The mind and the heart in meditation

Part I — Concentration, meditation and contemplation

Concentration, meditation and contemplation

When you concentrate, you have to choose something that gives you immediate joy. If you have a Master, your Master's picture will give you immediate joy. If you don't have a Master, select something that is very beautiful, divine and pure. A flower has all of these qualities. You can concentrate on a flower or anything else that gives you joy. Look at the flower and, while looking at the flower, feel that you have entered into the flower and become the flower. Then, in a few minutes, try to feel that you have become one with the consciousness of the flower. There will be no thoughts, good or bad, remaining in the mind. When you become one with the flower, the fragrance of the flower and the divine qualities of the flower will enter into you.

In the beginning you need a completely quiet place in which to concentrate. But if you are really advanced, at that time it does not matter. When I meditate and sing during a public function my concentration is very powerful. At that time it does not bother me when people are talking. But the talking may make other people unable to concentrate on my song. If I am concentrating here and somebody next to me is talking, I am totally unaware of him. I am in another world. But if someone starts making a noise, I will tell him to be quiet. It is not for my sake. Only I want to offer something, and if there is noise, then you will not be able to receive my offering.

After concentration comes meditation. In meditation, we enter into something vast. It may be Peace, Light or Bliss. When we get immense Peace, Light or Bliss in boundless measure, then we are meditating. When we meditate, we have to make our mind calm and quiet. This is absolutely necessary. If the mind is thinking of many things, then meditation can never happen.

Next we have to invoke the Presence of God. While invoking the Presence of God, we have to feel His constant inner guidance. Then, Peace, Light, Bliss and Power will descend. We can also get inner guidance from a spiritual Master. A Master can bring the soul of the seeker to the fore. The moment the soul comes forward, the heart immediately gets abundant joy and power. The power and joy of the heart then enter into the mind and the vital.

In terms of aspiration, the distances between concentration and meditation and meditation and contemplation are not the same. Between meditation and contemplation there is a very big gap. Many people do concentration when they have a great vital desire. If they want to become first in school or if they want to become a great football player, they will use tremendous vital power. When people are throwing the shotput or doing the pole vault, tremendous will-power or concentration is needed. That is concentration from the vital. The power of concentration we automatically develop when we enter into sports. Athletes may not call it concentration. They only say, "My object is to throw the shotput farther than anybody." But that very idea or goal is concentration. But when it comes to meditation — making the mind calm, quiet, sublime and absolutely peaceful — that is too much for them. They will say that meditation has nothing to do with them. Again, many, many people on earth meditate or pray. Prayer and meditation are very similar. The only difference between prayer and meditation is that prayer goes up and meditation brings down. Both prayer and meditation are linked by a common goal. Prayer and meditation are like a see-saw. You are on one side and the Supreme is on the other side. You are going up and bringing down, but the Supreme remains on the other side.

Question: Can you speak more on concentration?

The spiritual life also is a form of study. It is an inner study which is infinitely more difficult to learn. Once we start getting the result of this study, which is inner knowledge, at that time we feel that this knowledge is infinitely more important than the outer knowledge. So in the spiritual life we have to use our concentration at every second. If we do not know how to concentrate, then we are lost; we are doomed. We may meditate for ten hours, but we will not get any satisfactory result.

Concentration is our total or integral attention on a particular subject. We focus our attention on an object or subject and totally forget about the rest of the world. We do not allow the rest of the world to enter into our mind. Only we and the object of our concentration exist. When there is no third person before us or around us, that is concentration.

Even while we are doing japa, repeating God's Name, then also we can concentrate. In between each repetition there is a gap. During each gap we have to feel that there is nothing. Similarly, while we are concentrating, we have to feel that nothing exists between us and the object we are concentrating on.

Question: Is prayer necessary?

Question: Can you tell us something about why there seems to be a growing attraction to meditation in America?

Part II — The mind and the heart in meditation

Question: How can I start meditating in the heart right from the beginning without going through the mind first?

Question: When I am meditating, sometimes I have trouble distinguishing whether what I feel is my mind imagining my heart or whether it is really my heart.

