Monday, September 30, 2013

(Sep 30,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Supreme Brahman by Swami Krishnananda

The Supreme Brahman
Divine Life Society Publication:Chapter 13: The Bliss of Non-Duality – Philosophy of the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda

In the Upanishad teaching, the unity of all things is intended, and, when it is said that by a knowledge of ‘one thing’, ‘everything’ else is known, what is intended to be conveyed is not that there is any real diversity, such as “all” things, but that there is only one thing which appears as the many things, and when this one thing is known, the many-ness of the many things will vanish. By the knowledge of the One Brahman, the whole Universe is known, not as a multifarious conglomeration of objects, but as an eternal being, one and secondless of the nature of Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Knowledge-Bliss), as different from name and form, which is the nature of the world.

Sage Uddalaka states that Reality is Sat, Existence. The Aitareya Upanishad says that it is Prajnana, Consciousness. Sanatkumara says that it is Sukha, Bliss. Thus, Sat-Chit-Ananda is the nature of Brahman. Names and forms are not existent independently of Sat-Chit-Ananda, but are appearances on its basis. It does not mean that there is a name and form of the world apart from Sat-Chit-Ananda. What is meant is that when we divest the Universe of its Sat-Chit-Ananda aspects, there would be no names and forms to be experienced separately, just as when we remove all the clay in the pot, there would be no separate pot to be seen. Thus, there is no creation apart from Brahman. It is that One Being that has become the many, or, rather, appears as the many. The scripture says that the One Supreme Being diversifies itself, as it were, into the various names and forms.

There was, in the beginning, only the unmanifest, or the Avyakrita, the matrix of all things, wherein all the names and forms were hidden as a tree is hidden in the seed, and hence we cannot say that the names and forms are really different from the Avyakrita, just as we cannot say that the tree is different from the seed. The names and forms are potentially present in the Avyakrita, and the two, viz., the Avyakrita and the names and forms of the world, are like the obverse and the reverse of the same coin, the Avyakrita being the cause, and the names and forms being the effect.
 
All the Jivas are subsequent to creation. Hence the causal condition of creation cannot be known by the Jivas. This Avyakrita-Sakti is having Brahman as its foundation. This cause of change is based on the Changeless, and it undergoes many modifications such as the subtle and the gross Universe of varieties. This is also called Maya (illusion), Prakriti (matrix), or Karana (cause), all meaning the same thing, denoting finally the unmanifested condition of the Universe. The director of this Sakti is Isvara, God. He is Brahman possessed of unlimited powers, the Eternal appearing as the Immanent Ruler of the temporal. He is the Lord over all things, the Controller of Maya, not affected by it in any way.

The first modification of this Avyakrita is Space (Akasa). Space has Existence; it is revealed in Consciousness, and it is the source of Joy to all living beings. These three are the aspects of Brahman in Space, but the special feature of Space is spatiality or extendedness, by which we measure distance and recognize all sorts of difference of one from the other. This latter feature is not real, while the former three characters are real. Extendedness or spatiality was non-existent prior to the manifestation of Space. It will not be there also after the dissolution of the cosmos. Metaphysically, what is not in the beginning and not in the end, is not also in the middle. That which does not persist in the three periods of time cannot be called the eternal or the real. The real is that which is continually present in all the three periods of time. Just as clay is present in the pot and all the modifications which it undergoes, so Sat-Chit-Ananda, the essential nature of Brahman, follows everything and is concomitant with all things. It persists in every form of existence, whatever be the changes that it may undergo. The true existence is revealed in the consciousness of the negation of spatiality. In profound spiritual states of meditation, Space is not felt to be existent. There is no idea even of Time or of objects. There is only a feeling of perennial bliss, because, in the spaceless condition, Sat-Chit-Ananda manifests itself. The mind is transient and, hence, its conditions, viz., pleasure and pain, also, are transient. The permanent being is the Bliss of Brahman alone.

In Space and the other four elements, Sat-Chit-Ananda is present equally, and this can be known by a careful distinction of its presence from names and forms. All things in the world are existent (Sat), are revealed (Chit), and are objects of endearment (Ananda) to someone or other, at different times. These characteristics of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss are the essence of Brahman, while the special qualities, such as confinement to a locality in space, appearance only at a particular time, etc. belong to the individuality of things. By a careful analysis of the visible world, it is possible to isolate Sat-Chit-Ananda from nama-rupa (name-and-form), the General Existence from particular appearances.

