3. Practice and Efficacy of Rajayoga of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga : SALIENT FEATURES OF SRI RAMCHANDRA’S RAJAYOGA

The School of Rajayoga is said to have been founded by Hiranyagarbha (Brahma) and the chief tenets of that school were written down in Sutra-form by Sage Patanjali. Sage Patanjali is identified with the great grammarian Patanjali by some scholars. Rajayoga, as enunciated by the Yoga Sutras, is one of the earliest systematic attempts to present the method of release. It is however true that in the meanwhile many other types of yoga have come into being.

Shri Ram Chandraji (of Shahjahanpur) states in his Efficacy of Rajayoga that the technique discovered by his Master Shri Ram Chandraji of Fatehgarh was originally the earliest having been invented by a Rishi who lived far earlier than Sri Dasaratha, the father of Sri Rama Chandra, the avatar. This method depends on the same principle later enunciated by sage Patanjali but with a great modification. The principle is that all this world, both individual and cosmic, arose out of the original stir (kshobha) and this is of the nature of thought. It is this subtlest thought that as power has become grosser and grosser till it evolved into the cosmic world (brahmanda) and the individuated worlds of beings. Thought thus became the gross world of matter. Of course this descending process of thought has been attended by a series of twists or inversions of the original flow or strands of the flow. Thus we have the descriptions of the higher and the lower constantly being changed or inverted. These inversions lead to many changes, and knots are formed at each one of the stages of the descent of the flow of thought. All these are not mentioned in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or in the Samkhya. Sage Patanjali states in his definition of Yoga that it is just the nirodha or stopping the modifications of the citta (citta-vrtti-nirodha). The nature of citta is not clearly mentioned, for citta is not a category (tattva) of the Samkhyan enumeration. Therefore, the writers on Yoga think that it is to be equated with manas, the sensorium of Samkhya. But really citta should refer to all thought-processes starting from buddhi, ahamkara, manas, sense-organs culminating in the motor organs also, for all have to be reversed or led to nivrtti. It is then that they really are made to be one with the original thought. Thus the force of thought is to be used to stop the flow of thought downward towards grossness. It is undoubtedly a serious question whether the thought as citta is used for the purpose of restraining itself. That is not the case, and what happens is that another force has to restrain it from going on its downward movement. It is this force that is said to be of the same nature as that of citta but in its refined form or superfine form which is to be used for the purpose of restraining the modifications of the citta.

Shri Ram Chandraji has shown that the original thought (which he calls Manas), with which the later formations of it including obviously the citta are identical in a sense but which have to be shown to be inversions of it, is to be used for controlling them. This power of Superfine Thought cannot be had unless one begins to contemplate or meditate on the Superfine thought itself or on one who is in full possession of it without any diminution, namely God Himself or a great Master who has arrived at that condition.

Thought as understood by philosophers is just reason and reasoning. Such a reason is dependent for its existence on sensations and experiences which are sensory. The reasoning or reason cannot be correct unless it is also guided by the laws of reason. That is why the philosophers can be arriving at wrong conclusions or erroneous judgments. There are any number of philosophies nowadays which are based on a set of axioms or assumptions even like mathematical schools dependent on a set of axioms. There are thus any number of mathematically constructed universes none of which need be true. So too these several philosophies can be produced or invented and none of them need be true. Therefore, we have conflicts between several types of philosophies all of which claim to satisfy but which is hardly arrived at so long as their basic assumptions either of thought (called laws of thought) or sense (claimed to be facts) are arbitrarily chosen.

The procedures of philosophers based on the so called genetic approach or empiricism are bound to be vitiated at the very outset because they attempt to know Reality as a whole through the knowledge of the parts. Inductive procedure based on leaping to the general or universal or whole knowledge from the knowledge of parts has its own basic hazards. The leap is sometimes impossible, sometimes nonsensical, and sometimes irresponsible.

