Atma Darshan Samadhi: Introduction & Guidance
Saar (Essence)
Ananta introduces a rhythmic prayer practice called Laya Samadhi to dissolve the egoic mind and invite God's grace. He guides seekers through devotional chanting and breathwork to reach Atma Darshan, the intuitive realization of the holy presence within.
Spiritual ego is the most dangerous invention; we must approach God with humility and request mercy.
Sin is living in reliance on our own will rather than God’s light and guidance.
When the mind dissolves into unconditional love, you move from chanting to the stillness of Bhava Samadhi.
devotional
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
When we say Atma Darshan, all we are saying is that we come to a clear intuitive insight of God's presence within us. But I am completely clear about one thing in my heart: that this unfolding has the hand of God in it. I am not at all confused about that. It is God's guidance which is leading this messenger, this servant, this instrument to share this with all of you. I feel like it will bring a great depth to your spirituality; it will bring a lot of beauty to your spirituality, and your mind will not be able to attack you as easily in your oscillations. All those things that have been spoken about for years—it is my feeling and it is also my blessing—that it will be helped greatly in this process.
What is the guidance and how should we start? The first step is something called Laya Samadhi. Laya is to use a rhythm or a flow of spiritually activated prayers or mantras to come to a dissolution or a stillness in the mind. So, Laya literally means dissolution or stillness. What I've actually done is very simply taken the beautiful Jesus Prayer and made versions out of that to resonate with all our different personas or different conditions. We all have a particular set of conditions which make us resonate with a particular aspect of God.
The Krishna prayer is: 'Hare Krishna, Incarnation of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, bless my heart with the light of Atma.' Why am I relying so much on this? First, it's very devotional in nature and it makes a very specific call to that aspect of God that we resonate with. When we say the first line, which is an invocation to Krishna, 'Hare Krishna,' then like in the Jesus Prayer where it is said 'Son of God,' we say 'Incarnation of God' to remind ourselves that this is truly about a God that we cannot fathom, we cannot understand. The aspect of God that we call Krishna derives everything from God itself in His aspect. There is a Nirguna aspect to God and there is a Saguna aspect to God. So when we refer to God here, we're talking about the unfathomable of which Krishna is an incarnation.
Then we say, 'Have mercy on me.' This is a request for Grace. 'Have mercy' can seem very strong to some of you, but it really puts us in a place of humility, which is very important. It is very important not to approach our spirituality with any sort of pride because the spiritual ego is the most dangerous invention in this world. I feel that if we make our spirituality egoic and it becomes special and proud, it becomes an entitlement, you see. We are not saying that our prayer entitles us to Samadhi. You're not saying that our prayer entitles us to God's light in our heart; you're saying that it will come only if it is Your Grace, if it is Your Mercy. So that part is really important.
The two words which maybe are causing the most resistance to all of you is 'a sinner.' The way I am using the term 'sin'—and we deeply contemplated whether we should continue using it—I feel like it is fine because fundamentally, even in the other traditions where this word is used, the sin is to live in reliance to our own terms. It is our reliance on our own will, our own knowledge of good and bad, you see, rather than to live in God's Will and in God's light. The last part of the prayer, which is 'Bless my heart with the light of Atma,' it is the same as saying 'Bless my heart with the light of spirit' or 'Bless my heart with your Noor.' Whatever term we want to use, it is only possible for this discovery to happen by Grace. Only through God's blessing, through God's Grace, can it happen, you see. So we must all bow down and request God's Grace for this to happen.
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My guidance would be to follow the simplicity of these words because they've captured the essence of what a prayer should be. On the in-breath would be 'Hare Krishna,' on the out-breath would be 'Incarnation of God.' Now, one child asks very sweetly, 'But when I'm breathing in, I can't speak, so what do you mean?' What I am really sharing is for you to do this inwardly while the in-breath and out-breath are happening. You don't have to breathe in any particular way. So when you're breathing in: 'Hare Krishna'; when you're breathing out: 'Incarnation of God.' Then as you're breathing in: 'Have mercy on me'; as you're breathing out: 'A sinner.' When you're breathing in: 'Bless my heart'; when you're breathing out: 'With the light of Atma.'
If you were using the Jesus Prayer, you would say 'Lord Jesus Christ' while breathing in, 'Son of God' while breathing out, 'Have mercy on me' breathing in, 'A sinner' while breathing out, 'Bless my heart' breathing in, 'The light of spirit' while breathing out. The Ram prayer is: 'Hare Ram, Incarnation of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, bless my heart with the light of Atma.' The Allah prayer is: 'Ya Allah, God Almighty, have mercy on me, a sinner, bless my heart with your Noor.' The Shiva prayer is: 'Om Namah Shivaya, Supreme God, have mercy on me, a sinner, bless my heart with the light of Atma.' The Durga prayer is: 'Jai Maa Durga, Essence of God, have mercy on me, a sinner, bless my heart with the light of Atma.' The Kali prayer is: 'Jai Maa Kali, God's Fierce Love, have mercy on me, a sinner, bless my heart with the light of Atma.' Then the Satguru prayer is: 'Om Satguru, God's Holy Presence, have mercy on me, a sinner, bless my heart with the light of Atma.'
Trust that these prayers work. You can try the three breaths—and when I say three breaths, it's in and out both. Then there's a fourth breath. If it's Krishna, we say 'Krishna' seven times: four times 'Krishna' in the in-breath and three times 'Krishna' in the out-breath. As we settle into the rhythm of the prayer, the chanting, you will notice that your mind starts to dissolve. You're effortlessly open and empty, and soon you will find the presence of an unconditional love in your heart. When that love for God is apparent, you can leave the words of the prayer and just stay with that love. At this point, you will be able to notice that you experience that love and you can actively love God as well. You will remain in the no-mind, anchored by this love. This is called Bhava Samadhi. It is a love which is beyond emotion. To be in the unborn, to be open and empty, to be in the no-mind anchored just by this love is going from Laya Samadhi to Bhava Samadhi.
Most of you will get distracted by the mind from time to time when you attempt to stay in that love for God. If the distraction is really strong, just go back to the previous prayer and the chanting. What may happen is that you deepen in the love so much that you find your holy presence, your Atma within, and all that remains is this presence. Some of you may report the presence is so palpable there is no mind—not just the primordial vibration of Atma's presence, but also the unlimited nature of God. Some of you will report that the perceptions of the world continue, but nothing is holding on to anything. You cannot find 'me' there. This is a sort of Saguna Samadhi with attributes. What's important is that you're meeting God's light; your prayer is answered, noticing the holy presence within yourself.
This becomes natural and you may actually stay like this all day. You can do your work, everything can happen, but there is no 'me.' You will not be able to find the 'me' that you are relying on because your mind is no longer activated; it is no longer getting any belief. You live like a sage at this point. You are just empty of any identity and God's light is just so apparent. The flow of life may continue, but there is no place where any identification is landing. Then your life itself becomes a Satsang.
Now, by Grace, you may come to a point where the world vanishes, the body vanishes, and even beingness is not palpable. It's almost like you're asleep, but you're not asleep. Only Awareness, the Absolute reality, the Self remains for you. During Nirguna Samadhi, you will not be bothered about what is happening to the body, whether there is a body or not. This is the highest possibility in the human condition.
The Thread Continues
These satsangs touch the same silence.
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