Being completely immersed in the mystery of Life and this Creation is Samadhi. Your knowing or believing doesn't really matter to what Is. This Creation is an unfathomable secret, and its mysteries only deepen. Getting steeped in mystery is Devotion. The "Scene" is a mystery; the "Seer" is a mystery. Deepening the mystery of Creation is science. Deepening the mystery of the Self is spirituality. They are the two sides of the same coin. If neither Science nor Spirituality can create wonder and devotion in you, then you are in deep slumber.
The Divine can only be found in deep rest (Meditation).
Life is a combination of Pravritti and Nivritti.
There are two attitudes that we have to pay attention to. One is, when we go inward, we say, ‘Everything is okay; anyway not a blade of grass moves without Divine intervention. God has kept us like this, so let it be.’
This is the attitude you must have when you have to go inward (Nivritti).
When you have to come out and work (Pravritti), then seek perfection in even small details. Whenever you see imperfection, you have to pay attention on how you can correct it. Find out ways to improve on all the things.
So while acting, see where you can bring improvement and what you can change. When you retire into meditation, say that everything is perfect; only then you can go inwards.
Usually when people close their eyes and go inward, they keep thinking, this is not okay and that is not okay and find fault in everything. They can neither mediate, nor be quiet. And in activity, people think everything is fine the way it is, why do we have to do anything about it? Then, we are at a loss.
So when you are acting, see what it is that you can do, and when you have to retire then say, ‘Everything is fine.’ This attitude will help you go deep in meditation. This is the path of Nivritti – when you have to get establish within yourself.
When you are established within yourself then your capabilities, strengths, intellect and enthusiasm to work are all increased. When all this has arisen, then return to Pravritti (action) and work with awareness and enthusiasm. Not only with awareness or only with enthusiasm, both!
Do you know what the obstacles to deep rest are? It is the cravings and aversions in the mind. If the mind is filled with cravings and aversions, rest is not possible. And if there is no rest, the goal of Sadhana (spiritual practices) cannot be achieved. That is why we need to be free from the cravings and aversions in our mind.
So, how do we do that?
'I don’t need anything from anyone', this is what we need to keep in our mind. When we don’t need anything from anyone, we will not have cravings towards anybody. When there is no craving for anybody, there will be no aversion to anybody. Let’s look at our aversions. Who are we averse to? Only those whom we think to be bad, isn’t it?
Don’t think of anyone as a bad person. There is no bad person in the world. If people do something bad, it is because of their ignorance or lack of awareness, or because their mind has been hurt. So, don’t have negative opinions about anybody.If others have a negative opinion about you, it is their problem, not yours. From your side, do not consider anyone as bad. By doing this, your mind will be clear and pleasant and your intellect will be sharp.
Do not make an effort to impress others, or to express yourself. Your effort to express yourself becomes an impediment. Your effort to impress someone also becomes futile. If you do not try to impress, expression comes naturally. When you come from the self, your expression is perfect and your impression lasts for ages.
Often you don't seem to have a control over your impressions and expressions. Wisdom is selecting your impressions and expressions. Enlightenment is when you do not take any impressions at all, whether good or bad. Then you "master" the art of expression. Many impressions in the mind cause:
Confusion
Distraction
Chaos
Lack of focus
and finally, derangement of the mind.
Nature has inbuilt in us a system through which it releases some of the impressions - through dreams, and through meditation.Excessive expression loses the depth and luster, the serenity of yourself. Meditation erases the impressions and improves the expression.
Meditation is the journey from movement to stillness, from sound to silence. The need to meditate is present in every human being because it is a natural tendency of human life to look for a joy that doesn't diminish, a love that doesn't distort or turn into negative emotions.