Thought, as we have delineated it, is a kingly thing in us, and since we use thought for the purpose of linking ourselves with Reality, the Yoga (linking) is called Rajayoga. However, if it is the usual intellectual discursive thought, thought that is the servant of sensations, then it is not doing its kingly function. The real thought is akin to Vision, and it is this royal thought which has to be trained to come back to us by the purification of the thought that we now exercise. The twists and turns or inversions (vivarta) that that thought has gone through in its becoming (pravrtti) have to be unwinded or untwisted or reinverted so as to become the original thought. Therefore, the true purpose of philosophy is to restore its original power to thought and then use it to know Reality, rather than try to know Reality with the help of these twisted and distorted instruments.

Ancient Indian thinkers have laid down three conditions for arriving at truth or Reality: (i) the subject or knower must be healthy and not obsessed by desires; (ii) the object should be without ambiguous or similar nature to other objects so as to give rise to illusions; (iii) the means or instruments of knowing or thought (pramana) must be without any defect. The error or deficiencies of the subject lead to hallucinations and errors of prejudice and desire; the errors of the second lead to illusions, and the third also to error. Thus Reality which is of the highest nature cannot be truly comprehended or apprehended by means of the senses or reasoning or comparisons or analogies, because it is subtler than any of the objects of the senses and because knowledge of that will throw light on the sensations rather than otherwise. Thus Rajayoga aims at arriving at the highest Thought or purest thought to apprehend Reality as it is, having cleansed the subject of all desire and the means of all imperfection.

Shri Ram Chandraji therefore counsels that any one interested in the knowledge of Reality should arrive at this state of Vision or Intuitive knowing and should not try to know Reality of a kind by means of senses and reasoning which can only give distortions of Reality or unreality in one word.

II

Sri Ramchandra’s Rajayoga is claimed to be the natural method of attaining this Highest Vision and experience of Reality.
Since thought in its subtlest form is the origin of all process and building up of the gross physical, vital, and mental bodies so as to speak, thought even in its gross form is utilized to break up these structures. The simple method is the method of concentration which is the linking up of our thought (gross form) with its subtlest form (that is of Reality). This subtlest form is that of the Master, and that is why the Master becomes the object of concentration. All religions counsel the concentration or meditation on the Godhead who is claimed to be Adi Guru — the first Guru or the Guru of all Gurus. Concentration on that Guru leads to the loss of grossness of the thought which is ours, and slowly there happens the transformation of that thought into subtle conditions. The thought within us moves slowly to the Ultimate. And in this process there is achieved a double end, firstly, thought purifies itself by contact with the Ultimate and secondly, moves to that Ultimate Being or state or condition faster and faster.

As our thought slowly moves upwards or takes its yatra or pilgrimage to the Ultimate, renunciation of thought in its lower forms and movements take place naturally. So too, our thought becomes subtler and subtler and thus reveals its own true nature. Thus the renunciation of the lower levels happens without effort by fixing it on the Ultimate as the goal. The individual begins to realize that the individual mind has become as such when it began to get away from the Centre of Peace (the Ultimate).

More important, of course, is the point that the soul begins to get the Ultimate’s peace and calmness; and simplicity begins to descend even as the individual is moving towards it or has totally surrendered to its contemplation. For it is a truth that one becomes what one contemplates. Thus the meditation on the Ultimate is the first condition of ascent. As Shri Ram Chandraji states “the gentle waves of the Calm of the Region of the Almighty begin to flow direct to the individual mind and so in the long run you become one with it” (Efficacy of Rajayoga P.34). The meditation on the Ultimate having been decided on and the Ultimate having been recognized as the Guru or God, it follows as to where and as what the Ultimate has to be meditated upon.

Shri Ram Chandraji has clearly stated that there are certain minimum assumptions: firstly, there is the Ultimate; secondly, that this Ultimate (which is also called Zero or Nothingness) is called Tam (or that, tat). It is not the tamas quality or the quality that makes for dullness, lethargy etc., that comes up later on as the element of inertia or inactivity in its gross form, which is perhaps the inversion of that. The Tam has beneath it a kind of invisible motion. This is the first Mind or Supermind of the Almighty. From this superconscious mind our own mind originates. When we take up our individual mind to this level of the First Mind, then we come close to the Centre or the Almighty.

