Meditational Practices

Coming to the meditational practices that we are asked to do, the routines, in the morning we are asked to get up, early in the morning. First and foremost we must get up. Rise before dawn. Cleanliness of body and mind are the two things that must be attended to. I am aware of many people senior people as well as new practicants who try to meditate without taking a bath perhaps even without brushing their teeth. It is a most irresponsible way of trying to reach God, most irresponsible way. Either the greatness of God is not implanted in them or they do not recognise that there is a God to whom they are appealing in the morning. The dawn is the hour of creation. It is the meeting point of activity and inactivity. Tam moves on towards the activity. Night is TAM totally in the presence of the Divine. We are moving towards the activity. The Divine is expressing itself and is coming out. That is the time we take advantage of, because the greatness of the God can be seen only in the early hours of the day and not in the midnight. At midnight we can have the laya. One can have laya, a superior form of worship is possible, but for a person who is living a life of grihasta we see here the activity. Activity starts and we must be in tune with it. To be in tune with nature is our system. It is a natural path. We have got to be in tune. We have got to be clean. We have got to be pure.

Suchi (purity) and Subratha (cleanliness) are two different words. They are not the same. One is purity and another is cleanliness. Body cleanliness is a must. Our attitude should be proper, proper attitude to think about the divine. Without that we will not be in a position to meditate properly and we know that we are not pure in our heart. We know that our thoughts are not pure. They are impious. Therefore when we are trying to place ourselves before the divine in the morning meditation we have got to attend to the meditation of cleaning also. What is that meditation of cleaning. How do you cleanse yourself? He suggested a point called B, most of us are aware of this. We meditate on point B thinking that the impurities are going away in front and from behind it the divine glow is coming. The divine light is coming to the forefront. What is this divine light that we are talking about? It has been made very clear many times that it is a super sensory concept or a non-sensory concept and we use the word divine light without luminosity. So long as we see some light we are trying to restrict Him to that physical form of light, however great light that it may be it is still a physical light. It is sensory, we have got to go beyond that. So the divine light is coming to the fore front, throwing away all the impurities from the front. This meditation has to be done. We have to do this for 10 minutes and continue our morning meditation, normally not less than one hour duration. Many people try to restrict it to half an hour. We do say start some where, you will yourself be motivated to do for one hour. But then our sloth is such 30 minutes becomes 25 minutes and 25 minutes becomes 20 minutes, 20 minutes is nearer 15 minutes, 15 minutes is nearer 10 minutes, 10 minutes is nearer 5 minutes and then the prayer is over the moment you sit down, getup and go. It's all sloth, giving all sorts of excuses for our laziness, unpreparedness to start the meditation, unyielding attitude to the divine, refusal to be in tune with nature.

Nature is active, we ought to be active. The need is to be in tune with nature. Man has become so much bestial, so much of less than a beast. Because I see all the birds getting up early in the morning and going away. The animals also start their activity. It is the human being, which is a peculiar animal. Humans even have got the capacity to come down to the level of matter and then like a log of wood or a stone he is still in the bed. Even when the world is awake and running he is still in the bed, not active, not understanding his origins. Not understanding his duties. Not attentive to his task. People are doing such things. This must go. This has to change and this will change only when all of us pray for such a change and then we ourselves change. We should change, we should also pray for other people to change then the world will be a bit better than what it is today. So the importance of that is stressed. The purity is stressed and then our cleanliness is stressed. Without these two things don't try to meditate. It doesn't help. Any attempt to pollute God will land in failure. He refuses to get polluted. Ultimately it is you who will fail by such methods. Then Revered SriRamchandraji Maharaj says try to find a place in your house where you can sit in meditation comfortably without any difficulty. It can be a room if you can afford, it can be a small 3/2 space somewhere else in the house. But let it be a fixed place where you pray and have your own carpet. Note that everything is and has vibration. People often forget this. And we think that we can sit anywhere. After all we can say that God is everywhere and it should not matter much where one sits and how he sits. That is philosophy. Yoga is different. Yoga demands discipline.

Yoga demands regularity. So regularity in practice is a must. Discipline in practice is a must.

