Introspection and Nidhidhyasana.

Before I forget, I should jot down a few experiences.

Gurudev told me about my association with Dinesh uncle.  He told me to do a sankalpa for Moksha for both me and Dinesh uncle.  This occured a few days ago.  I hope this is not in anyway a hint from Gurudev that Dineshuncle is about to make a departure.

I had a talk with a Saint today.  It took me a while to understand what he meant by introspection.  He kept repeating that one has to “be here now” meaning be constantly vigilant and alert as to the faults one has and constantly make an effort to correct it.  Anyway that was the gist.  He said that this is introspection and it is just as important as meditation.  For those in the spiritual path, the traditional indian word is Nidhidhyasana.  What I could not understand is why does one have to be aware and look for ones faults when you can actually see them!

Let me explain the steps of Nidhidhyasana.  I will start off with an analogy. 

Let us say you are in a house with a few rooms.  You hear a little sound.  But the sound is soft and so short, you are just not sure if the sound was real but think it was there. This would be the first step where one realizes that a small voice or something inside did not have the ring of truth, but we are not spiritually awake enough to catch on to it.

In the second stage, you hear the sound repeatedly but you cant place your finger on it.  This is like a stage where you are passing a street, someone frowns at you, and you feel unhappy about it.  After a while you forget the incident but your heart stays heavy but you dont remember why

In the third stage, you hear a sound and you know the sound is coming from the room next door and you have a more precise idea and you try to shut off the noise in your mind.  This is a stage where you are more in tune with your faults and you are trying to be vigilant and not let the sound or your faults take over.  This is closer to the real Nidhidhyasana. 

The fourth stage is something different.  Your no longer in the house but you are above the house and the house has no roof so you can see the source of the sound!  Here, you are no longer looking or searching for your faults,  you actually see it.   This is not something imaginary nor is it a feeling or perception. It is seen. 

In the third stage, you are aware of your faults or enemies but you cannot vanquish them.  In the fourth stage, you actually see the fault and slowly, in time learn how to vanquish them. 

When I say, you see your faults, this is what happens.  All of our faults lie in different chakras of the body – usually between manipur or swadhisthana or muladhar and some in Anahat.  When we try to station ourselves in the higher self, one can actually see the activies of the lower chakras and see the fault we have and keep ourselves surrendered to Shakti and let shakti remove our faults and thus the obstacle to remaining in samadhi at all times. 

Lately, when I am in meditation, I see various strings which connect the agna chakra to the lower half of the body.   When focused on agna chakra fully, immediately prana begins to reverse and climb back up through the “strings”.  When our attention is not fixed fully on agna chakra, I see how our faults pull on agna chakra and prevent the consciousness from blossoming within and keep our prana from ascending.  

The degree to which the prana reverses it flow has gone up exponentially.  The more prana reverses its flow, more and more do I feel myself without body and more as pure consciousness.  Also, when the attention is fixed on agna chakra and the prana begins to ascend, I realize the existence of Manas chakra.  This is a chakra with 5 leaves and described by Vishnutirthji maharaj in Devatma shakti.