An object has five features in it. Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, Name and Form. The first three belong to what is eternal. The latter two pertain to the temporal world. This is how we should endeavor to separate Reality from appearance in all our perceptions. When we look at the waves we are just looking at the Ocean. When our mind is deeply concentrated on the depths of the Ocean, we forget the separate existence of the waves. All these things of which the Universe consists are ripples, bubbles and waves in the Ocean of Sat-Chit-Ananda. When the mind visualises an object, let it recognize in the object the profound depths of Brahman, which is its Reality, and without which it cannot be. The independent existence of names and forms is not true. Names and forms do rise and fall as waves in the Ocean.

The more one ignores the external crust of name and form, the more does one go deep into the truth of Brahman and the more is Brahman discovered in this world, and the more also is one detached from names and forms. When, by such a practice, one acquires real knowledge and is established firmly in that knowledge, one becomes a liberated soul, Jivanmukta, whether objects exist or not. This rare experience is had by the practice of Brahmabhyasa, which consists in thinking of Brahman alone always, speaking about That alone, conversing with and awakening each other on That alone, and totally depending on That alone at all times, as one’s ultimate refuge. When this practice is continued for a long time, without remission in the middle, with wholehearted devotion, then all the Vasanas, or mental impressions, of past births recede completely and get destroyed in the end, and the names and forms just appear as expressions of Brahma-Sakti (Power of Brahman).

When there is an abandonment of interest in names and forms, meditation on Brahman becomes unobstructed in every way. The obstacles being centred in the desire for contact with names and forms, there is no chance of obstacles presenting themselves when such a desire is wiped out from the mind by beholding Sat-Chit-Ananda through the names and forms. Just as a firmly seated rock is not affected by a flood of water flowing over it, so is the immovable Brahman unaffected by the variegated changes in names and forms that appear on its background.

Just as, in a mirror, which has really no holes in it to contain anything, the vast space with its contents of solid objects may be reflected, the world of names and forms is reflected, as it were, in Brahman, though the world is not really contained in Brahman, Brahman being unaffected and unattached, even as the mirror does not contain the objects within it. But, just as one cannot see the reflection of objects in a mirror without there being a mirror first and without observing the mirror even before seeing the reflection, it is impossible for one to merely see names and forms without first confronting the Existence of Brahman. When we open our eyes, we see the Existence of Brahman only,is spread out everywhere, and on this Existence the names and forms are superimposed. One thing is mistaken for another. Brahman is mistaken for a world of objects.

When Sat-Chit-Ananda is beheld through the names and forms, let the intellect be fixed on it, and let it not be again diverted to the names and forms. This is the essence of Vairagya and Abhyasa, the withdrawal from sense-perception and practice of concentration on the One Reality. Thus, Brahman is portrayed as an unworldly Existence, in the sense that the world is not contained in it, but only superimposed on it, and its essential Being is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss, and not name and form. It is in this that one should try to fix oneself. To those who have, by the continuous habituation of themselves to this practice, the feeling that there is no world outside of Brahman, the world is Brahman only appearing. (Verses 1-105)

Excerpts from:
Chapter 13: The Bliss of Non-Duality – Philosophy of the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda

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Sunday, September 29, 2013

(Sep 29,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Meditation on Brahman

Meditation on Brahman
Divine Life Society Publication: Kenopanishad - Essays on the Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda
 
Brahman is the embodiment of all qualities, powers and existence. It is possible for anyone to obtain anything in any form at any time and at any place, because the substance of everything is everywhere and in every form. With whatever conception of Brahman one may meditate on it, one experiences the form of that conception alone, to the exclusion of everything else. If one meditates on it as Supreme Love, the center of attraction, adoration and worship, identifying oneself with Brahman, one becomes the object of everybody’s love, of all adoration and worship. One who loves Brahman shall be loved by every being of the universe. One who worships it shall be worshipped by all. If one meditates on Brahman as supreme greatness and glory, one shall become supreme and glorious. Whatever attitude we develop towards Brahman, that is repaid to us in manifold forms. The fact is that it is not possible to meditate on Brahman except by identifying oneself with it. Hence when attitudes are developed towards Brahman in the process of meditation, they are, in fact, developed towards oneself. This is why the meditator experiences whatever he superimposes upon Brahman. The best kind of meditation, however, is not to conceive of Brahman as having any quality at all, i.e., to negate all qualities that the mind thinks of. Qualities limit Brahman, and we get only what we think. The negation of qualities, however, discloses Truth as it is in itself, and the meditator becomes Brahman itself.