We say sit in any comfortable posture and maintain the same posture. Comfortable posture we take surely, but then we go on changing it incessantly. There is no control over the body. There is no discipline. We change our posture. Try to remain in the same posture. It is very difficult, but when you are asking for mergence, when you are asking for a goal where you will be totally balanced, to maintain balance is not a joke, you have to strive for it. Balance is a tough concept. Static balance of course we can have. We can sit somewhere. Even there we are prepared to, but our body is such it refuses to be balanced even at the static level. We are not doing any gymnastics here. We are not doing any hatha yoga. We don't do such things. To sit like this itself consistently for one hour becomes a big tedious problem for us. That is the amount of indiscipline that has got into us. There must be discipline. This is foremost. Then if we meditate, it makes some sense. Meditation is always for seeking our oneness with Nature. We are trying to feel one with Nature. That is laya is it not? Oneness with God. This is what we are asking for. Our morning meditation should be for one hour for this reason, otherwise we will be disturbed. We will not be in a position to have our thought firm. In the beginning it is only at the 55th minute that we will be in a position to have some idea of what we have got to meditate up on. As we gradually progress it starts even at the first second. Progress enables us to meditate for one hour, though in the beginning people are asked to sit for one hour, we should know that our meditation is less than few minutes. Meditation usually will begin thinking about what we can do during the day? What are the other plans that we have got to do? What are our responsibilities? All these things come to us. The meditation is a must for one hour, if we want to control our thoughts. Later on once we learn to sit for one hour and meditate, it becomes easy for us to meditate for longer hours. Once we get absorbed in his thought, time passes off. I don't ask you to do that, but then that's what happens. Meditation is one aspect of it and the evening cleaning is another aspect. We have formed so many impressions in our heart. We have got various values in our mind. We have given certain people some positive marks and certain other people some negative marks. Several notions are carried by us and they are our own. It has nothing to do with others and the circumstances. The general question is, how is the day? It is beautiful. The day is always beautiful. It is warm. Either it is warm or hot or cold, it will be according to its nature. We are not the persons to decide. It is as it is. We have to adjust to it. It dictates circumstances. Nature doesn't accept our ways of doing things. It has got its own ways. Because it is the mother. The mother knows how to dictate and how to love. Both the things she knows better. We have unfortunately formed various impressions. All these thoughts keep haunting us. We have to clean ourselves. This cleaning is a must otherwise our mind will never be clean.

How to clean this mind? There is no external way by which we can do that. They said sravana and manana will be in a position to clear us off these things. That's what they said in tradition. To hear good things, try to be in good thoughts, try to be with good satsang, avoid bad associations, try to get good associations. By these methods we will be in a position to control the mind they say. We try, still the mind troubles us the most. The cause for this is our mind only. It is our mind which is the cause for the troubles of the mind. So it is the same mind that has to be applied to get rid of that. We got attached therefore we should get ourselves detached. This is the process that is advised in the evening cleaning process. We have to detach ourselves with a firm will that the impurities are going away. Are we capable of doing this? Surely not. But we have to. We have to carry this load. We are not capable of doing this on our own, we have to understand that. That is where the Pranahuti support also comes in the form of taking the concept of God itself as the divine light coming to us. We are linked to it. There are two or three types of methods, in every method we are trying to bring the Divine into the picture and then say we are linked to the Divine. In the three different methods we tell you as how we can get rid of impressions. We try to tell one of the three methods according to the temperament of the person. No one can practice all the three. A person should practice only one and that should be suitable to his temperament. We think that everything is going away in the form of vapour or smoke. When we give this concept we are using the concept of fire. It is the agnitatva that is being invoked. It is the God in Agni that is being invoked to get rid of these things. He burns it off. Whatever comes to him he burns it off and throws off, this is one method of purification.

There is another method in which we think that it is ocean of bliss in which we are seated and then it cleanses us. Here it is the jala tatva, another purification element. The divinity in the water is being utilised by us for our cleansing. These are all the things that enable us to clean. What are all the things that we use? Because the system is scientific. What are the things that we use? One method is to burn off and get rid of it, another method is to wash and clean ourself.

The third method is the method of light. The light is at the top of the head and then we try to link it up to our system and it cleanses us from the various limbs of ours. Two upper limbs and two lower limbs. Generally we use the method of light when working on other persons. I have used it very effectively with abhyasis who come to me. I personally practice only the concept of ocean of bliss. Generally suggested method by the master is fire. These are all the three concepts that are there. All the three are absolutely scientific. But in every one of them our effort is required.

