MEDITATION
What is the difference between concentration and meditation? Concentration is a physical act when all the indriyas converge at one point. That point could be an object, a person, light or God. The one, who concentrates and the object of concentration never merge, they remain in dwaitha. Meditation is mediating between the self and you. The object of concentration is oneself, and the purpose is to understand, realize and reveal the aathman. In meditation one reaches adwaitha (non-dualism), because the point of concentration is one’s own self.
Meditation is for self-realization. First of all know the self
----- aathma, antarathma, antahkarana and the aathman. You can realize
the reality only when you reach the subtlest of subtle body. You
can realize the character and powers of the "you" only
when you reach and study the said subtle body. Vedas and saashtras
emphasize to know the "SWARUPA", the
"SWABHAVA", the true nature of the self. . You can know your powers only when you
reach the Swarupa. One is self-sufficient in all respects and
there is nothing that one has to borrow.
One does the meditation to know this.
By mental suggestions, visions, and guided tours of mind one cannot achieve
this, as such methods are designed by your mind to suit your convenience and to
the limit of your intelligence. Meditation is a slow, steady and firm process
of; first of all, releasing the thoughts that has been stored in your subtle
body. These thoughts have been stored in the subtle body based on the karmas one
has been doing in the present life and the past lives. These thoughts are the
ones, which are guiding us to lead the life.
The thought is the cause, thoughts are the waves, which pervade and delude the mind. Thoughts are endless, even if you have good noble thoughts, suddenly after sometime you are engulfed in evil thoughts. Stop the breeze and the thoughts will stop. If you stop breathing, the thoughts stop, they come again only when you breathe again. If you take breath and hold it, you start suffocating. Your thoughts will only be on the breath. In meditation we teach to concentrate on the breath. When there is no wind, there is no motion, there is no wave. You must reach that state in meditation when you are conscious that you are not breathing. When the mind is calm you can look through the clear water and see the aathman. Bringing the mana (mind) into ekam with the aathman is meditation. This process implies that throughout you are conscious of your body, your mind, your thoughts, your actions and the breathing. You may have body consciousness for sometime while you are at a higher plane, but after sometime again you are at the conscious plane.
Initially, when one starts meditation all the thoughts crowded in the subtle body starts coming out in singly or in groups. Let all the thoughts come and go. Be only a spectator and do not discuss with the thoughts. In course of time one starts having less and less of them and a stage comes when there are no thoughts. That is the meditative status, and only when one reaches that state, can one see and feel the subtle body. Reach the nothingness or "shunyatha" state. Every time you serve food on a plate, it has to be washed to clean the previous food particles, and then only one knows the "swarupa" of the plate. Similarly, when you reach the nothingness, only then one can know the true nature and the Power of the self. This power used for upliftment of the AATHMAN is the process of MEDITATION.
SILENCE has been given a great importance in meditation. Silence
of everything --- the mind, the external body, the indriyas, in
short the complete system. Because silence is the truth, silence
is the language of AATHMAN. Silence can only know silence, and a
silent AATHMAN can only receive and identify what is other than
the silence. Silence only can go back to silence, the Truth.
Anything can be registered in silence, but silence cannot be
registered in anything. Because silence is truth and everything
can be registered on silence, even a lie. When a lie is
registered, truth knows it is a lie, and that lie is the truth
and is revealed in the silence.
You can go into silence through the meditational process. Conquer
all the sounds, all the disturbances in the world through silence. Silence
absorbs everything. To be silent and to be firm is to be within your self. This
means that when you are in the meditational state you are able to feel all the
sensations of the world, all the sensations of the body.
During the process of meditation,
the mind reaches certain vibration levels and the knowledge floats in different
layers. The aathma travels and not the sharira (body). During meditation we
elevate ourselves to higher frequencies to gather experiences at that frequency
The place for meditation should be absolutely pure. What is absolutely pure in a place? This means that the place should have good and positive vibrations. There should be no noise as it disturbs the silence and peace. This is necessary for the beginners. The posture should be sukhasana – any posture in which you are comfortable. It need not necessarily be padmasana (lotus posture) although certain specifications have to be followed. Purity of place denotes the purity of mind; nothing should disturb the mind least of all an impure mind. There should be purity within and outside. The physical body should not feel any strain in the posture. The base should be broad and the weight should be on the base. The legs should not become numb but the posture has to be practiced first. The shira (head) should be on the top of the body and not in shavasana (lying down like a shava – corpse). All indriyas should be under control. Any indriya, which disturbs the meditation, which creates sensation in the mind and thoughts, should be shut out. Smell of tempting food can divert the attention. This is the reason why in the beginning people should go into seclusion. Nowadays people use music as an aid to meditation. This is absolutely wrong. They only listen to music in the process. All inputs of indriyas have to be blocked. The tongue should be kept stuck to the upper palate so that there is no movement of tongue and saliva does not form. When you sit for meditation with absolute purity, with your head on the body, in the right posture, with a mental attitude of sanyaasa, with control over the sense organs, pranam to your Guru with reverence – then you reach within the lotus of your heart, you reach the Brahman. You become clear (vishuddham), griefless (vishoka), and attain bliss (satchitananda).
In the initial stages one may be trained under the vigil of a
Guru who can guide on the discipline to be maintained as far as
the physical body, mind, the thoughts, timings, posture of the
body, right way of "Brahmacharya", food habits are
concerned. Ultimately one has to climb the final steps of ladder
alone. ONE HAS TO FLY ON ONE'S OWN WINGS.
RESULTS:
1. One knows oneself and knows how to execute the karmas and
gains wisdom of Thrikaldarsi.
2. Knows the purpose of janma, how to lead it and attain the
Supreme.
3. Gets great relaxation, patience, understands the realities
of life and acquires the capacity to face anything happily and
lovingly.
AATHMAN ONLY CAN IDENTIFY AND GO BACK TO ITS TRUTH; HENCE
UNDERSTAND THE AATMAN WHICH IS THE ONLY TRUE YOU.
SHAMBHO MAHADEVA ---- Chant this moolmantra number of times in a
day.