Meditation on Brahman is an attempt to become the Self of all beings. This is the reason why a lover of and a meditator on Brahman becomes the center of adoration and worship. Every being loves itself the most and adores and worships itself as the best and the dearest. And since this dearest Self is reflected through a lover of Brahman, he becomes the dearest and the most adorable of all. One can relate oneself to anything and can know anything in the best possible way only when one becomes that thing. Therefore, meditation on Brahman is the effort towards obtaining and becoming everything, i. e., achieving the highest perfection in the Supreme Absolute.

Excerpts from:
Kenopanishad - Essays on the Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda

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Saturday, September 28, 2013

(Sep 28,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Practical Aspect of Meditation by Swami Sivananda

Practical Aspect of Meditation
Divine Life Society Publication: Meditation by Swami Sivananda

 
This world is full of miseries and sufferings. If you want to get rid of the pains and afflictions of this Samsara, you must practice meditation. Meditation leads to the knowledge of the Self, which brings about Eternal Peace and Supreme Bliss. Meditation prepares you for the integral experience or direct intuitive knowledge. Meditation is the flow of continuous thought of one thing or God or Atman. Meditation is the pathway to divinity. It is the royal road to the kingdom of Brahman. It is a mysterious ladder which reaches from earth to Heaven (Vaikuntha-Kailasa-Brahman), from error to Truth, from darkness to Light, from pain to Bliss, from restlessness to abiding Peace, from ignorance to Knowledge, from mortality to Immortality.

Truth is Brahman. Truth is Atman. You cannot realize the Truth without reflection and meditation. The mode of meditation differs according to the path adopted by the aspirant. A Bhakta practices Saguna Dhyana on the form of his Ishta Devata. A Hatha Yogi meditates on the Chakras and the presiding deities. A Jnana Yogi meditates on his own Self. He practices Ahamgraha Upasana. A Raja Yogi meditates on the special Purusha who is not affected by afflictions and desires.

The mind assumes the form of the object it cognizes. Then only perception is possible. A Bhakta constantly meditates on the form of his tutelary deity or Ishta Devata. The mind always takes the form of the deity. When he is established in his meditation, when he attains the stage of Para Bhakti or supreme devotion, he sees his Ishta Devata only everywhere. The names and forms vanish. A devotee of Lord Krishna sees Lord Krishna only everywhere and experiences the state described in the Gita "Vaasudevah Sarvam iti-Everything is Vaasudeva only." A Jnani or a Vedanti sees his own Self or Atman everywhere. The world of names and forms vanishes from his view. He experiences the utterances of the seers of the Upanishads: "Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma-All indeed is Brahman."

You must have a pure mind if you want to realize the Self. Unless the mind is set free and casts away all desires, cravings, worries, delusion, pride, lust, attachment, likes and dislikes, it cannot enter into the domain of Supreme Peace and unalloyed felicity-the Immortal Abode. A glutton or a sensualist, a dullard or a lazy man, cannot practice meditation. He who has controlled the tongue and other organs, who has an acute acumen, who eats, drinks and sleeps in moderation, who has destroyed selfishness, lust, greed and anger, can practice meditation and attain success in Samadhi.

You cannot enjoy peace of mind and cannot practice meditation if there is Vikshepa in your mind. Vikshepa is tossing of mind. Vikshepa is Rajas. Vikshepa and desires co-exist in the mind. If you really want to destroy Vikshepa, you must destroy all mundane desires and cravings through dispassion and self-surrender to the Lord.

If you apply fire to a green wood, it will not burn; if you apply fire to a piece of dried wood, it will at once catch fire and burn. Even so, those who have not purified their minds, will not be able to start the fire of meditation. They will be sleeping or dreaming-building castles in the air-when they sit for meditation. But those who have removed the impurities in their minds by Japa, service, charity, Pranayama, etc., will enter into deep meditation as soon as they sit for meditation. The pure, ripe mind will at once burn with the fire of meditation.