Since the master's power is invoked, do not think that Master's Pranahuti will work. Don't get into that confusion. No Pranahuti during the cleaning process. We have to by the exercise of our will, get connected to that concept and that divinity. The divine light that comes out is what we use in the morning and in the evening. The divine light is right on the top of our head and it flows through the body cleansing us. It is the capacity of the individual mind that is to be accessed by the trainer to know what exactly is the method of cleaning that he has to adopt. If people are adopting on their own, they are welcome to do. But the point is, it is better to discuss with the trainer and then arrive at the proper method of cleaning, which will be most effective.

There is no other system, which talks about cleaning. One of the fundamentals of cleaning is, we should know that a thing which is already pure, can only be made pure. We should have the confidence that purity is our real nature and the impurity that is there is an unnecessary coating on us, that blurs our vision, that blurs our understanding. It must go. Then only we will be in a position to seek clearly. What is formed on the mirror must be wiped off before we can see in it, the spectacle glass must be clean to see clearly. Similarly here, these are all the avarana, these are all the mala, these are all the vikshepa that need to be cleaned.

Mala is confusions about the goals. Living at the lowest level. Vikshepa is, though we know the goal we have various thoughts which we think are equally good and the avarana is something that is there, as attachments. When we are talking about the eeshana traya it is the Avarana concept. Please note that it cannot be cleansed off at the mala level at all. More and more sittings are required for such people who feel attached to their own men. This attachment is a karmic attachment. We owe them something that is why they are linked to us. Runaanubhanda ruupena bhandu, mitra, sutha, alaya. These are all the things that come to us because of the runaanubhanda. We owe them. They will stay as long as we are indebted. The moment our debt is over, they will go, however much you think that your son should be with you, your daughter should be with you or your house should be with you, it will find its way. They will go, they will come. That it is due to the karmic factor. One should understand that he cannot wish it away. All that we can do is to arrive at a balanced way of dealing with the things. We need not develop further samskaras. Whatever Runa we had with us earlier we try to clean them off. But then even after the marriage we run after the daughter to the house where we have given them. We are supposed to forget them. They are Dana, but we don't forget them. No Danas are here. That is we try to continue an attachment out of habit. What was a burden on you, you cleared off. But then the act of clinging all these days has developed its own samskara of attachment and you continue to do it, even after you are supposed to have ceased to have any connections with it. Have clarity. Nobody is permanent here. Everybody is transient. We are moving out. One day or the other we are going out. But when you go would you like to carry the load. As Revered SriRamchandraji Maharaj says travel light. Throw off the luggage as far as possible. Travel light is a good article to read, please read Revered SriRamchandraji Maharaj's article. Even when there is an opportunity for us to travel light we like to carry some more load.

Even when by God's grace we get liberated, we want bondage. We seem to love bondage so much that things which we ought to forget, we continue to remember. We continue to hunt after them. Funny are the ways of the mind. Clean yourselves and try to take as many sittings as possible to cleanse yourself. Don't try to avoid. Don't try to avoid the issue of trying to get rid of the burden. You must get less and less burden. That is a must if you want to progress in spirituality.

Cleaning must be done. This is the unique system where we have got the assistance from Master also for this, in indirect way. Not directly. Every act is ours. The concept of cleaning has never been discussed in any other system. Everybody said that samskaras are there and we should get rid of them. But how to get rid of them? What is the way, nobody has said it. This is the only system where we talk about this aspect.

Avarana, is the one that gives the colourings of the soul as Jains put it and as we know here in our system, when we see the stages of progress we will go through the various colours of various stages. We start with some sort of an orange colour, then we move on to red, then we move to white, then we move on to black or blue, then to the Grey and then to the violet. These are the colours. What are these colours? These are the avaranas. The mala that we have attracted and made it into a paste and rubbed on to our soul. Our soul got affected because of this. These colours that we see are the colours of various levels. This clarity only Revered SriRamchandraji Maharaj gave, whereas in Jainism they simply said that there is a colour. Colours of souls are there but they could not say why it is so. Several people state several different colours. But they never could understand why it is so. Revered SriRamchandraji Maharaj said because of viveka we have got something, because of Vairagya we get something, because of understanding ourself, our nature and saswaroopa jnana we get some other colour, because of our devotion we get some other colour, because of our surrender we get some other colour. When we are almost in layaavasta we get a different colour in the Pind Desh. All colours relate to Pind Desh. No colours are available in Brahmand, except at the first stage or second stage no colours are present. Please note that these are the avaranas that are there. What are the avaranas that we have got? Avaranas relating to Viveka, Sadasad Viveka, Vairagya or attachment. Raga Dvesahs are there. They are also having their own colours. Then a person who is pure he has got his own colour, who knows his dependance. But this has to go. His awareness that he knows something is the difficulty here. Saswaroopa jnana itself is an avarana. The jnana should go. That jnana belongs to Him. But we think that it is our knowledge. Similarly devotion, we think that we are devoted and therefore it forms an avarana. Suppose, we think that it is He who is devoted to Himself as Revered SriRamchandraji Maharaj says, then, that avarana will not be there. That is why all the enjoyments that we say, all the experiences, we should always consider that they are experienced by the Master himself. It is His play and if we think that it is we who are experiencing it, please note that we have got the avaranas sticking on to us still. That is the reason why we see the colour. When we see a colour we ought to know that it is a warning. That is why Revered SriRamchandraji Maharaj says don't bother about these colours. The reason for that is, if we give importance to it we will stick to it more. But for understanding we say so many things. So it is a warning signal we see when we say that at this point we feel like that.

