Tune your spirit to the harmonious vibrations of the cosmos with the guidance of Swami Tadananda, who sheds light on the ancient art of mantra meditation. Throughout our discussion, the concept of aligning with life's higher energies emerges as a beacon for those seeking enlightenment beyond the physical world. By embracing the sage advice of discriminating between actions that uplift our Dharma and those that pull us into Adharma, we pave a path to our inner Atman. Swami Tadhananda takes us on a journey that is not just about embracing spiritual teachings but authentically experiencing their transformative power. Join us and be inspired to harmonise your life with the profound wisdom of the Vedas.
Tune your spirit to the harmonious vibrations of the cosmos with the guidance of Swami Tadananda, who sheds light on the ancient art of mantra meditation. Throughout our discussion, the concept of aligning with life's higher energies emerges as a beacon for those seeking enlightenment beyond the physical world. By embracing the sage advice of discriminating between actions that uplift our Dharma and those that pull us into Adharma, we pave a path to our inner Atman. Swami Tadhananda takes us on a journey that is not just about embracing spiritual teachings but authentically experiencing their transformative power. Join us and be inspired to harmonise your life with the profound wisdom of the Vedas.
Namaste Ritam listeners. My name is Sunil. I am with Swami Tadananda from the Ramakrishna Vedanta Center of Auckland, New Zealand. How are you, Swamiji? I am good, Sunil. How are you? I am good, good, Swamiji. In the last episode we were talking about breath. You explained about deep breathing and you said you will cover of rhythmic breathing a bit later. We also just slightly mentioned Ritam, which is the name of the podcast. Shall we continue from there? Sure.
Swamiji:
So, yes, let's talk about this wonderful idea of Ritam. It is a very ancient Vedic concept which later on became translated or expressed as Dharma. So this Dharma regulates the life and everything, but in its earlier form it was called Ritham. Ritam denotes that underlying principle behind the whole universe, at a subtle level, which is responsible for maintaining harmony and order. If you watch the universe, you see it's not flying out in a chaotic way in all directions. It's a rhythm, it's a balance in a rhythm of things happening in a cyclic way. So your daily cycle, okay, your lunar cycle, how so many systems are controlled and regulated by that, your annual cycles. Then you will see around the movement of the planets, or the moon going around the Sun, the Earth going around the Sun, galaxies, solar system, everywhere there is some order, some order.
Sunil:
Okay.
Swamiji:
So the Vedic sages when they could detach themselves from the physical world, detach their minds from the physical world and tune into the higher dimensions of this existence, universe. By universe I don't mean the physical universe, only that finite and finite dimensions, layers after layers after layers. So we can say look at this atmosphere at the lowest, where it's touching the ground, it's densest. But as you go higher and higher and higher, it becomes finite and finite. And it's very high, it's almost like space.
Swamiji:
Okay, All molecules are not there, but it sort of becomes thinner and thinner and thinner gradually. In our science we give different names to different heights, as stratosphere, anosphere, whatever sphere. They're not actually lines, just for convenience of communication. At the end it's one atmosphere. So likewise existence is like that. The grossest is the physical world and it becomes finer and finer with the mind and ultimately at the other end we have pure space in which everything is contained, because air particles exist in that space, even it's down here. But when it's without any content, that is called pure consciousness. So, unlike our physical and material scientists who are trying to understand the mind, activity and consciousness from the point of view of this physical body, as if the brain produces the mind and the mind produces consciousness, the Vedic teachers, they said it's the other way. Actually they're putting the card before the horse here. That's why it's not making sense. Even if you're looking for the got particle or blasting some atoms and all those things, spending billions of dollars, you're not going to get anywhere because it's the other way. So they say the ultimate reality is pure consciousness.
Swamiji:
Then it becomes energy Okay, shakti. And that energy has got different variations. At the highest level, which is Parashakti, it is at a very pure high energy state and it begins to become diminished At some stage. It becomes experiences, the ego A little little down. It becomes experiences, what we are feeling in our mind, space, thoughts and emotions, and then it comes down to this cross world. We have got these devices embedded in our body, sense organs by which we are able to pick some of those energies which are light for eyes and sound for the ears, but they are x-rays and micro-ears which we can't pick. Okay, what I'm trying to say? There is a whole spectrum of energies in which we also are energy and we are operating at a very gross level.
Swamiji:
So when, through deep meditation, the mind can be raised and freed from the grip of the physical body and it can dwell in that subtle level, which is the mental level, it experiences a different world. It doesn't experience a person there, it experiences an idea that has materialized as the person, the subtle ideas behind every manifested form. They are called Shabdas in Sanskrit language. It's the blueprint which manifests. For example, the blueprint of an architect becomes a building. Okay, the building can be destroyed, but if you have the blueprint , you can build one again. So everything in this universe that we say thing", thing as a manifestation has got a name in a form, has got a subtle counterpart, which is the energy of that object at a high level. are the the layers and layers of our being, yes, so physical body, mental body, and we call the spiritual body and ultimately is the pure consciousness.