The First Mind being arrived at one comes very close to the Centre and gains the experiences of plainness, simplicity and calmness.

The difficulty of worshipping the Ultimate is however there. The need to have a concrete Object rather than an immaterial Absolute is everywhere felt by meditators. It is indeed difficult to meditate on that. Therefore, Shri Ram Chandraji prescribes that one may meditate on the personality who has attained the Ultimate condition, and who is capable of leading the meditator to that state. It can be an Avatar as Sri Krishna has stated about Himself or a special personality who has attained that state.

Shri Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh, the Master of Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, is said to be one who has that state and therefore fit to be meditated upon. Further, our mind being individual and gross needs one who is incarnate whilst yet being in the Ultimate for concrete meditation.

As Shri Ram Chandraji puts it “when we meditate on a living form, the form naturally remains in our view. When the attention gets fixed in it everything superfluous then gets out of sight. When one goes deep into it, it transforms and assumes the form of mere impression. Further on that too sinks into a subtle idea of his Greatness. The ‘jyoti’ experienced in the heart is a reflection of Reality ....”

Many abhyasis (practicers of meditation) have found it difficult to keep the outer form of their beloved Godhead before their meditation, whether it be the living Master also. The difficulty is due to the very nature of the transference of outer experience to the inside. It becomes a gross kind of meditation, for the outer is the gross expression of the inner. There has therefore been a great deal of difficulty in convincing the meditator about the change of external appearance in meditation. One should let oneself go in the inner and experience the flow of the Master’s superconsciousness within oneself. Surely it may reveal many experiences. At each stage of ascent there will be experienced different kinds of light. The ascent itself is featured by various experiences at the several knots or wheels (chakras). Shri Ram Chandraji points out that all the chakras begin to glow as the Superfine Consciousness begins to pass through them.

When meditation starts there happens the awakening of the heart Region. Once the Heart Region begins to glow then there is the starting of the journey to the Ultimate.
It can be seen that one must have chosen the Superconscious Personality for the meditation on the Ultimate. The meditation on Him means connecting oneself with Him with devotion and love. The meditation is to be a kind of surrender, a total self-giving of oneself to be led to the goal of superconsciousness which promotes renunciation, and other necessary adjuncts to the practice known as sadhana sampattis such as viveka, sama, dama, titiksa, sraddha, comprised in the triple words, plainness, simplicity and resignation.

Whatever has been gross is slowly dissolved, and one naturally proceeds to the Ultimate state of the Supreme Personality. The worship of the Supreme Personality does not mean the worship of the gross forms but forms open to the inner mind. Idolatry is the worship of the gross form whereas true worship is of the subtlest nature. All gross forms will melt away into the subtlest nature, and this is what is experienced as the identity of all manifest forms in the Ultimate.

The method insists upon the subtlest meditation so as to purify the inner as well as the outer perceptions and enable us to arrive at the true nature of things as they are in the Ultimate.

Thus we are enabled to explore the Heart Region which is counseled as the initial place of meditation for embodied beings.

We have spoken about the need to concentrate on the Highest Personality or the Ultimate in order to arrive at that condition which is our real goal. It is clear, however, that we have to distinguish between concentration and meditation. The original distinction in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is between dharana and dhyana. They are the two stages of the increasing absorption in the Ultimate. Meditation is the natural manner of keeping one’s attention on the Supreme Personality. During this period every abhyasi experiences the influx of lot of everyday thoughts and feelings. These have the nature of interfering with our constant attention, and effort seems to be demanded to check the influx of these wayward thoughts (called citta-vrttis), both from our past and from outside. The need to throw out all these thoughts is also felt seriously. Dejection seems to overtake most abhyasis. However, Shri Ram Chandraji has stated that these could be checked by the process of cleaning two points A & B located about the region of the heart.