Chapter 12 - Yoga of Instruction in Meditation (upāsanā-jñāna-phala)

Further Rāma wanted to know from the Lord the rules of meditation,^[1] its place and time.

12.1 Upāsanā and Lord’s abundant mercy.

Lord in his abundant mercy informed Rāma that bodies of all deities are but the limited manifestations of his aspect.^[2] Even though devotees worship gods other than Lord Śiva, they in effect worship Śiva only in an unconventional manner.^[3] He alone bestows the results of all actions and all worship is only directed to him. Śiva appears to the devotees in the form of their favourite deities. Even when devotees worship with or without rules, Śiva bestows on them full fruits of their devotion. Even a wicked person worships god sincerely, God deems him good and bestows the fruits.^[4] Cf. Bhāgavata Purāṇa .

12.2 Categories of Meditation.

Meditation comes under four categories. i, Sampat; ii, Āropa; iii, Saṃvarga and iv, Adhyāsa.^[5]

12.3 Sampat meditation.

The meditation on inferior object Abhijñāna Śākuntala endowed with qualities belonging to objects superior to it is called Sampat. The example is the meditation Abhijñāna Śākuntala ‘mind is infinite.’

12.4. Āropa meditation.

The Āropa meditation is on the subsidiary by superimposing on it the principal, Abhijñāna Śākuntala exemplified in ‘Meditate on OM Abhijñāna Śākuntala Ud Gītā’. Both Sampat and Āropa upāsanas are called pratīka-upāsanās or meditation on symbols or images.

12.5 Adhyāsa meditation.

When the superimposition is done with the full knowledge of what it implies, it is stated to be Adhyāsa Abhijñāna Śākuntala in the case of the woman being imagined Abhijñāna Śākuntala fire; the meditation on woman Abhijñāna Śākuntala the fifth fire.

12.6 Saṃvarga meditation

The mode of meditation on the ground of similarity of function (kriyā yoga) is called Saṃvarga.The example is the cosmic air known Abhijñāna Śākuntala Saṃvarta withdrawing all beings into itself and making them one at the time of deluge.

12.7 Realization due to meditation.

The inner meditation leads to the unitive experience. This is the case of Vedānta study (śravaṇa), reflection on the truth and substance of Vedānta texts (manana) and the continued contemplation on the truth so ascertained to make it one’s own direct experience and realization (nididhyāsana).

12.8 Saguṇa and Nirguṇa meditation.

The Lord now explains meditation on attributeless Brahman and Brahman with attribute. A twice-born should abandon the interest in the pilgrimage to holy places and to holy waters.^[6] Wherever he gets the one-pointedness of mind, there he should take his seat. Seated on a woolen blanket or any soft spread or on the tiger skin, in a solitary spot and keeping head, body and neck in straight line and controlling the sense organs, propitiating the preceptor with devotion, fully instructed in yoga, one should control the breath to attain control of mind.

12.9 Attainment of Brahman-hood.

For one, who has not controlled the mind, he is like a charioteer with uncontrollable wild horses and for the enlightened one, a charioteer with controlled obedient horses. Man with unsteady mind attains only the cycle of birth and death and only a man with controlled mind rises to attain Brahman-hood. Lord is Brahman, the cause of the world, the unthinkable, unmanifest, infinite, immortal, devoid of beginning or middle or end and tranquil. Making oneself the lower araṇi of wood and making Oṃkāra Abhijñāna Śākuntala upper araṇi and by churning them by repeated practice of meditation, the person sees the Lord directly. cf. Kaivalya Upaniṣad.^[7]

12.10 Value of continued meditation.

God is not attained by Vedic chanting or by learned texts, or even by mental thought. One, who chooses to reach Lord by continued meditation, the Lord chooses him.^[8]

12.11 Eternal Auspicious Śiva.

God is the experience, the experienced object and the experience itself (tripuṭī). And He is the witness self in all three states of waking, dream and deep sleep, the mere undifferentiated consciousness, the eternally auspicious Śiva of the nature of luminosity.^[9]

12.12 Lord beyond sorrows.

Just Abhijñāna Śākuntala one fire entering the world assumes various forms of the objects, similarly the one Lord who is in the indwelling self of all beings, is not touched by the sorrows of the world and is outside them.

12.13 Path for release.

One who knows here in this life itself this great person of the hue of sun and beyond darkness, he alone is the wise man and becomes immortal here. There is no other path known for release. In this way one who knows the Lord truly and possessed of tranquility etc. freed once and for all from the stream of sorrow merges in the Lord alone at the end.

Thus ends the twelth chapter of Śiva-gītā.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ibid XII-1

[2]:

Ibid XII-2

[3]:

Ibid XII-3

[4]:

Ibid XII-7

[5]:

Vide Śiva Gītā XII-9

[6]:

Ibid XII-17

[7]:

cf Vide KaiU verse -11

[8]:

Vide Śiva Gītā XII-31

[9]:

Ibid XII-34