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Spiritual education is not a separate and
distinct discipline. It is part and parcel of all types and levels of
education. |
Sathya
Sai Baba |
Do not
follow the vagaries of the mind
Let the mind run wherever
it likes; just be careful not to follow it, seeking to
discover where it is going! It will then wander about
for some time as the fancy takes it; soon, getting tired
and exhausted, it will come back to you in the end! It
is like a little child that knows nothing. Since the
mother is following it and calling it back, it gets
courage and confidence to run forward in any direction,
but if the mother does not run behind the child and
instead retraces her steps quietly, the child too, of
its own accord, will run back to the mother!
Do not care for the vagaries of the mind. Carry on
remembrance and meditation of the name and form that you
like best, in the manner you are accustomed to. In this
way, you will acquire one-pointedness (ekāgrata); you
will realise your heart’s desire.
Watch
the breathing process with “So” and “Ham”
When we give work to mind
that keeps it ever busy, then, the mind doesn’t trouble
us. Sometimes people catch a monkey which has a tendency
of going up and down, up and down and so on, a tree. If
we keep the monkey in one place, it keeps performing
such monkey tricks. Therefore the monkey trainer who
goes to beg in front of every house and commands the
monkey to go up and down the pole. In the same manner,
the mind is like a monkey. Therefore this “monkey” must
be entrusted with some absorbing work. If we sit in
meditation as a first step, this monkey mind will not be
in our control. So, we must sit in meditation and give
the duty of a watchman, who watches who is going in and
who is going out, to this monkey mind. If we entrust the
duty of a watchman to the mind, and this “monkey” sits
there at the tip of the nose, and goes on watching the
breath, “So” as we inhale, and “Ham” as we exhale, this
process goes on and the monkey is kept busy watching the
breath going in and coming out.
Keep eyes half-opened and
focused on the tip of the nose. Inhale through the left
nostril, closing the right nostril with the right thumb.
As the breath goes in, it utters “So” (meaning 'He');
then exhale through the right nostril, closing the left
nostril. As the breath goes out, it utters “Ham”
(meaning 'I'). Inhale and exhale slowly and
deliberately, conscious of the identity of He and I
(yourself), which it asserts, until the breathing and
the awareness grow into an unnoticed process. Keep the
mind as a watchman to note the incoming and outgoing
breaths, to listen with the inner ear to the “Soham”
that the breath whispers and to witness the assertion of
your being the Divine, which is the core of the
Universe.
Jyoti
(Light) Meditation
Flame that kindles and
flames kindled are identical
During the Festival of
lights (Deepawali), we keep a row of candles and with
one candle, we light all others. With one flame, we are
able to kindle myriad others. The flame that kindles is
called Para-brahma jyoti (The eternal, universal flame)
and the flames that are kindled are called Jivan jyoti
(individual, particular flame). In the end, the flame
that kindles and the flames kindled are identical.
Ultimately, these two flames are recognized to be
identical; it is said that the one who knows Brahman
will ultimately become Brahman Himself (“Brahmavid
Brahmaiva Bhavati”). Therefore, Jyoti Meditation
(Meditation using the flame) is the highest type of
meditation.
This body goes on
changing, but the flame does not undergo any changes. A
small example to show this – You have a tub full of
water. If one keeps taking a tumbler full of water from
this tub, there will be a time when there will not be
any water in the tub. At one place we have dumped a
truck-load full of sand. If each person carries away a
basket full of sand, eventually, there will not be any
sand. But, out of one single flame, one can light a
million flame and still the original flame will remain.
So this supreme Jyoti (flame) does not go through
dilution or destruction. There will not be “kshine punye
martya-lokam visanti” (after one's enjoyment due to
pious activities is finished, one must return to this
planet). So concentrating on such flame, if you have any
form you like, any form you have taken to heart, you
keep that form in the flame and meditate. It is the best
form of meditation to think that, the form that I adore
is in Jyoti (flame) and that flame is in all.
