subtler level.

(6) When I depart I want to go by the path that the Upanishads call “Surya-bhedana”, bursting through the solar gate, and I am still working on that part of meditation.

(7) People say: “Well, what happens to those who are seeking continued teaching?”. There are enough teachers in the Tradition now who are travelling, who have done much sadhana, who are guiding that level of people.

(8) Not many people realize that teaching in silence is much more powerful than teaching in words. The great yogis have often taken this kind of a vow of silence. My earliest experience was when I was perhaps six or seven years old and a yogi was walking down the mountains. We lived in the foothills of the Himalayas, in a city called Dehradun where I was born. So a neighbor of ours was accompanying this swami whose luminous face I can almost see even now from that childhood.

The neighbor said that he has just met this Swamiji on the roadside. “He’s just coming down from the Himalayas and he has not spoken a word for the last twenty-five years”.  And that remained the lasting impression from the childhood. I always harboured that ambition. Everybody has ambitions. Somebody has ambition to be a great soldier, a great commander, a great writer. Now my ambition is being fulfilled. To be a silent swami. I have a friend swami who has an ashram about two hours drive from our ashram, by the river Yamuna, on the other side, also in the foothills. He has not spoken a word for the last twenty-seven years. His teaching continues. People gather around this swami, they ask questions, he answers them in writing. Well I have done enough writing, but every now and then, maybe once a year, I will announce a course and I will use a combination of ancient silence with modern science, and have a computer screen on the wall and do some teaching by typing on my computer. That is because I do not have the ability to transmit a whole lecture directly into the minds.

(9) My one thought at present is, it is not completely decided, that at the end of five years I will give one lecture (or maybe a few) and then go back to another five years of silence. It is a thought at the moment but we will see how things are at that time.

These are the reasons for my taking the vow of silence. Wish me success, thank you.

Q. Swamiji, may I ask why do you want to die in the Surya-bhedana way?

A. Why do I want to die in the Surya-bhedana way? There is no other way to die!

Q. People don’t die in this way…

A. Dying means taking oneself out of this prison, carefully and gently. It is like asking a prisoner: “Why do you want to leave the prison?”. But I don’t want to leave the prison by jumping over the walls, or breaking through the windows. I want to leave the prison through the main gate, the main gate through which the kundalini-shakti empowers us. So when the yogis die, they take the path of their prana, through the kundalini path, and pass through a point of light, and burst through it. I have seen my master lead one old lady through actual process of death, in Minneapolis. The mother of Swami Nijananda, who was then Dr. Whitacre, a well known psychiatrist of the city. My guru Swami Rama invited me to witness her death. She was a very dedicated, devoted, advanced meditator. She lay there in her bed  and Swami Rama said: “I will now help her to go out. Just put your hand on her fontanella, where the two bones are joined”. When I put my hand he said: “I will now take her away”. And the bones parted under my hand. I could feel… Then she closed her eyes forever. And was at peace. My Master’s orders are, among his other commands and blessings, then when you sit down like this, he demonstrated, sitting straight in the asana, when you sit down like this and say: “I will now leave the body”, that day you will leave the body. I do not know if it was a prediction, if it was a blessing, or it was a command. Whichever one It was I want it to come true.

Q. Why is it so important for your students to be present at the ashram in March 2013 while you will take your vow of silence?

A. I felt that someone whom they regard as a teacher is entering into silence will be a source of instruction for them. And there is also a desire to give one final instruction before I get into silence. But the most important is whatever they would learn from it. Plus those who come to do a period of silence here they know how effective this place is. This place is charged with that silence and peace. So when I get into silence from 10th March 2013 over one hundred-fifty people are staying here to do nine days of silence. Can you imagine the five-acre ground with one hundred-fifty people for nine days in total silence? It will further charge this ashram and that charge will enter their own minds, pranas and souls. That is one small explanation.

Q. Swamiji, what will be your last word before you enter in silence?

A. I don’t know what my last word will be before I enter into silence! I never know. At that moment whatever the Guru wants to say he will say it. He doesn’t tell me, he really doesn’t tell me beforehand. When I lecture he doesn’t tell me what I’m going to say. I just sit down there, he says it and people give me credit.

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Editor’s Note

The interview with Swami Veda Bharati was taken by Daniele Belloni, founder-director of a centre of Himalayan Yoga near Milan, Italy, together with his wife, Susi Stefanini, who equally shares this work of teaching.  The interview took place at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama, Rishikesh, on 14th March 2012.

We invite you to read the following articles at the links below:

• Swamiji’s Silence Announcement
• Silence after 2013
• 2013 All Teachers and Sangha Gathering
• Silence

The Something Swamiji Said column in the AHYMSIN newsletter  honors Swami Veda’s many years of teaching and speaking to/with us. We invite you to share some of what you have learned or are learning. Please write to us at https://www.ahymsin.org/contact/

To read past columns

https://ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1205May/13.html

https://ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1204Apr/09.html

https://ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1203Mar/11.html

https://ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1202Feb/01.html

https://ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1201Jan/09.html

https://ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1112Dec/04.html

https://ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1111Nov/07.html

https://ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1110Oct/02.html

A friend has written me asking the following question:

In the Patanjali sutras, he gives us the yama of ahimsa.  In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that he must fight and slaughter a lot of soldiers.  While Krishna tells him that the atman cannot be harmed since it’s eternal, immutable, etc., Arjuna still must harm a whole lot of people in battle.  How do I reconcile these two things?  If Patanjali is saying that we shouldn’t harm anybody’s atman, that doesn’t really make sense since it cannot be harmed.  So he must be talking about the body.  If he’s talking about the body this seems a direct contradiction to what Krishna is telling Arjuna.  I’ve been struggling with this for awhile and can not make the two things come together.

Here is a brief reply.

Please see some of the verses of the Gita that extol ahimsa, for example verse 5 of chapter 10:

Ahimsaa samataa tuShTih…

Here, ahimsa is one of seven ‘states to be’ (bhaava) that arise from the Lord.

Then, the verse 2 of chapter 16:

Ahimsaa satyam a-krodhah…

Here ahimsa is one of the 26 aspects of divine wealth (daivee sampad) to which are born those who are endowed with such wealth. The complete list of 26 is in verses 1-3.

The question arises: is Bhagavad-gita (BhG) then contradicting itself. On one hand, the text extols ahimsa, and on the other hand, it enjoins Arjuna to indulge in the battle. Here, let us take other conditions placed on Arjuna by the Lord. We shall take only two verses, to avoid writing a whole book analyzing the philosophy of BhG.

Sukha-duhkhe same kRtvaa laabhaalaabhau jayaajayau

Tato yuddhaaya yijyasva naivam paapam avaapsyasi

Holding pleasure and pain as the same, similarly loss and gain, as well as victory and defeat — then engage in the battle. Thus shall you not accrue sin.

BhG. 2.38

Mayi sarvaaNi karmaaNi sanyasyaadhyaatma-chetasaa

Nir-aasheeer nir-mamo bhootvaa yudhyasva vigata-jvarah

Surrendering all your acts unto Me, with a mind dwelling in atman the self, free of expectations, free of a concept of ‘meum’ (mine), having freed yourself of all feverishness, then fight.

BhG. 3.30

In Sanskrit the injunction is very direct. yudhyasva vigata-javarah: fight ! having voided fevers. Thus the pre-conditions for engaging in battle are that Arjuna

• should develop equanimity towards pleasure and pain, loss and gain, victory and defeat
• should surrender all his acts to Him (the verb used is ‘sam+nyas’= to renounce as in the case of a sanyasin swami)
• should have his mind dwelling in the pure spiritual self, atman
• should be free of expectations
• should be free of the common obsession of ‘mine’
• should void all feverishness from his being  —
• then he should engage in battle.

This is no common war that the world engages in today. Imagine the spiritual training required for preparing to engage in such a war. For this, one needs to look at the whole of Mahabharata to know what training and sadhana Arjuna went through during his entire life.

Even His Holiness Dalai Lama, the great contemporary proponent of non-anger, has stated that sometimes force becomes necessary to combat evil.But, as per BhG there are spiritual pre-requisites for engaging in the use of such force.

Here I give a story I have repeated numerous times in my lectures on the subject. It comes from the Sufi tradition.

A Sufi soldier was in the middle of a battle. It came to hand-to-hand combat. He was fighting the enemy skillfully with his dagger. Soon he had the enemy down on the ground and sat astride his chest, raising his hand to drive the dagger down.