Question: Guru, very often when meditating in a group in front of the room, when I concentrate on my heart centre, I find that my breathing is very heavy and very distracting.

Question: When I meditate with my heart on your picture I've been getting a headache.

Question: If an inspiration comes into the mind when one is meditating, should one follow the inspiration or remain in the heart?

But inspiration has a very wide range, from the lowest to the highest. While you are in a very low consciousness, when inspiration comes, it may be absolutely gross and mundane. During meditation some people think of making most delicious cookies or eggplant. While you are not praying, if you get inspiration to cook something, that is different.

Question: How can one discipline the mind during meditation?

How can you discipline your mind during meditation? You can discipline the mind only by forgetting the existence of the mind and feeling that you do not have a mind. You may think, "If I do not have a mind, then how can I exist? I will become an idiot without a mind." But I tell each and every one of my disciples that the mind you get from books, the mind you utilise while conversing with people, the mind you require in order to exist on earth, cannot take you even an inch towards God-realisation. It is lame. It is blind. It is deaf. The mind is your enemy.

During meditation if you can really make yourself feel that you have only the heart, or if you can feel that you do not even have the heart, but that your whole existence from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head is the soul, then you will see that the mind does not exist. But if you cannot feel the presence of your soul, you can easily feel your heart's presence and your heart's glow. When you see light glowing in the heart or in the soul, you can rest assured that you have already transcended the intellectual mind. At this stage you have entered into the illumined mind, which is very different from the reasoning, intellectual mind.

Part III — Maintaining one's height

Question: After I have a good meditation I lose it. What can I do to maintain my meditation?

Question: When we are having a high meditation, what is the method that we can use to stay at that point where we know and feel that there is no separation between any of us?

Here in the meditation hall we are all aspiring; that is why our consciousness is elevated. Then, when we go home, our consciousness will go down. Some calamity will take place or something else will happen and we will lose our aspiration. Even if there is nothing outwardly to prevent us from aspiring, our own limited being will not allow us to stay on the top of the tree. Sometimes there is no outer disturbance, but even then we find it difficult to remain on the top of the tree because we do not normally live there. We aspire for half an hour with utmost sincerity and then relaxation starts. We feel that we have worked very hard. We have played our part for five minutes or half an hour, and now we feel we can take rest for an hour or two. So we start reading a newspaper, or watching television, and in this way we enter into relaxation.

But if we want to maintain our standard, the height of our aspiration, then we should be continuous, flowing. Suppose we have meditated for an hour. We may not be able to meditate again for another hour or so. No harm, we shall do something which will maintain and preserve our meditation. We can read spiritual books or sing spiritual songs. At that time, automatically our inner being will inspire us to read books. We won't have to use the mind to think, "Oh, the time has come for me to read." No, our inner being will help us to do the right thing. Right now the inner being is deep inside us, deeply hidden; but we are trying our best, through yoga, to bring the inner being to the fore. Then, after reading for half an hour or an hour, we can go to visit a spiritual friend or, if that is not possible, call him up on the phone and speak about our experiences.

Then we can write about our own experiences. We won't want to publish them, no. But while we are writing them down we are revealing our own inner light and perfecting our spiritual nature. For half an hour we can write and we can read what we have written. Each time we read about one of our own experiences, we get abundant peace, light and bliss. This is not our false imagination. As soon as we have written, we have created something. The creator always wants to enjoy his creation. Look at the gardener. The gardener takes great pain in planting the flower and watering it. Then, after six or seven months when he sees the flower, he deeply appreciates and admires it. Similarly, we also get joy from our own creations.

In this way, doing all these things, we can go on for five or six hours. Even while we are eating we can remember what experiences we had while meditating early in the morning. This imagination is like a battery. We are charging our memory with our spiritual progress. In this way we can continue, entering or retaining our meditation.

But unfortunately we don't do this. We meditate for half an hour or forty-five minutes. Then we feel tired and exhausted. So we mix with unaspiring people, we read unaspiring books, we do so many wrong things after we meditate. We feel that we have seen one shore of the river, so we want to go to the other shore. But the other shore is unfortunately all darkness. We have to try to remain on the shore that has light. We have to do things which will increase our meditation or, at least, retain the power of the meditation. We have to be very wise in our day-to-day lives in how we spend each hour, each second. A time will come when we won't have to have any restrictions in our life; our life itself will be a continuous flow of aspiration. But now we have to use our conscious mind in order to aspire.

