Meditation on OM, is not just the repetition of it, but also meditation on its meaning
This is one of the things out teacher brought very much to the fore …… the meditation on OM, he says ‘the Sutra of Patanjali says not just the repetition of it, but also meditation on its meaning.’ But why is all the rest of yoga needed? Because not many people have the one-pointedness to keep at something, they need many accessories to keep the mind interested and active in it.
There are people who can, if you learn Chinese you have to learn, well you used to have to learn three thousand separate shapes, and there are people who can be told simply learn them and they will sit down to it and learn them, that’s all, but most people can’t do that they must have an interest in them. How to learn for instance that the sun is represented by a square with a dot in the middle. Well you can’t remember whether it is a square or a diamond, or whether the dot is above and so on. So they interest you, they say quite interestingly, ‘the sun is represented with dot in the middle. What is the dot? In Chinese mythology it is the crow in the sun, there is said to be a little crow in the sun, and the interesting thing is in ancient Egypt where they also had to learn hieroglyphics they also have a circle with a dot in the middle. Now isn’t that interesting? In the Chinese system the circle became a square but still the dot remained.’ Now when people are given a story like that and it is compared with the ancient Egyptian Ram, Ramous, means born of the sun, (Ram), then it can be remembered and then it enters into your memory. In the same way if you recite OM for three hours a day for four years you will have this relation.
Well you think three hours a day for four years! How about one hour a day for twelve years, or half an hour a day for twenty-four years. Who is going to plan for twenty-four years? Well you do with a mortgage, so why not plan twenty-four years ahead and set aside half an hour a day. Well in these way the representations are made, but he says you have to meditate on the meaning. It has not only the meaning in the body but it has the meaning of connecting the body with the cosmic mind and the cosmic reality finally.
Well just to conclude a little bit from a notice the teacher said:
“Understanding the meaning of the word OM, and sitting in a secluded place, if you repeat this holy word rhythmically and slowly, and concentrate your mind on it, then after a practice in some cases of a few months and in some cases a few years, your mind passes into a state of consciousness which is not only quite different from the state of our daily consciousness, but much more luminous and highly superior. No other yoga is needed; if this one practice is faithfully carried out you succeed in having the highest wisdom, the wisdom which is the third eye of man, wisdom which brings man into relationship with reality. He needs three things to acquire proficiency in yoga, moral discipline, mental discipline and meditation on OM”.
Well this is an experiment which is given and people are quite willing to train on something which will not materialise for weeks, or months, or years, they are willing to do that. It took Leonardo years to acquire his skills as he says and the experiments are given.
So now just two lines
Samādhi
You are the light of life, the sun of suns, the ruler of the universe, the Lord of lords, the true self
This is the result of the experiment. He is saying not that all ideas of God are contracted into a tiny space as Mephistopheles said ‘trying to stuff the seven days of creation into a little portion of the mind’, instead of opening the lotus of the mind out so that it becomes one with the cosmic.