The enemy in his helpless anger spat on the Sufi soldier’s face.

The Sufi soldier’s hand hung in mid-stride and did not strike.

“What are you waiting for?”—said the fallen enemy. “I am totally under your power. Go ahead, kill me!”

The Sufi soldier replied : I cannot. I was doing my duty and you were doing your duty. I do not know you and you do not know me. Now you have introduced  a personal note by spitting on me in anger and I have become angry. Now killing you will not be an act of duty but it will be murder.

 In simple terms, Arjuna is being told to kill but not to commit murder.

What Arjuna is taught is the essence of all oriental martial arts where one is trained to hit the opponent but inside oneself remain in the centre of stillness. That is ahimsa in the battle field. This is the resolution of the ‘koan’ of Gita’s non-violence.

Gahanaa karmaNo gatih: ways of action are very deep.

Na nirodho na chotpattir na baddho na cha saadhakah

Na mumukShur na vai mukta ity eShaa paramaarthataa.

Neither cessation/termination,

No one in bondage, nor aspirant practitioner (saadhaka),

No one seeking liberation, nor liberated —

This is Transcendence and supreme purpose

.–Gaudapada’s Karikas on MaaNDookya Upanishad

Vaitathya-prakaraNa(2).32

a-nirodham an-utpaadam an-ucchedam ashaashvatam

an-ekaartham a-naanaartham anaagamam a-nir-gamam

yah prateetya-samutpaadam pra-panchopashamam shivam.

Deshayaamaasa sambuddhas tam vande vadataam varam

Without cessation

Without birth/beginning

Without termination

Nor yet perennial

Not one-purposeful

Not multi-purposeful

Not arriving/entering

Not departing/exiting

Dependent origination that

Pacifies all confusing networks of the universe

Benevolent, peaceful (shiva) –

He who, fully awakened/enlightened (sambuddha)

taught this, unto that highest of teacher

I bow in homage.

—Nagarjuna’s Moola-madhyama-kaarikaa

(pratyaya-pareekShaa naama prathamam prakaraNam)1.1

Here we see between the most important teacher of the Upanishad, Gaudapaada, and no less a personage of Buddhist philsophy than Nagarjuna, an identical statement about the transcendent nature of truth and reality.

This identity of teaching between two outwardly divergent religions can occur only when they unite in the single mystical path of meditation.

Convergences and divergences among religions are often discussed taking into account (1) doctrines and (2) liturgical or ritualized forms of religious practices. The exact relationship of meditation practices with doctrine as well as with these manifest religious practices is yet to be studied in depth. Also, practices of various methods of meditation are seldom compared.

Where do outward appearing religious practices end and the inward pursuits of meditation methods begin is difficult to define as the boundaries between the two may often overlap.

However, it is well known that meditation may be practiced within the context of a specific religion or without adherence to any specified religion.

Here we shall confine ourselves to show that a true unifying stream among many religions is in the contemplative pursuits. The details of methods of meditation in religions may vary but some of the essential approaches remain fundamentally identical. Some of these essences of the grammar of  contemplative and meditative practices may be partially listed here:

1. Breathing practices
2. Remembering a divine name or sacred formula or prayer word(s)
3. Sacred reading, lectio divina, in a contemplative context
4. Body posture and hand positions (mudra) in meditative prayer
5. Concentrations (of mind and senses, such as fixing a gaze)
6. Contemplation
7. Visualization
8. Identification with the Deity or with a divine Incarnation
9. Meditation while in motion (ambulatory meditation)
10. Silent rosay, mala or mashbaha
11. Silence; mind entering serene silence
12. Solitude
13. Meditations on universal or divine love and compassion
14. Withdrawal of senses and purity of thought
15. Physical purity
16. Quietude, ataraxia, hesychia, serenity
17. Finding ‘God Within’, or realization of the undefinable and unnamable  transcendental Reality (parmaartha-tattva)

The various methods in these practices are not all independent or exclusive of each other. They are often inclusive, many of these approaches to be practiced together with others, for example, lectio divina combined with solitude, followed by the practice of rosary, mala or mashbaha and then entering a state of breath awareness using the same mental formula that was used on the beads.

We shall show some of the varieties of and steps in these practices. Here we give an example of breathing practices. Although there are many hundreds of breathing exercises in the tradition of yoga meditation, for our purpose we mention only

breath awareness

• nir-garbha, without a sacred mental formula, as in vipassana, in Southern Buddhism, and

• sa-garbha, with the mental remembrance of a sacred formula, prayer word etc.

The convergence of the paths is seen in sa-garbha breath awareness. These observances are common to

 • yoga meditation practices of

o Jaina prekShaa-dhyaanao Yogis of the Hindu-Vedic background

o Northern Buddhists such as Tibetan meditators

• Hesychasm in the Christian meditative tradition

• Sufi schools practicing dhikr, remembrance of the name of God or a sacred formula with hosh dar dam, as in the Naqshbandi silsileh

• Catholic Christian tradition of the Jesuit Order.

Of these the last one is the least recognized. It shows the convergence of one form of Christian meditative tradition with similar methods used in all the other systems of breath meditations. Noteworthy are paragraphs 256-258 of Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order.

In paragraph 256 he teaches withdrawal of senses from their worldly objects (pratyahara in yoga). In 257 he instructs about fixing the gaze on a certain spot (traaTaka in yoga). Then with these prerequisite preparations, he teaches a method of mentally remembering a prayer, such as the Lord’s prayer, one word with each breath.

This method of prayer taught by St. Ignatius of Loyola is identical to ONE of the  uncounted number of methods of meditative prayer taught by Hindu-Vedic yogis as well as Tibetan yogis and in certain silsilehs and tariqat of the Sufi tradition.

While the actual prayers may vary from religion to religion, the method remains identical. This is one example of meditation serving as a unifying stream among different spiritual traditions.

[This paper with further detail was orally presented at Dhramaram Christian College (Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram) in Bangalore in the inaugural session of  the Conference on Mysticism starting on 5th January 2011. There was a short participatory demonstration, an experience, of a prayer with breath awareness at the end of the session.]

ANNEX :
Reproduced verbatim from

— The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, translated from the autograph by Father Elder Mullan, S.J. I.H.S.New York,  P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1914, pp.31

“The Third Method of Prayer is that with each breath in or out, one has to pray mentally, saying one word of the Our Father, or of another prayer which is being recited: so that only one word be said between one breath and another, and while the time from one breath to another lasts, let attention be given chiefly to the meaning of such word, or to the person to whom he recites it, or to his own baseness, or to the difference from such great height to his own so great lowness. And in the same form and rule he will proceed on the other words of the Our Father; and the other prayers, that is to say, the Hail Mary, the Soul of Christ, the Creed, and the Hail, Holy Queen, he will make as he is accustomed.

First Rule. The First Rule is, on the other day, or at another hour, that he wants to pray, let him say the Hail Mary in rhythm, and the other prayers as he is accustomed; and so on, going through the others.

Second Rule. The second is that whoever wants to dwell more on the prayer by rhythm, can say all the above-mentioned prayers or part of them, keeping the same order of the breath by rhythm, as has been explained.”

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Editor’s Note

Madhyamaka-shaastram of Naagaarjuna, vol.1, ed. Raghunath Pandeya, Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi 1988.

GauDapaada-kaarikaa in Eeshaadi-dashopaniShadah with Shaankara-bhaaShya. Shankaraachaarya-granthaavali vol.1, Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi, 1992.

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, translated from the autograph by Father Elder Mullan, S.J. I.H.S.New York,  P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1914.

A member of our ashram has asked me a question about a certain experience/initiation. He asks what I was like before and what did I become after that experience? I cannot say how long it would take to give full answer to this question. So, as briefly as I can, I shall summarise the long answer.

1. Because of intense gayatri-japa of my parents as preparation of conceiving me
2. Because of my father’s story of his initiation and about his guru
3. Because of daily practice of pranayama, dhyana, sandhya twice a day from the age of four and a half
4. Because of my father’s resolve that his son should grow to be a rishi
5. Because of his sankalpa to protect me from all exposures to the common world and its experience ( for example, I was not allowed to play with other children and I still do not know what happens in this mysterious ritual called ‘cricket’)
6. Because of continuous exposure to the stories of yogis — earliest being Swami Dayanada Saraswati and Swami Ramatirtha – that continued as a habit though all early years
7. Because the only education was in vyakarana, Nirukta, Vedas which was completed by the age of 13

my inner identification was always with Himalayan yogis; there was always an awareness that I belong to them and would one day find them or they would find me.

