जाग जाग ओ मनुवा जाग रे,
तेरा समय जागन का आया

Wake up! Wake up! O’ mind. Now time has come for you to wake up.

Otherwise, it will be too late just as the snow fall started for a wealthy person aspiring to visit the valley of Kashmir. His vehicle broke down on the way and was taken to the garage for repairs. He had to stay in a hotel and was worried lest the snowfall would start and block all the roads going to Sri Nagar. It took too long to get the vehicle back on road and Alas! The unforeseen happened, snowfall started and all the pathways were covered with snow and the roads were blocked. The wealthy traveller could not visit the valley.

We are exactly in the similar situation. Throughout our whole life, we are busy in looking after the vehicle (body) or satisfying the endless desires of mind forgetting completely that we are not to stay here forever and the snowfall (Death) can come down at any time. Swami Vishvas Ji reminds us:-

ऐ वक़्त गुजरदा जाँदा ऐ, हर इक नू रोज़ जगांदा ऐ
पर लक्खां विच्चों कोई विरला, मुल वक़्त दा पादां ऐ

Time is fleeting and gives a clarion call to everyone to wake up but one in million values the Time. We all know that we are, but don’t know what we are.

We are definitely not the congregation of few molecules to be separated sooner or later. We are not the solid body and we are not the reckless and boisterous mind but are the divine eternal current of life and consciousness within the body. We are All Existent, All Knowledge and Bliss. We are all effulgent ones. The kingdom of Heaven is within us. “Where goest thou to seek for the Kingdom of God,” asks Jesus of Nazareth,” when it is there, within you? Cleanse the spirit, and it is there. It is already yours. How can you get what is not yours? It is yours by right. You are the heirs of immortality”.

According to Swami Rama Tirath, “there is but one Reality, One Divinity and That reality is Myself. This entire phenomenal universe which dampens our spirits and mars our joy, all this phenomenal universe of difference is no reality, the Reality is only one, all the circumstances are no reality. This is the meaning. The reality is only one and these baffling circumstances are not reality. Those who have not tried this experiment and have frittered away their energies alone deny the existence of this one Reality. It is a solid stern fact”.

“When you melt your mind (go beyond mind in meditation), when you lose your little Self in Divinity, what is the consequence? The consequence is that if you have a mustard seed of faith and bid the mountain to come, it will come (mark these words of Jesus of Nazareth). Live that Reality, feel that Reality and you will see that all your circumstances, all your imminent dangers all the troubles and anxieties that snare you in the face are bound to disappear. You put more faith in the outside phenomena than in the Divinity, in the Reality, you make the world more rigid than God.

It is the boisterous mind, which takes us away from the Reality, the Divinity, and our own Divinity. It is a very good servant but cruel heartless master. It was supposed to be at our beck and call. When we ask it to ‘Stop’, it will stop and it will move only when we ask it to do so. But, now we have co-operated it with so much that it doesn’t recognise our mastership at all. We are at its mercy. We consider ourselves nothing but Mind. We are over the moon when mind is happy and feel depressed when it is gloomy. The only way to get out of mind’s clutches and realise the Reality, the Divinity is Meditation.

First of all, we must have a clear understanding of Meditation. It is not at all concentration. In the West, meditation is simply to think about something concentrated. But, it is not at all meditation. In the East, meditation is not to think at all. It is not about this or that. It is non-objective. It is not about any object. It is pure subjectivity. The innermost core of man is subjectivity.

Meditation is not a contemplation, concentration, crazy thinking. It is seeing, watching, witnessing, walking within without any stress or strain while sitting silently and closing the eyes gently. Witness whatever is there within. Thick and pitch darkness is spread all around and a caravan of endless thoughts is passing on the horizon of mind. You are not to interfere with the intricacies of mind. Just observe your thoughts, observe your mind without any appreciation or condemnation. If we start evaluating thoughts: ‘This is a good thought, I must have it. This is the bad one, I must reject it’, we lose our witnessing, SAKSHI BHAV.

By continuously witnessing our thoughts without any evaluation or involvement, thoughts will start diminishing and disappear eventually. There will be left only the Observer, the Witness. That will be the state of no-mind and Bliss and Awareness and Wakefulness. With the continuous persistent efforts, we shall have the vision of Effulgent One. In the holy voice of Gurudev Shri Swami Vishvas Ji:

दिल के आईने मैं है तस्वीरे-यार,
जब ज़रा गर्दन झुकाई देख ली।।

In the innermost shrine of ours dwells the Shining ONE, THE SELF, THE WITNESS, Just walk within and have His vision.

It is not a frothy talk. It is a matter of experimenting and witnessing. About meditation a spiritual master stated:

“This life is a master novel written by God. A man would go crazy if he tried to understand it by reason alone. That is why I ask you to meditate more. Delve deep into meditation. Enlarge the magic cup of intuition and then you will be able to hold the infinite wisdom”.

Such is the Bliss of meditation and this is the clarion call to wake up for meditation before it is too late. In meditation, we don’t ask for anything. Meditation is not result-oriented. We mediate just for meditation only. We don’t look for silence, Peace or Divine. Of course, silence comes, peace comes and Divine comes but we don’t meditate to expect anything.

About a prayer, a spiritual master remarked, I was kneeling in prayer in the chapel and struggling to express myself in prayer. I knew it was not the will of God. God told me a prayer and I said, “change no circumstances of my life. Change me”. This is Meditation and this is the clarion Call.