This ancient chant reflects one of humanity’s deepest desires – to know who we really are. The idea that we are more than the body and the mind may seem abstract at first. After all, we clearly experience our bodies, thoughts and emotions every day. But what lies beyond them can feel mysterious and intangible. Dhyana – meditation – is a doorway to the realization of our true nature, the Self.
Swami Nirmalananda said “Our main duty is to go beyond thoughts. Thoughts cause all sorts of problems. The true Self has no problems.”. This does not mean that we should avoid thinking. Rather, suffering arises when we identify with our thoughts, believing they define who we are. Patanjali expresses this in the famous sutra Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ – yoga is the cessation of identification with the fluctuations of the mind.
Asato mā sad- gamaya is a prayer to see the truth. Our bodies, thoughts, and emotions are real experiences, but they are constantly changing. Yoga practices, like meditation, invite us to discover that beneath this ever-changing experiences there is an unchanging awareness – our true nature that witnesses it all. In meditation, we become the sakshi, the silent witness. As we sit and observe the breath or watch thoughts arise and dissolve, we begin to realize that we are not the ones who are breathing or thinking – we are the awareness that witnesses the body and the mind. This profound shift in awareness begins to dissolve the first and most fundamental klesha- avidya, the ignorance of our true nature. As we recognize ourselves as the witnessing consciousness behind all physical and mental constantly changing experiences, we glimpse the eternal, unchanging reality within us.
Meditation is a simple, but not always easy practice. We have become so accustomed to multitasking, rushing, consuming, and thinking that simply sitting still and achieving uninterrupted concentration can feel surprisingly challenging.
A beautiful illustration of this practice comes from the story of the Buddha and Mara. On the night of his awakening, Mara – the embodiment of fear, desire, doubt, distraction, and attachment – appeared to pull the Buddha away from his path to Self-realization. Rather than fighting Mara or trying to make him disappear, the Buddha simply recognized him, saying “I see you, Mara.” In that moment, Mara lost his power. As we sit quietly, our own Mara inevitably appears in the form of thoughts, emotions, memories, expectations, or physical sensations that compete for our attention. We have to discipline ourselves not to become entangled in them. We gently let them arise, let them pass, and return again and again to the breath or our chosen point of focus, such as a mantra. Each time we notice that the mind has wandered and gently return our attention, we are, in a sense, saying, “I see you, Mara” and choosing steady awareness instead of identification with the fluctuations of the mind.
Meditation starts with training concentration – Dharana, which leads seamlessly into Dhyana, uninterrupted absorption. Dhyana marks a turning point from effort to grace on the spiritual path. Up to Dharana, the Eightfold Path to Yoga requires intentional effort and willpower through ethical living, asana, breath control, focused attention. Dhyana is not something we force to happen, but something we allow to unfold naturally after we have applied enough effort to hold our focus for a prolonged period of time. Then effort gives way to surrender, and the practitioner begins to rest in effortless awareness. In this way, Dhyana becomes the gateway to final limb of Yoga – Samadhi, where the sense of a separate self dissolves and only unity remains.