Sunil:
As the Rishis, when they meditate and raise their minds above the pure gross level they would have? Is it very similar to saying that you're changing your frequency? So, you're watching TV and you're watching a particular channel and then you want to change it to a different channel. You would change your frequency.
Swamiji:
Yeah, it's like another very nice way to say. It is like when you're operating through the body it is 1G. Okay, when you go to 2G and suddenly the information that's contained in a 2G is far much more than 1G, 3g, 4g, 5g, 7g and now you can get gigabytes of information, data like that. So as you go to the higher planes the amount of information is far superior to what is available when it's at the lower plane. So the sensors give you only little bit sneak preview tidbits here and there. Raise your mind to a next level and you can pitch it up there. Then you find another world opens and you see just like I'm seeing at table, energy and a person at that level. You will see these subtle energy forms. It's all science, but you need to have the capacity to lift the mind from this lower plane to the higher plane, and meditation develops that capacity.
Sunil:
All right.
Swamiji:
So it's a very scientific method, about about so coming to rhythm. So the underlying principle which governs and maintains that balance behind everything that low, we begin to understand. And when we understand something then we can use it. For example, the law of gravitation. Gravitation existed, but some think are like Newton. You know he gave this law of gravitation and we use that. We can do various things in sciences. So there are very fine principles and the law by which they function. They are discovered by a, at the physical level, by gross scientists, or at the spiritual level, by spiritual scientists. They are seekers of the truth, both one at the slower level, the other one in a higher level, spiritual level, you might say mental level.
Swamiji:
So so, coming back to this rhythm, out of which the word rhythm sort of has come, let's observe that within us. So if your whole system is in a beautiful rhythm, that means the whole organism of our body is a sort of a amalgamation, integration of so many systems digestive system, nervous system, muscular system, all this. When they are all beautifully integrated, then you're not even conscious of your body. Everything is flowing. But if you have a little bit of indigestion, you see how everything is now thrown out of balance and you just can't do anything. You know everything is now held back there, running low energy, until you recover. See, recover means you had moved away from that health state of perfect health. You had moved off, you know, and now you're trying to get back to it. So when you are dislodged from your perfect state, it creates what is called stress, an anxiety. Is that feeling, am I going to get back into it or not? Okay? And we recover. Then anxiety disappears. So, like you pull a string, a spring, it creates some tension and you let it go back to its natural state, then all the tension disappears. So that point where everything is in a perfect, harmonious, beautiful, peaceful way that is within us, but not at the physical level, governmental level, deep at the spiritual level, and we actually have moved out of that center, so to say, and trying to remain, maintain our identity at a physical level. Because I'm a physical being, I'm trying to maintain this body at every instant. New cells are being born, old cells are dying, but the whole bundle sort of keeps on continuing. And so long I can keep on replenishing it. Your body looks it growing, but at some point it's not able to replenish and that's when you see all the signs of aging here becomes white, it becomes wrinkled. At some point organs will begin to fail and then it's not able to recover, it will just collapse. So in a physical way, we see physical systems.
Swamiji:
At the mental level, look, it could be something, an inner conflict behavior. What you like and what is being you are being forced to do do not resonate. So you have that internal conflicts and people suffer because of that. You're not happy with yourself, all right. So what has happened? You're not in the rhythm, your actions are not in rhythm with your inner constitution. Why? Because something is disturbing you from there. Look at inner family. Now. If all the members in a family are in a beautiful rhythm, then there's peace and harmony there A couple of brothers and sisters or an extended family or the neighborhood. But if one goes off that engine slightly, for whatever reason, then you see how much disharmony and happiness, stress, tension, all those type of things happen there. What we're trying to understand is look, there is a natural beautiful state of being individually, in a family, in an organization, in a country, and this world and this universe. So layers and layers and layers of different degrees of complexity are there and this world is actually is a lost balance.
Swamiji:
All right and you'll find some upheaval coming in. One point disturbing another one influential, powerful people who have power. They can do something that can affect so many other people governments, policies, organizational policies, values. So the world will constantly try to throw you of balance. The individual tries to regain their balance.
Swamiji:
Somebody asked Swami Vivekananda what is life and he gave a beautiful definition. He says life is a constant struggle between the forces inside and the forces outside. The outside forces try to throw you of balance and the inner forces try to regain that balance. So long we are able to regain our balance, we survive. When we can't, then we die.
Swamiji:
For example, some virus might enter into me. Okay, the reaction is how good is your immune system? If it's strong, well, maybe you'll be, not develop any symptom, or it makes you sick for a while, but then your defense mechanism kicks in and you regain your health, your overpower but suppose one cannot overpower that virus that has entered, like COVID, came for many people, very weak immune system and so they got overwhelmed and they passed away. So the wonderful rhythm behind this whole universe. If we understand that the natural rhythm of this whole universe, and synchronize ourselves with that nicely, it helps us maintain our inner balance. So, in just like in physics, we understand two violins that are tuned together, same, kept near each other, and you play on the first one, somehow that energy from the first one is transmitted and the second one will vibrate together. So why? Because they are in rhythm, in tune, and therefore it's able to draw that energy to itself. But if it's it has tuned it at different frequency, then it will not be able to capture that energy. So imagine, there's a beautiful rhythm behind the universe, and when I can tune myself, through meditation and all that Upreya, to the energy of the underlying existence, then just like energy was transmitted from one violin to the other, likewise we begin to capture that energy to ourselves.
