Swami Brahmeshananda

There could be two modes in which a person may live. He may think and act as an extrovert or as an introspective. Spiritual life, however, begins with turning within, by becoming an introspective. Says Swami Vivekananda:

There is one impulse in our mind which says do. Behind it rises another voice which says do not. There is one set of ideas in our mind which is always struggling to get outside through the channels of the senses, and behind that, although it may be thin and weak, there is an infinitely small voice which says, do not go outside. The two beautiful Sanskrit words for these phenomena are 'Pravritti' and 'Nivritti', 'circling forward' and 'circling inward'. It is the circling forwards which usually governs our actions. Religion begins with this circling inward. Religion begins with this 'do not'. Spirituality begins with this 'do not'. When the 'do not' is not there, religion has not begun.¹

Most of us are extroverts even though we may be religious. Even when an inclination for religion seems to arise, to bud and sprout in our hearts, we continue to remain extroverts. We go on pilgrimages, read a number of scriptures, participate in holy festivals, perform religious rituals and ceremonies but our mind still remains outgoing. We continue to be 'religious extroverts' or 'extrovert devotees'. We just go on floating on the surface, as it were, with no depth. Spiritual life has not begun for most of us who have such tendencies.

But as Swamiji has said, if we truly wish to grow spiritually, we must turn the senses inwards--must give up the tendency of the senses to run outwards. This need for turning within has also been recognized by various thinkers in modern times. The modern man has become far more extrovert than ever before. There are many more external allurements which constantly draw the mind and the senses outwards, with consequent heightened activity and restlessness. Even for a little peace of mind, 'turning within', a little 'do not' is necessary. This may not be easy in the beginning, however, for the senses accustomed to run outward, and for a restless mind unaccustomed to the introspective mode.

In recent times, a number of ashramas, foundations, religious organizations and meditation centres have sprung up all over the world to gradually train the mind and senses to turn within. Such centres organize spiritual retreats, conferences or conventions. A spiritual retreat actually means a secluded place where individuals can go and live in solitude for a few days. But since this is often not practical and even not advisable for most people who are unaccustomed to live a solitary life, people assemble in groups in some ashrama for a few days or hours and participate in a programme of devotional singing, meditation, scriptural readings, discourses, discussions and so on.

Then there are many teachers and groups who teach meditation and conduct guided meditation classes. There are also camps and courses on yoga where an effort is made to teach an integrated way of living. But it must be remembered that turning within is not merely practising meditation, however important it may be. And many vital instructions for an introspective life are often found missing in these meditation camps and the methods advocated therein. In contrast, when we turn to Sri Ramakrishna, the great master of the art of living an introspective life, we find that he has not described any elaborate meditation technique. He may have taught meditation to individuals, but he had given far more comprehensive instructions for turning within.

Let us study the instructions Sri Ramakrishna gave to 'M' in reply to his question: 'How, Sir, may we fix our mind on God?' Coined in non-theological terms, this question would read, 'How can we become introspective?' It is significant that except saying that 'to meditate you should withdraw within yourself or retire into a secluded corner or to the forest,'² Sri Ramakrishna did not give detailed instructions about the technique of meditation. Instead he said: (i) Repeat God's name and sing his glories, (ii) Keep holy company, (iii) Go into solitude now and then, and (iv) Discriminate between the Real and the unreal.³

II

Of the above mentioned instructions of Sri Ramakrishna, discrimination and satsanga or holy company condition the mind. An extrovert mind runs after external objects and urges one to engage in various activities to achieve worldly aims because it considers them real, desirable and conducive to happiness. But once, by discrimina-tion, one is convinced of their impermanence and undesirability and their being the cause of misery, it will not run after them. Says Sri Ramakrishna:

And you should always discriminate between the Real and the unreal. God alone is real, the Eternal Substance; all else is unreal, that is, impermanent. By discriminating thus, one should shake off impermanent objects from the mind. ... Together with this, you must practise discrimination. 'Lust and gold' is impermanent. God is the only Eternal Substance. What does a man get with money? Food, clothes, and a dwelling place--nothing more. You cannot realize God with its help. Therefore money can never be the goal of life. That is the process of discrimination.⁴

Discrimination is a very important means of developing dispassion. Unfortunately, this is not realized by many who, though practising meditation, do not try to detach their minds from worldly objects. Unless the mind is detached from external delights and attachment to objects, individuals and activities, it cannot remain indrawn for long. The pull of sense-attraction and urge for worldly pursuits would drive it out. This is the reason that many of us do not progress on the path of meditation in spite of many years of practice.

