Dhyan Yoga-I : Pujya Gurudev

The practical aspect of Dhyan Yoga

=Pt.ShriRam Sharma Acharya

The Omnipresent God and our souls are also far beyond our perception. What to say about the inner world, we cant even see many components of our own body. We cant look at out own eyes. Okay, just try to see (without a mirror) how is your nose, how are your eyebrows? How do your eyelids look like? If you cant even see these gross external parts of the body, how will you see what is inside? When we peep into our inner world and attempt to know it, we perform some kind of dhyana. In fact, dhayana yoga is the best method of seeing inside. Well, so what should be the focus of dhyana? Who to meditate upon?

Ones inner self or the Almighty God? My children! The two are not really different. Enlightened evolution of the inner self is God. Our ultimate spiritual evolution is  shivoaham, sachidanandoaham, tatvamasi, ayamatmabrahm, pragyanambrahm. 

These five great maxims of Vedanta affirm that the soul, in its absolutely pure form, itself is God. Take the example of coal and diamond. Except for a minor difference in the atomic structure, the two are quite the same. Diamond is thus a refined form of coal. The soul and God are also basically the same except for the fact that the former is expressed within a limited identity (confined to the individual self) whereas the latter is unbounded, infinite. One is manifested in a tiny domain, while the other is gigantic, unlimited. One is bounded by the thraldoms of maya, while the other is absolutely free. This is the only difference between us and The Divine. 

This difference is there because of the mist of ignorance covering up the resplendence of our inner self that keeps us cut off from our eternal origin. If we refine and illumine ourselves (by the purifying radiance of virtues and righteous knowledge) we can attain our soul-reality and also God-awareness. 
This is why (during the dhyana yoga) we meditate upon light; focus our attention upon the inner self, upon the sublime roots of our being and its ultimate goal. (You may now ask) "So Guruji! Is this why you train us to meditate upon the rising sun?". Yes my children! The brilliance of rising sun is a symbol of divine light. You may feel its radiance in your mind during this meditation, or may get a reflection of Goddess Gayatri. It doesnt matter if instead of sunlight you experience the deitys image or some divine reflection. 

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma