Injustice to retired persons

THE hardships of the old retirees, who have been deprived of the benefit of pension, have been raised in your esteemed columns from time to time. There has been no satisfactory outcome so far. They continue to suffer because whereas the rates of return on their meagre savings kept in post-offices, banks, the UTI, etc, have been falling, the financial needs of such senior citizens have gone up not only because of the spiralling prices but also the increased expenditure on their medical expenses. In almost all public sector undertakings, universities, local bodies and government-recognised and aided institutions, pension schemes, in lieu of the Contributory Provident Fund, have been introduced, but the previous retirees have been left to fend for themselves.

The Fourth Central Pay Commission had recommended that the previous CPF retirees should be given the option to get pension on surrendering the employer’s share of the CPF received by them on their retirement. The tragedy is that the implementation has not covered the old retirees. It is imperative, in this Year of the Aged, to allow all ex-CPF retirees to now prospectively shift to the pensionary scheme on surrender of the employer’s share of the CPF. The pensionary formula should be based on a suitable slab system with a minimum pension and benefits of dearness allowance as available to the present retirees.

The number of such old retirees and their age will obviously mean a relatively small additional liability to the government but shall go a long way in ameliorating the misery of the old people who are suffering enormous hardships for no fault of theirs.

Y.P. DHIR
Chandigarh

Meditation in nutshell

Several articles have appeared in this newspaper from time to time on meditation, yet no attempt has been made to acquaint the readers with its technique. I am making a brief mention of it.

Meditation is one of the eight steps of ashtang yogic sadhana and is practised to achieve certain higher psycho-spiritual goals. The meditator sits at a secluded place in a comfortable and relaxed posture with his/her spine straight preferably with crossed legs, at a fixed time for some period, regularly, everyday. Its full benefits can be availed only when it is practised with its other seven steps.

The sadhak closes his eyes and lets his mind wander a few minutes before he starts his meditation. He doesn’t make any attempt to control his thoughts; he rather tries to let his hidden thoughts come from the subconscious mind on the surface of his conscious mind and then analyses them whether they are harmful or beneficial to him. His sense of discrimination guides him whether to attend to and follow them or not.

Then he opens his eyes and fixed them on the tip of his nose for about three minutes. In this position his thoughts don’t wander. Thereafter he starts the process of meditation keeping his eyes half-closed (to avoid sleep during meditation).

He then concentrates his consciousness in the place between the two eyebrows and watches his incoming and outgoing breaths effortlessly as a witnessing entity and hears the sound of “SO” of the incoming breath and that of “HAM” of the outgoing breath. These are the natural sounds of incoming and outgoing breaths and one can hear them clearly if one breathes deeply with one’s both ears closed.

“SO” and “HAM” are the Sanskrit words which mean “I am He”. The breath which man inhales and exhales 21,600 times a day producing the sound of “SO-HAM” conveys the message to him about his divinity.

The above method is the easiest form of meditation. The other methods are concentration on any one of the forms of God, on one’s guru, or on a holy mantra or on sacred Jyoti, in the place between the two eyebrows.

There are three stages of meditation: concentration, contemplation and meditation. The concentration of thought means the power to think only one thing at a time to the exclusion of all other things. So long as a meditator remains conscious that he is engaged in meditating, he is not meditating; he is still at the preliminary stage of concentration.

Over a period, when the meditator is so deeply absorbed in concentration that he loses his body-consciousness, he has reached the stage of contemplation.

As the contemplation deepens, the final stage of meditation comes of its own volition. In this stage, the subject, the object and the process of meditation, all become one. This state is known as realisation of self, which is the stepping stone to liberation. And that is the ultimate aim of meditation.

A.K. SURI
Chandigarh