I recall, at the age of six, walking with my father and saying to him, “let us both go and become swamis”. He hushed me up then.

It was during these years that ‘knowledge’ often dawned on me and my mind always attributed that dawning to the unknown yogis of the Himalayas. It is thus that I learnt, through experiencing spontaneously, the practice of relaxation and yoga-nidra, not knowing that that is what they were called.

Reading the Gita and the Upanishads was at that time almost a disappointment as my only reaction, my question, was “so, what is new in them?”

That is how the different levels of the meanings of the Vedas were revealed to me.

There was always a knowledge that as I grow, I would be teaching worldwide but at the same time would be blessed by one or more Himalayan Yogi.

At age 13 and a half, I was officiating as Brahma of a Yajurveda-parayana-yajna in Ludhiana where vidvaan scholars from many parts of India had gathered. They questioned me for two days in the chambers about my knowledge of the Vedas. Then they wrote articles about me in the North Indian Hindi press.

I began to receive invitations to travel and lecture and addressed large crowds throughout North India. This pattern of life, of non-stop travelling and lecturing, began in February 1947, some months before the independence and partition of India. This has been the pattern for the last 65 years. The first two and a half years, till mid-1949, I travelled with my father under his protection.

In those days of travel my daily time table was: after waking, going out in the fields (in whichever town), bathing at some canal or kuaan (water well) — which were clean and common in those days — sit under a tree to do pranayama and dhyana. Walk back to the residence, have a breakfast. Open my books – I used to travel with 500 books – and study. Have lunch. Take a rest. From 3-5  p.m. was open hours for anyone to come for ‘darshan’ and ‘satsang’, to ask questions and receive answers. Then go for evening walk. Short evening dhyana. Return to residence. Have dinner. Give evening lecture. But some time there were even 3 sessions a day. I recall giving 49 sessions in seven days in 1950.

Back to the end of 1947. In the city of Bareli (spelled Bareilly in those days), as I was preparing to go for the regular evening walk with my father and the hosts, a small group of visitors turned up and asked to walk with us. My father readily agreed. When such beings appear, all logic, argument or resistance stops. You find yourself saying YES to anything they suggest. It is possible that my father recognized that they were higher beings.

On the return from the walk, in the middle of a dirty lane (gali) of Bareli, the leading person – whose name is not known to me — grabbed my head and shoved the middle finger of the right hand at my ajna chakra. Such an intense electric jolt passed into me that it was almost unbearable and I resisted but my father said not to resist, so I surrendered.

We walked back. They did not stay even for a glass of water. Where they came from, I do not know. Where they went, I do not know.

No, there was no major change in my person. It continued with the same life pattern, except that the electric current continued to be felt repeatedly at any time of the day and night and more so during meditation. In fact, thereafter, a meditation session did not begin with pranayama but with the feel of that sensation that helped one to go inside and do the pranayamas and sandhya from there.

One of the many results of such diksha is that the mantras become a fast mental vibration rather than a vocal observance. The time it takes others to recite one mantra, such an initiate ‘recites’ (vibrates) 20 or so mantras.

The wait for a guru continued. Expectancy. Often an experience of the presence that lectured through one. Dream of the Himalayan master. Guidance often as to the next steps in life. And so on.

It is a long story about meeting my gurudeva, Swami Rama of the Himalayas. Many months before he gave me the real initiation, he gave some preparatory initiations. I told him of the Bareli episode and the vibration I felt in my ajna chakra. He smiled and said “abhee dekhte raho kyaa kyaa hotaa hai” (keep watching yet what and what more occurs). He gave another ajna chakra initiation where the current and vibratory presence was of 100 times stronger. This is few months before the highest initiation. I am not at liberty to detail everything.

I asked him about who might have been the great guide who gave me that first ajna chakra initiation. He said “pahaaDee Baba honge” (It must be Pahadi Baba). I have heard that name, Pahadee Baba, several times from my master over the years but no explanation as to who he is, where he resides, from where he appears and where disappears.

After the Guru-initiation on 26th February 1970, I have continued to move fast to my present station and there is a long path yet to traverse.

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Editor’s Note

For more about mantra initiation, please see https://www.ahymsin.org/main/index.php/Himalayan-Tradition/initiation.html

Some controversy seems to have been generated regarding the recent fasts of the Gandhian leader Anna Hazare challenging the corruption in India.