Is meditation foreign to you? Absolutely not. This is because you have been in meditation for a couple of months before your birth. You were in your mother's womb doing nothing. You didn't even have to chew your food -- it was fed directly into your belly and you were there happily floating in the fluid, turning and kicking, sometimes here and something there, but most of the time happily floating there
That is meditation or absolute comfort. You did nothing, everything was done for you. So there is a natural tendency in every human being, in every soul, to crave for that state when you are in absolute comfort. And getting back to that state which you have had a taste of, just before entering the hustle bustle of this world is very natural because in this universe everything is cyclic, everything wants to go back to its source. When the autumn season comes, the leaves fall and go back to the soil and nature has its own way to recycle them.
The natural tendency to recycle all that we have collected in day to day life as impressions, getting rid of them and getting back to the original state that we were in when we came on this planet is what meditation is. Becoming fresh and alive again is what mediation is.
Getting back to that serenity which is your original nature is meditation. Absolute joy and happiness is meditation. Pleasure minus excitement is meditation. A thrill without anxiety is meditation. A love without hatred or any of its opposite values is meditation.
Meditation is food for the soul. When you are hungry, spontaneously you go to eat something. If you are thirsty, you want to drink some water. In the same way, the soul yearns for meditation and this tendency is in everyone. That is why I say, there is not a single individual on this planet who is not a seeker. It's just that they don't recognize it. The problem is that we try to look for that food where it is not available. It is like going to a grocery shop when you want to fill gas in your car. You keep going round and round the grocery store saying, "I want gas for my car." It won't work, because you need to go to the petrol station. So, that right direction needs to be found. Meditation happens in transition. Actually meditation happens, you can't do it. You can only create a congenial atmosphere for it to happen.
When you meditate and your mind becomes quiet, that peaceful mind is the house of God
Meditation is uplifting the energy and mind and spreading it out. Whenever you have been happy, that happiness has been associated with a sense of expansion. And whenever you have felt miserable, that has been associated with a sense of shrinking or contraction. There is something in you that expands when you are happy and contracts when you are unhappy. But we never pay attention to what is contracting and expanding. We only keep our attention outside. We have not paid attention to the reason.
One of the sages of the past, Gaudapadacharya, said, "There is something in you that is expanding that is worth knowing." Even a glimpse of this consciousness, this energy inside you can make the smile on your face so strong that nothing whatsoever can take it away from you. Nobody can make you miserable; nobody can take away the joy from your life. Life assumes another dimension suddenly -- just a glimpse of this, an idea about that something inside us that is expanding.
You don't have to leave things here and go. Just being amidst all the noise and still recognizing that beauty, that thing that's so beautiful, so wonderful, so fascinating, right here and now is meditation. The peak, the most supreme type of prayer is meditation. All powers are hidden within the Self and everything will manifest when you connect to your consciousness.
If you look at the mythological pictures, you will find Mahavir sitting with a five headed cobra behind him. Or Lord Vishnu is sitting in meditation and there is a cobra behind him. Even in the pictures of Rishis, you will find a cobra with its hood open at the back. Have you seen such pictures? It is a very subtle thing!
See, when you are sitting in meditation, what is happening? Your consciousness is getting alert, opened and awakened, as though in your back ground there is a thousand headed cobra. Cobra signifies alertness.
How many of you feel a lot of alertness in the back of your head during meditation? A sort of wakefulness!
So the cobra is a symbol of the energy that raises and opens up; energy which is alert and at the same time restful.
It is not that there was really a cobra at the back of their head, it is a symbol of wakefulness in the deep state of rest, and that is meditation – totally restful, wanting nothing, doing nothing, being nothing and being open, like the hood of a cobra; alert without any effort.
There are two types of descriptions for this. In one they talk about a Cobra, and in another they talk about a flower; it is like a thousand-petaled lotus, blossoming on the top of the head; on the crown chakra.
So some describe it as a flower, very delicate, and some describe it as a cobra which means alert. Both fit very well.
Meditation is getting back to our source which is enormous and unfathomable.In any situation,Meditation keeps the spirit high.When the spirit is high,one can deal with ailments of the body better.Happiness is right here and now and & way to find it is through Meditation. It improves our mind, health and brings more happiness
Wherever you are, you meditate and you find the divinity When you meditate and your mind becomes quiet, that peaceful mind is the house of God See less