It may not be possible to give up our desires and ambitions all at once. The next best thing one can do in such a condition is to be satisfied with the worldly state one is in. This message is contained in Sri Ramakrishna's instructions to Adhar Sen, a Deputy Magistrate, who was aspiring for a still higher governmental post:

Nivritti alone is good and not pravritti. Be satisfied with the job you have. People hanker after a post paying fifty or hundred rupees. You are earning three hundred rupees. You are a deputy magistrate. ...Is a deputy magistrate a person to be trifled with?⁵

We are often tempted to change our external circumstances, to seek what we think could be a better material or psychological situation. But there is no such thing as an ideal environment. Besides, wealth, name and fame, social status etc. can never satisfy a man. There is no limit to our desiring. It is therefore essential to put a brake on our desires and attempts at seeking a better job, a better house, a better environment or a better salary, if one really wants to become introspective.

A formula one might use to weaken the extrovert tendency and promptings of the mind is to ask oneself during such promptings: 'Can I do without it?' Can I do without the object, activity or pleasure for which my mind is aspiring? Let us take a concrete example. Suppose I get a desire for a new fountain pen or a pair of new shoes. Let me ask before going for it: 'Can I do without it? Do I already have a pen or a pair of shoes? Do I really need a new one? Or a spare one? Is it not a fact that many spare items go on accumulating and demand time and energy for their maintenance?' The same question can be posed when there is an urge to embark upon some activity: 'Can I do without it? Can it be postponed?' Let us thus try to reduce our requirements and extrovert activities and simplify our lives. To remain contended with our present socio-economic status thus is the first step towards nivritti.

The conversation which followed Sri Ramakrishna's preliminary remarks to Adhar Sen provides further guidelines for turning inwards. One may learn to reduce one's wants and desires, but should one not strive for one's livelihood? In answer to this anticipated question, Sri Ramakrishna told the story of a young sannyasin who was ignorant of worldly matters and had gone to beg his food for the first time. A young daughter of the household came out to give him alms. The sannyasin turned to her mother and asked whether the girl had abscesses on her chest. The mother explained that God had given the girl breasts to nurse her child when she would become a mother. Hearing this, the sannyasin said that in that case he need not worry about food. 'He who has created me will certainly feed me.'⁶

To strive for more wealth and property, higher salary and position in society for oneself and one's near and dear ones may be selfish, but is there any harm in building schools and colleges, hospitals and dispensaries, and in engaging in other philanthropic activities? According to Sri Ramakrishna daya or compassion is better than maya or attachment for one's family only. The former leads to liberation and the latter to bondage. But even these altruistic activities fall under the category of pravritti or extrovert tendencies. Shambu Mallik wanted to build schools and hospitals out of the money he had amassed. Sri Ramakrishna asked him, instead, to pray to God and strive for devotion and vision of God.

Lord Krishna has repeatedly referred to one technique in the Bhagavad Gita: giving up all will and desires: sarvasankalpa sannyasa. Hundreds of ideas, desires and ambitions arise in our mind. Most of them are weak. However, certain desires are strong and when we add our will to those desires, they take the form of sankalpa: a resolve which prompts us to fulfil it. A yogi on the contrary does not unite his will with the various desires. Consequently, due to lack of their being fulfilled, the desires die away. Besides, every action we perform is bound to have a reaction. Every ball we throw, as it were, is bound to bounce back. This chain of action and reaction continues to expand and extend till we are caught in a net of our own outward activities, good or bad.

There is a whole lot of difference between the activities of an extrovert and the same activities performed by an introspective person. This would become clear if we were to live in solitude and consciously make an effort to withdraw from outward activities for a length of time. Such a person can remain active and at the same time deeply rooted in the innermost self. He can at will withdraw from activity and also engage in intense activity, if required. This is the ideal as defined by Swami Vivekananda often:

The ideal man is he who, in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the intensest activity, and in the midst of the intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert. He has learnt the secret of restraint, he has controlled himself. He goes through the streets of a big city with all its traffic, and his mind is as calm as if he were in a cave, where not a sound could reach him; and he is intensely working all the time.⁷

For this ideal, an introspective mode must be diligently cultivated.

III

Satsanga or holy company is another means of conditioning the mind for an introspective mode. According to Sri Ramakrishna, mind is like a washed cloth. It takes on the colour of the dye in which it is dipped. If it is placed in the company of extroverts, it will become extrovert. If it is placed in the company of all-renouncing introspective saints and recluses, it will also turn inwards. A holy company convinces an individual who comes in it that true peace and happiness is possible only in turning within, in seeking unity in diversity and not in pursuing the multi-directed desires of mind.

Sri Ramakrishna has laid great stress on living in solitude for as long as one can conveniently do. He said:

By meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge, dispassion, and devotion. But the very same mind goes downwards if it dwells in the world. In the world there is only one thought: 'lust and gold'.

The world is water and the mind milk. If you pour milk into water they become one; you cannot find pure milk any more. But turn the milk into curd and churn it into butter. Then, when that butter is placed in water, it will float. So, practise spiritual discipline in solitude and obtain the butter of knowledge and love. Even if you keep that butter in the water of the world the two will not mix. The butter will float.⁸

Solitude cuts out external stimuli and prevents the mind from indulging in sense pleasures. The mind naturally becomes quiet. One also gets an opportunity to observe the workings of one's mind when the turmoil of the external world is absent.

In solitude we are forced to be away from the objects of our attachment and psychological dependence. None of our relatives, friends and foes, with whom we relate ourselves with love or hatred, is there. Solitude thus gives us an opportunity to live without those on whom we depend or those who depend on us. In our ignorance and folly we think that we cannot live without this or that thing, person or activity, or that such and such a person cannot live without us. Living in solitary retreats helps in destroying this false notion. After the period of retreat we realise that neither we nor others have suffered much by this separation. We learn that none is indispensable. We find that in our absence the world does not go to pieces or come to a standstill. Our false sense of self-importance, our impure ego, thus gets the much needed blow.

During such retreats into solitude, we do not engage in our accustomed activities. This helps in breaking the automation into which we are often liable to fall due to our routine lives. There are no newspaper, radio, TV, and visitors to bring to us the gossip of the world. Living in solitude thus prevents the worldly and extrovert tendency of the mind from becoming deep-rooted and helps us to turn the mind inward.

Solitude is also important for the concentration of mind. A restless mind cannot think uninterruptedly of God. Its restlessness must be reduced at least to some extent if one wants to meditate well. The mind gets restless either due to external sensory stimuli or due to thought-waves arising out of the store of past impressions in the subconscious mind. If the external sensory stimuli are not stopped, they not only disturb the mind but also produce fresh impressions or samskaras. So it is advisable for one to live in such an environment where the external stimuli are minimum. Then the problem caused by the internal stimuli arising out of past impressions alone remains for the spiritual aspirant to deal with. And if these impressions are noble, controlling them is not difficult.

IV

These are some negative measures one must take to turn inwards. But merely negative means are not enough. Sri Ramakrishna there- fore advocates some very important spiritual practices.

'Repeating God's Name and singing His glories' is the first means told by Sri Ramakrishna when 'M' asks him: 'How, Sir, may we fix our mind on God?' This technique has been recommended even by Patanjali, the great exponent of Yoga. He says that the thought waves can be controlled by the repetition of 'Om' which symbolizes the name of God, and by thinking on its meaning. By this the mind becomes introspective and the obstacles (in the path of Yoga) are removed.⁹

Japa is the traditional way of turning the mind within and has been emphasised in all religious systems. But all the saints and sages, teachers and acharyas emphasise that it must be done with some amount of concentration.

How does japa make the mind introspective? According to Sri Ramakrishna, Sandhya merges into Gayatri and Gayatri into Om. This is the process of verbal convergence which is the first step, preliminary to mental concentration. Japa leads to vak-ektanatha. Before our mind could learn to flow towards one object, our speech must learn to flow towards, and merge into, one word. Done with concentration, japa has a tremendous capacity of cutting down the multiplicity and diversity of speech or spoken thought. We either think in forms or in words and language. Both are connected, inter-dependent. Hence it is quite reasonable and scientific that japa should help in the introspection of mind.

To the repetition of God's name, Sri Ramakrishna has added another technique: singing God's glories. It is a well known fact that music has a tremendous effect upon the human psyche and Sri Ramakrishna knew it very well. Musical recitation of the glories and life-history of the incarnations of God draws our mind inwards as nothing else. Sri Ramakrishna was himself a very good singer and would often go into deep ecstasy while singing the glories of God.

Thus, in Sri Ramakrishna's short reply to 'M's question, we find a comprehensive recipe for turning the mind within. Discrimination and solitude help in withdrawing the mind from its extrovert tendencies, holy company conditions the mind for introspection, and japa and singing God's glories turns it within. A person accustomed to these can easily succeed in meditation.

References

1. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, II, p.108, hereafter cited as CW.
2. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p.81, hereafter cited as Gospel.
3. Gospel, p.81.
4. Gospel, p.81-82.
5. Gospel, p.518.
6. Gospel, p.521.
7. CW I, p.34.
8. Gospel, p.82.
9. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, I.28.