THE OBSTACLES TO MEDITATION
30 Aug 2019 HYN Himalayan Yoga Academy
Disease, languor, tremors, and irregular breathing are the symptoms of a distracted mind. These are the obstacles to meditation. To remove these, Meditate on one principle. Patanjali believes and not only believes, but he also knows that sound is the basic element of existence. Just as physicists say that electricity is the basic element, yogis say that sound is the basic element. They suitably agree with each other.
Physicists say that sound is nothing but a modification of electricity, and yogis say that electricity is nothing but a modification of sound. Then both are true. Sound and electricity are two forms of one phenomenon, and to me, that phenomenon is not known yet and will not be known ever. Whatsoever we know will be just a modification of it. You may call it sound, you may call it electricity, you may call it water like Lao Tzu: that depends on you. But all these are modifications – forms of the formless. That formless will always remain unknown.
How can you know the formless? Knowledge is possible only when there is a form. When something becomes visible, then you can know it. How can you make invisibility the object of knowledge? The very nature of invisibility is that it can’t be objectified. You cannot pinpoint where it is, or what it is. Only something visible can become an object.
So whenever anything is known, it will be just a modification of the unknown. The unknown remains unknown. It is unknowable. So it depends on you what you call it, and it depends on the utility you are going to put it into. For the yogi, electricity is not relevant. He is working in the inner lab of being . There, sound is more relevant, because through sound he can change any phenomena inside, and through sound he can change the inner electricity also. Yogis call it pana – the inner bioenergy or bioelectricity . Through sound that can be changed immediately.
That’s why, when listening to classical music, you feel a certain silence surrounding you: your inner body energy is changed. Listen to a madman and you will feel you are also going crazy: because the madman is in a chaos of body electricity and his words and sounds carry that electricity to you. Sit with an enlightened person and suddenly you feel everything within you is falling in a rhythm. Suddenly you feel a different quality of energy arising in you.