But still, we continue to be in a state of deep sleep and slumber. In fact, it won't be wrong to say that we are snoring! We do not have any idea about our Own Self, our True Self. We have identified ourselves so much with the physical body, thoughts, mind and the intellect, that we consider ourselves to be only the body and the mind! We are yet to discover the truth of life and that is - that the mind, the body, the thoughts are NOT the real YOU!  They are the OTHER. We are fully aware and awake about the "OTHER" i.e. the body & mind, and everything attached to them such as friends, relatives, wealth, property and ephemeral world. However, all these are merely a SHADOW. WE are totally ignorant about our real selves, our inner world which is of immense value and great bliss. It is a pitiful state of mankind today that shadow is well looked after but the substance is lost. Rider is lost but the horse is well taken care of!

Awake!

We spend all our lives trying to know others but are just not aware of ourselves.

If you consider yourself nothing but the body.....then think......when the body is yours i.e. if the body belongs to you, then how can you be only the body?  How can you be only the mind when the mind belongs to you? Why should you be swept away with the thoughts when the thoughts are yours?  How can you be merely the intellect when the intellect is yours? Then the big question is "WHO AM I?"  You can get the answer only when you arise and awake.

In the words of Swami Vivekananda JI:-

ARISE

AWAKE

AND

STOP NOT

TILL THE GOAL IS REACHED.

Have daunting faith in yourselves. Old religion said, "An atheist is he who does not believe in God but the new religion says that an atheist is he who does not believe in himself. All the knowledge lies within. No knowledge originates from outside. Only the results or outcome lie outside. All knowledge is inside waiting to be explored and discovered. To succeed, we must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. Mountains will crumble before my perseverance and will".

This is the bold message of Swami Vivekananda Ji:

ALL POWER IS WITHIN YOU

BELIEVE IN THAT

DO NOT BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE WEAK

STAND UP

AND EXPRESS THE DIVINITY WITHIN YOU

Similarly, Gurudev Swami Vishvas Ji states :-

अपनी न की तलाश बड़ी चूक ये हुई
बरसों किये खराब, खुदा तलाश में हमने

The adamant wall standing between us and the Divinity is the MIND. It has overpowered us so much that we have completely forgotten our Divinity and that we possess infinite power within ourselves. We are the kings, but have turned into beggars before our mind. We feel pleasure only when the mind is cheerful and turn sullen and all gloomy when the mind is sad. We consider ourselves nothing but the ever changing mind. We are merely playing in the hands of our fickle mind. What a pitiful state it is!

Vishvas Meditation is the way to real awakening that takes us from Mind to the MASTER.  Through regular and persistent meditation, we realise that we are not the mind but the Master of the mind. It must be noted that Meditation is not at all the concentration of mind. It is not the faculty of mind. It has got nothing to do with the mind except watching the workings of the mind carefully, neutrally and persistently. This awakened and persistent witnessing takes us beyond the domain of mind, into our real, true and pure selves which is so full of bliss and balance. We must be awake to realise that meditation is not at all controlling of the mind. Any control is repression and repression leads to depression. A snake hidden under a cover, jumps up and bites when the lid is removed. Similarly, the mind reacts when we try to control, condemn, suppress or stop it. Only by watching the mind persistently, you come to discover, realize and finally appreciate that the mind is different from the real YOU and that if you do not keep yourself awake and watch the mind, you become identified with the mind and become a slave of it.

Remember

Mind possesses us because we forget to watch it

Once meditation becomes a part of your life just like breathing and circulation of blood i.e. totally natural and without any effort, you will experience and feel meditation in all your activities. No matter what you are doing, you will be awake all the time and this is meditation. Then life would be in complete balance, untouched and unaffected by external circumstances - that are ever changing.

If we can be awake all the time through WITNESSING, we will appreciate fully the words of a Spiritual Master.

As Swami Ji says:

MAN HAS INFINITE POWER WITHIN HIMSELF

AND HE CAN REALISE IT

ARISE

AWAKE

SLEEP NOT

WITHIN EACH OF YOU

THERE IS THE POWER

TO REMOVE ALL WANTS & MISERIES

BELIEVE THIS AND POWER WILL BE MANIFESTED

If we do not allow all these thunderbolts to awaken us, we would continue to consider ourselves the miserable creatures, crushed under the cruel laws of time, space and causation. We would continue to live either in the past or future whereas we should be living in the present.  To live in the moment totally, is to live in eternity, in the present moments, and that is meditation. Then we no more brood over the dead past or worry and fret about the unborn future. Simply centred in our witnessing, we stay awake all the time. It may sound difficult or even impossible, but through regular and persistent meditation, we can easily attain the state of NO MIND in meditation. Then we shall be fully awake, centred in our real selves, true to our real selves, the MASTERS of our mind and hence, the MASTERS of our life! Then we would actually live Life!