Mind is compared to a garden. Just as you can cultivate good flowers and fruits in a garden by ploughing and manuring the land, by removing the weeds and thorns and by watering the plants and trees, so also you can cultivate the flower of devotion in the garden of your mind by removing the impurities of the mind, such as lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, etc., and watering it with divine thoughts. Weeds and thorns grow in the rainy season, disappear in summer, but their seeds remain underneath the ground. As soon as there is a shower, the seeds again germinate and sprout out. Even so, the Vrittis (modifications of the mind) manifest on the surface of the conscious mind, then disappear and assume a subtle seed-state, the form of Samskaras or impressions. The Samskaras again become Vrittis either through internal or external stimulus. When the garden is clean, when there are no weeds and thorns you can get good fruits. So also, when the mind is pure, when the mind is free from lust, anger, etc., you can have the fruit of good, deep meditation. Therefore cleanse the mind of its impurities first. Then the current of meditation will flow by itself.

If you want to keep a garden always clean, you will have to remove not only the weeds and thorns and other small plants but also the seeds that lie underneath the ground which again germinate during rainy season. Even so, you will have to destroy not only the big waves or Vrittis of the mind but also the Samskaras which are the seeds for births and deaths, which generate Vrittis again and again, if you want to enter into Samadhi and attain liberation or perfect freedom.

Without the help of meditation, you cannot attain knowledge of the Self. Without its aid, you cannot grow into the divine state. Without it, you cannot liberate yourself from the trammels of the mind and attain Immortality. If you do not practice meditation, the supreme splendor and fadeless glories of Atman will remain hidden from you. Tear the veils that cover the soul by practicing regular meditation. Rend asunder the five sheaths that screen the Atman by constant meditation and then attain the final beatitude of life.

Excerpts from:
Practical Aspect of Meditation by Swami Sivananda

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Friday, September 27, 2013

(Sep 27,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – Sandilya-Vidya

 Sandilya Vidya
Divine Life Society Publication: Appendix 1-Sandilya Vidya –Chhandogya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda
 
Hari Om. Om Sat-Guru-Paramatmane Namah.

Sandilya, the great Rishi, had this revelation of the Supreme Being. Vidya is a meditation, an art of thinking on the Supreme goal. This meditation begins with the proclamation of the all-comprehensiveness of Brahman: "Sarvam khalvidam brahma—All this is verily Brahman." This vidya is contained in Section 14 of Chapter Three of the Upanishad.

Sarvam khalvidam brahma, tajjalaniti santa upasita, atha khalu kratumayah puruso yatha-kratur-asmin-loke puruso bhavati tathetah pretya bhavati, sa kratum kurvita.

This is a very famous passage in the Upanishad. This is how we have to meditate, calmly, quietly and peacefully. We have to meditate that everything comes from That, everything is sustained in That, and everything returns to That. That which is the origination, the sustenance and the dissolution of all things is this Brahman. Inasmuch as it is the cause of all things, naturally, every effect in the form of this creation is contained there. We too are effects of creation. So, we too are contained in it.

There is a great justification in the assertion that everything is the Supreme Being. Logically and naturally, when the effects are all contained in the cause, one should be able to appreciate the all-comprehensiveness of the ultimate cause. This cause only is, inasmuch as no effect can be separated from the cause. There is an undifferentiated relationship between the effect and the cause. There is no gap between the one and the other. We are, therefore, not isolated from the cause. There is no vital cut or gulf between this universe of effect and its cause which is Brahman. This means to say that even now we are vitally connected with the Absolute. We are maintaining even at this moment an organic relationship.

The difficult part of this meditation is that we ourselves, as thinkers, are associated vitally and organically with the Supreme Being on whom we have to meditate. We cannot think like this. For, the mind refuses to think. We can think something outside us and we can think of the whole universe practically, but we cannot think something in which we ourselves are involved, because there it is that the mind finds itself incapable of functioning. There is no such thing as mind thinking itself.

Aristotle said that God is thought thinking itself. It is very difficult to understand what it means. How can thought think itself? It always thinks something else. So, Brahman cannot be thought by the mind, and yet this is the injunction of the Upanishad. The highest kind of meditation is sarvam khalvidam brahma. All this manifestation which you see in the form of individuality, whether organic or inorganic, visible or invisible, wherever it be, is That. Nothing but That is.

Again to reiterate, the most difficult thing to swallow here is that we ourselves are a part of That. The meditator is part of that which is meditated on. How is one to even think? It requires a tremendous psychological preparation and an extraordinary type of purity of mind to appreciate what this instruction is. This is not an ordinary type of meditation. It is most extraordinary in the sense that you are contemplating yourself, as it were, and not something or somebody else. That is implied in the statement that everything is included in That, not excluding oneself who meditates.

