Meditation and Spiritual Life --- a Review

If there is a book that I will always and strongly recommend to someone who is determined to make, not just progress but, monumental progress in his spiritual journey ere emancipation, it shall, undoubtedly, be Swami Yatiswarananda's "Meditation and Spiritual Life", which is a spiritual handbook, guide, companion and reference book to every spiritual aspirant whose goal is but self-realisation.

At every turn of one's life, the book can be consulted for solace, hope, guidance and encouragement. It can be read from any and all angles, yet it will remain steadfast in its message, i.e., spirituality is the solution to all of life's problems, troubles and misery.

If it is read by dyed-in-the-wool atheists like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and their coterie, it is bound to light the flame of spiritual emotions in their empiricist-hardened hearts that have remained gloomy by prolonged circumscribing limitations imposed by their studies and exposure to myopic thinking.

In spite of what the title insinuates, the book does not ram indigestible spiritual truisms down anyone's throat, not even that of a willing spiritual aspirant disposed to accepting God, religion and spirituality in general. Swami Yatiswarananda submits the problems for discussion, analyses them thoroughly, and in a clinical fashion, dissects every part of them, and then offers solutions to face or adroitly handle them. 

At the same time, not given to mincing his words, Swami Yatiswarananda from the Ramakrishna Order, a disciple of Swami Brahmananda, the illustrious direct disciple and spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, has dished out priceless pabulums and invaluable spiritual instructions in his 705-page "Meditation and Spiritual Life", a posthumous publication based upon the class notes of his lectures given to his Western disciples in the early 20th century.

The book is divided in the following fashion: 

a. Part One - The Spiritual Ideal, 

b. Part Two - Spiritual Practice: i) Preparation ii) Techniques

c. Part Three - Spiritual Experience

d. Part Four - Spiritual Tidbits.

It is a book that every serious aspirant who has set his goal of life as god-realisation must have, should read over and over, and that too on a daily basis. The author's words have an unfailing, enduring effect on the mind and psyche of "sadhaks"; they percolate through the hardest karmic resistance to the core of our cells, jolting every one of them out of their worthless reverie.

The said powers do not come from the printed pages but from the depth of the Swami's sadhana, his deepest convictions, truest reliance on God, unassailable trust in the words of the scriptures and his long-drawn-out training that he received from his guru, the playmate of Sri Krishna, the cowherd boy of Vrindavan. Not everyone who lives in Cambridge was graduated from its renowned university, and not everyone who had had a true Guru will successfully emerge as the one that  Gitacharya has spoken of in Gita 7:3. Such a rare soul is the author of "Meditation and Spiritual Life", in my considered view.

I studied the book in the early 90s; my life changed. It has been my boon companion all these years, and I have again, like all consequential books that have informed me, perused (yes "perused"; not "read") it, paying very close attention to Swami Yatiswarananda's instructions in respect of the obstacles that, thus far, been the obdurate mean stumbling blocks that have obstructed my hopeful progress.  It has again changed yet another perspective of myself, making me even stronger and better than what I have been.

The author's dilation upon the following subject matters is supremely delectable [this is not a case of mixed metaphor; rather synaesthesia], preternaturally outstanding, astoundingly brilliant [again, this is no British hyperbolism; rather a choice of words that attempts to describe an ineffable quality]:

1. Importance of Japa (=chanting): this has been very extensively dealt with in several pages;

2. Spiritual life is not an ordinary life: a life of clear definition of life's goal and ideals;

3. Eschewing the company of worthless people who are the flotsam and jetsam of one's journey in the ocean of life;

4. Lifelong Sadhana -- until one's final breath;

5. Being careful of one's thoughts --- they are bound to destroy one any moment;

6. Why only the intrepid will remain in spiritual life?

7. Humans are in the constant condition of yearning for validation from everyone;

8. Who is fit to help, reform and teach others?

9. People given to any sense pleasure is unutterably doomed, renewing their visas to re-enter earthly life;

10. Dangers of one's imaginations and fancy;

11. Who can meditate?

12. Daily harmful conduct that will spell immediate disaster;

13. Hypocrisy and jealousy, the twin malady of human beings

14. Importance of proper breathing;

15. Validity of astrology and superfluity of a belief in it;

16. Test of true spiritual experience;

17. One who has no god-consciousness throughout the day is unfit for spiritual life;

18. Enemies

19. Pleasures

20. Sex

If I shall live long enough, I shall make it my lifelong mission to read this book many times over.