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Second Sutra of the Vibhūti Pāda is the definition of Dhyāna, the meditation. And the Sutra is
त॒त्र प्रत्ययैकतान॑ता ध्या॒नम् ॥ ३.२॥
Tatra Pratyaya Ekatānatā Dhyānam
How beautiful it is? Tatra Pratyaya Ekatānatā Dhyānam it is. Tatra means there. Pratyaya, experience there, the state of the mind, Pratyaya, which we have seen in the previous sutras. Pratyaya is a specific technical word used by Maharshi Patanjali to indicate the state of experience at a particular given time. So that is the Tatra there, Pratyaya, experience. Ekatānatā, Eka is one, Tanatā means stretching, continuity, Dhyāna is Dhyānam. So that means the experience there is continuous that is Dhyāna. So Dhyāna is continuity of the experience and that continuity means unbroken, unbroken experience there and that is Dhyāna.
Three beautiful words are used in this. We have seen that while trying to understand Dhāraṇā, that from one thought, one object or one idea, the mind goes to the other one and not allowing it to go. And if it goes to the other idea, second idea, and bringing it back to the fixed one. But Dhyāna is maintaining or continuing on that one single object and the thought. That is Dhyāna. Dhyāna means there is no scope, there is no chance of a second at all. There is no idea called the other. It is just one. And it is maintaining on that. It is continuously, the mind is flowing into it. That is Tatra Pratyaya Ekatānatā Dhyānam it is. Reduction of interruptions and interferences. That is there. They are reduced. And not only reduced, they are almost emptied. No more reductions, no more interruptions, no more interferences. Frequency is reduced. Just for our understanding, just for understanding only, say in five minutes, in a time of five minutes, the mind has wandered away from the fixed object of meditation. Many times, in fact, it is only wandering but whenever it has wandered and we realized it has wandered and landed on some other thought, and we brought it back, this bringing back and interrupted interruptions and deviations, that frequency in five minutes, the more is Dhyāranā, the lesser and lesser is Dhyāna. In the yogic terminology, it is generally used for the total content of the mind, which occupies the field of consciousness at a particular time that is Pratyaya. Entire content of the mind, the emotional side, the decision side, the intellectual side, the knowledge side, the wisdom side, whatever we say, psychological activity, the mental activity at a particular given time of experience is the Pratyaya. And as the mind is capable of holding a large variety of objects simultaneously, the word has to be used to denote all these objects taken together, irrespective of their nature that is Pratyaya. So Pratyaya is a technical word for this total content of the mind. It is not just an object. It is not just an experience. It is everything of the mind.
As we saw in the earlier example, Pratyaya is something like a flowing river, but within the limits. Suppose you see a small molecule, a cell under a microscope, and you find intense activity in that cell. There is activity, but that activity is bound, confined in a cell, a limited cell and Ekatānatā it is. Ekatānatā, one-pointedness. And traditionally, the normal example is given is the flow of an oil. When oil is flowing, you find it is no breaks, unbroken flow of an oil. And the mind, the Citta, is unbrokenly aware of one single object, one single idea, one single thought, one single object for the meditation. And that is very, very important. It is uninterrupted experience of one subject and is extended over a long duration. It means the capacity to hold a fixed mind on a particular object is longer. It is not just fixed and left. It is not something like a fly, a housefly, a normal housefly sits on an object and flies out. It is not like that. The fly continues to sit for a longer time. The mind continues to get absorbed in that. And this Dhyāna is clearly a culmination and a transformation of Dhāraṇā it is. In Dhāraṇā it just goes and lifts off. But in Dhyāna it continues there.
And going back to the same example, where a cow or an animal tied with a rope to the tree and the length of the rope is there, we said. But in Dhyāna the length is zero. Means the animal, the cow, is tied with the tree. It cannot move. The length of the rope is zero. It will not move. It cannot move. It is not allowed to move. It becomes closer, tied up with the object. So during the transformation of Dhāraṇā into Dhyāna, gradually the extent of Deśa, that is the sphere of movement of the Citta round about the subject of meditation, goes on becoming lesser and lesser and lesser, and ultimately one-pointedness is reached. When the Citta is fixed upon the central core of the subject, the first glimpse of the reality of the blissfulness lying behind the subject is achieved. And that process culminates into Dhyāna. It is very beautiful we have a number of examples. Traditionally the example is given of Arjuna's one-pointedness in the test of archery, when he sees only the eye of a bird. And that is where the slight difference between the Dhāraṇā and the Dhyāna. And in Dhyāna, the Vikalpas of words, emotions, ideas, thoughts, they are vanished. And which were hindrance in the state of Dhyāna, they disappear. Though Dhyāna, the word meditation is used in English, but it has its own limitation. But Dhyāna is a word which is more wider. It is the quality of the mind. It is the state of the mind described and expressed by the word Dhyāna. And that is where the important meaning, Tatra has come. Tatra means there. There means in that state of Dhāraṇā. When the mind is in that state of Dhāraṇā, Tatra, Pratyaya, that experience, is one-pointed, Ekatānatā, it is elongated, long and that is the Dhyāna.