Thus should you meditate: "Sarvam khalvidam brahma—all this verily is the Supreme Absolute Brahman." How do you contemplate Brahman? The whole universe—you can imagine what the universe could be—has come from That. It has not come from That as something different from That. The very substance of this creation is the substance of the Absolute. That is one aspect of the matter. The other aspect is that there is no disconnection between the effect and the cause. So you can imagine how hard it is to entertain this thought. Everything is That because of the effect being non-disassociated from the cause. It is connected with the cause. It is sustained, even now at the time of the apparent creation, in That only and it will go back to That. So there is no place for anything to exist except That. Also, there is nothing other than That. Thus, one should meditate.

The word kratuh has several meanings. It means an effort of the will, an action of the mind, a determination of the understanding and a meditation that you practice. All this meaning is comprehended by the word kratuh. The whole of one's life is nothing but a determination or willing in this manner. Throughout our life we will in some way or other. The individual is an embodiment of action performed through his will. And whatever we will, that we become, because of the intensity of the will. As we affirm, so we experience and that we become. Our experiences are nothing but our affirmations through will. We have affirmed something very intensely in our previous lives, and the reward of those affirmations is the present series of experiences we are passing through here. So this is a caution, again administered to us. Inasmuch as whatever we think intensely and continuously, and that we are going to become, what should we think throughout our life if we want to become Brahman? We want to become the Absolute Itself. What should be the kind of thought that we should entertain? What should be the type of affirmation that we should make? How should our will work? This need not be explained further, because it is obvious. Therefore, my dear readers, spend your time in absorption of your thought in Brahman. This should be your meditation throughout your life. The Upanishad gives some further details as to how we should conduct this meditation in our life.

Excerpts from:
Sandilya Vidya –Chhandogya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda

 
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Thursday, September 26, 2013

(Sep 26,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day –Bases of Vedanta by Swami Sivananda

Bases of Vedanta
Divine Life Society Publication: Bases of Vedanta by Swami Sivananda
Hari Om. Om Sat-Guru-Paramatmane Namah.

The purpose of life is the realization of one’s own essential nature. It is to know that you are the pure ever-free Atman. The Vedanta expounds the great truth that Atman alone is real, the phenomenal world is unreal. You are Atman, but you forget your real Svarupa due to identification with the body. This is called Deha-Adhyasa. This is the greatest obstacle to Self-Knowledge or Atma-Jnana. To get over this delusion of identification with body the Vedantic Seers have made a detailed analysis of the different bodies, gross and subtle, and systematically proved that the Jiva is not the body but is identical with the Paramatman. The study of the three bodies, the five sheaths and the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep, helps man to understand that he is different from all these diverse modifications and that he is the unchanging, constant, witness of all these. This helps him to feel that he transcends the three states, the three bodies and the Panchakoshas.

Constant remembrance of this and meditation on this knowledge will lead him to the realization of his Atma-svarupa. Therefore, the study of the Panchakoshas is a valuable aid in the process of disassociating yourself from the bodies and the sheaths. It enables you to rise above body-consciousness, to feel that you are the Atman and thus remain quite unaffected and unattached amidst all distractions and tribulations of life.

The individual experiencer is a consciousness-center enveloped by several layers of matter existing as the factors causing objective awareness in it. The analysis of these layers or bodies is necessary to ascertain the nature of the true Self.

There are three bodies in every individual (Jiva).The physical body or the gross body (Sthula Sarira), the astral body or the subtle body (Sukshma Sarira or Lingadeha) and the causal body or the seed body (Karanasarira) are the three bodies.

The shell of a tamarind corresponds to the physical body. The pulp represents the subtle body. The seed corresponds to the causal body. Ice represents the physical body. H2O represents the subtle body. The Tanmatras or root-elements correspond to the causal body.

The physical body is composed of five elements, viz., earth (Prithivi), water (Apah), fire (Tejas), air (Vayu) and space (Akasa).

Asti (existence), Jayate (birth), Vardhate (growth), Viparinamate (change), Apaksheeyate (decay), Vinashyate (death), are the six modifications or changes of the body.

