Sanathana Dharma: Srimadh Bagawatham

Continued From: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/05/srimadh-bagawatham-steps-leading-to.html

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Sukacharyar instructed Parikshit on the art of meditation. He asked Parikshit to select a calm location free from disturbance, to find a seat which is neither too high nor too low. If the seat is too high a person is afraid about falling down and if it is at the level of floor, a person might lie down and fall asleep. The seat has to have a back rest to provide good support to the spine. The place should smell fragrant or be odourless. The person should meditate with half open eyes with eye sight focused on the tip of their nose and concentration focused between the eye brows. The person should sit in padmasana which will help control the 27,000 nerves in the lower body below the hips. Meditation should always be performed in solitude. Maintain proper posture and chant the manthram learnt from an Acharyan. Meditate upon the divine form of the Lord while performing pranayamam with proper control over sense organs and mind.

Suka Brahma Maharishi at first instructed Parikshit to meditate upon the Lord’s atma with the whole Universe as His divine body. Starting from Patala Lokam to Brahma’s Satya Lokam are all contained within the Lord’s thirumeni. As Parikshit informed that it was difficult to meditate upon the Lord’s Universal form since it is beyond our imagination, the rishi instructed Parikshit Maharaja to meditate upon the Lord’s Divya Mangala Vigraham existing as archai form in temples.

‘Meditate upon the Lord dressed in yellow silk wearing a huge garland made up of fresh jasmine, rose petals, lotus petals, Spanish Cherry (Magizham poo), Screwpine (Thazham poo), Ylang Ylang (manoranjitham), Indian Magnolia (shenbagappoo) and holy basil (tulasi ). He wears a tall crown embedded with precious gems. He wears the kasturi thilangam on His forehead, the beautiful golden Srivatsa mark on His chest indictes the presence of Sri Devi Nachiar in His vakshashthalam. He wears the beautiful kaustuba gem on His chest. His ornaments are all made of precious gemss. He wears necklaces, pearl belt, pearl anklets and so on. The ornaments and the yellow garment compliment his beautiful black complexion. His ornaments are made of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds and other precious gems. All the jewellery is made with gold. He holds the Sudarsana chakra, His conch, mace and a lotus in each of His four hands as ornament. ,’ said Sukacharyar.

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The proper way to meditate is to start with the Lord's feet and gradually visualize His entire form. Thiruvadi to Thirumudi.

Parikshit closed his eyes to meditate upon the Divya Mangala Vigraham of the Lord and attained success.

The following table shows a comparison between our body, our soul, the Lord’s soul and the Lord’s divine form in helping us to reach Him. It is very easy to meditate on our body (the form of the divas we admire) but the result obtained from this meditation is very ordinary and does not grant us liberation. It is very difficult to meditate upon our soul and the result obtained by performing this difficult exercise is also very poor and will not give us liberation. The Lord’s soul is difficult to meditate upon but the result obtained is supreme and can liberate us from this material world. The Lord’s divine form is very easy to meditate upon and the result of this meditation will grant us liberation. In the following table a point is awarded for ease of meditation and if the result obtained is supreme. From the table we can see that the best option is to meditate upon the Lord’s divine form which is very easy to do and yields the highest result of Moksham.

	Our Body	Our Soul	Lord’s Soul	Lord’s divine form
Easy to meditate	1	0	0	1
Provides Moksham	0	0	1	1

In the above table 1 = Yes and 0 = No.

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The Purusha Suktham describes the Lord as having Adithya varnam i.e. He appears beautiful like the rising Sun. The Purusha Suktham begins by presenting the Universal Form of our Lord and gradually builds up to present His beautiful Thirumeni.

Through the above verse we pray to Him to reveal His beautiful form to us so that we can meditate upon His divine form.

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At Divya Desams, we must observe the form of the Lord. Many people close their eyes in prayer while visiting Divya Desams. This is to be avoided as we must imprint our memory with the form of the Lord at Divya Desams. This is compared to cattle grazing. While grazing, cattle swallow their food quickly. Like this we must observe the appearance of the Lord at the temples in details and retain the information in our memory. After grazing, cattle sit down quietly and ruminate. They slowly digest the grass they had swallowed in a hurry while grazing. Like the ruminating cattle, after we return home we must meditate upon the form of the Lord retained in our memory. By doing this regularly we will become successful. We will soon be able to see the Lord whenever we wish to. To achieve this we must at first start by practicing for at least 10 min a day and slowly increase the time till we think about Him continuously throughout day and night.

Meditation should be started by first listening about the Lord’s glories. Then we must focus upon His divine form with continuous uninterrupted meditation; by doing this without any disturbance, we will definitely see Him standing in front of us. We must think about Him with uninterrupted devotion and love like a stream of oil which falls in a steady stream without any break in the stream. Bhishmacharyar performed such meditation and obtained darshan of Lord before breathing his last breath. We must try to meditate upon the Lord for at least 20 min a day to start with.