3.1. Meditation (Introduction)

Meditation can be defined as few moments of concentration in doing what one loves, with a satisfactory smile on face and a feeling of inner peace. At a basic level this seems enough to peep into one’s soul. Which can eventually be practiced more to reach a higher state of realisation.

Spirituality has an intimate connection with meditation. In today’s world, the number of people in touch with some kind of meditation or the other, is quite higher, and it keeps increasing as more and more new people are getting introduced to different meditative techniques through different teachers; still there are very few who are really able to meditate and can achieve a blissful mental state and through that can improve their, as well as others’ lives.

It can help one in many ways like:

‘Contemplation and representation will enable you to quit thinking so much and will enable you to start a voyage back. Healing will happen. You will start to utilize your unused mind. You will see. You will understand. Furthermore, you will develop wisdom. At that point there will be harmony.’^[1]

Meditation can also be depicted as—

‘Perceive the soul through the soul and you will become the supreme soul.’^[2]

Meditation is a journey from the outer soul to the inner soul to achieve the absolute soul, here the beauty lies in the truest, honest inwardly wish to acquire the same.

Where no outer circumstance is causing the search but the consciousness’ own pure desire to go back to its highest form.

‘The goal of the soul is to become the Supreme soul. This goal is not imposed; it is intrinsic.’^[3]

This statement is a miraculous one where in today’s world people have lost the meaning of an honest desire, where each of our thought is either an influence or has been reaped into our minds by the conditioning of the society. To go back to param-atma, to one’s own infinity must be wondrous as ‘the souls are bottomless pits (akshaya-kosha).’^[4]

Through meditation ‘a bridge gets builds between the soul and the supreme soul.’^[5]

‘The one who is not divine cannot worship the divine. To know the supreme soul takes time, to become one, does not.’^[6]

And that divinity lies in each one of us, in some it is in deep slumber, in some it is in light, in few it is awakened slightly while in others greatly.

Whenever someone finds a greater purpose in life, through a particular work, to serve the society at large, be it an art form, a sport, architecture or any other; one’s journey of devotion towards the supreme soul starts.

‘The one who looks for solutions within oneself, finds them.’^[7]

There are innumerable people today looking for peace, inner happiness and wisdom, but there are quite few who are able to attain the same as most people look out for these either in some other person, whom they think as higher than them, and who can show them the way, or temple or scriptures. Whereas the real answers keep lying hidden in their own selves. No matter how many books one reads in his lifetime, and how many pilgrimages one visits, if the inner self is not found, all seems vain.

Though this stage can only be achieved through a lot of practice but through meditation,

‘you may see your breath moreover. Observe it and attempt to feel the vibrations it produces. Attempt to feel its profundity. Attempt to quantify your breath, attempt to find the point where breathing goes ahead and where breathing in changes into breathing out. Attempt to watch the whole procedure of relaxing. Attempt to watch the delicacy and largeness of your breath and furthermore whether it is quick or moderate. You will come to see the different adjustments of your own breath.’^[8]

The mere reading of the above depiction of experiencing one’s breathing process, by Acharya Mahaprajna, has the ability to fill one with peace.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Dr. Weiss Brian. Messages From The Masters (MFTM). UK. CPI Mackays, Chatham, 2000. Pp. 218

[2]:

Acharya Mahaprajna. The Quest For Truth (TQFT). Jain Vishva Bharati Institute, Ladnun. 2003. pp. 100

[3]:

Ibid. pp. 102

[4]:

Ibid. pp. 103

[5]:

Ibid. pp. 109

[6]:

Ibid. 113

[7]:

TQFT. pp. 107

[8]:

MBM. pp. 6