Meditation

Mind is a veil that shuts you from the splendour of the immortal spirit, which is your real being. Tear up this veil by means of constant meditation and self-surrender. Retire within yourself from time to time and lose your little ego in the infinite consciousness of your supreme Self. You are verily the embodiment of Truth. Wake up to this awareness.

Concentration

What is needed for the beginner to arrest the restless nature of the mind, is a steady practice at concentration. To achieve this end, Ramdas found the constant repetition of the Guru-Mantram as a sovereign means. The wandering mind is thus brought under control and is fixed at one point.

This point is God – the symbol and spirit of the Mantram.

Meditation

Side by side with the repetition of the Mantram bring into the mind the glorious attributes of God. “God is within me – God is Infinite – God is Bliss, Purity and Peace – God is Light of lights and the Power of powers – God is the Master of worlds – God is the Doer and the Non-doer at once – God is Knowledge, Love, Compassion and Forgiveness – God is the one Truth and one Reality. The Universe is God’s Self-revelation – God dwells in all beings, creatures and things – God fills all spheres and planes of life – my body, mind, senses and intellect and soul are all God’s – God permeates my being – I am God’s very image – both as the Revealed and Unrevealed – There exists nothing but God – God is all in all – GOD IS ALL.”

Meditation is nothing but a method of auto-suggestion. The veil of ignorance which is an obsession can be removed only by a continued hammering on the mind, of the Immortal nature of your true being. Successful meditation requires a well-controlled and concentrated mind, for which the following rules have to be observed:-

Diet, Sattwic food, i.e. Non-irritant foods.

Solitude.

Society of Saints.

Devotional music.

Reading the lives and teachings of saints.

Posture and Method for Silent Meditation

Sit up in any steady Asana suitable for you with your Spinal cord and head erect.

Shut your eyes but internally direct your gaze between the eye-brows and gradually to the crown of the head. Sit fixed in this gaze.

Repeat the Mantram mentally for some time to stop the wavering mind.

Then when the mind is calmed down, mentally repeat the great attributes of God one by one.

This process repeated from day to day will bring on self-absorption giving you the vision of light, etc.

Go still deeper into the realm of utter silence and stillness of your higher self or spirit, and rise completely above the body. Now you will realise the undifferentiated aspect of God bringing on the experience of your absolute identity with God.

Come out of this state – which would be difficult in the beginning but can be possible by the exercise of a strong will and for you the world outside will now stand transformed as the very expression or manifestation of God – everywhere the Light of God will dazzle your eyes; even in the apparent diversity and activity of nature you will strangely be conscious of an all-pervading stillness and peace of the Eternal – a consciousness which is unshakably permanent.

You will also feel that you are liberated from the harassing dualities of life followed by the crowning experience of an abiding state of ineffable ecstasy.

Ineffable Ecstasy

The ineffable bliss experienced when the individual sense is dissolved in the Supreme Consciousness of God is the highest acquisition of human life. When the source of immortal joy is opened within us, it flows and saturates every fibre of our being, internal and external, and makes our life at once a waveless peace and ceaseless thrill of ecstasy. Death, fear, and grief have then no significance for us. You see and feel a round of joy and delight in all movements, in the visible expressions of the undivided and eternal life and Truth. The one splendour of Divine light envelops and pervades all forms and things; the one VISION OF ENDLESS PEACE AND BLISS dazzles and enchants you everywhere. Nay, you realise that you and the Universe are form and substance of the Infinite Truth. Oh! the sublimity of this exalted state – indescribable state – blessed indeed are those who are filled with this inexhaustible nectar of Immortality.