Return Within: A Poem on the Sacred Path of Meditation

Click Here to Watch the Poem Reading and Spiritual Teaching

Return within,
to the place where there is nothing,
and take care that nothing comes in.

Penetrate to the depths of yourself,
to the place where thought no longer exists,
and take care that no thought arises there!

There where nothing exists,
Fullness!

There where nothing is seen,
the Vision of Being!

There where nothing appears any longer,
the sudden appearing of the Self!

Dhyana is this!

~ Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux)

Meditation is more than just sitting down and closing our eyes to relax. It is a transformative practice that helps us discover who we truly are.

As I dive deeper into the rich ocean of Indian spirituality, I find myself coming across more spiritual gems such as this poem.

Interestingly enough, though, Swami Abhishiktananda was not actually from India, but rather from France. And he had quite the interesting story and journey that I believe will help us better appreciate this poem.

Born as Henri Le Saux, Abhishiktananda was deeply influenced by Catholic tradition in his early years, and eventually went on to become a Benedictine monk and priest. But then World War II happened, and he was called to mandatory military service, which had a significant impact on his spiritual journey.

His experiences as a soldier and witnessing the brutality and devastation of war deeply affected him. And it took no time before Abhishiktananda began to question the meaning and purpose of life in the face of such violence and suffering.

He felt a strong urge to seek a deeper understanding of existence and the nature of God, and it is this questioning that eventually led him on a spiritual quest in India that would change the rest of his life.

After the war, Abhishiktananda immersed himself in Christian mysticism through the writings of Meister Eckhart and St. John of the Cross, and he eventually found his way to India. There, he encountered the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, which emphasizes the non-dual nature of reality and the unity of all existence.

Swami Abhishiktananda’s life experiences played a critical role in his spiritual journey, as he sought to discover the true nature of existence and God.

The combination of his experiences during the war and his subsequent spiritual exploration in India led Abhishiktananda to a profound shift in his understanding of spirituality and the nature of God. And he started to see the interconnectedness of all religious traditions, spending a good portion of his life trying to find common ground between Christianity and Hinduism.

He took on the name Swami Abhishiktananda, which means “bliss of the anointed one,” or Christ. And his itinerant lifestyle and extensive meditation retreats led him to meet many famous mystics, including Ramana Maharshi, who taught the nondualist path of realizing one’s true self.

So, when you take the time to learn about his journey, you can immerse yourself in his teachings even more.

In fact, when I first read this poem, I felt as if I was in one of the caves with him, meditating peacefully with my eyes closed, while he gently uttered these poetic lines.

So, let’s now turn our attention to the poem itself and see if we can uncover the profound spiritual teaching contained within.

When we meditate, we are able to return back to our true essence: our soul.

This poem is, first and foremost, a poem about deep meditation.

We can see that by Abhishiktananda’s use of the word Dhyana at the end, which is Sanskrit for “meditation” or “contemplation.”

But Abhishiktananda is not talking about an ordinary kind of meditation or concentration. He’s talking about training the mind to transcend ordinary consciousness and to experience a profound sense of inner peace and stillness.

This is an essential step toward the ultimate goal of self-realization and union with God, which is a common theme in many spiritual traditions, including Advaita Vedanta.

So, with enough Dhyana, we can realize that we are not this individual self that we think we are, but rather divine consciousness itself.

However, to achieve this realization we have to return within, which is the title and core focus of this beautiful poem.

We have to travel deep into the depths of our soul “to a place where there is nothing,” and a place where nothing can ever come in.

Now, of course, Abhishiktananda is speaking in metaphors here.

Meditation takes us on a transformative journey of awakening, one in which we experience all of Consciousness itself.

He’s not talking about an actual physical location, but rather a state of Being — one that transcends our surface level existence to help us perceive all of reality.

It’s like traveling on a journey, until you realize that you are the journey itself and that there is no such thing as travel.

In other words, if you are the Universe itself, how you can travel to the Universe?

So, you can see how difficult it can be to appreciate this message using our mind alone. Therefore, we must also tap into the wisdom of our heart and soul in order to experience this divine consciousness.

When we can shut off the world around and inside us, we can achieve the deep state of concentration and absorption that Abhishiktananda talks about.

Now, notice how we must not only shut off the world around us, but even more importantly the world inside us — the thoughts we are constantly following and believing every second of our lives.

Because it’s one thing to retreat from the world and have no contact with society at all. However, it’s another thing entirely to retreat from our thoughts.

We can be in a cave and still have thoughts.

Which is why Abhishiktananda is encouraging us to penetrate the depths of ourselves to such a deep level that there quite simply is no more thought.

This might sound like a fantasy, but it is actually possible.

Meditation can be practiced anywhere and anytime. The point is not to focus on a certain method or form, but rather to embrace the spirit of returning within.

Through enough dhyana, we can still the mind, cultivate inner awareness, and attain a higher state of consciousness.

This is an absolutely beautiful state that I have had the pleasure of experiencing a few times in my life, and this is the “place” that Abhishiktananda wants us to be.

Because when we achieve this state of calm clarity and mental tranquility, we experience everything.

This is the whole nondualistic and paradoxical nature of Advaita Vedanta.

When we experience emptiness, we experience everything. When we see nothing, we see everything. When we are nothing, we are everything.

It’s all about realizing who we truly are by understanding who we are not.

And who we are NOT is the person meditating, thinking, or living.

Who we ARE is Divinity itself.

When we meditate and travel deep into our soul, we realize that we are not the person we thought we were. We are actually Divinity itself.

But in order for us to actually achieve this realization, we must experience for ourselves the essence of our being. This can be done through self-inquiry, meditation, and contemplation, as we transcend the limitations of our mind and ego.

And as our realization deepens, the distinction between our individual self and the ultimately reality begins to dissolve, until we eventually arrive at a state of non-dual awareness or unity with God.