[Advaita-l] Guru Purnima #3: YOGA is NOT yoga. MEDITATION is NOT meditation.

[Sundar Rajan]

🕉️ *YOGA is NOT yoga.*
🕉️ *MEDITATION is NOT meditation.*
🕉️ *Repeat: Meditation is NOT meditation.*

Let me explain.

When we hear *Yoga* today, most think of *Hatha Yoga* — physical postures
and breathing practices. But *Dhyana in the Gita and Upanishads is a
vehicle for spiritual transformation.*

Likewise, Meditation is not one uniform thing.

   -

   *Secular methods* — walking meditation, apps, mindfulness practices —
   are wonderful for calming the mind, improving focus, and reducing stress.
   They bring balance and wellbeing.
   -

   *Spiritual methods* — *dharana, dhyana, and samadhi* as taught in
the *Bhagavad
   Gita* (Chapter 6) and the Upanishads — aim much higher:
   👉 not just peace of mind,
   👉 but a *transformation.*

------------------------------

In my previous post, I closed by responding to objections about using *Tesla
as a metaphor* for meditation:

   -

   Tesla’s *lifetime charging* mirrors the role of Grace.
   -

   Its *FSD (Full Self-Driving)* symbolizes the guided pull of true *Dhyana*
   .
   -

   Walking or bus rides (like mindfulness or apps) are good, but they don’t
   capture the subtlety of the classical path.

That concluded Post Two.
------------------------------

>From there, I asked myself a practical question:
*How do I know if I actually meditated — or if I was just drifting,
daydreaming, or dozing off?*

To answer this, I chose my own set of *measures* — not from any text, but
from reflecting on experience:

   -

   *Absorption (focus/concentration)*
   -

   *Peace*
   -

   *Joy (bliss/contentment)*

Here’s the litmus test:
➡️ Was I absorbed — even briefly?
➡️ Did I feel a sense of peace?
➡️ Did I experience joy?

If any of these were present, chances are it was a real meditation session.

 When I asked ChatGPT to chart these, I didn’t even give it exact values.
It proceeded qualitatively — placing modern secular methods lower on
absorption/peace/joy, and spiritual methods like *dharana, dhyana, samadhi*
much higher. The outcome was surprisingly coherent, reflecting both
tradition and common sense.

Then I got Claude AI to create a Measures of Meditation chart that you can
step through:

https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/2cf4283d-9013-4e94-ba18-2bdb3b26aad6

✨ So once again:

   -

   *Yoga ≠ yoga*
   -

   *Meditation ≠ meditation*

Both secular and spiritual paths have value.
But only the classical path aims for nothing less than Spiritual
transformation.
------------------------------

📌 *Footnote / Validation Check*
I asked *Grok* to validate my own set of measures — absorption, peace, and
bliss — as postulated indicators of meditation.

*Grok’s response:*

*“The Bhagavad Gita, particularly in Chapter 6 (Dhyana Yoga or the Yoga of
Meditation), provides strong conceptual support for absorption, peace
(shanti), and bliss (ananda) as indicators of meditative progress. These
are described as experiential states that a practitioner can recognize
subjectively during or after meditation sessions.”*

Upon analysis, the classical triad of meditation aligns beautifully with
these measures:

   -

   *Dharana (Concentration):* gathering the wandering mind back. (*Gita
   6.26*)
   -

   *Dhyana (Meditation):* steady, unbroken awareness. (*Yoga Sutra 3.2*)
   -

   *Samadhi (Absorption):* peace beyond the senses, grasped only by the
   purified intellect. (*Gita 6.21*)

Blog post on Measures of Meditation:
https://quantumviewpoint.blogspot.com/2025/08/measures-of-meditation.html

or a playlist:
https://studio.youtube.com/playlist/PLPA2J3pvHbj6sjlz7O3gOK-jAhCqWkJjY/videos

Youtube Video with explanations:
https://youtu.be/YLrs-AWltas?si=JGHbUNiFfpoOoT-h