It is the nature of that particular knot to be like that. Agreed, but then it is an avarana on you. One is philosophical discussion and another is a practical experience. Practically we have to understand that we should move out of it. Philosophically, definitely we say this is what it is. The system is explained that in this place this is what it is. The layaavasta will give this we say. All these avaranas must go. It's a laborious task. These have been earned by us in several lives in the past, the result of several deeds of ours. Everything is resultant of our own action, our own thought. Thought is an action. We should understand this concept also. Thought also itself is an action. So these are all the things that form the impressions and those impressions have to be removed during the cleaning process. It is an active process, very important process and the second most important thing that we have got to practice.

First and the foremost thing, is the morning meditation and the second important thing is the evening cleaning. Now having cleansed ourselves reasonably for the day, then at 9.00P.M in the night we are asked to offer prayer for the betterment of all the people in this world. Our aspiration is to go out of this bondage of the body. Nama and the rupa are the two bondages that we have got. The primary goal is this. If we want to go beyond this, then we have got to have a consciousness of a superior being. If our consciousness is bound to this sarira or the body or the name, then we cannot say that we are going to the higher levels of consciousness or to a consciousness beyond this body. To enable us to go there Revered SriRamchandraji Maharaj gives a method.

In 9.00 P.M prayer we pray that all the people in this world are our brothers and sisters and that they are developing true love, faith and devotion towards the Master. It is not a prayer for us. It is a prayer for all. In the beginning a very routine and some sort of a ritual that we do. It is not a feeling that we have got in our heart. But since we are asked to do we do it in the beginning. But later on it becomes our second nature all the time to pray only for others and we cease to pray for ourselves.

Because the others and we are one. They are extensions of our own self. The Atman has already moved on to the Brahman. Take the connotation given by Revered Lalaji Maharaj. Our consciousness has been all the time confined to the consciousness of the Pinda, to this body and therefore it is Atman. Brahman is the one which grows out of this. A thought, which grows out of this body consciousness is the Brahman. So long as it is confined to this body it is Atman. It is the Jiva that can have the Atman and note one more point, in tradition it is stated that the Atman is an indivisible self and it cannot be segregated. Revered Lalaji Maharaj and Revered SriRamchandraji Maharaj don't agree to this. They say that the Atman is the composite of our Buddhi, Manas, Ahankar and Chitta. This is the significant variation from the traditional systems of Yoga. All these four things put together is Atman and when all these four are related to us, to ourself it is Atman. When all these things are applied to all universe it becomes Brahman. It grows far beyond. Our mental faculties, which are restricted to ourself is Atman. When our mental faculties expresses the concern for others then it is Brahman.