Part IV — Public meditations

Question: What is the advantage of joining a specific path and meditating with others?

Question: I find public meditations very hard for me. I come in feeling beautiful. Then I feel all this pain coming into my heart and into my head. Am I being attacked? What do you suggest?

Question: I have no problem in Centre meditations.

There is one other thing in your case. You have unconsciously developed a sense of pride, which is the worst thing. I am telling this to all my disciples. Some of you have joined our boat just yesterday, but you are of the opinion that you do better meditation than our older disciples. This is absolutely wrong. You have to show respect to those who have come into the family before you. Some of my most recent disciples feel that they are far superior to the older disciples. This is absurd. When you sit beside the older disciples, you should feel that they are your elder brothers. Please feel that this is a family and you are the youngest. Your eldest brothers and sisters know quite a few things far better than you know. So it is not beneath your dignity to learn from your superiors.

Question: At a recent seven hour meditation I found it difficult to meditate for the entire period.

When you come to the meditation on my birthday and find that you cannot meditate well, my request to you is just remain silent. If you get up, then you will only make a noise and disturb the person who is beside you or you will attract the attention of others. They will see you and then, if they remain in the mental world, some of them will inwardly say nasty things about you. Either they will think that you are bothering them, or they will feel sorry for you, because they can meditate for hours whereas you cannot. In this way you will unnecessarily give them the opportunity either to criticise you or sympathise with you. So the best thing to do, if you can't meditate, is to remain in your seat. You can try to sing a few of my songs in silence, or do japa.

Question: Could we have a week of solid meditation in order to make some progress?

Part V — Drowsiness and other problems

Question: How does physical pain, illness or an unpleasant experience affect meditation?

Your meditation is also affected when you are angry with someone and you have not illumined your anger. You may have forgotten your anger, but if you have not illumined it, then it will pull you down. You have many unpleasant experiences during the day. A few hours elapse and then you forget the experience. "Forgotten" is the right word, but "forgiven," no. Unless you have forgiven, you have not illumined the anger. Anger is not now coming, but still it has pulled you down seven rungs of your consciousness-ladder even though you have totally forgotten the incident. Sometimes you will quarrel with the members of your family and then you will go to sleep. But the next morning you cannot meditate. You have totally forgotten the incident, but while you were sleeping the strength of the anger increased. The velocity, the speed, the strength of the anger from seven hours ago will be greater. It is just like a swarm of insects that are multiplying like anything. But positive forces increase slowly. So when something has gone wrong, it is better to rectify it and illumine it immediately.

Question: What should we imagine if we are very tired during our morning meditation?

Question: Sometimes I feel sleepy in meditation.

Question: For a six o'clock meditation, will we do better if we get up at five and are up for a full hour before meditating? If we enter into activity do we become more awake?

Part VI — The height and depth of meditation

Question: Is there a difference between height and depth in meditation?

Like that, before we realise the highest, we use the terms height and depth. When we dive deep into the Pacific Ocean, like a diver, we are aiming at the depth. Then, when we are climbing the Himalayas, we are aiming at the height. But height and depth are all in the mental consciousness. Once we go beyond the barrier of the mind, there is only one reality. There the reality is spontaneous and universal. We don't call a drop by that name once it enters into the ocean. We call it the ocean itself. While the drop maintains its individuality, only then do we call it a drop and the rest of the water we call the ocean.

As long as we retain our individuality and personality, we will feel that height and depth are two separate things. When we are climbing up we will feel that we have reached a certain height, and when we are diving deep we will feel that we have reached a certain depth. But there comes a time when we go far, far beyond this meaningless comparison. At that time, only reality is singing and dancing within us and we become the reality itself. It has no height, no depth, no length. It is all one and, at the same time, it is transcending its own limits. We see limits according to our own standard, but Eternity, Infinity and Immortality are absolute realities. They don't have any limits. At the same time, they are more real than our eyes or our nose. I always say that God Himself is transcending His own Vision and Reality. For us it is unbelievable, unfathomable; but it is absolutely true.

