MEDITATION

Within there is the lion - the eternally pure, illumined and ever-free Atman; and directly one realizes Him through meditation and concentration, this world of Maya vanishes.  The highest ideal of every man is called God. Ignorant or wise, saint or sinner, man or woman, educated or uneducated, cultivated or uncultivated, to every human being the highest ideal is God. The synthesis of all the highest ideals of beauty, of sublimity, and of power gives us the most complete conception of the loving and lovable God.

 

Meditation is the focusing of the mind on some object. If the mind acquires concentration on one object, it can be so concentrated on any object what soever.  The mind uncontrolled and unguided will drag us down, down for ever - rend us, kill us; and the mind controlled and guided will save us, free us.  It is meditation that brings us nearer to truth than anything else.  All knowledge depends upon calmness of mind. All minds are the same, different parts of one Mind. He who knows one lump of clay has knows and controls his own mind knows the secret of every mind and has power over every mind.  The concentrated mind is a lamp that shows us every corner of the soul.

 

Raja-Yoga is divided into eight steps. The first is Yama-non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and non-receiving of any gifts. Next is Niyama-cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study, and self-surrender to God. Then comes Asana, or posture; Pranayama, or control of Prana; Pratyahara, or restraint of the senses from their objects; Dharana, or fixing the mind on a spot; Dhyana, or meditation; and Samadhi, or super consciousness. The Yama and Niyama, as we see, are moral trainings; without these as the basis no practice of Yoga will succeed. As these two become established, the Yogi will begin to realize the fruits of his practice; without these it will never bear fruit.  The purer the mind, the easier it is to control.  'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' This sentence alone would save mankind if all books and prophets were lost. This purity of heart will bring the vision of God.

 

Meditation again is a constant remembrance (of the thing meditated upon) flowing like an unbroken stream of oil poured out from one vessel to another. When this kind or remembering has been attained (in relation to God) all bondages break.  The greatest help to spiritual life is mediation. In meditation we divest ourselves of all material conditions and feel our divine nature. We do not depend upon any external help in meditation.  There is the infinite joy, unchanging. Meditation is the gate that opens that to us. Prayers, ceremonials, and all the other forms of worship are simply kindergartens of meditation.

Sri Ramakrishna used to say, 'In the morning and evening the mind remains highly imbued with Sattva ideas; those are the times when one should meditate with earnestness'.  Do not spend your energy in talking but meditate in silence; and do not let the rush of the outside world disturb you. When your mind is in the highest state, you are unconscious of it. Accumulate power in silence and become a dynamo of spirituality.  Think of a space in you heart, and in the midst of that space think that a flame is burning. Think of that flame as your own soul and inside the flame is another effulgent light, and that is the Soul of your soul, God. Meditate upon that in the heart.

 

Dharana is when the mind holds on to some object, either in the body, or outside the body, and keeps itself in that state.  The flow of this continuous control of the mind becomes steady when practiced day after day, and the mind obtains the faculty of constant concentration.  Meditation is one of the great means of controlling the rising of these waves. By meditation you can make the mind subdue these waves, and if you go on practicing meditation for days, and months, and years, until it has become a habit, until it will come in spite of yourself, anger and hatred will be controlled and checked.  To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. "I will drink the ocean;" says the persevering soul "at my Will Mountains will crumble up." Have that sort of energy, that sort of will, Work hard and you will reach the goal.

 

Practice hard; whether you live or die does not matter. You have to plunge in and work, without thinking of the result. If you are brave enough, in six months you will be a perfect yogi.  One ounce of practice is worth twenty thousand tons of big talk.  How are we to know that the mind has become concentrated? Because the idea of time will vanish. The more time passes unnoticed the more concentrated we are. In common life we see that when we are interested in a book we not note the time at all; and when we leave the book, we are often surprised to find how many hours have passed.