The body (Deha), action (Karma), love and hate (Raga-dvesha), egoism (Ahamkara), non-discrimination (Aviveka) and ignorance (Ajnana) are the seven links of the chain of Samsara (world-experience). From Ajnana (ignorance), Aviveka is born. Aviveka is non-discrimination between the real and the unreal. From Aviveka is born Ahamkara or egoism; from egoism is born Raga-dvesha (like and dislike); from Raga-dvesha Karma (action) arises; from Karma the body or the Deha is produced. If you want to free yourself from the pain of birth and death, destroy ignorance (Ajnana), the root cause of this Samsara (world-experience), through the attainment of the Knowledge of Brahman or the Absolute. When ignorance is removed, all the other links will be broken by themselves. This physical body of yours is the result of your past actions and is the seat of your enjoyment of pleasure and pain.

The subtle body is composed of nineteen principles (Tattvas), viz., five Jnana Indriyas or organs of knowledge, five Karma Indriyas or organs of action, five Pranas or vital airs, Manas or mind, Buddhi or intellect, Chitta or the subconscious and Ahamkara or the ego. It is a means of enjoying pleasure and pain. Subtle body get dissolved in Videha Mukti or disembodied Liberation.

The beginningless ignorance that is indescribable is called the causal body. It is the cause of the gross and the subtle bodies.

How to transcend the three bodies? Identify yourself with the All-pervading, Eternal Atman. Stand as a witness (Sakshi) of all experiences. Know that the Atman is always like a king - distinct from the body, organs, vital breaths, mind, intellect, ego and Prakriti - the Witness of their attributes.

Excerpts from:
Bases of Vedanta by Swami Sivananda

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A Guide to Meditation by Swami Krishnananda

A Guide to Meditation
Divine Life Society Publication: A Guide to Meditation by Swami Krishnananda

