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 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism