Upload
dinhnhan
View
215
Download
2
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
1
Mohammad Reza Najaf Tomaraei
Theory and Practice of Meditation
Instructor Aaron Gasper
12/04/2013
A Visit to the Krishna Yoga Center
As a course requirement, I was assigned to visit a place where people practice meditation
and write about my experience in there. Hopefully, I got the opportunity of going to the Krishna
Yoga Center. It is an Indian temple where
devotees of Krishna praise their God, teach
their religious books to followers and those
interested in learning about Bhagavad Gita,
and practice chanting Maha-mantra, a special
type of yoga that is distinguished as being the
most powerful of all. Throughout the year,
they conduct various different festivals and
allow the public to use part of the building as a place to teach and learn all kinds of yoga.
During my visit I was introduced to Hala, an Indian monk who teaches Bhagavad Gita
and Bhakti yoga. We entered the temple, one of the building rooms which is specially prepared
for worshiping Krishna and achieving peace and relaxation. The room was decorated with couple
of different religious statues, with that of Krishna and his pleasure potency, Radha, standing at
the center of attention. Hala asked me to relax, we sat down, and my tour began. The following is
all he told me about his religion and what they do at the temple, in form of an interview in his
own words:
Krishna Yoga Center is located at 965 E 3370 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84106. They are open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10:00 A.M till 8:00 PM with the exception of Sundays on which they close at 4:00 PM.
2
Note: All of the following stated viewpoints are directly cited from the Krishna Temple staff. This
paper serves solely as an interview and doesn’t include any of my own opinions.
There are many different types of meditation, and the real purpose of meditation is to
achieve some peace and happiness. If at some point of time in your life you are having anxiety
and fear, you can get rid of it through meditation and become calm. Silent meditation is a method
of putting the soul at rest by means of sitting down and focusing on specific things such as light,
breathing, or an object in the nature.
The statue of Krishna (on the left, distinguishable by playing a flute and having peacock feather on his head) and his eternal consult Srimati Radharani (popularly known as Radha, standing at right of Krishna).
3
Another way of meditating, which we follow here, is called “Mantra Meditation.” The
whole purpose behind meditating is to control the mind, because the mind is like a little baby or
perhaps a monkey which can jump here and there and cause trouble. So if you control the mind,
you will stay more focused which results in being peaceful and happy. There is a saying which
states that “if your mind is under your control, then it’s your best friend; but the mind which is
not in your command is your worst enemy.”
The word “Mantra” has a special meaning. In the Sanskrit language, “man” means mind,
and “tra” means to become free. Thus the word mantra could be translated into English as
becoming free minded, or in other words free from anxiety, fear, and problems in your life. Also,
there are many different types of mantras too. Mantras are not just some ordinary and mundane
phrases; they are powerful wordings. People of the ancient time have previously used mantras to
perform various intended actions such as making it rain, controlling animals, and even
hypnotizing and killing people.
You cannot manufacture mantras; they already exist. Mantras are sets of wordings which
have been explained in the scriptures. On top of it, special qualifications are mandatory for
chanting certain mantras. You need to receive them from a master, who in turn had already learnt
it from his master and practiced it to perfection. This is the only way by which the power of
mantra will remain strong. If you just get mantras from a bogus person, the least that happens is
that it won’t work in favor of the chanter.
4
In this temple we use a special type of mantras known as “Maha-mantra,” meaning the
greatest and most powerful of the mantras. By chanting
this mantra, you will gain the benefit of all of mantras.
More importantly, one of the greatest advantages of
Maha-mantra is that unlike other mantras, you don’t need
any sort of qualification and extensive previous practice
to chant it. Anyone could chant this mantra anywhere, for
as long as they would like to.
As I said before, if you are not having specific
qualifications required by other mantras, or if you don’t
pronounce them correctly, you will be at the risk of
improperly chanting them and thus receiving negative and unwanted results. However, these
problems don’t exist in case of Maha-mantras. In fact this is the reason why we have decided to
chant this mantra here at our temple. Monks of the temple
usually carry a bag with themselves, and inside it there is a
special set of beads with which monks chant the Maha-mantra.
It will approximately take you 10 minutes to finish one
round of chanting the Maha-mantra with these 108 beads.