Beautifully in Bhagavad Gītā, the 19th shloka of the 6th chapter gives a wonderful example. A symbol is given, symbolically. The shloka goes very wonderfully:
yathā dīpo nivāta-stho neṅgate sopamā smṛtā ।
yogino yata-cittasya yuñjato yogam ātmanaḥ ॥ 6.19 ॥
Yathā dīpo nivāta-stho like the dīpa, the flickering is not there, unflickering lamp, unflickering dīpa, nivātaḥ, without air, vāta is air, movement of the air, sthaḥ, when there is no movement of the air, how the lamp is sthaḥ, stable, stabilized lamp, without the movement of the air, yogino yata cittasya — the mind of the yogi, the Citta is like that, Beautiful example given in the Bhagavad Gītā. And traditionally, for the practice of the Sādhakas, the practice of meditation, he suggested beautifully the traditional Vedantic interpretations and suggestions are beautiful by Adi Shankaracharya when he talks about the Dhyāna, he says that
Vijātiya-vṛtti-rahitaḥ
Sajātiya-vṛtti-pravāhaḥ
Rūpa-saguṇa-brahma-viṣaya-vyāpāra-manaḥ
Nididhyāsanaṁ praśānta-vahita-manaḥ
Means vijātiya, unconnected, vṛttis, rahitam, not there, unconnected vṛttis are not there connected vṛttis are flowing, connected vṛtti means the only thought is flowing. And for the practice of Dhyāna, beautifully suggested, rūpa, saguna, brahma, viṣaya, vyāpāra, it is called. That's why the meditation, practice of meditation on a saguna brahma, saguna rūpa has been given. On an idol of Rāma, Śiva, Kṛṣṇa, Devī, Hanumān, various objects of meditation have been suggested and given by the tradition. And that is how the yoga shastra, Indian culture, an entire gamut of Sādhana helps us to focus the mind and take it into deeper layers. When we talk of Dhyāna, we should always remember two important dimensions of the mind. One is the nāma and the rūpa. The name and the shape. Every shape has a name. Every name has a shape. When we hear a particular sound or a name, we get the shape of that in our mind. When we hear the sound, say, lotus, immediately we get the idea of the shape of lotus in the mind. When we hear the sound Om, we get the shape of the Om in the mind. The sound and the shape, nāma and rūpa are connected with it. And from the rūpa, there will be a nāma. From the nāma, the rūpa goes the interconnectedness. But we should remember that from the saguna brahma to the rūpa rahita, nāma rahita, the nameless and the shapeless, that is real of ourself, the Citta. When all the vṛttis are out, and to get rid of the vṛttis, vijātiya vṛttis are removed. And the flow of the sajātiya vṛttis slowly becomes vṛtti rahitam it is. And that is called Tatra Pratyaya Ekatānatā Dhyānam.
We should always remember that Dhyānam is not just sitting and keeping our eyes closed or open. That is immaterial, of course. But what is happening to the mind? What is the status of the mind? What is the experience the mind is undergoing within, inside? What are the transformations happening in the mind that is more important in the Dhyāna? Where we do Dhyāna? How do we do Dhyāna? On what we do Dhyāna is immaterial. But what exactly is happening to the state of the mind is most important and relevant. And what should happen? It should happen - Tatra Pratyaya Ekatānatā Dhyānam. on one single object in the thought, on one single idea, the mind should stabilize for a longer time. How long we can stabilize it? How long one particular idea, an object, fills our mind for a long time of duration? That is the crux and the measurement of Dhyāna.
Swami Vivekananda beautifully summarizes this particular sutra .. "The mind tries to think of one object, to hold itself to one particular spot, as the top of the head; and if the mind succeeds in receiving the sensations only from that part of the body, and not from any other, it is called Dhāraṇā. And when the mind succeeds in keeping itself in that state for some time, it is called Dhyāna." And that is what is the important change, was the vijātiya vṛtti, not changing, same flow, sajātiya vṛtti pravāha it is called. And that is why very important dimension of Dhyāna comes into our practice.
It is very easy to judge ourself. It is very easy to evaluate ourself whether really we are in a state of meditation or some struggle goes on in the mind for half an hour or 45 minutes and at the end we come out and say that I have done meditation. Because please remember, in meditation there is only, only and only one thought. If there is, there was a second thought, it is not a meditation. And this is the ideal of Dhyāna. That's why in the Bhāgavatam it is said - dhyānāvasthita tadgatena manasā paśyantyam yogino yasyāntam na viduḥ suragaṇāḥ it is said and that is the state of the mind, absorbed, filled with one particular thought. And after Dhāraṇā and Dhyāna, let us see the last Aṅga of the Aṣṭāṅga and the last of the Antaraṅga, Samādhi in the next sutra, the third one.
Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ.
To Be Continued.. ---------------------------------------
These are transcription of session delivered by Vice-President of Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra, Sri M. Hanumantha Rao Ji.
Audio Link - https://youtu.be/oFoy4LULoJ8?si=2iJ7Uz62vqNqmEqo
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
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