Here my purpose is not to say anything about the controversy, if any. The purpose here is only to point out that many ‘modernised’ Indians do not seem to realize how ancient a part of the Indian tradition this type of fasting is.

It is still quite common in Indian families for a disgruntled member to stop eating and the whole family becomes concerned over the issues that have created such a situation and every family member rushes to assuage the hurt feelings and to examine what can be done to fulfil whatever is amiss.

“Dharnaa denaa” (to sit down with an insistence), “dharnaa de kar baiTh jaanaa” (to express an insistence and sit in one place without moving), are common phrases in Hindi and there must be similar phrases in other languages of India.

The ancient Sanskrit word in all classical texts (Ramayana, Mahabharata, Raja-tarangini, et al) is praayopaveshana, sitting down awaiting death; upa-veshana = sitting down, praaya = (praayaNa), departure, migration, that is, death.

Here we give two examples from the story of the well known avataara, Shri Rama. The first of these is from the well known Valmiki’s Ramayana (VR). The second one is from the Rama story in Yoga-vasishtha (YV) also attributed to Valmiki. The normal contents of such a practice are

• sitting down
• remaining silent
• lying only on one side and not changing sides
• remaining in a darkened room without a lamp sometimes with one’s face covered.

(see Sanskrit commentaries on VR called Tilaka, ShiromaNi and BhooShaNa, publ. Parimal Publications, Delhi,1990, vol. II, pp.1006ff.) It is also referred to as praty-up-veshana, sitting down with a purpose.

(1) From VR, Ayodhya-kanda, sarga 111

Bharata is trying to persuade Rama to return to Ayodhya and take up the throne. As Rama cannot be persuaded (see verses 12ff. Paraphrased here):

Having been thus addressed by Rama, Bharata commanded the nearby chariot-driver (Su-mantra): Spread the (seat of ) kusha grass. I shall sit in the presence of the noble one (arya = Rama) in praty-upa-veshana. Without food, without light, like a pauper Brahmin. [commentary: the way someone lies down in front of a defaulting debtor to recover his loaned out wealth.] I will stay in the house and lie down [only on one side].

As Sumantra looked at Rama awaiting the support of that command of Bharata, Bharata spread the kusha-grass mat by himself and sat down.

Thereupon Rama trying to dissuade Bharata from such an undertaking, said: What harm have I done to protest which you sit thus to persuade me? Furthermore, such prayopaveshana is advised to the others but not to those whose heads are consecrated (with royal consecration).

Upon this, Bharata addressed the surrounding people pleading: Why don’t you all persuade Rama? Upon which they all said: We cannot do so as Rama is only following upon the father’s command.

Rama then persuades Bharata: Rise, Bharata, touch me and touch some water (by way of consecration and ending the vow). Bharata thus abandons his sitting.

The rest of the narrative may be read in the original text.

(2) Yoga-vasishtha first Section, Vairaagya-prakaraNa

In Yoga-vasishtha first Section, Vairaagya-prakaraNa, speaks of Rama’s announcement that he would fast until he finds a way to enlightenment. This is reminiscent of Buddha’s 49 days of fasting and sitting still under the Bodhi tree.

In YV the story unfolds as Rama, not yet 16 years old, returns from a pilgrimage to holy spots and sacred rivers. Thereafter he is immensely saddened, disinterested in all things external.

In the meantime, sage Vishvamitra arrives at Dasharatha’s court asking that Rama be sent with him to protect his ashrama that is being invaded by demonic marauders. Dasharatha argues that Rams is yet young, not an expert in the arts of warfare and, instead, offers to accompany the sage himself to protect his ashrama. Vishvamitra expresses his displeasure, and Vasishtha persuades Dasharatha to obey Vishvamitra’s command.

A chain of messengers is sent to bring Rama, but in the meantime Rama comes on his own, prostrates to his father, the sages and all the venerable elders. The Father calls him over to sit in his lap and speaks to him lovingly and soothingly. Sages Vasishtha and Vishvamitra ask him the cause of his confusion. His reply begins in chapter 12 and goes on to the end of chapter 31 in 674 beautiful and forceful verses. It is an eloquent speech of deepest wisdom about the futility of worldly involvements.

