Part I: Chapter II / II – (vii)

b) Advantages of Dhyan Yoga

The advantages of the yoga of contemplation or dhyan are innumerable. One engaged in this form of yoga can by mere contemplation have all his desires fulfilled.

As you think, so you become,

is a well-known aphorism.

By contemplation on the attributes of God one can develop these attributes within one’s own self and be a witness and a testifier to Heaven’s Light, while his senses acquire transcendental powers. The mind also tastes of the bliss of vigyan, when the chit vritis, or the mental modulations, are stilled.

This yoga rids one of all sins, and one feels an inner bliss and halcyon calm. All kinds of mental maladies like fear, shame, vacillation and self-assertiveness, disappear gradually and give place to fearlessness, confidence, firmness and happiness, and one acquires an evenness of temper in all the varying conditions of life. He is not obsessed either by attachment or detachment, and like a lotus flower, floats above and over the slime of common existence. With the knowledge of the true values of life, he grows firm in his convictions and is no longer a prey to the groundless fears and chance winds that blow over him. He has no cause for praise or blame and as such, talks little and does much; all of his acts are motivated by kindliness and good will toward all. His words are honey-sweet and authoritative. He is not tormented by pride and prejudice, but leads a life of perfect moderation and justice. He conquers indolence and idleness; eats little and sleeps little and there is hardly any difference in his state of wakefulness and slumber. He is ever the same throughout, with a radiant and a beaming face that bespeaks his inner glory.

Kabir says:

The world is but a fictitious bondage, and Kabir centred in the Naam is forever free.