What is meditation? Tell me, what is meditation. There is no need to close your eyes and then sit. In other words, closing the eyes and sitting down is not necessarily meditation. When you think about God all the time, talk about God, some people keep talking about God all the time. Talking about God is also a kind of meditation. But how is it possible to think about God all the time? And you talk about God, speak about Him and let’s say when you talk about God or your experiences of God, it is not necessary that others believe what you say. And when someone does not believe in what you say or says something bad, how do you deal with this situation?
When one talks about God or spirituality, people listening tend to become serious because they want to see what is it that you have to say that is different. But everyone’s methods are pretty much the same. When we talk about meditation or spirituality, then many questions arise as well.
What is Dhyan or meditation? Many a saint following has come, they come with different techniques of meditation. And meditation has been made into such a big thing or difficult thing that one feels it is not easy to do, it has been given a very big name, many difficulties that one encounters are mentioned. But it is not at all like that.
If I put a small pearl into a heap of sand, you will only see the sand, not the pearl. It becomes difficult to find the pearl, to search for the ‘bindhu’ or point.. It is like seeing a big playground and showing a point or bindhu, entering the point is a difficult task.
What should we do in meditation? CONCENTRATE. Meditation has been made into such a big thing, that we don’t want to do it or attempt it. Look at a ‘Bindhu’ (or point), concentrate on this point, don’t go in circles.
What is concentrate? When your ‘chit’ becomes one with just one thing, that is concentration.
In meditation, you concentrate on just one thing! What is this one thing? When one concentrates, it transforms you from negative to positive. You see bad things, had some bad thoughts, talked badly – all these stay with you and you keep thinking about these and become sad. But to overcome this or go beyond this, when you do a Kriya or job or Smaran, you go beyond these. One of the kriyas is meditation and it is taught in many centres in India.
Another type of meditation helps you understand ‘Who am I?’ To develop some power or to get hold of a (materialistic) thing, if you meditate, then you will never be able to meditate. In other words, if you try to meditate to achieve something, you will never be able to meditate.
Without stillness nothing is possible! When waves arise in the ocean, till then you are afraid what will happen, will you fall or get caught in the waves, or drown or sink in these waves. When the waters become still, there is no fear! Without stillness, you will never be able to understand or learn anything!
How do the waves arise in your mind? Even when you close your eyes, lots of thoughts come. They don’t arise when I am talking to you, because your thoughts are on what I am saying. But the minute you close your eyes, a lot of thoughts arise in your mind.
How do these thoughts come? Who is responsible for this? You are responsible for this, your brain is. If you meet a hundred people, a hundred ideas are generated in you. When you go to different places, when you see different places, all these are recorded in your brain. When you hear things, some good, some bad, all these go into your brain and the brain starts cooking.
Now when you become still, close your eyes, all the thoughts, sights you saw, talks you heard, they start wandering. But why do these start wandering and how do we still these?
Most of the self-realized spiritual Gurus, that’s why they came from the Himalayas or spent sometime in the Himalayas. Because in solitude, in the Himalayas, there are no people, so no thoughts – you will not think of anything or see anything or talk about it. What you see, only that comes in your mind. When you see nothing, where will the thoughts come from? If you see nothing, you get no thoughts. That’s why they chose solitude because in the Himalayas, you get nothing but solitude!
Don’t do anything, If you need stillness, lock yourself in a room for 10 days.(Laughter follows..)
So, what will you do to become STILL? Don’t do anything, don’t think anything.. don’t do any talking and don’t see anything. You have to make your own rules. If you truly wants to still your mind or focus your mind, what should you do?
Sit on a chair or anywhere you feel comfortable.. Concentrate on the thing you like the most. If nothing, just look at a wall. Fix a time to do this daily. You only have to look at one thing. So, what will happen? When you keep looking at the same thing, what will happen is automatically, your concentration will increase. You are focusing only one thing, so your concentration will increase. When you close your mind, if your thoughts are wandering, open your eyes, don’t fight with it. Surrender to it. These wanderings happen because you have never tried this before. So tell your mind, it has been a long time coming!
To understand yourself or to understand anything for that matter, let us say an almirah, how do you know what type of wood is used to make this? To find out, you remove the top most layer, you understand by going deep and investigating. In the same way ‘Who am I?’, understanding this will just not happen by itself. And it is not easy to steady you mind, still your mind, it will not come by itself. Doing this practice will help still the mind.
In the Vedas it has been mentioned that there are 10 doors to reach self-realization. There are 10 doors through which your energy goes up and down, in front and the back, the doors through which vayu(wind or air) is controlled. Of these 10 doors, only 9 have been mentioned openly, the 10th one is not revealed, it is hidden. Nobody knows and nothing is discussed about it.
