Meditation and Bekhudi (A State Of Complete Self-Immersion)
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
23 August
2023
Recently, a
lama in Tibet who left Buddhism, criticised meditation as monks and inert
people's favourite indulgence.
Meditation
is indeed an escapist's refuge. It's the hobby-horse of indolent people and
lotus-eaters. In other words, meditation's indeed the manifestation of
inactivity like worship.
Meditation,
like love and spirituality, is an overused word. Why does one need to meditate
and invite inertia? From a medical point of view, meditation has some
significance because it's a therapy that's used to calm down frayed nerves and
an agitated mind.
Meditation's
a part of clinical hypnotism. Beyond that, it has no purpose. The world of
creativity needs agitated minds, not meditative or contemplative souls. The
finest and immortal creations in all ages came from people with agitated and
restive minds. Whether Vincent Van Gogh, Modigliani, Rodin, Nietzsche, Ludwig
Wittgenstein or India's very own Ritwik Ghatak, all had agitated minds and what
they created in that state of mind is still admired by all.
Drawn to
Eastern meditation, Sir Christopher Isherwood came to India from England and
spent some time at Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. He realised that the whole
business of meditation was a sham. Meditation mainly talks about the mind and
its 'desired blank state'.
First of
all, there's no entity such as the mind. It's like the concocted terms viz,
ether, soul, spirit and enlightenment. It's actually the brain, that's
intangibly called mind. Mind doesn't exist. Brain does exist and there's never
a complete vacuum, that can be achieved even through auto-suggestion. What's
called 'meditative euphoria' is achievable with the help of drugs like LSD and
Mandrakes.
When the
brain is focused or concentrated on a particular object for a long time, it
becomes passive. It's a state of 'half-sleep'. Meditation's the same thing. Out
of six schools of Indian philosophy, Charvaka and Samkhya Darshan reject
meditation as 'self-deception'. Yask called it 'delusional devotion' to achieve
salvation, a too self-centred false practice. What amazes me most is the fact
that nearly two thousand years ago, Charvaka and Samkhya Darshan rejected the
esoteric entities like mind and spirit and ridiculed meditation as something
utterly bogus.
And now the
latest medical and neurological research also subscribes to those ancient
schools. When one tries to meditate, one feels distracted by undesirable
images, particularly erotic ones. Brain is perpetually tormented by carnal
thoughts. Meditation is a failed attempt to dispel all thoughts and images.
Brain cannot be completely deviated from its intrinsic thought process. One can
slow down this process but cannot extirpate it. They (thoughts) never leave you
and in many instances, meditation even concentrates them further.
The rampant
sex orgies at a famous Commune, when that fraud was alive, were the outcome of
meditation sessions at the ashram. When the late Christopher Hutchins, the US
investigative journalist and the author of 'God's not great ', visited that Commune in a city in western India, he
found that just after meditation, the people would indulge in the pleasures of
the body. We're all self-deceivers. And we all resort to the fancy words and
practices, which lead us nowhere.
At the same
time, I'd like to distinguish between Bekhudi (a state of complete
self-immersion) and Samadhi/Dhyaan (Meditation). The former is a
state of total absence of one's self. It's spontaneous. You don't achieve it
through simulation or efforts. It catches you unawares. Mystics often plunge
into this state when they're unaware even of their sense of awareness. All the
ecstatic proclamations like Aham Brahmasmi and An-al-Haq are uttered in a state
of Bekhudi when one's not aware of what he's speaking, uttering or murmuring.
But it's not lunacy. It's called mystic madness. "Kaifiyat-e-Bekhudi
Mein Khuda Kah Gaya Insaan Ko/ Manzoor Hai Agar Iss Shirk Ki Saza Mile Mujh Ko"
(In a state of self-immersion, I addressed a fellow human as Allah/ I accept,
if He punishes me for this sacrilege). The entire Islamic Tasawwuf
(spirituality) is based upon this Bekhudi. Jalaluddin Rumi fainted in his first
meeting with Shams-e-Tabriz. That was Bekhudi, an overwhelming impact of
something indescribable. We call it Shazail in Persian mysticism. To make it
simple, Bekhudi is a profound impact that transforms an individual. Meditation
or Dhyaan fails to pack a punch.
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/meditation-bekhudi-self-immersion/d/130507