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| TM & ASM |
| SILENT |
By Hadai Nityananda dasa
A few notes on the differences between Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Authentic Silent Meditation (AMS).
These notes are specifically important for those who practice or have practiced TM. The method may look similar
however there are very distinguished differences between the two.
1) TM is not really meditation. According to the Raja Yoga system the TM technique is pratyahara which means
withdrawing the senses from the objects. The goal is to reach a state of transcendental void.
The supreme object in ASM is the holy Name of the Lord. The goal is to get absorbed in the transcendental
vibration of the Name of the Lord.
2) With TM the goal is to lose the mantra transcending your most subtle awareness of it.
With ASM the goal is to hold on to the holy Name and transcend with the holy Name.
3) With TM your awareness is focused on meaninglessness leading to transcendental void.
With ASM your awareness is always focused on God leading to transcendental ecstasy.
4) TM (has) cost you a significant amount of money to learn.
ASM is absolutely free.
When you practice ASM you become as calm and relaxed as you were used to during TM. However, instead of
entering an oceanic emptiness you will experience an oceanic fullness. It is really hard to describe the difference in
words, however when you were used to become intensely happy when you entered oceanic happiness with TM,
brace yourself because in ASM that feeling of happiness is multiplied a millions of times. When you thought that the
happiness of TM was the ultimate ceiling of your experience, wait until you experience the happiness of ASM and
you will see that your previous oceanic experience is just a drop in the ocean of love for God. ASM stirs your
eternal relationship with God awake and as soon as you see the dawn of that era everything falls into perspective.
Please, don’t take my word for it and experience it for yourself.
The mantras we use in ASM are the Holy Names of the Lord and are called mantrarajas, the king of all mantras.
Although the mantrarajas become increasingly more subtle during the meditation you will, unlike the mantra used
in TM, not want to lose Their association. In TM we eventually transcend the meaningless mantra. In ASM you could
‘lose’ the Mantraraja too, however you don’t want that to happen because it means that you leave the association
of the Lord. This is love. When you become in love with the Supreme Person God you don’t want to leave His
association. When a man falls in love with a woman he wants to be in her present. When he is not in her present
and he hears her name, he is stirred and feels waves of love flowing. Any other female name will not have that
same effect on him. Likewise when you start to know the most attractive Personality of the universes you naturally
will be pulled by love and attraction. When you hear His Name you feel that love awakening and increasing in you.
During ASM the mantraraja and your awareness becomes more subtle, like with the mantras in TM, but you don’t
want to lose the mantraraja. The mantraraja is identical to the Supreme Lord and you contemplate on Him, on
everything He did, does, and is going to do. His Name and Form and Pastimes are identical. During meditation you
enter that sacred temple within yourself in which the Lord is present in all His aspects.
So the mantrarajas in ASM have absolute a meaning and you want to hold on to that meaning. You increase your
understanding of the Lord by studying scriptures, teachings and writings in which the Lord is described and
glorified. Then you start to know God as a person you relate to. This is the stage in which the mantrarajas increase
your awareness of Their potencies. This is the moment where real Bhakti Meditation is awakened in you. From here
you develop naturally more and more attraction to the mantrarajas, the Holy Names of the Lord. From here your
awareness of relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead increases and you feel an overpowering
attraction towards the Supreme Person. Now when you study about the Lord, His Personality and His Pastimes
you study with complete new eyes. Now you increasingly want to know more about that Supreme Person. This is
what happens when you fall in love with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the most attractive Person of all
universes. He is so all-attractive that there is no end to His glories. Likewise the ocean of transcendental love you
enter when you develop a conscious relationship with the Lord is endless and ever-increasing.
Pure devotees of the Lord don’t want Moksha or liberation. They consider liberation as going to hell because
liberation in the mayavadi sense means that you transcend the very meaning into the void of oneness without
meaning (the drop that merges into the ocean). What it means is that this kind of liberation is devoid of the
association of the Lord and such a person misses out on the wonderful loving exchanges he can have with the
Lord. Devotees of the Lord want to avoid this kind of liberation at all costs. They rather go to hell in the association
of the Lord than merge into the transcendental void without the association of the Lord.
On the surface ASM seems the same as TM; we take a mantra and think it silently to ourselves. However the
mantraraja is not meaningless, it is full of meaning, ever increasing meaning. Therefore we study shastra,
scriptures and guru to learn more about God and thus the Name of God we use during meditation becomes more
and more meaningful.
God is transcendental. That means that His Name, Form and Attributes are transcendental too. As soon as we
think the Name of God we are on the transcendental level. We don’t have to become transcendental by going
beyond His Name because His Name is transcendental.
The more you engage your mind and feeling in addressing the Lord Himself, the deeper your meditation becomes.