However, as a full-time practicing monk, I complete at least 16
rounds every day, which due to continuous practice takes around
two hours. In other words, chanting the Maha-mantra 108 times
requires around seven minutes to complete.
The “Maha-mantra” handwritten on a board in the temple room next to the statue of Krishna and Radha.
“Japa Mala” is a set of 108 beads which is used by the monks. Upon entering the temple, I saw Hala walking in the corridor and chanting Maha-mantra with his set of beads. © yogalife.fr & bootic.com
5
Gaining peace of mind and revealing stress are the well-known benefits of chanting
Maha-mantras. However, these benefits are not the reason why we practice chanting this mantra.
In fact, the best way to take the most out of chanting Maha-mantras is to develop love for
Krishna – the God – in your heart. This question might come to your mind that most of the
religions have a book or main scripture which they follow, but what about Hinduism? Our
scripture is a book known as Bhagavad Gita, meaning the
sound of God.
Bhagavad Gita was originally written in the
Sanskrit language, and the book which we use here is an
English translation of it. It has the original verses in
Sanskrit as well as an English transliteration and
translation. There are 700 verses in this book. The book is
called “Bhagavad Gita – as it is”, because all the verses
have been included and explained word by word and in
their original wordings. So this means that the knowledge
which was given by Krishna hundreds of decades ago, has
been preserved as it was and without any change. Indeed it has been kept as it is because of
Krishna’s mercy. Also, there is no possibility of it being changed even in the future.
In the book’s introduction it is mentioned that there are 5 things which are explained in
this book which are time (Kala), spirit soul (Giva), the Lord (Bhagavan), Karma, and knowledge
(Giana). Apart from that, Bhagavad Gita also explains reincarnation which is how the soul
transmigrates from one body and the fact that living organisms are not their physical body but
Bhagavad Gita is the scripture taught in the temple. Its contents were spoken by Krishna to Arjuna around 5,000 years ago in a battlefield. © marshall.edu
6
rather are composed of the spirit soul. As individual souls, we have an eternal relationship with
the super soul which is our source. It must be coming from somewhere. That super soul is God.
Bhagavad Gita is also called the book of yoga. It explains different types of yoga. The
word yoga means to reconnect and reunite yourself back with the source. There are different
methods of connecting yourself with the soul such as finding paths of knowledge, action,
devotion, and meditation. Since there are many different ways to link yourself to the source, thus
there are many different types of yoga existing. Nowadays people think of yoga as the act of
exercising, stretching, and bending. This type of yoga is part of a system called Ashtanga yoga,
but it doesn’t directly connect us with the source.
The best method of yoga is called Bhakti yoga, which means devotional service, and
ensures a direct link to the super soul. It is the type of yoga which we practice here in the temple.
Mantra meditation is a part of Bhakti yoga, because simply by chanting this mantra you will be
directly connected to the Lord, and it’s powerfulness lies in the fact that it lets you connect
without any conditions.
The difference between us and the Lord is that God is absolute. There is no difference
between the name of Lord and his personality; they are one and the same. For example, let’s say
if a person whom I know is not here and I start calling out his name. Will that person be here?
No. He or she has to be physically present here. Further, if you are thirsty, you can’t eliminate
your thirst by constantly saying the word “water.” This is the reason why this world is relative,
not absolute.
7
Simply by chanting the Maha-mantra, you can connect yourself with the Lord. In this
kind of meditation you won’t be having the problem of falling asleep, because you are actively
controlling your mind. The meditation part of this mantra is that you have to pronounce these
words very clearly and listen to yourself saying them. Your mind has to listen to the sound of
these vibrations. Although these words may seem very ordinary phrases, but the vibration of the
sound caused by these words is spiritual.
Lord Krishna himself appeared 5000 years ago and spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna,
one of his devotees. This communication
was taking place in a battlefield. Two
armies were about to go in war with each
other. When the war was about to start,
Arjuna wanted to see who all have
gathered on the other side, and thus asked
Krishna to sit down in the middle of
battlefield to take a look at enemy’s army.
But once their discussion continued, Arjuna eventually decided not to fight. He simply gave up.
Since he was one of the main warriors of his army, if he was out it meant the whole army
wouldn’t have won the war.