At+Man, Brhu+Man, this is how Revered Lalaji Maharaj has given the definitions which is very relevant for us to understand. Because we have got to move on from the Atman level to the Brahman level. If Atman were to be a solid object or some thing that is placed at this plane and it is some sort of a physical thing it cannot grow unless it bursts itself. It has to die. So when the Upanishads said Atman is Brahman they were only telling that Atman is capable of becoming Brahman. The Mimamsa seems to have given a better definition than the Vedanta. Capable of, just as we are men, because we are capable of being men. Not because we are men at present. We are animals at present. We are capable of becoming men. When we say we are human means, we are capable of being humans. However much animal I am but still I am capable of being a human. That we are capable of falling to the lower level is what our ancients thought. But the misfortune is we are always that. Only now and then we seem to be going to the human level. So this particular thing can happen only because of that prayer which is suggested to us. It speedens our progress. The Pranahuti Aided meditation helps us because the Master has willed such a prayer. He has suggested that to all of us. We are such wonderful disciples. We do not follow what he said. We are very consistent in not following. It seems to be the uncanny capacity of Revered Lalaji Maharaj that he has got so many disciples who do not obey what he says. He is an exemplary character by himself because he is one person who is capable of getting all his disciples not capable of doing what he says. At least some must follow. This 9.00 P.M prayer is such a casuality but that is the only way to grow to the Brahman level. There is no other way by which we can grow. People may say Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavantu is not a new concept, Sukhinobhavantu he said. May all people become happy that's what they said. Here we don't use the word 'may'. We say all people are developing. It is a sankalpa that we are giving. It is not the Ashirvada that we give. It's a new concept, totally new concept where we are willing through our will. We want to offer this thought, namely that all people are developing. But unfortunately either we are a victim of our vital instincts or the much lower physiological instincts or the gluttony seems to have over taken us when we say that we have got to go for dinner.

The 9.00 P.M prayer is a must. When we go to bed we say you offer your prayer. But then SriRamchandraji Maharaj says before you do that also pray on point

A. It is an extension of what you do at 9.00 P.M. At 9.00 P.M you are asked to pray for all generally, but before going to bed we meditate for a few minutes on point A. The same thought is given at a particular location. The Efficacy of Raja Yoga says that, whatever suggestion we give at point A it becomes true and he uses that technique here. The reason is he wants us to move to the higher plane. He wants us to live not just at the level of a manava. Not satisfied with it, he wants you to live at a level of a Maneeshi. Go on to the higher level. That is the aspiration that we are asked to have. This method is not for people who seek some favors, this is for people who can offer prayers for others. You should move on to that stage where you can confer on others this particular thought. We can offer, we should be capable of giving this. We can give only when you have. This is enabled by the 9.00 P.M prayer. To do this again at the position of point A so that it becomes doubly strengthened and you move on to the higher plane. When you go to bed with the prayer that I am incapable of controlling myself, the self has already grown. It is no more with our self that we are praying. I am talking about ideal case. It is no more yourself. It is all this humanity. It is incapable of improving by itself. I am a part of that whole. That is the highest quality of prayer at which we will be ending our day, ideally. This I would say is the method of meditation that we are asked to practice. The smaller ways of explanations are already available in the books. Various talks that we have talked about, but this is the ideal situation. Your day should terminate in a feeling of total helplessness of this humanity to better itself and seeking the divine help for the overall betterment, not just seeking your betterment. That is why the prayer becomes plural. As Dr. Varadachari puts it, he says in the beginning you can start with I, "I am yet but slaves of wishes putting a bar to my advancement", later on it changes to we. "We are yet, but slaves of wishes". Here the wishes is not just yours. Even when he says singular it becomes wishes only and not my wishes. I am yet a slave of wishes, not only my wishes, my wife's wishes are there, my sons wishes are there, my father's wishes are there, my friends wishes are there about me. They have got various expectations about me. All those things are binding me. I must get out of it. I pray, I am incapable of coming out of it, you better save me. That particular attitude of humility we have to develop. Only when we know the enormity of the subject we will be in a position to develop the humility, otherwise we will think we are very confident to do anything. The prayer also as far as I know, majority of the abhyasis do it ritually repeating it once or twice. We should get into that thought and get lost. Once or twice is remembered very well because one and two we know buckle my shoe. These two we remember and then go to bed. No question of getting into that attitude of humility, no question of feeling the presence of the divinity, no question of feeling the necessity to grow beyond ourselves, no necessity to pray for others or you have some problem. That problem overtakes you during the prayer and then that problem alone is remembered. Neither the God is remembered nor the solution is remembered, only the problem is remembered. This is very unfortunate way of prayer.

Prayer should be one where one should feel the lapses of every other person as his own lapses. If the Nation has failed it is we who have failed. If the world has failed it is we who have failed. Such is the notion of Brahman. A person who lives at the higher consciousness feels so. Fifty years back it was normal for every person to feel for others. Some calamity has happened else where they used to feel, today we seem to be totally indifferent. The problem becomes real only when we suffer, when somebody else is suffering it is not our problem. It is our misfortune that we have got isolated, insulated. Insulated to such an extent that we stink within. Let us get liberated out of this. That we can do only when we can maintain our 9.00 P.M prayer.

Understand the method atleast. Follow the method. We will definitely see how much we have evolved.