When you would just change the TM mantra for the Holy Names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead but
maintain an impersonal attitude towards the Lord you will be devoid of developing a conscious relationship with
Him and you will not be able to taste the ultimate transcendental satisfaction. The Holy Name of the Lord fulfills all
wishes but when your wish is just to transcend into the transcendental void then the Holy Name will only fulfill that
wish. When your wish is to develop a personal loving relationship with the Lord then meditation on His Holy Name
will bring you the fulfillment of that wish.
Therefore the meditation on the Holy Name of the Lord needs to be accompanied with study about Him. Via study
you will get to know the Lord better and therefore your meditation becomes deeper. Then you will not only get
liberation but you will receive the highest gift: love for God.
The highest blessing we can receive from meditating on the Lords Holy Names is love for God. The only thing that
can separate us from this blessing is when we hold on to impersonal (mayavadi) philosophy. It is easy to say: ‘I
am Brahman, I am spiritual energy.’ However to think that everything is ‘one’ and to act accordingly is very difficult.
When you ask a mayavadi if everything is one he will answer with yes. That means that his and your bank
accounts are also one. It is not important that the money is in his or your bank account. However the philosophy of
a mayavadi suddenly ends when you ask him to transfer his money into your account.
For many people it is difficult to accept a personal God because personality and personal connection creates
responsibilities. Love or even the wish to love is very factual and connective. Like I said before when you are for
instance in love with a woman the very thought of that woman and even her name awakens feelings in your heart.
All other female names don’t affect you in the same way. The same is when we meditate on mantras. The
impersonalist has no particular connection with the mantra even when the mantra is the Holy Name of the Lord.
The impersonalist doesn’t experience special feelings with the Name of the Lord because he is not interested in
the Lord. Contrarily the devotee feels an attraction to the Lord and when he thinks of the Lord his feelings are
intensified. It is exactly this sacred inner attraction, that positive feeling that accumulates during the meditation of
a devotee.
The Holy Names of The Lord are transcendental and fully independent. However, it is important that meditation on
the Holy Names of the Lord goes together with proper education so that we can meditate on the Holy Names in
the spirit of love and relationship. When we would meditate on the Holy Names of the Lord in the spirit of
impersonalism the real treasure of the Holy Names will not manifest in our hearts. The real initiation or connection
to the Holy Names happens when we accept proper education about the Lord. This website is a humble attempt to
jump start your understanding of this. When you have questions about anything feel free to contact me at
hadai@be-pure.info.
TOP
A few notes on the differences between Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Authentic Silent Meditation (AMS).
These notes are specifically important for those who practice or have practiced TM. The method may look similar
however there are very distinguished differences between the two.
1) TM is not really meditation. According to the Raja Yoga system the TM technique is pratyahara which means
withdrawing the senses from the objects. The goal is to reach a state of transcendental void.
The supreme object in ASM is the holy Name of the Lord. The goal is to get absorbed in the transcendental
vibration of the Name of the Lord.
2) With TM the goal is to lose the mantra transcending your most subtle awareness of it.
With ASM the goal is to hold on to the holy Name and transcend with the holy Name.
3) With TM your awareness is focused on meaninglessness leading to transcendental void.
With ASM your awareness is always focused on God leading to transcendental ecstasy.
4) TM (has) cost you a significant amount of money to learn.
ASM is absolutely free.
When you practice ASM you become as calm and relaxed as you were used to during TM. However, instead of
entering an oceanic emptiness you will experience an oceanic fullness. It is really hard to describe the difference in
words, however when you were used to become intensely happy when you entered oceanic happiness with TM,
brace yourself because in ASM that feeling of happiness is multiplied a millions of times. When you thought that the
happiness of TM was the ultimate ceiling of your experience, wait until you experience the happiness of ASM and
you will see that your previous oceanic experience is just a drop in the ocean of love for God. ASM stirs your
eternal relationship with God awake and as soon as you see the dawn of that era everything falls into perspective.
Please, don’t take my word for it and experience it for yourself.
The mantras we use in ASM are the Holy Names of the Lord and are called mantrarajas, the king of all mantras.
Although the mantrarajas become increasingly more subtle during the meditation you will, unlike the mantra used
in TM, not want to lose Their association. In TM we eventually transcend the meaningless mantra. In ASM you could
‘lose’ the Mantraraja too, however you don’t want that to happen because it means that you leave the association
of the Lord. This is love. When you become in love with the Supreme Person God you don’t want to leave His
association. When a man falls in love with a woman he wants to be in her present. When he is not in her present
and he hears her name, he is stirred and feels waves of love flowing. Any other female name will not have that
same effect on him. Likewise when you start to know the most attractive Personality of the universes you naturally
will be pulled by love and attraction. When you hear His Name you feel that love awakening and increasing in you.
