Transcendental Meditation
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Anand(a), bliss
Bliss or Ananda has been the goal of seekers and saints since ages. A few experience it, many claim to attain it, still many imagine that they are in bliss, and yet many more think that this is some kind of mysticism and stay wary of it.
The reality of bliss is that it is inherent to life. Sat Chit Ananda, or the inherent nature of life, is eternal bliss consciousness, says Vedanta. It is just a matter of experience.
Bliss consciousness is nothing but the simplest form of our own awareness. Also called Transcendental Consciousness, it is the most expanded state of our `Self ', which is Pure, Absolute and most importantly , attainable by all and that too without any effort, control or concentration.
The experience of Transcendental Meditation helps us understand how, with this very simple, natural and scientific technique of meditation, the mind naturally and effortlessly transcends and experiences the source of all thinking, the all-powerful, neverexhausting reservoir of infinite creativity, infinite intelligence and infinite bliss.In this state of bliss or transcendence, mind and body are deeply rested, yet there is no dullness; they are fully alert. This is an experience and no amount of writing can explain it; it is like the taste of the mango, you have to eat it to understand what it is; but TM can be appropriately worded as `Restful Alertness'.
His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi exemplifies the state as an arrow pulled back on a bow, at rest, but full of potential energy . When released, it goes far; unlike an ordinary arrow, just kept on the bow, which when released, falls off. This unique state of restful alertness which is experienced along with bliss consciousness creates a positive effect in one's physiology at all levels, bringing about uncountable benefits in daily life. These range from development of mental faculties, improved health and well-being, better relations and environment, peace and harmony , not leaving out spiritual development.
We read in history many times, that saints experienced `God', experienced `unity', in a flash of dream or in moments of prayers, and then spent an entire lifetime craving for that experience again.
Here it is different; one does not need to yearn for it or crave for it; the daily practice establishes the experience.
That is the reason we call it a technique, which by name itself t scientific, for if it is scientific, makes it scientific, for if it is scientific, it is repeatable and so is this blissful experience. It does not happen by chance or by destiny . The technique is so designed by masters of the Vedic tradition that if it is learned systematically and practised twice a day , the experience will come.
We just need to follow the technique innocently and everything happens naturally , like a river, gurgling, gushing and merging into the ocean, becoming the ocean itself. Letting go of the i ndividual status of a river and attaining the expanded status of the ocean, gaining its vastness, its depth.
Similarly , our mind which is active all the time, entangled in thoughts, problems or simply nothing except unnecessary clutter; this active mind which has not known silence, transcends.It does so in a very systematic, easy and effortless manner and becomes its own expanded Self silent, pure, unbounded, aware and full of bliss.
(The writer teaches Transcendental Meditation, at the Spiritual Regeneration Movement Foundation of India, New Delhi.)
Life Is Bliss
Aditi Shrivastava, May 3, 2019: The Times of India
According To Vedanta, Life Is Bliss
“The philosophy of life is this: Life is not a struggle, not a tension. Life is bliss. It is eternal wisdom, eternal existence,” His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi often said in his lectures. This could baffle many people, as they find these mere words, unable to appreciate the reality of life amidst the chaos, confusion and scamper they are in. With the thick, dark fog of stress and ignorance all around, clear vision becomes unimaginable and starts seeming like something unreal or non-existent.
The apparent reality of life is what it is – far from Bliss or Ananda. According to the Taittiriya Upanishad, “Anandhaive khalvimani bhootani jayante, anandane jatani jeevanti, anandam pranyanybhisanvinshanti” – Out of bliss these beings are born, in bliss they are sustained, and to bliss they go and merge again. When the Vedas and Upanishads say that life is bliss, how can it be untrue, Maharishi had asked his master, Swami Brahmanand Saraswati, also called Gurudev. And with Gurudev’s blessings and guidance began the journey to bring humankind out of the struggle of life... into the path of Ananda, and not in the path to search for ananda or bliss, but in the path to experience it as a living reality, and in the comfort of their familiar surroundings, irrespective of their culture, religion, education, socio-economic background, or personal habits.
This happened through Transcendental Meditation (TM), a practical meditation technique that allows the mind to settle down naturally and effortlessly and experience inner calm, the transcendent self of the person, which is the source and storehouse of all happiness, creativity, intelligence and energy. Having learnt this technique, a person has a systematic and scientific means to experience what seems mystical and abstract and thus substantiates the Upanishads, too. The experiences of TM are very real and the benefits objective and verifiable, this has also been proven by numerous scientific researches across the globe. The sweet inside of the orange cannot be known by tasting the bitter outer skin of the orange.
If our focus is always on the skin and its bitterness, we seldom are able to reach the sweetness or appreciate it fully. If our focus and attention is not on the inside, we get trapped in the superficial and lose out on the real taste of the orange, which cannot be known from the surface. In the same way, the true nature of life cannot be understood or determined by experiencing just the surface values. It cannot be known unless life is lived in fullness, in completeness, in its true dignity, which is Bliss. Pure and unbounded. And this pure bliss is brought out in our day-to-day life by accessing the source, the transcendent, inexhaustible reservoir of creative intelligence within us – our own latent and hidden self. The gates of which automatically open with the practice of Transcendental Meditation.
No belief, no effort, nothing complicated or suspicious, just innocent daily practice and the absolute starts to dwell in the relative. The transcendent comes near. Happiness and creativity naturally flow from the reservoir of nature into every aspect of our life, giving nourishment and fulfilment, with this the supreme intelligence of nature also begins to offer its unbounded support and life is no longer a struggle, no longer a burden. It becomes what it is meant to be: Bliss.
– The author is a certified teacher of Transcendental Meditation
A technique of Self-exploration
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, March 13, 2018: The Times of India
What is needed today is a means of harmonising the qualities of the head with powers of the heart. There is an ever-increasing state of chaos in the world; tension increases daily in the individual, in social life, in national affairs, and international relations. The great and urgent need is for something to re-establish harmony in the individual human being and to give him peace; only from such an inner peace can wisdom and happiness be born.
All that we call wisdom today, all knowledge, the whole process of endless fact-gathering must utterly fail to satisfy the real needs of man; for these real needs are called happiness, understanding and wisdom, and they are not vain and unworldly aspirations but man’s birthright.
I came out of the Himalayas with a method designed to raise both head and heart of man to the point where knowledge and appreciation of the quality of his higher nature can be attained. I call my method Transcendental Meditation, but it is, in fact, a technique of Self-exploration; it enables a man to dive into the innermost reaches of his being, in which dwells the essence of life and the source of all wisdom, all creativity, all peace, and all happiness. It is that place which has been called, in the Christian teaching, the ‘Kingdom of Heaven within’.
The word ‘meditation’ is not new; nor are the benefits of meditation new. It is the message of Buddha, Christ and Krishna. They said, only get to the inner kingdom, to the heavenly heart, and you will earn for yourself eternal freedom – not in the future, not after death, but now and forever.
For centuries the technique of meditation of this kind has been forgotten. This is why suffering has become so universal, so much an inescapable part of life, that those responsible for leading people to the Kingdom of Heaven have come to preach the necessity for suffering; suffering has become a virtuous act, and the man who maintains that life is a bitter and sorrowful struggle is commended for his level-headedness and good grasp of reality! I hold that life is bliss. In essence life is not a struggle. Man is not born to suffer, but to feel joyful; he is born of bliss, consciousness, wisdom and creativity. Once the flower of life has bloomed in a man, then consciousness, wisdom and creativity are ever-present in him. When the inner, spiritual and the outer, material, glories of life are consciously brought into harmony, then life is integrated and becomes truly worth living. What is meant by the statement that life is essentially joyful – that life is bliss? The orange is sweet. This means the real substance of the orange is sweet. The covering of the orange, on the other hand, is bitter to the taste. But even though the skin is bitter, nevertheless the orange is thought of as sweet because sweet is the juice within it.
Like the orange, life has two parts, or aspects – inner and outer. The outer is the temporary, ever-changing aspect; the inner is the permanent, never-changing aspect. That the inner, never-changing aspect is blissful is a fact that can be experienced. It is for this reason that i say that life is blissful, for it is the sweet and blissful aspect that is the ultimate reality of existence and not the bitter, ever-changing aspect.