Swamiji:
And so now you will see, if you visualize each individual notice, a physical being, but more of a bundle of energy that is vibrating and pulsating at a particular frequency. Sometimes it pulsates and vibrates at a lower frequency. At that time it tunes into the lower energy that's all around that person and then the only, the only then and only then that negative energy can Come into him and affect him, if he can tune his mind up. Like you know, you're tuning your TV to a different frequency. It doesn't catch you. But when you go to up level, the positive ones begin to flow into you, right?
Swamiji:
So that's why in the Bhagavad Gita, shri Krishna is telling to Arjuna, when he was depressed he says raise your mind Through self effort to a high level. If you can do that, you'll be your own best friend. But if you can't in your mind goes down, then you becomes your own, become your own enemy, because you are now Allowing this negative energies to come into ourselves. So it's a deep philosophy and psychology in there, because sometimes when we're down and we do not know how to bring ourselves up, and then it the negative energy flows into us, okay, and then it takes us one step down, further down, and another deep layer energy flows. It's like a ball at the top of the steps that goes Dropping, step by step and before you know it has gone so far down that no one can reach you out there. So if you understand this, so we try is a bundle of energy ourselves.
Sunil:
We're trying to be in sync with other bundles of energy around us.
Swamiji:
We should try to. We will naturally be in sync with the bundles of energy that are at our level.
Sunil:
Right, all right.
Swamiji:
So that's why a constant and a conscious effort has to be made To sync ourselves with some high energy. That high energy is represented by some divine form which is the chosen ideal and the. The mantra Actually is the tuning of your mind to that energy level. And when we, the closer we approach, the more that energy will begin to flow into us and ultimately you want to be able to access the full energy of that being. But we might personify it, your Meritative on particular aspect of God. You're repeating a particular mantra, but you can see the science of it.
Swamiji:
This is a very interesting topic to To have a good, deep understanding logically, intellectually, and then we understand the real Wisdom of the sages where they gave us these tools To lift our mind to higher and higher planes and such excess, so much power that's available to us, but at 4G, 5g, 6g, but at least you should be able to tune.
Swamiji:
And when we don't understand the philosophy and the psychology, then we think somebody is just sitting and praying to God and he's repeating some mantra and he's chosen this particular form of God and this, and that without understanding deeply the science of it. So that's why we have chosen this word rhythm. The basis is how do we tune and sync ourselves to the higher energies, energy levels which are then represented by some spiritual idea, ideal or even a pacifism of incarnation or some aspect of God. They have their mantras, which are again means by which we can resonate our mind with the energy of that being, and the reason is that when you're connected, then that energy begins to flow into us and lifts us up, and then it lifts up to the next level, and that's what we're trying to do during the time of meditation. The higher we can lift ourselves, then the world with all its waves and problems and things will exist there, but since you're not tuned to them, they cannot touch you.
Sunil:
That's really nice. Actually, that's good Getting to the understanding the word rhythm in a better way. Thank you, it's been great.
Swamiji:
So I think one has to understand this and then reflect on life and be alert to this idea and questions how am I tuned now? What level is it? Am I making an effort to raise my frequency, so to say tune myself to higher energy, or my activity right now is taking me down? And you'll find that if you're not vigilant, then you're just rumbling around life in one way or the other, getting knocked around. But if you're vigilant and alert and discriminating and say this activity, this engagement, this company, this association is going to not do you good, the ones that will do you good are the ones one should discriminate and choose. And so when you look at the instructions of spiritual teachers, they will always try to say the ones that will drag you down is Adharma, do not do those things. The ones that will lift you up, that's your Dharma, try to do that. They are the moral and the ethical teachings.
Swamiji:
There and I mean another in some episode, we can reflect when people would go to Shri Ramakrishna and ask them okay, you talk about this Atman, that's most wonderful, full of knowledge, bliss, beauty, beauty, goodness in the core of all beings, and we can see the power of that through your Samadhi. And when they would ask him how we as human beings, normal human beings, can access that, then he had a five point formula that is repeated again and again and again in the Gospel, which is always discriminated between the real and the unreal. He talks about satsang, spiritual company, he talks about Japan, meditation he talks about now, and then going into solitude, he talks about prayer, and we can understand all these five teachings in the light of the principles we were discussing today. And then it becomes very, very scientific and when it signs there, then it gives a little deep conviction. I'm just not believing in doing it, but I understand to some extent, but I want to experience it.
Sunil:
Right, that's great. I think we've brought our time today, so thank you, that was great and we'll see you next time.