The Science of Meditation

Only a few know the path to finding happiness. Most are conditioned to wade through the river of human existence and a fortunate few find a master to take them across…

In an attempt to retrace the steps to spirituality the author is positive she became knowledgeable about her profession as a physician for subsequent discovery about the science of meditation. She makes a commanding and trustworthy authentication that the corridor of meditation is the Central Nervous System.

“Skillfully combined modern knowledge with ancient wisdom.”

"Science of Meditation" is a meticulously researched book, which places meditation as a highly evolved science, without as a highly evolved science, without the myths, that today, surround it. This book is an authoritative text which combines ancient wisdom with the needs of today’s people.”

Kshama Metre MD Pediatrics (Padma Shree 2008) National Director for CORD of India Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development, Sidhbair, Himachal Pradesh, India. While discussing Vedanta especially when juxtaposed with the world of medicine, science and scripture – it simplifies and demystifies the process of self discovery, offering a practical guide to spiritual unfoldment.”

Lea Harper: Poet and author of ‘All That Saves Us’ and ‘Shadow Crossing’

Sneh (Ahuja) Chakraburtt was born in Punjab, educated in Zanzibar and in Ireland. She grew up with a deep interest in spirituality. She was taught the Vedanta by Swami Chinmayananda himself for over twenty years. Thirty – three years later, she continues to make medicine and philosophy a symbiotic relationship.

Soul Culture…and its base – the Yoga of Meditation. That’s what the master, Swami Chinmayananda, taught me, and man others like me. For Soul Realisation, the Yoga of Meditation is the highest technique of self – unfoldment. It has its roots in the search to find God and, therefore, to fulfill life’s commitment. It involves uniting Man with everything, animate and inanimate…plant, animal, even stone. It is about being one with the earth and, eventually, being one with the universe by finding out a cosmic connection.

This unity needs, first, raising Man to a higher state of congeniality – a physical, mental and intellectual metamorphosis that restores one to perfect health. Once complete, Man can develop patience and perseverance within himself, and an implicit trust in all his endeavours. Man can, then, approach nature with transformed intuitive knowledge, and cherish and care for her…For everything is within her and she is in everything.

Inherent laws govern creation, particularly the ‘lower kingdoms’ that have inborn dharma (nature or Laws of being). It is the dharma of water to flow. It is the dharma of fire to heat or burn. Every expression follows its own instinctive law of being; free from the influence of man’s disordered though. These industrious elements of the lower kingdom can, and do, create a world of harmony, healing and restoring Nature with each cosmic heartbeat.

Man has to learn, understand and finally, recognize obvious Nature as the Great Mother, who will reveal her secrets and the inherent dharma. Armed with this insight, Man can gain the Supreme knowledge, the only kind worthy, and be able to rise above shallow intellectualism. Man has to realize that he is the crucible in which transformation of the cosmic being is taking place, every second. Through the Yoga of meditation, Man can enter the fiery heat of personal experience and growth. He gradually learns Nature’s ways, one step at a time. The early steps are slow and often painful. The seeker must plough ahead to learn scriptural literature. He must absorb its essence. He will expand intuitively.

Revelation after revelation, Man’s inner awareness expands as he opens himself up to personal experiences. Initially, an intellectual understanding of the literature becomes Man’s particular understanding. He begins to look at his physical body as the condensed cosmic nutrition of five bodies and seven sheaths. That’s when man realizes that infinity is not an idea. When he closes his eyes, the darkness he sees is, in fact, infinity. He is, in all truth, gazing at – and into – infinity.

Eventually, Man develops infinite love for God and begins to understand God. The understanding that God is Love and Love is God finally dawns on him. Man begins to seek God all the time, every second of the day, every day of the year. When, and if, man discovers God in the depth of his meditation, he sees the true vision in his kutastha, the third eye, between the two eyebrows (the glabella).

Man, however, starts with the premise that certain things cannot be, that certain effects are just not possible. Most will immediately infer that whatever has been said so far is just not true. I suggest that you be receptive and flexible to new thoughts and ideas. Accepting the Truth, or learning to accept the Truth, is an art that one masters over time.

Instinctively, we search for God outside ourselves –too difficult for those who want to find God over a short period of time. It would take millions of years, thousands of births, deaths and rebirths to reach God through the natural processes of evolution. Raja Yoga is Kriya Yoga – the art of seeking God, to realize that God is ‘All’ in All. In fact, seeking God within oneself is the ‘fastest’ way to find God, for he lives within the field of the divine cane of the brain and sushumna (the spinal cord). It is her that negative and positive polarities of nature’s gunas (qualities) exist, as Tamas (negative sloth) and Rajas (positive qualities of creativity) at opposite poles in the spinal cord.