Jyoti
(Light) meditation Technique
As regards the technique of meditation, different
teachers and trainers give different forms of advice.
But I shall give you now the most universal and the most
effective form. This is the very first step in spiritual
discipline. At first, set a few minutes every day for
meditation, and extend the time as you feel the bliss
that you get.
Let it be in the hours before dawn. This is preferable
because the body is refreshed after sleep, and the
dealings of daytime will not yet have impinged on you.
Have a lamp or a candle before you with an open, steady,
and straight flame. Sit in front of the candle in the
lotus posture or any other comfortable sitting position.
Look on the flame steadily for some time, and closing
your eyes try to feel the flame inside you between your
eyebrows.
Let it slide down into the lotus of your heart,
illuminating the path. When it enters the heart, imagine
that the petals of the lotus open out by one, bathing
every thought, feeling, and emotion in the light and so
removing darkness from them. There is no space for
darkness to hide. The light of the flame becomes wider
and brighter.
Let it pervade your limbs. Now those limbs can never
indulge in dark, suspicious, and wicked activities; they
have become instruments of light and love.
As the light reaches up to the tongue, falsehood
vanishes from it.
Let it rise up to the eyes and the ears and destroy all
the dark desires that infest them and which lead you to
perverse sights and childish conversation.
Let your head be surcharged with light and all wicked
thoughts will flee therefrom. Imagine that the light is
in you more and more intensely. Let it shine all around
you and let it spread from you in ever-widening circles,
taking in your loved ones, your kith, and kin, your
friends and companions, your enemies and rivals,
strangers, all living beings, the entire world.
Since the light illumines all the senses every day so
deeply and so systematically, a time will soon come when
you can no more relish dark and evil sights, yearn for
dark and sinister tales, crave for base, harmful,
deadening toxic food and drink, handle dirty demeaning
things, approach places of ill-fame and injury, or frame
evil designs against anyone at any time. Stay on in that
thrill of witnessing the light everywhere.
If you are adoring God in any form now, try to visualize
that form in the all-pervasive light. For Light is God;
God is Light.
Practice this meditation as I have advised regularly
every day. At other times repeat the name of God (any
Name fragrant with any of His many Majesties), always
taking care to be conscious of His might, mercy, and
munificence.
Universality of Jyoti (Light) Meditation
The light is first moved
into the heart which is conceived as a lotus, the petals
of which will open. The light is then moved to other
body parts. There is no particular sequence. But
important is the final body station, which is the head.
There the light becomes a crown enshrining and covering
the head. The light is then moved outside, from the
particular to the universal. Move the light into
relatives, friends, enemies, trees, animals, birds until
the entire world and all its forms are seen to have the
same light at their centre as has been found to be
within oneself.
The idea of moving the light into the universal phase,
the idea of universality is that the same divine light
is present in everyone and everywhere. To impress this
universality on the mind, we do the spreading of the
light outside one's own body. One should understand that
what comes about in meditation as one moves deeply into
it, is not the thinking of the light, but the forgetting
of the body and thereby the direct experience that the
body is not oneself.
This is the stage of contemplation when the body is
totally forgotten. It cannot be forced. It comes about
by itself and is the stage that naturally follows
correct concentration. Vivekananda said that in
meditation he was unable to find his body; where was
this body? He could not find it.
Seeing the light and moving the light here and there is
to give work to the mind, to keep the mind occupied in
the right direction so that the mind will not be
thinking of this and that and thus interfering with the
process of becoming quieter and quieter. Spreading the
light into its universal phase, sending the light into
every other body, and when one is so concentrated in it
that he is no longer conscious of his body, is the stage
of contemplation. As contemplation deepens, the stage of
meditation comes about of its own volition. It cannot be
forced. If the meditator remains conscious of himself
that he is engaged in meditation, then he is not
meditating but is still in the preliminary stage, at the
beginning of concentration.
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