Question: I read a book about concentration and meditation in which it said that one should pay attention to the direction in which one is facing, whether it is to the East, South, West or North.

Sri Chinmoy: For concentration we do not need any particular direction: East, West, North or South. You can sit and concentrate in any direction. In India there are some who are not actually aspirants, but who are extremely eager to have the results of their prayers and desires. They feel that the South is the best because they believe that one of our gods, Ganesha, is situated in the South. They feel that before meditating one has to bow down to him and say, "I bow down to Ganesha." Ganesha, the son of Lord Shiva, is supposed to be the boon-giver. So if your meditation concerns the fulfilment of a desire which you would soon like to get, then I wish to say the South has some value. But the other corners, East, West and North, are of no use. That is the only thing that I can say about meditating in a particular direction.

But when concentration is concerned, there is no necessity of facing a particular way, because you are concentrating to enter into deeper meditation, to enter into your inner life. At that time you may even keep your eyes closed. Concentration does not mean that we have to always keep our eyes wide open. No, we can concentrate with our eyes closed. From the strict spiritual point of view, meditating facing one direction or another is all very foolish. You may say that the sun rises in the East and since the sun signifies the Creator, if you look at the East immediately you will get inspiration and aspiration. When the sun sets you see that all the world is now taking rest, spiritual sleep, inner sleep for nourishment. This means you will get double energy and dynamism for the morrow if you look at the West. Now, in India people look to the North because the Himalayas are there. They feel even the name Himalaya will immediately take them to God-realisation. In the West and even in the South of India people think that a touch of the Himalayas will give them God-realisation. This is a stupid feeling. There are thousands and millions of people living at the foot of the Himalayas but they are not realised. These theories are all mental fabrications.