It is here the fabled Kurukshetra (battlefields) of life and ‘lining’ exists, metaphorically speaking. Through the Yoga of meditation, Man not only discovers these battlefields, but also understands this is where he has to master himself. He can either restrain all outgoing urges by obeying and adhering to Yama (Laws of Ethics), or he can give in to temptation and give in to indulgence. If he gives in to temptation, his Kama (want) conjures a body preoccupied with his five senses (smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch), his five organs of action (tongue, hands, feet, genitals and anus) and contact with the objects of his want. From the divine cave (the brain and spinal cord), these nadies (energy channels) reach out to realize their un manifest wishes. Kama runs through every fibre, every nerve in the body.

Man has been taught the only way he can be happy, whole and complete is to chase these wants –by his peers, his parents, his teachers. Most of these desires are ingrained in Man’s causal being, and in this relentless pursuit, he spends his life growing physically, promoting himself emotionally, and maturing intellectually. But when all his wants are supposedly satisfied, Man realizes that this happiness is temporary and incomplete. What matters is a ‘permanent’ state of happiness, but he hasn’t been taught how to get there. Is the demand unreasonable? Is happiness Man’s birthright?

Only a few know the path to finding happiness. Most are conditioned to wade through the river of human existence, and a fortunate few find a Master to take them across the river…to the other side of human existence. A true master advises a sincere seeker of spirituality to retrace his steps into himself. He is told, that he has o unshackle himself of the habit of walking outwards, towards objects, emotions and thoughts. To think of the divine cave that exists within him – the space where Man’s brain and spinal cord live. Man is then advised to picture the divine cave in others – his family, friends, foes. That’s when man experiences a new understanding, for in the divine cave, there are no friends or foes. In this place, all polarities disappear. The deeper man goes, the stronger the realization that everything exists in the divine cave.

Here, in the divine cave, man finds everything he wants, within himself. Gazing deeply through the inner eye, man understands the universe flows within him, within his own awareness. The master then directs a sincere seeker to seek out the spaces between expressions. These spaces seem invisible, because we’ve been trained to ignore them. Identifying these silent invisibles takes the seeker to an expanse of pure awareness, where everything is filled with an antardhvani (vibrating inner sound). Man, at that point, has reached the substratum of all expression. From then on, the deeper man delves the more observant his inner experiences become.

Since the chakras (spiritual centers) within the spinal cord vibrate at their own frequency, he hears buzzing, chirping, crackling, running water, tinkling bells and, finally, the roar of the ocean. He may even tread across the rainbow of all the seven colours. Man, however, has come to recognize these as mere appearances along the Journey of Meditation. All along, and after intense perseverance, Man will find God within this being. He will see God in everything. Finally, to him, all will be in God and God will be in all manifestation.

These gains do not, and cannot, crystallize at the first sitting. Man has to learn to energies every part of this body, from the tips of his fingers to the inner precincts of the divine cave. He must learn to harness prana – the life force that exists in his body. He must learn to synchronies and stabilize himself with the rhythm of prana. Eventually, man must learn to transform every atom and cell of his physical body to a state where he experiences no polarities in his own being. Through personal experience, he must come to the conclusion there is no good or bad, no pain or pleasure, no like or dislike.

At that point, and no sooner, the seeker has finally seen the cosmic mother, and knows he is part of her cosmic being. His own body has seen a gradual evolution, with the master organs in the brain (hypothalamus, pituitary gland) having undergone transformation. These organs trigger responses that cause the release of transformed neurotransmitters and neurohormoners that were until now latent. The net effect on the body is a gradual turnover or old cells into new, transformed molecules – rich with new experience and informed molecules – rich with new experience and information through personal realization. The body, the mind and the intellect have been transformed, while man is now aligned to the cosmic mother’s will.

Now, the early purpose of man seeking God has transcended to man serving the cosmic mother. He has found permanent happiness within himself. He is content spending the rest of his life serving Nature. In his meditative expanse, Man is finally one with both awareness (nature) and consciousness (spirit).

As opposed to creating a glossary of the Sanskrit terms, I have bracketed their English translations throughout the text, for easier reading. Various explained Figures feature throughout the book, for easier reference to the medical terminology. Of course, the term ‘Man’ represents humankind in general, and no sexes in particular.

Spirituality is not an easy – to – reach destination, often because of deeply personal and internal struggles. The mind and Intellect continue to thirst for immortality in a field of constant change – the mind asks questions that, sometimes, don’t have answers. Those fortunate enough to have a master who lights up the path must cherish the association. For my part, I have used every note and paper of my tutelage to create this text.

Tvameva mata cha pita tvameva Tvameva bandhu cha sakha tvameva Tvameva vidya dravinam tvameva Tvameva sarvam mama deva deva.

‘You alone are the mother, father, relative and friend. You are the supreme knowledge and true wealth. You are my all, oh Lord and Master’.

Dedicated and pledged with deep gratitude, to my friend, guide, adviser, confidant, my All – Swami Chinmayananda – who chiseled me from a rough rock to what I am today…though still imperfect, even after thirty years of study.