I D Soni
What is Meditation?
(i) It is withdrawal, retreat, detachment from the outer to know ourselves. Who are we? Meditation is turning inward.
(ii) Withdraw from the senses, the five senses and the outer world. Sink deeper and deeper, until we reach the mind, purified mind, refined mind. Withdraw still further, until we reach the heart : remove ourselves from the domination of thoughts, desires, body and feeling. By this process of withdrawal, we sink deeper and deeper, until we touch the pure White Light.
We have to sink deeper still : until we not merely see Light but become Light-like, recover, consciousness of what we are eternally, a ray of the Eternal Sun.
(iii) It will help this process of withdrawal if we reserve a separate room for meditation and meditate there locking the door. That room will gradually be charged with a beautiful atmosphere which we may breathe in and be blessed: we gradually move in the midst of Light around us.
Two very good periods are dawn and twilight when the sun is going down. In the quiet of these two periods, the process of interiorisation is much helped. Face the East or face the North. Try to forget the physical body.
(iv) Quietly take in what comes. Try to empty the mind : try to still the mind and accept what comes. We will, at last, see a point, a point of Light : it will grow.
(v) Observe the law of persistence. The mind is restless : it is difficult to empty it. But we must persist! Practice makes perfect. Do abhyasa. By purified sankalpa; break the old habits. The mind (lower) is often a rebel : it will take time to convert the rebel into a devotee.
(vi) There is, also, the law of association, association with our Ishta, our Guru. It is difficult to meet the Guru of the true type in these days. Dark night surrounds us. But in any case, try to be associated, in thought and love, with an Ishta, Guru Nanak, Sri Krishna, Buddha, Jesus or anyone of othe Great Masters. This association is sharaddha, faith in the Master, confidence in the teacher.
(vii) The law of vibration : this calls for breath control, slowing down the breath – movement : regulated in breathing and out-breathing. Yet to humility add longing, aspiration, thirst for Truth, for Light. So live that our very presence, may send out vibrations of humility, longing and love.
(viii) Meditate and meditate : and the day comes, through a prolonged period-period of meditation when we see the whole world in a new Light. We see the world as a series of pictures thrown on the screen of our consciousness.
(ix) Great Peace, the joy of which no tongue may tell, then fills us : and we become, ever increasing a vehicle of grace to others and a source of service and strength to the lowly and the lost in this broken, bleeding world.
We are all Gods in essence! However, we should become Gods in practice. We should practice God-Hood in all our moment-to-moment thoughts, and in all our time-to-time words and deeds. As we keep increasing our understanding of “Spiritual Science” …… and as we keep practicing our “Regular Meditation” …. we become more and more capable in the actualization of God-Hood.
We understand we are a soul. This is called “ENLIGTENMENT”. As we keep increasing our focus on enlightenment, we become more and more the master of mind, then we become candidates for right intellect, in the day-to-day physical world.
The first stage of meditation leads to the second stage …. that is enlightenment. However, for the enlightenment to become steadfast two more essential duties are required :-
(1) Swadhyaya (2) Satjana Sangatya.
Only a well-tamed mind can take up “Swadhyaya” i.e. reading right spiritual books and “Satjana Sangatya” i.e. interacting with right people. Without reading spirituo-scientific books, and without interacting with spirituo-scientific people enlightenment does not mature as it should. Rejoicing is, the natural result when we understand that every so called ‘failure’ is nothing but a stepping-stone for the subsequent successes.
However, the modern world puts emphasis on action; and this action is often unrest. The unrest of the modern world prevents the development of the vehicles necessary for Meditation. Again, the emphasis in the modern thought is on mental development; and this mental development makes one argumentative, controversial, aggressive, rather than receptive of spiritual influence. Nor does this mental development build emotional stability. There is a built, instead, an unstable astral; and there is lack of balance, disorder. In tuitions are shut out. This means tyranny of the manas – the lower mind.
It is necessary to be detached, and, in a world of violence, to join the community of the pure and aspiring. Hence, here comes the value of interaction with right thinking people.
The foundation of spiritual life is purity. We general focus on body purity. In fact the vices are in the mind. Hence we should clean away our mind and intellect from waste, negative and vicious thoughts. Again we should give attention to our words. The words should be smooth, royal, sweet, and little and spell like : dropping of flowers from the plants. We should not hurt the feelings of others. We should spell words of wisdom and blessing.
As far as I have been able to understand that in order to pursue meditation and spiritual life it is not necessary for the worldly people to undergo above said processes. To my mind, it is a wrong notion which many people feel that they have to leave their jobs and families and go off to a cave somewhere and sit like a log. But when we understand that self pervades everywhere, we realise that there is a no difference between mundane life and spiritual life. Then we do not have to give up our families. We do not have to leave our jobs. We do not have to retreat from society.
Kashmir Shaivism Says, “Nothing exists which is not Shiva”. For this reason, no activity in this world is an obstacle on the spiritual path as long as a person does it with love and with awareness that the self dwells in all. A musician can pursue the self while creating music provided he does it without selfish motivation. A teacher can pursue the self through teaching, provided that he teaches selflessly. A businessman can pursue the self while doing business, provided that he does it without selfish desire. A mother can pursue the self while raising her children, provided that she does it selflessly. No matter what our field of activity, if we dedicate ourselves to God, it becomes a spiritual practice. If we simply do our jobs without personal desire for its fruits, that too is a great Yoga.
Our actions should be helpful to others, to uplift others life and relationships. Our actions should be righteous, honest, selfless, transparent, honourable and helpful to create a world of happiness and peace, we should look at the goodness of others and our eyes should not be criminal. Our eyes should spread the feelings of brotherhood and soothe others feelings. Our eyes should spread blessings. The ears should be used to hear the goodness in others, listen to the greatness of others so that we can enrich such greatmen in our life. We should dedicate our karma to the betterment of the world. Such actions shall help us to pursue the self in a right manner and this will be a true meditation.
The truth is that when a person meditates on the self, he feels more love for the world; he has more interest in it and more understanding of it. As long as we lack knowledge, this world will merely be a world for us, and every action merely an action. But when we attain true knowledge we will realise that whatever we do is meditation and worship of the self.
In one of his hymns, Shankaracharya sang, “O Lord, wherever I go, I am walking around you. Whatever I do is worship of you”. This is true understanding, and this is the awareness with which we should practice sadhana. If we can recognise that everything we see, inside and outside, is nothing but our own self, then at every moment we will be in meditation.
The study of Godly knowledge is closely related to the subject of meditation. Remembrance of the Lord makes us happy, happier and happiest.
“Meditation” means getting rid of the wasteful part of the mind, becoming the master of the useful part of mind.
(The writer is President Home for the Aged & Infirm, Ambphalla, Jammu)
