DHYANA – Transcendence of Meditation
Civilised humanity is passing through very critical phase. There are outer pressures and demands as well as inner compulsions, urges, disharmony and imbalance. Therefore meditation has become very popular word. Many books, gadgets, many teachers and gurus are available in the market promising that they know the meditation and they will take us into meditative state. Some of them are authentic, but we glamorize meditation superficially without considering the entire process. Many times we are trying to open the door using the wrong key.
Some people believe that meditation is sitting quietly every morning for twenty or thirty minutes and in the afternoon another twenty minutes and again some minutes in the evening. By sitting quietly someone can relax but this is not meditation. Similarly Concentration, Yog-nidra, Hypnotism, Relaxation is not meditation. These things do help. If they are carried out properly, they can give you a sense of serenity but this is not meditation. There are number of methods and techniques which can take you in Alfa State of mind which rejuvenates you, but it is not meditation.
What is the motive of Meditation?
Why are you interested in meditation? Somebody has told you that if you meditate, you can do better in your work and optimise achievement or you will have wonderful inner experiences. If you sit quietly and silence your mind, you have clarity and you can make the right decisions at your work. By meditation, you will achieve self-confidence, high self-esteem, energy and vitality. Actually these things have nothing to do with real meditation. This is simply a desire to get something, like a desire to earn money or prestige. We are taking things in the wrong way because sitting quietly without understanding with the intension of getting wonderful things in life is not meditation.
Dhyana and Meditation
Generally, meditation is considered as contemplation, to meditate upon something, to explore something in its various dimensions. All these acts are dualistic and egocentric and hence time-bound. Here subject-object duality remains as it is and actually we are moving in the same dimension. Meditation is also considered as a single-pointed focus in which concentration is involved indirectly and it is similar to Dharana in yoga. Dharana is one of the steps leading to Dhyana but it is not the ultimate step. To enter into the realm of Dhyana we have to transcend Dharana. Dharana is equivalent to popular meditation techniques, in which we are told to focus on a certain thing or certain symbol or certain thought or certain music.
Knowing the Knower – The Puzzle
There is always some principle in you which is witnessing the experience and experiencer, doer and deed, seer and seen. If you are talking with a friend, there is some principle who watches that you are talking with a friend. To know the ultimate knower, which is your eternal essence, is the purpose of Dhyana. Suppose you have watched the movie. The movie starts and the movie ends. But there is something in you which is prior to the starting point of the movie and after the end of the movie. That principle witnessed that you were watching the movie. Suppose you have forgotten the story of the movie, that principle watches that you have forgotten the story of the movie. It is the witness of your memory also. To Know this knower is the most extraordinary thing in your existence. Intellectual and verbal understanding can help you but can not lead you to the ultimate knower.
This is a mysterious phenomenon. It is the movement of the unknown in the unknown. It is beyond the horizon of intellect and mind. It is something beyond time and space. It is a state beyond all that you know, beyond all the dimensions. It is not an exploration of something by the intellect, but it is the silent explosion. To know the knower is a contradiction. This is because to know something, the knower is necessary. In knowing the knower we have to consider another knower and there is no end to this sequence. We always remain in the plane of seer-seen duality. There is no way in, there is no out. No doer can achieve this state which is beyond all the states. It is just happening. In India, it is considered as the phenomenon between authentic master and honest, intense, and earnest seeker.