In itself it constitutes supreme teaching of metaphysical truths and dispassion towards worldly involvements. After elaborating on his contemplative concerns, he requests the sages present to teach him the right way and method and emphatically sums up his determination (1.31.16-27):

There is no possibility of diminishing (this sorrow) without proper way and method (yukti), so do tell me the best and sufficient method so that practicing accordingly the sorrow no longer comes to me. Or, just tell me the method for right practice; how, wherewith, what is to be done with a high mind first, whereby the mind comes to restfulness and highest purification. Blessed one (do teach me) as you know for turning off my confusion; tell me of that by which definitely the noble ones (sādhu) indeed achieved sorrowlessness.

Or, if such a method, oh Brahman–(knower) does not exist, or one clearly exists but no one tells me, and if I do not find that unexcelled restfulness by myself, in that case I will abandon all movement, go into a state of non-ego; I will not eat, I will not drink water, I will not wear clothing, nor will I indulge in any activities like bathing, giving, eating and so forth⁽ⁱ⁾. Nor do I stay in the activities whether in cordial conditions or in crisis. I (will) want absolutely nothing except to renounce my body, oh Contemplative Sage; only free of all malice, devoid of ‘Meum’ without any anxiety I (will) sit here absolutely silent as though painted in a picture. Abandoning in sequence the awareness of exhalation and inhalation I (will) abandon the calamitous inhabitation named ‘body’.

Neither am I of this (body and world) nor is anyone else mine; I extinguish myself like an oilless lamp. Abandoning all, then I abandon this cadaver.

Valmiki said:

Rama, charming and delightful like immaculate cooling moon, his mind blooming with the highest thoughts, having spoken thus, then, like a blue-throated peacock who makes his cry towards heavy clouds and then (ceases) as though wearied, fell silent.

Upon hearing Rama’s eloquent speech, all the ladies of the palace, the courtiers, sages, all sit spellbound. The celestial sages, too, have heard the adorable words. They shouted “saadhu, saadhu” (well spoken! well spoken!). They sprinkled celestial blossoms on Rama for a full 12 minutes (4th part of a muh~rta which is 48 minutes in modern parlance), forming a veritable canopy over him. They spread the word throughout the heavens about this great council and all celestial sages such as Narada, Vyasa, Pulaha and others, all gathered, descended – a whole army of them – and were duly honoured, full of poetic praises for Rama.

Then Vishvamitra said:

Rama, there is nothing that is left to be known by you.

You are yourself highest among the knowing ones.

You have come to experiential knowledge (vi-jïāna) by your own subtle intelligence.

It only needs a little refinement.

Your wisdom is like that of Shuka the son of Vyasa.

Comment: here ensues Rama’s question about Shuka and Vishvamitra narrates the wisdom dialogue of Shuka and King Janaka.

Vishvamitra continues and advises that Vasishtha the family guru carry out the teaching as his preceptor. Vasishtha says:

Venerable Sage, as you command; I shall pass on the knowledge that Brahma had conferred in the past on the Niñadha mountain and I remember it in full and unfragmented.

It is here with the 3rd chapter of Section 2 that Vasishtha’s teaching really begins. On that promise of knowledge, Rama no longer needed to undertake to fulfil his promise of a fast unto death.

This is just one story, of many, about a true adhikarin, sitting down to fast and in silence till enlightenment is reached.

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Editor’s Note

⁽ⁱ⁾ He is describing the daily schedule of a well brought up person in which first one cleans one body, then gives some charity, then eats.

Abbreviations

VR Valmiki’s Ramayana

YV Yoga-vasishtha

“pradeepa-jvaalaabhir divasa-kara-neeraajana-vidhih” ¹

suvar-jyotih-sphaara-prasava-kara-samraaji puruShe

na rochetaiShaa kintv apara-puruShe’rchaa su-kalitaa

 

iyam svaatmany aavir vilasati mano-deepa-saraNih

“Offering aartee to the splendorous day-making sun with tiny deepaks” ¹—

Is certainly not befitting towards the puruSha who is the Emperor giving birth to expansive lights of the heavens;

However, towards the lower puruSha (jiva), who frolics in our own very self, this worship offering is beautifully rendered

– this array of the deepaks of the minds.

¹ Shankaracharya in Saundarya-lahari (Wave of Beauty Hymn).