Question: During meditation is it better to have intensity, or to be full of peace, light and bliss?

Question: In meditation should we stay in ecstasy or follow something else?

Part VII — General questions

Question: Does it sometimes happen that when a person can't assimilate any more light, he just starts expressing it like a cup full to the brim that starts overflowing?

Question: Can we consciously offer the fruit of our meditation?

Question: What does it mean to "express" the light or other qualities that you have received from meditation? Does it mean to offer these qualities to others?

Question: When I am doing an activity and feel the call to meditate, does it mean I have to stop the activity to meditate?

Question: As I understand it, meditation requires a certain amount of time. How can people find the time to be involved?

Question: For the past two weeks I have felt an unusual coolness. Can you tell me what it is?

Question: Guru, I heard somewhere that if we only meditate on the higher chakras in our body, then in our next life our lower chakras will try to pull us down?

Since you are following my path, do not give any importance to the Kundalini Yoga. If you realise God, then He is bound to give you infinite Power if He feels that you are the right person to utilise it for Him. The Kundalini is like a mango tree. You would like to get two or three mangoes to eat to your satisfaction. But if you want to pluck these mangoes with your own capacity and without the full approval of the owner, then the owner may be very displeased with you. But if you take permission from the owner, then you can eat to your heart's content.

Besides Kundalini power there is also spiritual power. Spiritual power is the power of oneness, inseparable oneness with God the Infinite. This power is infinitely stronger than any Kundalini power. This feeling of inseparable oneness with each human being and with the Universal Consciousness has infinitely more Peace, Light and Bliss than the power that any chakra in Kundalini Yoga can give you.

Surrender to God is the aim of our Yoga. If you can surrender your will to the Will of the Supreme, then only will you be really satisfied. To open up the navel centre or heart centre is not your aim. Your aim is to satisfy God in His own Way. If He is satisfied with you, then naturally He will also try to satisfy you in return. In this world only an absolutely undivine person will remain indebted to you. If a friend does something for you, immediately your conscience will inspire you to help him back. It is not that you will feel that it is beneath your dignity to remain indebted to someone. No. It is a spontaneous feeling. He has established his oneness with you, that is why he has helped you when you were in need of help. By offering your help to that person, naturally you will get tremendous joy and establish your oneness.

When we offer our aspiration to the Supreme, we give Him what we have. But when we go deep within, we see that we have actually received this aspiration-power from the Supreme. But most of the time we don't go deep within; we feel that aspiration is our own power. Let us offer our aspiration-power to the Supreme; then He will give us what He has. What He has is Power. He will give us His infinite Peace, Light and Bliss.

Question: If you chant the name of someone in silence, does that feed their soul?

Question: Is meditation the only way to live from moment to moment in the Eternal Now?

Question: Can a housewife meditate?

To gain access to the Source, you have to learn concentration, meditation and contemplation. Meditation does not mean that you have to leave the world and practise austere disciplines and so forth. No, only in all your actions you have to offer your soulful service-light to the Source. When you speak to your son, you have to feel that you are offering your love to the divine Inner Pilot in him. When you are giving him wisdom, you have to feel that it is the Inner Pilot within you that is serving the Inner Pilot in him. As a householder naturally you will love the members of your family. You are the tree and they are the branches. You will love them, and since you love them you have to devote yourself to them.

Each time, you have to feel that between you and your dearest one there is somebody who is a bridge, and that is God. You are loving your dearest ones precisely because God the eternal Lover is inside you. You are showing compassion to someone because the eternally compassionate Father is inside you. So in that way the householder can meditate.

Question: When I meditate with you I feel I want to give up outer things, that all I want to do is meditate.

Our motto is "Love and Serve." If you really love a person, you will serve him. And if you serve a person, it is because you really love him. If you do service or work devotedly, it is meditation. That is why in India we have Karma Yoga, the path of action, because we know that action is meditation. So in the morning you can meditate; you will enter into the heart and offer your love and devotion to the Supreme. Then you will go to your office and do your dedicated service.