Meditation and Spiritual Life --- a Review

If there is one book that I shall always, and with the utmost conviction, recommend to anyone resolutely determined to achieve not merely progress, but monumental progress in his spiritual journey prior to emancipation, it is, without a doubt, Swami Yatiswarananda's "Meditation and Spiritual Life". This work serves as a spiritual handbook, guide, companion, and reference for every aspirant whose sole goal is self-realisation.

At every juncture of life, one may turn to this book for solace, hope, guidance, and encouragement. It may be approached from any and all perspectives, yet it shall remain unwavering in its central message—namely, that spirituality is the ultimate remedy for all of life's problems, tribulations, and miseries.

Were it to be read by dyed-in-the-wool atheists such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and their coterie, it could scarcely fail to kindle the flame of spiritual sentiment in their empiricist-hardened hearts—hearts long rendered desolate by the circumscribing limitations imposed by their studies and their prolonged exposure to a myopic mode of thinking.

Despite what its title might suggest, the book does not seek to impose indigestible spiritual truisms upon anyone, not even upon a willing aspirant predisposed to accepting God, religion, and spirituality in general. Swami Yatiswarananda does not preach; rather, he submits the problems for discussion, analyses them with rigorous thoroughness, dissects them with clinical precision, and finally proffers well-considered solutions by which one may confront or adroitly navigate them.

At the same time, being not one to mince words, Swami Yatiswarananda, of the Ramakrishna Order, a disciple of Swami Brahmananda—the illustrious direct disciple and spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa—has dispensed invaluable spiritual instruction in his 705-page Meditation and Spiritual Life, a posthumous publication compiled from the class notes of his lectures delivered to his Western disciples in the early twentieth century.

The book is structured as follows:

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 earnest aspirant, whose life’s goal is God-realisation, must possess, must read and re-read—daily, no less. The words of the author exert an unfailing and enduring influence upon the mind and psyche of sadhakas; they penetrate even the most obdurate karmic resistance, reaching the very core of one's being and rousing each cell from its worthless reverie.

These transformative powers do not emanate from the printed pages alone but from the profound depths of the Swami’s sadhana, his unwavering reliance on God, his unassailable trust in the scriptures, and the rigorous training he received from his guru—the very playmate of Sri Krishna, the cowherd boy of Vrindavan. Not everyone who resides in Cambridge has been graduated from its university, and not everyone who has had a true guru shall emerge as the rare soul of whom the Gitacharya speaks in Bhagavad Gita 7:3. In my considered view, such a soul is the author of Meditation and Spiritual Life.

I first studied this book in the early 1990s, and my life was irrevocably transformed. It has been my boon companion ever since. Like all consequential books that have shaped my understanding, I have perused (yes, perused, not merely read) it anew, with scrupulous attention to the Swami’s instructions concerning those obstacles which, hitherto, have been the tenacious stumbling blocks impeding my hopeful progress. Once again, it has altered my perspective, fortifying and refining me beyond what I previously was.

The author's exposition of the following subjects is supremely delectable (this is not a case of mixed metaphor, but rather synaesthesia), preternaturally exceptional, and astoundingly brilliant (this is not British hyperbolism, but an earnest attempt to describe an ineffable quality):

1. The importance of japa (chanting)—a subject treated at great length over several pages;
2. Spiritual life as no ordinary existence, but a life defined by clarity of purpose and ideals;
3. The necessity of eschewing the company of the worthless—those mere flotsam and jetsam upon the ocean of life;
4. The imperative of lifelong sadhana, enduring until one's final breath;
5. Vigilance over one’s thoughts, which, left unchecked, may prove ruinous at any moment;
6. The reason why only the intrepid shall endure in the spiritual life;
7. The human tendency to seek validation from others, an affliction most pernicious;
8. The question of who is truly fit to instruct, reform, and guide others;
9. The utter doom of those given over to sensual indulgence, ceaselessly renewing their visas for re-entry into earthly existence;
10. The dangers of unchecked imagination and fanciful indulgence;
11. The qualifications of one who may truly meditate;
12. The harmful daily conduct that leads inevitably to disaster;
13. Hypocrisy and jealousy—the twin maladies of humankind;
14. The importance of correct breathing;
15. The validity of astrology and the superfluity of an excessive belief therein;
16. The test of authentic spiritual experience;
17. The unfitness for spiritual life of one who lacks God-consciousness throughout the day;
18. The nature of one's true enemies;
19. The fleeting and illusory nature of worldly pleasures;
20. The role of sex in the spiritual path.

If I am granted sufficient years, I shall make it my life’s mission to return to this book time and again.