Question प्रश्न 40

प्रश्न : क्या स्मृति को मिटाना जाना संभव है? यदि नहीं है तो विगत की ऐसी असंख्य कटु, दुःखद स्मृतियों के पुनः पुनः उभर आनेवाली और उनसे निरन्तर पैदा होती रहनेवाली यातनाओं से कभी मुक्त हो पाने का क्या कोई उपाय या संभावना है? यदि ऐसा ही है, तो क्या मृत्यु ही इसका एकमात्र हल है? 

Question : Is it possible to completely  erase, or to get rid entirely of all those butter unpleasant memories? If its not possible, how to deal with, face those innumerable memories that repeatedly come up from time to time and indeed become a very grave, sordid trouble? Is the death only solution? 

Answer  : In spite of all latest research and progress of Science, Medicine and Psychology, unfortunately this problem seems to persist, to have no solution so far. One can keep on fooling oneself all the time, but at some crucial moment, this all turns up into acute frustration unbearable suffering, severe despair.

And this is very true for any one who has gone through such an ordeal.

No, despite all progress and wonderful achievementa in Science, Medicine or Psychology, no one knows what to do with this question!

But please wait!! Fortunately, there is a breakthrough we have lost sight of.

The Indian approach to this problem is amazingly splendid and wonderful.

Maharshi Patanjali has already pointed out a way in His Yoga Sutra, to how to deal with the 'Mind' and not only the memory, but in one stroke, also the root cause of all sorrow that seems to bind one in endless chain of apparent and repeated deaths and births and one can hardly escape the fear of the same.

Before understanding this Yoga Sutra / The Aphorism, let us try to go through yet another and comparatively simpler route. 

Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj in His most famous, all time great Book : 

I AM THAT ,

In the very first chapter of This Book, divulges a simple secret hardly noticed by anyone.

He says :

"With every experience, there arises an "experiencer" who is supposed and said  to have had the experience. With every experience, a "newer experiencer" also assumes existence. It appears to exist during the experience, and goes away as soon as the experience disappears and is gone. Memory causes the illusion of the  continuity between the earlier one who was there with the earlier experience and the next one, who is supposed to have assumed existence with and during the next one."

But if this whole phenomenon is looked with keen attention it is at once realized that the observer was neither any of the two. That is, the 'obsand erver' remaines the same and unaffected in any way. There is no yet another 'observer' who might have 'observed' the 'observer', through-out the two or more such consecutive "experiences". This 'observer' remains the unaffected consciousness of the two or more "experiences".

In Yoga and the Vedanta, this is called the दृष्टा  / dRShTA.

In the beginning of the 

Yoga Aphorisms,

the same 'observer' is referred to as the दृष्टा / dRSHTA,

in the aphorisms 1 to 4 of the :

Samadhipad / समाधिपाद 

अथ योगानुशासनम्।।१।।

योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः।।२।।

तदा दृष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम्।।३।।

वृत्तिसारूप्यमितरत्र।।४।।

In the last aphorism 4, however, it is explained : why and how the sense of being oneself, the sense of being 'one' becomes the sense of becoming of this 'one' an 'experiencer', and so how this "experiencer" originates.

The two spiritual practices, namely the "Samkhya" and the "Yoga" differ in that in the first, one tries to find out, to enquire into the reality of the one "Who" exactly is the  दृष्टा / dRSHTA.

In the second kind of practice, one tries to focus the attention on a single वृत्ति / vRtti, and thereby first of all achieves the state of abiding in the same for so long a period that only the same one remains while all other वृत्ति / vRtti are removed from the focus of attention.

This is fine in three stages :

धारणा - dhAraNA, ध्यान - dhyAna, and समाधि - samAdhi.

धारणा - is the holding the attention fixed upon a single वृत्ति / vRitti. / "thought".

It simply means 'repeating' a single word or holding an image / symbol before the mental eyes. 

ध्यान - is the associating the attention with an object of meditation.

Gita  refers to this in the following verse : ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते...

Then is the :

समाधि / samAdhi when the attention is so firmly fixed in the object, becomes so identified with the same.

As is described by the word "सारुप्यम्" in the aphorism 4.

In the normal course, the attention or the mind keeps on moving constantly  from one to another object.

Therefore an ordinary seeker is, in the beginning advised to practice of fixing the attention on a single object. With such a practice one learns "एकाग्रता" / one-pointedness.

When one has learnt to get established for comparatively and sufficiently long time in this practice, one has learnt the ध्यान / dhyAna.

देशबन्धचित्तस्य धारणा।।१।।

तत्र प्रत्ययैकतानता ध्यानम्।।२।।

तदेवार्थमात्रनिर्भासं स्वरूपशून्यमिव समाधिः।।३।।

त्रयमेकत्र संयमः।। 

(विभूतिपाद)

This practice is suggested to be done by a beginner of Yoga.

When one has learned well,  one may attain many सिद्धि / spiritual powers. They are obstacle in समाधि / samAdhi but useful for the worldly pursuits. So one is advised to be cautious and not get lured by them for they obstruct the spiritual progress of the aspirant.

This how and why despite attaining so many powers one just fails to see how the स्मृति / memory, that is वृत्ति / vRitti keeps one in bondage and ignorance of the fact :

"Exactly Who is in bondage?"

When the mind is impurr, immature, and the practicing of the contemplation about :

"What abides here and always; - for ever and what does not, what is the permanent and what is transient"

is not done, one gets sucked.

When one turns attention to the above contemplation an urge arises in him in the form of the enquiry about :

"the self",

that is the, the underlying principle that is the only Reality always there and one can never deny or refute the existence of underlying principle, though may or may not give it a name.

This is verily the way of :

The साङ्ख्य / sAmkhya.

Inspired and prompted by a deep urge to find out the sense and meaning of "I" and having done this search for enough ling time the Reality dawns upon one.

A man in such a state of Realization is called a सिद्ध / siddha.

But a "YogI" who has not transcended  वृत्ति / vRtti can't see how to transcend the sorrow, the memory of those events and "happenings" which he believes to be true and really "happened" in near or a distant past. In the same way he is just unable to be free of the worries and fears he thinks may happen in the near or distant future.

So therefore the Veda declares :

।।तरति शोकमात्मवित्।।

Wise is one who transcends misery. 

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