Saturday, 07 May 2011 09:37

Is Meditation For Me?

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Engaged in endless struggle for survival, progress, prosperity and mad race for money, there are times when one wonders what this striving is for, what the truth is, what is permanent and what is evanescent, whether one is mind, body or intellect, who he is and what is the goal of life. Logic, reasoning and intellect are incapable of answering these questions. In fact, these questions cannot be answered and they do not exist when one goes deep into Meditation.

A seeker went to Buddha to ask for the answers to the above questions and he was asked to stay for a year. Buddha's chief disciple, Anand standing at the back said, " Please do not be deceived. I have stayed here for several years and haven't got any answer at all to these queries. The aspirant stayed there for a year and then Buddha asked him what his questions were. The obvious reply was that there were no more any questions. That is the miracle of Meditation.

All the mysteries are unfolded in deep Meditation. As long as these questions perturb me, Meditation is for me. Meditation connects me to my real source, my real nature, my true Self and my Shiv-Netra. Without Meditation, I am completely lost in the meshes of false ego and obstinate mind. I can never imagine what immense joy awaits behind the portals of mind i.e. beyond mind in Meditation.

In Meditation, we go beyond mind and kindle our thirst to know ourselves, to know Him and to know the Truth otherwise we are groping in darkness striving hard to satisfy our endless desires. We want more and more till we ourselves are no more. Meditation dawns upon us that we are 'Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent' in our true nature but not in body, intellect and mind, which we are not.

Imprisoned in little body, I dread to think that I am 'Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent'. At times I feel that I am  being crushed under the cruel wheels of time, space and causation. This never-ending crushing wheel does not care for widow's wails or orphan's cries. Then a voice comes, however faint it may be, from the innermost shrine of my heart in Meditation, "Ye the children of Bliss, you are the roaring lions and not the bleating sheep."

Yet I don't heed to that voice and then a clarion call comes for me:

जाग-जाग, ओ मनुआ, जाग रे।
तेरो समय जागन को आया।।

Meditation is a non-doing state of wakefulness and watchfulness and realization of my own true Self, which is a repository of Bliss. No amount of worldly pleasures and comforts can provide that Bliss.

Worldly pleasures do end in pain sooner or later. There is no joy without sorrow, no smile without tears, no life without death and no happiness without misery. It is a dual throng of sun and shade, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow and one is always pursued by the other but we expect only the pleasure, only the joy and only the smile which never happens.

King Bhartri Hari describes it beautifully in his 'Vairagya Shatak':

 

भोगः न भुक्ता, व्यमेव भुक्ता
तपो न तृप्‍तः, व्यमेव तृप्‍तः
कालेन न जातो, व्यमेव जातः
तृष्‍णा न जीर्णा, व्यमेव जीर्णः

 

It is translated by Swami Vivekananda Ji as follows:

We have not enjoyed, but enjoyments have enjoyed us.
We did not penance, but penances burnt us up.
Time did not fly, yet we are gone.
We have become decrepit with age, but not so desire.

Amidst such gloomy state of affairs, Meditation takes me to the lofty heights of Self- Realisation where I experience:

ये सैर क्या है, अजब-अनोखा, कि राम मुझमें, मैं राम में हूँ।
बगैर सूरत, अजब है जलवा, कि राम मुझमें, मैं राम में हूँ।।

 

Sometimes I utter in despair, "My Lord You don't come to me!" A voice comes in Meditation, "I was there but thou didst come in". That is why you say, "I didn't come". Gurudev Sh. Swami Vishvas Ji recites in His holy voice, in Meditation Retreats:

भीखा-भूखा कोई नहीं, सबकी गठरी लाल।
अपने को जानत नहीं, ताही-विधि भए कंगाल।।

Despite being the mine of diamonds, we are begging for beads. That mine of diamonds is meditation, where we go beyond mind.

Mind is a horrible and dreadful master but a very good and faithful servant. All the scientific inventions have been made with the concentration of mind but in the spiritual world, I must go beyond mind. This going beyond is Meditation. Mind creates havoc when I walk on the inner journey towards my own true self. Its nature is to wander in the external world and it is just like a death for it to stay inside. The more I try to control it, the more boisterous it becomes. So no attempt is to made to focus it on any object or suppress it or control it. Just observe it. Watch it wakefully and persistently.

Then I go beyond mind and stay in my true nature, which is ALL EXISTENCE, ALL KNOWLEDGE AND ALL BLISS. This state is beyond any dual throng of pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow. So definitely and surely, meditation is for me.

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