 
Hari Om. Om Sat-Guru-Paramatmane Namah.
 (108 sentences on meditation taken from various writings by Swami Krishnananda)
1.       The object of meditation is the final choice that you make in this world.
2.       Each one of you has to choose your beloved object for meditation.
3.       The essential thought to be remembered in all meditations is that there should be no thought except that of the chosen object, or the ideal of meditation.
4.       Actually, every work done with a feeling of devotion is also a kind of meditation.
5.       By meditation, observation and reasoning one comes to realise that Existence is not space and space is not Existence.
6.       Brahman's all attributes mentioned in the Upanishads, positive as well as negative, may be brought together in a single group as aids to meditation.
7.       Brahman is the Absolute, and one cannot meditate on Brahman, because it is inclusive of even the meditator himself.
8.       Clear-sightedness, passionlessness, serenity, self-restraint, indifference to the world, fortitude, faith, collectedness of mind and yearning for liberation from bondage are the prerequisites of spiritual meditation.
9.       Contemplation on Existence-Consciousness-Bliss as the whole of Brahman, in Sattwa, is the highest form of meditation.
10.   Different symbols used in meditation give rise to different experiences corresponding to each.
11.   Desireless meditation's result is only ascent and no reverting to the mortal world.
12.   Desire ceases when you behold the Atman, and this beholding the Atman is called meditation.
13.   Dream is an unconscious occurrence. You have no control over it. But meditation is a conscious effort.
14.   Desire is the assertion of the personality. In meditation the personality is dissolved.
15.   Directly the Absolute is known through profound reflection and meditation.
16.   Externally meditation can be regarded as religion, internally it is concentration.
17.   The entire psychology of meditation is nothing but a setting right of errors in thought.
18.   Feel your identity with the Supreme Being in meditation. That is the essence of meditation.
19.   To love God is to serve him, to serve Him is to meditate on Him, to meditate on Him is to know Him, and to know Him is to realise Him.
20.   Great tenacity is called for in meditation.
21.   Highest effort consists in meditation on the Absolute.
22.   Hard to conceive is an endlessness of Being identified with the selfhood of beings. But that is what is the key to true meditation.
23.   The highest kind of meditation is Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma.
24.   It will guide you only after you become one with it. For that, you have to meditate.
25.   If you can convince your deep feeling that whatever you see is inside that Supreme (including yourself and everybody) that is the meditation.
26.   It is your soul that is actually meditating on the soul of the object.
27.   Indestructible is the knowledge attained though meditation on the truths of the Vedanta.
28.   Indirect knowledge received by means of instruction from the preceptor requires to be deepened into experience by reflection and deep meditation.
29.   It is advisable to engage oneself during spare hours in the study of such subjects as are conducive to entertaining the thought of the object of meditation.
30.   If you want to know creation, you have to enter into the substance of creation.
31.   If you love a thing constantly without break, it is meditation.
32.   It should not be that you are happy inside the meditation hall and unhappy outside. You must be happy in the street, in the market place, in the bathroom and not only in the temple or the meditation hall.
33.   If life is to become a healthy whole, the spirit of religious worship and meditation has to saturate and seep into the secular life.
34.   Knowledge and meditation, however, are not possible for one who is worldly, sensual, deluded, proud, egoistic and selfish.
35.   Knowledge is Jnana or Anubhava of the Nirguna Brahman, and meditation is Dhyana, or Upasana on Saguna Brahman.
36.   Meditation is the art of contacting Reality, and for that you have to first be sure what Reality is.
37.   Meditation on the Eternal Being is the supreme form of love.
38.   Meditation starts with duality and ends in Unity, from an adoration of God to the Being of God.
39.   Meditation should be continued till death, or till the rise of Self-knowledge.
40.   Meditation should be continued until the goal is realised, without any anxiety, or impatience on one's part.
41.   Moksha is the immediate non-objective experience of Brahman on which one has been meditating all along with intense devotion.
42.   Meditation is the affirmation of the mind and confirmation of Reality.
43.   Meditation is the art of setting oneself in tune with God.
44.   A meditating mind is like a still lake.
45.   The meditating principle is not the ego, it is the Universal Being itself. It is God meditating on God ultimately.
46.   Meditation is nothing but the recognition in consciousness of the connecting link between subject and object.
47.   Meditation leads to the gradual ascent of self by degrees of expansiveness.
48.   Meditation on God is the highest of Sadhanas.
49.   Meditation on Reality is spiritual life.
50.   Nobody can do so much good to the world as a Yogi engaged in meditation. You must know very well that the value of work depends upon what you think in your mind.
51.   Nirguna form of meditation is laid down in several of the Upanishads. The main type of meditation inculcated is on Pranava, or Omkara.
52.   No meditation will become successful if the senses are active, because the senses are the opposite of the effort at meditation.
53.   On the path of Jnana-Yoga, as a necessary condition of spiritual meditation, the value of philosophy is incalculable.
54.   Of all things, Selfhood is the ultimate meditation. This state cannot be achieved easily.
55.   One-pointedness is the secret of meditation. This is an essential feature that we have to remember.
56.   One who meditates on the Universal Prana has no enemies.
57.   Prayer is a current flowing with the thoughts towards God. Meditation is the highest prayer where the thoughts are fixed in God.
58.   Poor we are psychologicaly and philosophically bankrupt, therefore meditation is hard.
59.   Provided it gets universalised in meditation, anything can become a passage to God.
60.   Prana-Agnihotra is a religious performance of the one who practises the Vaishvanara Vidya, who meditates on the Cosmic Being.
61.   The principle of meditation is this – whatever the object of your meditation be, that has to be taken as Absolute.
62.   Success is achieved in meditation in proportion to the extent of the honest feeling within ourselves that Brahman is the only Reality, and is the one aim of life.
63.   Sadhana (practice) concludes only in experience and never before. It is also possible that even though one practises enquiry and meditation till death, yet the Atman has not been realised.
