Concentration & Meditation - Vedanta

20 Swami BhajananandaWhen you sit for meditation and try to visualize your ChosenIdeal, your knowledge is not true because you do not actuallysee him or her. At the same time, it is not false either becauseyour imagination is not about something which does not exist.Strictly speaking, most of our meditations should be classed undervikalpa, though they depend on memory. When through prolongedmeditation you get a direct vision of the Deity, the vikalpachanges into a pramana, true knowledge. This true knowledge ofsupersensuous Reality is called saksatkara or yogi-pratyaksa, andto attain it is the goal of meditation.The mind has different levels or layers and each of these hasits own vrittis. The vrittis that occur in the outer layers are grossand are concerned with external objects. Poetic intuition andphilosophic insight have their origin in higher layers. In thedeeper layers of the mind exist subtle vrittis through which oneknows supersensuous truths of the spiritual world. Most peopleare aware of only gross forms of thought. When, through purificationand meditation, the spiritual aspirant learns to go deep intothe mind, he becomes aware of subtle thought-waves.We have seen that what is called knowledge is the reflectionof the light of the Purusa or Atman on the vrittis. Gross vrittis reflectvery little light and there is little self-awareness associatedwith them. Subtle vrittis reflect more light. The images they produceare brighter and there is greater self-awareness associatedwith them. As the aspirant goes deeper into the mind, he getscloser to the Atman and sees more and more of its light.The Atman is the same in all people. The difference betweenone person and another lies in the types of vritti that dominatetheir minds. In the words of Swami Vivekananda, each soul is potentiallydivine but the degree of manifestation of this divinity variesfrom person to person. Those who are pure and spiritual havepure vrittis in their minds and reflect more of the inner light. TheSanskrit word for “god” is deva which literally means “the shiningone.” Gods are those beings whose subtle bodies are so pureand transparent that in them the light of the Atman shines in all itsdazzling brilliance. Through purification and meditation everyperson can attain to that state.Why should we know all these details about vrittis? The fundamentalproblem in meditation is to produce and maintain the right