Spiritual Message for the Day – The Rise from Savitarka to Nirvitarka by Sri Swami Krishnananda
Baba Times Digest© | 17 August 2014 20.33 EST | New York Edition
The Rise from Savitarka to Nirvitarka
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 47 - The Study and Practice of Yoga by Sri Swami Krishnananda
The contemplation of an object in the process of yoga is quite different from the contemplation of objects in that people usually engage themselves in ordinary workaday life. In yoga, in the meditation process, the essential features or characteristics of the object cooperate and coordinate themselves with the meditating consciousness, whereas in ordinary sensory perception there is the opposite process taking place.
There is an inherent repelling attitude, a kind of disparity of character between the subject and the object in ordinary perception, because of a peculiar selfish interest that is present in the subject in its contact with the object. Why does the subject crave for the object? The intention is purely self-centred, and this is what cannot be tolerated by the selfhood of the object. The interrelated connectedness of the forces in the world is of such a nature that it prevents the utilisation of any object for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation is abhorrent to the nature of truth, and the forces of nature will not tolerate it.
So our affection for the object, our contemplation of the object, our thought of the object and our desire for the object is contrary to the law of nature, and therefore there is always bereavement in the end. All union ends in separation. All love ends in sorrow. The reason is that there is a mistake committed by the subject, and inasmuch as everyone is a subject from the point of view of another, and everyone is an object also in a similar manner, there is a universal confusion that has been created. This confusion is called samsara – a great mix-up of values that has taken place, totally unintelligible to the mind which is involved in this mix-up. The yoga process is a remedy that has been prescribed for the illness that has been created in this manner.
We have a peculiar mode of thinking 'objects', and we are born into this mode from which we cannot usually extricate ourselves. There are at least three elements involved in the perception of an object – the object as such, which is called artha; the idea of the object which is called the jnana of the object; and the nomenclature, the epithet, the name, the way by which we designate the object. These three are mixed up as if they are one single thing, though they are distinct features. When an object is generated, when it is born or brought into existence, it does not come with a name. It is doubtful if the tree knows that it is called tree.
Likewise, nothing in this world is associated with a designation of this character. It has a status of its own, independent of all these associations. But the worst of all things is the idea of the object. We have an idea about everything in this world, and the idea that we hold about things is regarded as identical with the nature of the thing itself. Our opinion about an object is made a part of the nature of the object, so that we compel the object to subserve the definition that we give to it, according to our own perception of it.
The idea or opinion one holds, about anything for the matter of that, is a part of the structure of one's mind at that given moment. The idea, therefore, is not different from the mind. The idea is mind itself. Inasmuch as the idea is one with the mind, and the mind is one with individuality, the individual holding that opinion or idea cannot, at any time, imagine that the idea can be wrong. How can we think that we ourselves are wrong? We are self-identical.
So, we are the supreme judge of everything, and the whole world becomes a client before us, cringing before us for judgement, and whatever judgement we pass must be the final one. This is the opinion, this is the attitude, and this is the intention of every person, every individual in the world – from A to Z. There is a mutual suspicion created in the body of individuals, on account of this internal compulsion exerted by the subject upon the object. This difficulty that has been created, this intolerant attitude that has been projected towards the object, is naturally repellent to the object. There is, therefore, when it is deeply analysed, no such thing as love of an object by the subject.
The method of meditation is a reverse one, where the subject and the object are enabled to stand on a par, and the fact that they really are on a par becomes recognisable. There is no such thing as subject or object, ultimately. It is only a creation of the minds of certain individuals. Every individual, having a status of his own, her own or its own, cannot be regarded as an object of someone else, because the moment one becomes an object, the status of selfhood vanishes. There is a selfhood present in even an atom. It has a say of its own; it has a purpose of its own and an intention behind its activity, which is not for the fulfilment of someone else. It has a mission of its own which it is trying to achieve through the process of evolution, through which it is moving. The fact that there is an inherent status in everything in this world is recognised in yogic meditation. There is, therefore, no meditation by the subject on an object.
According to the sutra of Patanjali, that which creates this false distinction between the subject and the object and wrongly compels the subject to look upon another as an object, is a peculiar complex – it is the idea, the name, and the space-time relation. These are the things that have to be given up. We cannot isolate the idea from the presence of space-time. So, ultimately, it is a problem of space-time. The two types of meditation that Patanjali refers to have relevance to the conception of something as located in space and time, and the conception of the same thing as not located in space and time. The first one is called savitarka; the other is called nirvitarka. The contemplation of an object as situated in space and time, and therefore defined by our idea of that thing, is savitarka. The freedom from these associations is nirvitarka.
Nirvitarka is a non-relational contemplation, whereas savitarka is a relational contemplation. The relations are spatial, temporal, and individualistic. Desa kala vastu sambandha, is the Sanskrit term. The sambandha of desa is spatial. The sambandha of time is temporal; the sambandha of vastu is individualistic. This means to say that an object is in space; an object is in time, and an object has a relation with another object, which is the causal relationship. To put it more philosophically, space-time-cause are the obstacles before the subject in its attempt to enter into the nature of the object, or to try to possess it, or enjoy it, or become one with it, etc.
By repeated meditation on the substantiality of the object, independent of these relations, a revelation takes place. The mist before the mind is cast out. There is a response from the object in a friendly manner, which was absent up to this time. The response from the object in a friendly manner becomes possible when there is a gesture from the subject that the selfhood of the object is recognised. Likewise, the subject begins to accept the point of view of the object, though it has not taken action on this point of view. This is the stage where the mind begins to rise up from the condition of savitarka to that of nirvitarka.
Excerpts from: The Rise from Savitarka to Nirvitarka - Chapter 47 - The Study and Practice of Yoga by Sri Swami Krishnananda
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