These three methods—tapas, svadhyaya and Ishvara pranidhana—are really the
training of the will, the intellect and the emotion. It requires tremendous will to
practise tapas, great understanding or intellectual capacity to probe into the meaning
of the scriptures, and emotional purity to love God. These three are emphasised in
the canons of tapas, svadhyaya and Ishvara pranidhana. By svadhyaya there is
ishtadevata samprayogah, says the sutra; there is union of oneself with the deity of
one’s worship and adoration by a daily brooding over its characters.
Whatever we think in our mind, that we will become, and that we will get. But, this
thinking should not be a shallow thinking; it should be a very deep absorption of
oneself in what one expects. The whole of us should be saturated with our longing for
the ideal which is in our mind. There should be no other thought except of the
qualities, characters and nature of the ideal which is in our mind. Anything and
everything can be obtained in this world if only there is a will behind it. If the force of
thought is intense enough, there is nothing which is impossible. This is the point
made out in this sutra.
The svadhyaya that is referred to here is not reading in a library. It is not going to
the library and reading any book that is there on the shelf. It is a holy resort to a
concentrated form of study of a chosen scripture. It may be even two or three texts—
it does not matter—which will become the object of one’s daily concentration and
meditation, because what is known as svadhyaya, or Self-study, or holy study, or
sacred study is a form of meditation itself in a little diffused form.
The scriptures are supposed to contain all the knowledge that is necessary for the
realisation of the Self. It is a spiritual text that we are supposed to study, which is
meant by the word ‘svadhyaya’. It is not any kind of book. A holy scripture is
supposed to be a moksha shastra. A scripture which expounds the nature of, as well
as the means to, the liberation of the soul is called a moksha shastra. This is to be
studied. All the ways and means to the liberation of the Self should be expounded in
the scripture; and the glorious nature of the ideal of perfection, God-realisation—that
also is to be expounded in it. The means and the end should be delineated in great
detail. Such is the text to be resorted to in svadhyaya. By a gradual and daily
habituation of oneself to such a study, there is a purification brought about
automatically. Inasmuch as it is nothing but meditation that we are practising in a
different way, it is supposed to bring us in contact with the ideal.
Samādhisiddhiḥ Īśvarapraṇidhānāt (II.45): The mind gets inclined to samadhi by the
love of God. There is an inclination of our entire being to self-absorption, due to the
daily adoration of God. Inasmuch as God is universal—omnipotent, omniscient and
omnipresent—a surrender of oneself to God, a daily adoration of God, a worship of
God, and a daily thought and feeling and will directed to God will naturally compel
the mind to adopt characters which are of the nature of this ideal. There will be,
therefore, a mood generated in the mind to sink into itself, rather than move out of
itself. Distractions will cease. The contemplation on the nature of the All-pervading
Being is supposed to be the best form of meditation, inclusive of every other means.
All objects of meditation are comprehended here, included here. This is the ocean of
all things.
If only we can direct the mind to All-Being, the supreme nature of the Almighty,
there would be no need of searching for objects of meditation. Everything is here.