'Alakh Niranjan' The Ancient Chant of Enlightenment
It means "the one who can't be perceived, the one who is colorless"
What we’ll be talking about in this article:
Alakh Niranja meaning
The yogi Matsyendranatha
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Meditation practice
Alakh Niranja
Quite recently I came across the ancient chant of “Alakh Niranja”. Legend has it that a man called Matsyendranatha was the first person to bring this teaching to his followers. Matsyendranatha, also known as Macchindranath, Minanatha and Minapa, is a saint/yogi in a number of Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
Matsyendranatha
It is said that he received the teaching from the god Shiva. Matsyendranatha is seen as the first revivalist of hatha yoga and the writer of many foundational texts on hatha and also the founder of natha sampradaya, a kind of blend of Hinduism, Buddhism, and yoga traditions.
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad was also fundamental when it came to Matsyendranatha’s teaching. It’s one worth reading up on. It begins with metaphysical questions about the cause of all existence, its origin, its end, and what roles time, nature, necessity, chance, and spirit had as the primal cause for the universe. It develops its answer, ending by saying that “the Universal Self exists in every individual, it expresses itself in every creature, everything in the world is a projection of it. There is Oneness, a unity of Selfs in the one and only Self”.
History and background lesson over, let’s have a further look into ‘Alakh Niranjan’. As I mentioned above, it means “The one who can’t be perceived, the one who is colorless.” Anyone familiar with the teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj will likely know where this is going.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Nisargadatta Maharaj’s main idea was to keep on investigating the self, relentlessly until you come to know that the self doesn’t actually exist.
Maharaj’s idea was that what we perceive as the self is rather a construction of the mind. This false construction is made of our thoughts, emotions, memories, and perceptions.
According to Maharaj, the true self is beyond the limitations of our ever-present egoic mind. The true self is actually found in achieving pure awareness or consciousness that witnesses all experiences without being identified with them.
Matsyendranatha taught his followers, just like Maharaj, that the true nature of the self (otherwise known as ‘atman’) was identical to universal consciousness and to achieve spiritual enlightenment they were to overcome the illusion of separateness to realize unity with all that exists.
Meditation practice
The practice itself is quite easy. You just sit in meditation and say the words ‘Alakh Niranjan’ over and over and over again. If your mind wanders just allow it to come back to the mantra and don’t be hard on yourself when your mind does wander.
Once you’ve gotten a handle on this, then you can begin some introspection. Asking yourself ‘who am I?’
And try your best to answer earnestly.
So, for example with me, it would go something like this:
Who am I?
I’m Paddy
Who is Paddy?
He’s Irish and a writer.
What’s Irish?
A person from Ireland.
Is Ireland a part of him?
Well…no, I was just born there.
What is a writer?
My job is to write.
Are you your job?
No, it’s just what I do for money.
Does this idea of Paddy exist?
No, they’re just labels I’ve put on myself.
And so on.
Give it a try.
Hi, I’m Paddy. Thanks for reading my article about anger and the Bhagavad Gita.
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