Offer intentions to the Divine

A strong tendency to keep doing something, whether important or unimportant, becomes an impediment to meditation. Doing starts first with an intention and then translates into action.

Though intention springs from the Being, when it becomes doing, it doesn’t let you settle down. All intentions need to be dropped for meditation to happen. Dropping the intentions is not an act – just the intention to drop the intentions itself serves the purpose. Dropping all intentions even for a moment brings you in touch with your Self – and in that instant meditation happens.

While you sit for meditation you have to let the world be the way it is. The repetition of meditation is to habituate our system to be able to stop and start activity at will. The ability to do this consciously is a very precious skill. Authenticity and skillfulness appear to be contradictory, but in fact they are complementary. Your intentions need to be authentic and your actions need to be skillful. The more authentic the intention, the more skillful the action will be.

Skill is required only when authenticity cannot have its way. Yet skill without authenticity makes you shallow. You cannot have an authentic action and a skillful intention. If you try to be authentic in your action but manipulative in your mind, that is when mistakes happen. If your intention is coloured by greed, over-ambition, etc. then your intention is not authentic. Whenever your intentions are impure, it pricks your consciousness, so it cannot be authentic. Authentic intentions are free from negative emotions. An action that is not skillful leads to negative emotions and an intention that is not authentic harbours negative emotions.

Do not keep any sankalpas (intentions) to yourself. Offer them to the Divine. Actions can never be perfect but our intentions can be perfect. Action means growth and movement. The depth in you and the freedom in you bring out all the skillfulness in you.

Krishna was the most skillful because his silence was so deep. Intentions keep the tension in. Being hollow and empty means dropping all intentions. With tension, rest does not become deep. Devotion dissolves intentions. Intention pushes you to the future. Bliss is always in the present.

The one who wakes up to this truth is wise. In a state of bliss, once in a while, if an intention comes up, it manifests effortlessly. The more intentions you have, the more “in tension” you will be. To minimise your intentions could be your last intention. With the knowledge of the Self, there is nothing left to achieve, for the entire nature of existence is mere play and display of one's own consciousness. With Self-knowledge nothing is challenging to you. Nature is ready to fulfill your intention even before they arise, giving you no chance to crave or desire.