During ASM the mantraraja and your awareness becomes more subtle, like with the mantras in TM, but you don’t
want to lose the mantraraja. The mantraraja is identical to the Supreme Lord and you contemplate on Him, on
everything He did, does, and is going to do. His Name and Form and Pastimes are identical. During meditation you
enter that sacred temple within yourself in which the Lord is present in all His aspects.
So the mantrarajas in ASM have absolute a meaning and you want to hold on to that meaning. You increase your
understanding of the Lord by studying scriptures, teachings and writings in which the Lord is described and
glorified. Then you start to know God as a person you relate to. This is the stage in which the mantrarajas increase
your awareness of Their potencies. This is the moment where real Bhakti Meditation is awakened in you. From here
you develop naturally more and more attraction to the mantrarajas, the Holy Names of the Lord. From here your
awareness of relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead increases and you feel an overpowering
attraction towards the Supreme Person. Now when you study about the Lord, His Personality and His Pastimes
you study with complete new eyes. Now you increasingly want to know more about that Supreme Person. This is
what happens when you fall in love with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the most attractive Person of all
universes. He is so all-attractive that there is no end to His glories. Likewise the ocean of transcendental love you
enter when you develop a conscious relationship with the Lord is endless and ever-increasing.
Pure devotees of the Lord don’t want Moksha or liberation. They consider liberation as going to hell because
liberation in the mayavadi sense means that you transcend the very meaning into the void of oneness without
meaning (the drop that merges into the ocean). What it means is that this kind of liberation is devoid of the
association of the Lord and such a person misses out on the wonderful loving exchanges he can have with the
Lord. Devotees of the Lord want to avoid this kind of liberation at all costs. They rather go to hell in the association
of the Lord than merge into the transcendental void without the association of the Lord.
On the surface ASM seems the same as TM; we take a mantra and think it silently to ourselves. However the
mantraraja is not meaningless, it is full of meaning, ever increasing meaning. Therefore we study shastra,
scriptures and guru to learn more about God and thus the Name of God we use during meditation becomes more
and more meaningful.
God is transcendental. That means that His Name, Form and Attributes are transcendental too. As soon as we
think the Name of God we are on the transcendental level. We don’t have to become transcendental by going
beyond His Name because His Name is transcendental.
The more you engage your mind and feeling in addressing the Lord Himself, the deeper your meditation becomes.
When you would just change the TM mantra for the Holy Names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead but
maintain an impersonal attitude towards the Lord you will be devoid of developing a conscious relationship with
Him and you will not be able to taste the ultimate transcendental satisfaction. The Holy Name of the Lord fulfills all
wishes but when your wish is just to transcend into the transcendental void then the Holy Name will only fulfill that
wish. When your wish is to develop a personal loving relationship with the Lord then meditation on His Holy Name
will bring you the fulfillment of that wish.
Therefore the meditation on the Holy Name of the Lord needs to be accompanied with study about Him. Via study
you will get to know the Lord better and therefore your meditation becomes deeper. Then you will not only get
liberation but you will receive the highest gift: love for God.
The highest blessing we can receive from meditating on the Lords Holy Names is love for God. The only thing that
can separate us from this blessing is when we hold on to impersonal (mayavadi) philosophy. It is easy to say: ‘I
am Brahman, I am spiritual energy.’ However to think that everything is ‘one’ and to act accordingly is very difficult.
When you ask a mayavadi if everything is one he will answer with yes. That means that his and your bank
accounts are also one. It is not important that the money is in his or your bank account. However the philosophy of
a mayavadi suddenly ends when you ask him to transfer his money into your account.
For many people it is difficult to accept a personal God because personality and personal connection creates
responsibilities. Love or even the wish to love is very factual and connective. Like I said before when you are for
instance in love with a woman the very thought of that woman and even her name awakens feelings in your heart.
All other female names don’t affect you in the same way. The same is when we meditate on mantras. The
impersonalist has no particular connection with the mantra even when the mantra is the Holy Name of the Lord.
The impersonalist doesn’t experience special feelings with the Name of the Lord because he is not interested in
the Lord. Contrarily the devotee feels an attraction to the Lord and when he thinks of the Lord his feelings are
intensified. It is exactly this sacred inner attraction, that positive feeling that accumulates during the meditation of
a devotee.
The Holy Names of The Lord are transcendental and fully independent. However, it is important that meditation on
the Holy Names of the Lord goes together with proper education so that we can meditate on the Holy Names in
the spirit of love and relationship. When we would meditate on the Holy Names of the Lord in the spirit of
impersonalism the real treasure of the Holy Names will not manifest in our hearts. The real initiation or connection
to the Holy Names happens when we accept proper education about the Lord. This website is a humble attempt to
jump start your understanding of this. When you have questions about anything feel free to contact me at
hadai@be-pure.info.
TOP
