The verse and its meaning · Yoga in Practice · Yoga in Practice — Dhyana

Jyotir dhyana: the light at the root and between the brows

Gheranda Samhita 6.15

शुक्लपुष्पमयं माल्यं रक्तशक्तिसमन्वितम्। एवंविधगुरुध्यानात् स्थूलध्यानं प्रसिध्यति॥ १४। घेरण्ड उवाच कथितं स्थूलध्यानं तु तेजोध्यानं शृणुस्व मे। यद्ध्यानेन योगसिद्धिरात्मप्रत्यक्षमेव च ॥

Meaning · English

A garland of white flowers, joined with a red shakti: by meditating on the guru in this form, the gross meditation is perfected. Gheranda said: the gross meditation has been told; now hear from me the meditation on light, by which comes success in yoga and the self seen directly.

This line does two jobs. It closes one meditation and opens the next. First, the close. The guru picture Gheranda has been building has one more detail: a garland of white flowers, joined with something red that the text calls shakti. Shakti means power or force, and the text does not say more about it here. White and red sit side by side, as the white sandal paste and white cloth did in the picture before. Gheranda then says that meditating on the guru in this way makes the sthula dhyana succeed. Sthula means gross, or solid: a meditation on a form with a shape, a face, a dress, a garland. Second, the turn. Gheranda tells Chanda, his student, that the gross meditation has been told, and that the tejas meditation comes next. Tejas means light or radiance. The heading above it names it jyoti dhyana, meditation on light. The text gives its reason for learning this one: two results. One is yogasiddhi, success or accomplishment in yoga. The other is atmapratyaksha, seeing the self directly, as one sees something in front of the eyes. The text steps from a form the mind can hold easily to a finer object, and promises more for it. This line only announces the light. How it is done comes after.

1. Sit on a steady seat with your back upright and your eyes closed. 2. Call up the guru as the text describes: the seated figure in white, with a garland of white flowers and a red shakti joined to it. 3. Keep the whole picture, not one part of it. Let it be faint if it is faint. 4. When the mind wanders, notice, and bring it back to the garland. 5. When the time is up, let the picture go and rest a moment. Open your eyes slowly.

This line gives a meditation, not a posture, so the steps below follow what it names. Gheranda's other lines, not this one, describe the guru's form. The light meditation itself is taught in the lines after this. 1. Sit on a steady seat, spine upright, hands resting, eyes closed. 2. Let the breath go on by itself. Do not count it or shape it. 3. Call up the picture of the guru that the text has given: the figure seated, in white. 4. Add the garland of white flowers, and with it the red the text calls shakti. Keep the two colours together in one picture. 5. Stay with the whole figure. When the mind leaves, notice that it has left and bring it back to the garland. 6. When the sit is over, let the picture go. Rest a moment with the eyes still closed, then open them slowly. The light meditation that this line announces has its own instructions and is not done here. Do not rush toward it. The text says the gross meditation is first made to succeed. Fine points: the picture does not have to be sharp. A faint or shifting image is still an image. If you strain to see it clearly, the eyes and forehead tighten and the sit turns into work. Hold it lightly, as you hold a face you know well. This is best learnt from a teacher who can tell you what the guru form should be for you.

There is no movement here, so the work is in stillness and attention. The body sits upright and quiet. With the eyes closed and the hands resting, there is little to attend to except the breath, which settles on its own once you stop managing it. A steady seat is what lets the attention stay with the picture instead of with discomfort. The mind gets one object with several parts: a figure, white cloth, a garland, a red colour. That is easier to hold than a single point, because there is something to move over. Attention rests on a person, a thing the mind already knows how to look at. A face and a garland are familiar, so the mind does not have to invent anything. When it wanders, the picture gives it a place to return to. The tradition gives its own account of why this is the first rung. It calls the meditation on a form gross, the coarser object, and says it must succeed before the meditation on light. Once the mind can stay with a solid form, it is considered ready for a finer object. That ordering is the text's teaching. It is how the manual teaches the steps, not a description of what happens inside the body.

Gheranda makes two claims in this line. The first is that meditating on the guru in this form, with the garland of white flowers and the red shakti, makes the gross meditation succeed. The text means that this practice is completed, not merely begun. The second concerns the next practice, the meditation on light. Gheranda says that by it comes yogasiddhi, success in yoga, and the direct seeing of the self. He says nothing here about how long it takes or what it feels like, and he gives no further result. Both are the text's claims about the practice that follows, not about this sit alone. The line promises a result, and it gives no measure for it.

A woman sits on the stairs outside a hall on the night before her sister's wedding. She closes her eyes and calls up her grandmother's face: the white sari, the flowers kept at the door. For a few minutes the noise behind her fades. Simple mental imagery of this kind is an ordinary tool. A good family doctor would say that holding a calm, familiar picture gives the mind one thing to attend to, and that sitting still with eyes closed generally helps people settle. Returning attention to the picture each time it drifts is the same skill taught in most plain attention practices today. The tradition goes further than that. It says the practice makes the gross meditation succeed, and that the light meditation brings success in yoga and direct sight of the self. Today's mainstream understanding has no way to test those claims. Whether a person sees the self directly is not something physiology or psychology can measure. The red shakti and the guru as a figure of devotion belong to the tradition's own account and have no counterpart in medicine.

This is not medical advice. A page cannot correct a practice, so the guru form and the way of holding it are best learnt from a teacher. There is no movement, but sitting for a long time can trouble the knees, hips and lower back. Sit on a chair or a raised cushion if the floor causes pain, and stop at pain. People who are grieving or very distressed may find the picture of a person rises with strong feeling. If that happens, open the eyes and look at something plain in the room. A person with a history of troubling images or a serious mental illness should speak to a doctor or teacher before sitting with closed eyes for long. Do not force the picture to appear or to stay clear. Do not rush on to the light meditation before this one is steady.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Sthula dhyana: the lotus at the crown · Gheranda Samhita 6.9
• Next: Subtle practice, rare fortune · Gheranda Samhita 6.18
• All of Yoga in Practice · Ask Krishna about it

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