Meditation: The Art and Science

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Meditation is where art and science converge. It is a vision, an inspiration and an intuition. It arrives on the screen of a visionary mind from sources within that are beyond calculations. Once it has arisen from within, we can then look at it and analyze its scientific dimensions.

This book on meditation, a holistic piece encompassing its history, initiation and actual practice also describes how it is a powerful unifying tool for world religion. Enriched with author’s scholarly depth, it is a must-read for everyone interested in unraveling the mystery of life.

Swami Veda Bharati is the spiritual director of Sadhana Mandir, the ashram of Swami Rama at Rishikesh. Born into a Sanskrit-speaking family and raised in the centuries-old Sanskrit tradition, he could hold his audience spellbound with the depth of his knowledge and intuition on the Vedas and Patanjali’s Yoga-sutras, since the age of nine. He post-graduated form the University of London, and acquired D. Lit. From Holland. He was initiated into one of the highest paths of meditation and yoga by his master Swami Rama, the celebrated yogi of the Himalayas. He was conferred the title of Mahamandaleshwara by the Swami community in 1999.

Meditation is where art and science converge. It is a vision, an inspiration and an intuition. It arrives on the screen of a visionary mind from sources within that are beyond calculations. Only after they have arisen from within can we look at them and analyse their dimensions. It is born like a peacock’s multi-hued feathers; they are first concealed in the egg. Break open the egg and you will not see the colours but they are there in their intangible form till they manifest themselves. Thus it is with meditation- intangible like the peacock feathers in the egg, like the million leaves of a tree in the seed, like the bloom of the roses in the twigs that are initially planted.

It is not that an artist can produce his work without use of science. The ink, the palette and the canvas cannot be produced without knowledge of science. An understanding of the wavelengths of light that make up Colour is based on science. But without the wholistic intuitive vision in the artist’s mind, the ink, palette, canvas and the Colour will not produce a masterpiece. That is also why a theorem has to be symmetrical, elegant and beautiful.

One may calculate, count and measure the extent of the measurables in the works to art after they have shown their visages to us. What comes before that showing of themselves is art; the post facto analysis is science.

So it is wit meditation.
Why should one sit in a certain posture; how will that benefit the musculature and the internal organs; why one should breathe diaphragmatically; what happens in our bodies and personalities when causes of tension and stress are present; how do yoga relaxation methods reduce or altogether eliminate stress; what neural, electrical or hormonal message are sent forth into the body to alter its reaction to causes of stress- these and many others are the scientific components of the teachings of meditation.

While one is meditating, what brain waves are being produced; what is the level of skin resistance; what changes occur in the heart and pulse rate- these observations on EEG, EMG and resperometre, etc. are also part of the science of meditation.

But the intention to meditate; what one ‘does’ intuitively, inwardly, in meditation; how one cultivates the spirit of adventure and dives deeper and deeper into the fathoms of the mind-ocean; above all, the nameless serenity, a ‘feeling’ that one experiences- these are all parts of the art of meditation.

Art is the soul and science is the body of the aesthetic or psychical experience. Art is the poem; science is the grammar. The two are inseparable. Hence we have said elsewhere, “science is the most beautiful poem that has ever been written.” We may add, “art is the most beautiful manifestation of scientific creativity. In meditation they are merged together; the science of art, the art of science; the beauty of precise measurement, the measure of aesthetic depth; the two hemispheres of the brain absolutely balanced and in communication with each other in perfect alignment.”

When the cerebral hemispheres are in perfect alignment, the two nostrils breathe as one and the awareness, unified, enters the sushumna stream. Here the art and science of meditation reaches its conclusion- the total liberation of human spirit from all limitations.

Then our consciousness wordlessly out poornam. Whole. Complete. Indivisible. II-limitable. Perfect Infinitude. Perfect knowledge of perfect beauty. Perfect beauty of perfect knowledge.

Poorna-saundarya-jnanam,
Poorna-jnana-saundaryam.

May you see the beauty of the self in your current embodiment.