by Dr. Ekkirala Krishnamacharya Book Presentation Overview Wisdom

Today I speak mainly about Meditation. Generally the term is used in many aspects and many shades of meaning. Since the time of the advent of Yoga to the West, the term “Meditation” has gained much importance. But the truth of it is, some people know the meaning of the word precisely according to the scientific sense and they use it strictly according to the yogic principles and standards. But there are people who use the term rather vaguely. There are people who close their eyes and say that they are meditating. When someone is sleeping in the car closing his eyes, his friend jokes at him asking, “Are you meditating?” Some people try to concentrate their mind upon something and call it meditation. That means they use the word meditation for concentration. Some people believe that the Yoga practice includes concentration of mind.

You know that the real Yoga path has eight steps according to Patanjali and Bhagavad Gita. The first four steps belong to the external attempt of the disciple for the following:

1. To compose himself and to make his body more fit and healthy.
2. To make the circulation of blood and vital forces uniform.
3. To feed the various parts of the body with the fresh flow of the vital currents.
4. To heal the various physical parts of the body and then to rectify the defects in respiration and the blood circulation.

The first two steps are Yama and Niyama. They include the attempt to compose the habit nature of oneself into himself. The habit-forming nature is the real personality of a human being and it is never under the control of good thought and education. For example, we can have many good thoughts; we may decide to do many good things; read many good books and learn many good things and gain much knowledge about the good things. But still we continue to live according to our own older habits. Our knowledge goes on adding and becoming more and more, but our habit is continuing the same as it was before we could gather some knowledge.

The true Yoga student observes two different aspects in his internal existence. The one which is adding day by day to him by the way of good information which he calls knowledge and which has no hold upon his behaviour at all. The second thing is his habits from the beginning, taking a stronghold over his own behaviour and having full control over himself. Upon these two aspects, the real student of Yoga tries to have some control on the second aspect of himself, while he practices the first two steps of the eightfold Yoga path that is the Yama and the Niyama.

The positive way of living is established during these two steps and the attitude towards his own living is gradually habituated to positiveness. The attitude towards his own life will be gradually transformed into a positive way of behaviour, not by fighting the evil of himself, but by ignoring the negative aspect by engrafting into his daily life, a new habit and a new habituated way of living. He comes to understand that it is the habit nature that is controlling him and his knowledge is not at all controlling him and his desires are not at all controlling him. The desire to become good does not at all have a hold upon him.