Arjuna said I don’t want to get into this fight. Why should I cause death of many people
just for the sake of kingdom and joy? It’s a sinful activity to kill people. Then Krishna started
explaining to Arjuna that how war is also important in society. Krishna told him that as a king,
it’s his task to protect his people and civilization, even if it requires killing other people. If you
are interested in learning about this long story, feel free to read the Bhagavad Gita.
Krishna instructs Arjuna on the battlefield of Kuruksettra. © salagram.net
8
Most of the people in India, namely called
Hindus – a name given to those people who used to
live near the river Sindh – don’t have the same
philosophy as us devotees of Krishna. Hindus
worship many different Gods. For example, as you
can see there is a statue of a demigod called Ganesha
placed in this room. Demigods are more powerful
than human beings but are still under the supreme
personality of Godhead, Krishna. Everything is
coming from Krishna, and he is the source of it all,
including the universe in which we live in. Demigods
help Krishna in maintaining the universe; they are
the assistants of God.
This is the statue of Swami Prabhupada, the spiritual master of the Krishna devotees of this temple.
Statue of Ganesha, the demigod responsible for removing daily-life obstacles.
9
There are three main personalities of the demigods which are Brama, Vishnu, and Shiva.
Brama is known as the creator of this universe, he is an engineer who has been given power by
Krishna to design this material creation, the universe. Vishnu is a maintainer and his task is to
keep this universe alive. Complementing the tasks of these two demigods is Shiva, who is the
destroyer. Since everything in this world is temporary, Shiva will come at the right time and
destroy the whole universe.
Under these three demigods, there are many different sub-demigods. For example, Indira
is in charge of the weather, Vayu controls the wind, Surya commands the sun, and Chandra
manages the moon. Every single thing in this universe is under the control of a demigod. So to
speak, there are 33 million demigods existing. Even every single part of our body has a
predefined demigod controlling it. We are indeed not independent, and it’s easy to understand.
The demigods are more powerful than human beings but still they directly work under the
control of Krishna. However, the problem that occurs in Hinduism is that people take advantage
of these demigods. For example, the task of Ganesha is to remove obstacles. So if you have any
issues in your life, you can go and worship him, and offer him your dedications. In return he will
remove the problems of your life. However, at the end of the day these benefits are material.
Some Hindus go and worship Krishna directly, and although they too demand material benefits,
yet still it’s better than going to demigods who need to take permission from Krishna in order to
grant your request. Krishna is the supreme and he is totally independent, so why shouldn’t you
go to him directly?
Krishna can give you eternal benefits too if you put your efforts for them. It is called
Mukti, meaning that you will get out of the cycle of death and birth. Krishna explains how as a
10
spirit soul, we constantly change bodies in this world. Right now we are in a human body and
once we die, our soul will gain yet another body such as that of plants and animals, any living
entity. What body we will move to in our next life depends on our Karma. This process
continues for ever and ever as long as we are in this world.
If you worship Krishna and practice Bhakti yoga, the lowest achievable thing is that you
can put an end to this whole cycle of birth and death. This earth could be considered as an
equivalent of hell where people suffer and keep changing bodies. Once you go to the spiritual
world, there will be no death and no birth. You won’t get old and you won’t be infected with
disease anymore. It’s a place where we can be eternally happy.
We have various programs here at the temple. We teach Bhagavad Gita in the evenings.
The main event here, which is absolutely free, starts at Saturday evenings which is a service by
the people of temple, and is followed by dinner. Other people from other communities are also
welcome to join our services. Monks have morning services everyday which is our personal
practice. Also, we have a lot of yoga happening here. We have many different yoga teachers who
come here to teach various kinds of yoga, and are followed by hundreds of students who are
eager to learn about it.
In fact we are hosting part of the space here as a medium for those interested in learning
about meditation, and since the temple is located in the same building, it could create the
opportunity for people interested in devotional yoga to learn from Bhagavad Gita and become
devotees of Krishna. Further, we have many festivals going on throughout the year too. They
include the festival of colors, the festival of lights, Rama Fest, Lama Fest, and India Fest. We
also have the celebration of the birth of Krishna in an event called Krishna Janmashtami.