The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : Ch-7. Part-9.

7: The Art of Meditation-9.


So is yoga. It is not a beaten track that we are running on directly, as if it is an open highway, but it is a zigzag path where at every moment of time we should exercise caution. We have to know where our emotions stand, and where our intellect and mind are directing themselves; what are our achievements and what are our problems. Many a time this will be a hard affair, because it is easy to control others, but it is not so easy to control one’s own self.

Therefore a Guru is necessary. In the earlier stages, when we are just chanting a few mantras or rolling a few beads, it may look as if everything is fine—everything is milk and honey. But if we are sincere and honest and really go deep into our own selves, we will find wonder, to our surprise, and we will be unravelling mysteries of our own self of which we had no prior awareness. We will become a miracle to our own self. We will be surprised. “I am this person. I never knew that.” When we are confronted with our real personality that is placed before our eyes, we will not know how to face it.

At that time we require a teacher, as in the case of psychoanalysis there is a well-versed guide who knows how to manipulate the mind of a person who is diseased mentally, and in which case the true personality has been projected out by various mechanisms of psychology. This is exactly psychoanalysis, which one does for one’s own self, where all that is inside us is brought to the conscious level.

Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ...