Meditation, the yoga for your mind

If we know the divine art of concentration, if we know the divine art of meditation, if we know the divine art of contemplation, easily and consciously we can unite the inner world and the outer world

-Sri Chinmoy

We all are generally caught up much of the time with worldly pursuits, sense experiences, gross enjoyments, meeting the demands of life, discharging our social and professional responsibilities and with pleasures and pains, as a result of which, we get very little time to think of the unseen soul. We seldom realise that beneath the physical vesture, there are depths of being in which is locked the untapped potential of the immortal spiritual self or the treasures of ecstasy. There is no doubt in the fact that there are some people in the world who are spiritually inclined but they too have only a nodding acquaintance with the soul and with Supreme. It is possible only through the practice of meditation which enables an aspirant to have realisation of the self and a vivid and refreshing experience of Supreme.

Dedicating a few minutes daily to meditation is a meaningful expression of caring for yourself that can help you move through the mire of feeling unworthy. Meditation enables a person to discover or rediscover the self and to have a channel for heart-to-heart communication with the Almighty. It enables a person to penetrate deeply and progressively into deeper levels of the mind and peep into the hidden world of reality. It involves the turning of one’s mind and the flow of his/her love in the direction of the Almighty, giving him/her the hotline to communicate with Him.

Thus, it is a technique of self-exploration, leading to the experience of heightened and expanded awareness, reaching God and bringing Him into the focus of the soul’s awareness. In a word, the principal object of meditation is to bring the self in conscious touch with the Almighty, thus making it increasingly aware of its divine origin, divine destiny and divine and peaceful real nature. This practice of awareness of the Supreme opens greater orbits of being. One not only gets the first-hand vision and experience of the ultimate truth and the reality behind all realities, but also one feels that one is not merely the creature but also creator of his environment.

Previously, one was leading a life of worldly attachments, with mental gusts of pleasure or storms of pain and delusion and all that goes with it, but now, one feels the profound assurance that the Almighty’s gracious hand is on him and under His umbrella of Light and Might, he is in a cool shade.

So, it is one of the major objects of meditation to have Him as one’s Companion, Guide and Helpmate and if He is by our side and is our Guardian Angel, then what better do we want in this world? Do we?