64.   Seeing the noumenon is the art of meditation; the merger of object with the subject and vice-versa.
65.   Subject wanting the other, the object. This is materialistic meditation and not spiritual meditation.
66.   Study, reflection and meditation are the processes of the method of Self-transcendence.
67.   That act of uniting the reason with the feeling is meditation.
68.   Thought is Being; consciousness is Existence. If this is asserted, then meditation will succeed.
69.   The resting of the consciousness in its own self, which is universality of Being, is the highest Yoga or meditation.
70.   The object of meditation is not just one among the many objects of the world; it is rather the only object before us.
71.   The quickness of the process of attainment depends upon the intensity of the power of meditation, both in its negative and assertive aspects.
72.   Unless the idea becomes God, the meditation will not yield results.
73.   The Vaishvanara meditator is in communion with the universe, with the very self of all beings, attuned to the Supreme Being.
74.   Vidya is a meditation, an art of thinking on the Supreme Goal.
75.   When the mind is tired and unwilling, you should not meditate.
76.   When meditation deepens, you can lessen your activities and take to meditation more and more.
77.   We must remember that ritualistic worship also is a kind of meditation. Worship is not a mechanical action.
78.   When Prarabdha dies, all activities cease, but while it functions, it cannot be overcome even by the force of meditation.
79.   When there is an abandonment of interest in names and forms, meditation on Brahman becomes unobstructed in every way.
80.   When you meditate on the Absolute, you are equally thinking of yourself. The Atman is the Paramatman only. You are merging with it.
81.   When one sees a stone, for example, its existence-aspect should be separated from its name and form and, thus, its exsitence should be meditated upon as an aspect of Brahman.
82.   Whenever you breathe, you get connected with the Cosmic Prana. The intention of meditation is to connect one's Prana with the Cosmic Prana.
83.   We should not meditate when we are possessed by our ego.
84.   We live religion when we are in a state of meditation, because religion is the relation between man and God, between the soul and the Absolute.
85.   When one sits for meditation, there should be no anxiety.
86.   When we want to be seated for a long time for meditation or Japa, if we have some sort of restraint and control over the functions of the body, it yields to our requirements.
87.   It is a well-known fact that the process of meditation in the field of spiritual life is centralised in the attempt of consciousness to concentrate itself on Ultimate Reality.
88.   Unite yourself with that One Person. Then you will have no problems. This is called Yoga, spirituality, religion, or meditation, and that is the aim of life.
89.   You are part and parcel organically entwined with the whole universal fabric. If you can maintain this consciousness always, you are perpetually in a state of meditation.
90.   If sometimes one is tired of meditation, we have only to conclude one has only engaged oneself in another kind of activity, calling it meditation, while really it was not so.
91.   Aspirants on the spiritual path are generally conversant with the fact that meditation is the pinnacle of Yoga and the consummation of spiritual endeavour.
92.   All the procedures of meditation are, in the end, ways of awakening the Soul-consciousness which, in its depth, is, at once, God-consciousness.
93.   In meditation, thought and being coalesce and become one.
94.   The apparently inseparable connection of the body and, in fact, the whole of one's life, with the physical elements of creation gets gradually loosened when one progressively advances in meditation.
95.   Meditation is a self-integrating process throughout, from the beginning to the end, and hence any form of self-alienation is opposed to and becomes a hindrance in meditation.
96.   The pinnacle of Yoga is the absorption of the mind in the object of its concentration.
97.   But meditation is adventure, which opens up a new vista before us and surprises us with our relationships which were not apparent in our waking work-a-day life.
98.   When the meditating consciousness so gets absorbed in the object that the idea of the object and the name of the object drop out altogether and there is a consciousness of the object alone, independently, without any kind of external associations, where one becomes the true friend of the object, not merely an observer or a judge of the object, but an organic mass of sentience in which the object is dissolved, as it were, in one's being, – that is to be known as the great freedom of the self.
99.   The false idea that meditation is an individual affair has to be removed from the mind.
100.                        So, in meditation, the whole mind assumes the shape of a mass that moves wholly, entirely, totally, completely towards the object, the great point on which we may be concentrating for the purpose of our union with it.
101.                        The all-pervading nature of God excludes nothing from its purview and inclusiveness, and that which we regard as the best thing in our life may be regarded as our object of Meditation.
102.                        Even during meditation one may have to face many difficulties, such as the inability to reconcile apparently contradictory statements occurring in the scriptures, the persistent feeling that the world and the body are real, and, finally a sense of hopelessness and a feeling of impossibility in regard to the achievement of the supreme purpose of life.
103.                        Constant meditation on Om allows the individual consciousness to take the form of Om itself which is unlimited in its nature.
104.                        Meditation is our duty. It is not something that you are doing as an occupation; it is the art of being yourself.
105.                        The masquerading veil has to be torn asunder and we have to see the object 'as such' in meditation, and not as it appears to the senses and the mind.
106.                        The object of meditation is a concentrated focus of the entire structure of the universe.
107.                        It is to be remembered that the value of meditation does not so much depend on the length of time that you take in sitting for it, but in the quality or the intensity of feeling operating at that moment.
108.                        When one is in a mood of meditation, one is practising true religion, but by so doing one does not belong to any particular religious cult. We live religion when we are in a state of meditation, because religion is the relation between man and God, between the soul and the Absolute.
Excerpts from:
A Guide to Meditation by Swami Krishnananda

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