I will tell you about the 10th door. There are times when we don’t even realize we are breathing, why, because we are not focusing on it. When you do Dhyan, you notice one breath goes out and one comes in and there is a pause of 1 second. You have not thought about it, so you have not noticed it. When you think about it, you will realize this is true. The 10th door is the pause or viraam in between the breaths. That is ‘Chaitanya’.
When you concentrate (I asked you to look at a wall or some other object with your eyes open or when you start looking at your breath), what will happen? You cannot sit down for meditation today and expect to be self-realized tomorrow, it is not like that. You have to do the practice yourself daily and when you do the practice, one day by itself your eyes will close and automatically your mind will become completely empty(shoonya or zero), and you will enter the ‘Chetana’ space. This experience will happen definitely, I am telling you. If thoughts come, don’t fight. Gradually, you will become thoughtless, but this takes time. Every day, it is your duty to sit down for the meditation or practice, not just one week, thinking in a week’s time, you will get the experience now. Don’t think of anything, don’t think why am I not experiencing this or that, don’t waste your time on these thoughts, just leave them.
Very serious, you have to become very serious about this (practice or meditation). You must fix a time to do this every day. Once you fix a time, then time itself will help you or aid you. And you will be able to understand yourself.
This physical body is made of 5 elements(Panchabootha) – Fire, Wind, Earth, Water and Ether. We say let’s go in or deeper. What is inside? The physical body is made of the Panchabootha and what is outside is inside as well. So, what does going in mean? It means going beyond Maya.
What is beyond Maya? You feel right now you are doing everything, but in reality you are doing nothing. There is someone else who is making you do all this work. When you are released from Maya, this physical body that is made of the 5 elements, you will see the same elements , but how will you see them? You will see them without Maya.
When we do meditation, the food you eat is also very important, what you eat is important.
When you eat fully and try to meditate, you cannot meditate. One needs to become Sattvic to meditate. When you become Sattvic, it is easier for the mind to focus and go beyond the vasanas. A Sattvic diet does not include onions, garlic or spicy food. Onions and Garlic are tamasic foods. I am not asking you to completely stop eating these foods.
The 10 minute practice of focusing with your eyes open – when you do this practice daily, look at the Lingam that Swami has created for us today. Do it for 10 minutes, without any thoughts. Why did Swami give you the Lingams today? Because if you look at the Lingams and do the practice daily, in your eyes, in your mind, that energy will come.
How should you do the practice? Do the practice daily either in the morning or in the evening, during darkness, in a place of silence and solitude, with no disturbances. If needed, close the room. The ideal time recommended for meditation is at least 45 minutes. This is the minimum time needed for those energies to develop in the body. You can meditate for longer than this but any less and it is no longer termed meditation.
If you find it difficult to sit for 45 minutes, start with 15 min, then 20 min, 25 min, 30 min, gradually increasing the time. Fix a time either in the morning or in the evening, depending on when you are free but a time when it is dark. It is ok to do this practice even after you eat food, before you sleep until midnight. Fixing a time is important because it is discipline.
When you did this practice now for 10 minutes, you felt like changing your posture, shifting your legs etc. Why? There are two or three things that aid meditation – Yog (yoga), Sadhana(Mantra chanting) and Tap (Tapas). Yoga helps your body to become flexible and readies your body for meditation. Sadhana or Mantra chanting – Mantras protect you from negativity. When you start meditating, any negative thoughts in you or any negativity around you will start controlling you. So we chant mantras to control the negativity. After this, meditation starts.
For the practice I have given you today, it is not necessary to sit down. But if it is possible for you to sit down on the floor, ensure you are seated on a blanket or mat or cushion(Garam Asan or warm seat). Never sit directly on the ground. If you are unable to sit on the floor, sit on a chair.
This is one of the practices that will transform your heart, your brain. In addition to this practice, there are many other practices about which I will talk at a later date. Start with this one for now. Keep some object like a Shiv Ling, God’s photo, the wall or anything. This practice is meant solely and solely for you, we are not talking about God yet. This practice is to make you positive. For those people who will do this whole heartedly, by themselves, for them God is not difficult. When you ‘think’ about God, you won’t get anything because God is a very vast subject. It is important to understand God but before understanding God, we need to understand ourselves first. First you need to concentrate, the mind needs to be controlled, otherwise there is no peace. For the fortunate people who are assembled here, Swami will definitely help in this practice of meditation. Swami’s blessings are with everyone here.
And if you have any questions, regarding this meditation, you can ask them now.
A devotee asked why ‘Darkness’ is important for this meditation?
Babaji’s answer: Darkness does not mean switching off the lights. If you do this during the day, you may end up napping, one feels lethargic in the afternoon. When we do a Pooja early in the morning or in the evening, it feels better, there is bliss. As the day progresses, our energies come down. When darkness approaches, the energies become high, the positivity becomes high. The discipline of doing this practice at the same time every day is very important, today 10 p.m. tomorrow 11p.m. will not do. When there is discipline, the energies also help you.