MEDITATION K.

Krishnamoorthi Constitution of the humans:

Human beings have the faculty of thinking, reasoning, judging, and deciding. This is called the INTELLECT. This faculty is used by the humans to deal with situations that arise in day to day life while dealing with various situations in life. Any one who uses this faculty successfully is called an intelligent person. This kind of intellect in humans is termed the gross intellect. The humans also have a Subtle Intellect. This intellect is used in conceiving the transcendental. This subtle intellect helps in distinguishing the REAL from the UNREAL Eternal from ephemeral. It is this intellect which used in Meditation to attain Spiritual Enlightenment. No other being possesses this faculty.

WHY MEDITATION? The human mind is a continuous flow of thoughts .

In todays world all thoughts are running towards material wealth and comforts, little realizing that these are temporary in nature (Unreal) as different from the REAL wealth which is the understanding light of Consciousness alone. When hunting for material wealth, the mind is constantly agitated. This is because of ones experiences of the past and concerns of the future. An agitated mind is unable to concentrate. Without concentration, you do not act in a sane manner. Your life is a disaster and you are always in sorrow. You need a mechanism to correct this, and help you in concentrating and be Objective in your actions. This Mechanism is MEDITATION. In our day to day life, we see a lot of material things which attract us. A new Mobile, TV, car, Movies etc; you are tempted to collect these items and start enjoying them. But after a while you get bored with them. Why? Because these are all unreal and temporary in nature. Further, your mind seeks for more pleasurable things of the world and you find ways and means to get them. This causes anxiety and agitation.

WHAT IS MEDITATION? Meditation is the art of maintaining the

mind in focus upon a chosen thought to the exclusion of all other thoughts. The key words to note is focus of the mind on one thought. This is very difficult to achieve. This is because; the mind is a continuous flow of thoughts. The light of inner consciousness projects and creates a solid, substantial world. Humans are born with many unmanifest thoughts. These thoughts need to be exhausted if one were to feel peaceful. Meditation is

the technique to exhaust your unmanifest thoughts and expose you to the supreme Self (Godhead) within.

THE ESSENCE:
The agitated mind finds it difficult to focus. Here the mind needs the direction of the intellect. The intellect has to supervise the mind to bring your thoughts in focus when it strays away. This is the essence of meditation as per the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta. It prescribes detachment from the world as a pre-requisite for Meditation. Detachment is essentially an attitude of looking at the world equanamously. Train your mind to take happiness and sorrow with same attitude. Over a period of time, you would become a witness to the worldly happenings and pleasures. To reach this stage you have to move from a selfish person to unselfish one and finally become selfless. At this state of mind, your focus moves away from yourself and your friends and relatives and thinks about the whole world as your family. This feeling makes your mind calm, peaceful and take shocks of life with ease. You have to experience it to understand it.

THE PROCEDURE: There are various methods of practicing meditation.

Select a location to meditate. It should be free of noise, external disturbances such as a phone, TV etc; Before you start your meditation, it would be a good idea to do the yogic breathing exercise of pranayama. It raises your energy level as more oxygen flows in your body. Choose a chant (mantra) to meditate... It could be anything which you like. It could be a favorite idol, name or the chant of Aum. This is suggested, as it is believed that it represents your inner consciousness ( Atman or Brahman ) which is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. It is indestructible and has no beginning and no end. It is present in every human, animal, plant and inanimate objects of the world. Hence it is The Reality. I found an interesting and informative website which gives more details. The link is www.meditationiseasy.com. More about mantras is also available in this site. To approach to learning meditation to the uninitiated, one could choose an idol which could be anything which allows you to focus. It could be a Cross, a crescent, a statue of Buddha, a favorite star or anything. You chant the name

repeatedly with closed eyes sitting in a comfortable position, relaxed fully. After constant practice, try to chant the mantra continuously sitting in a silent room where external noises do not disturb you. You can chant in any language, any gods name. It does not matter. What matters is the concentrated chant continuously. You can choose Aum. Some people use beads to help them concentrate. This is fine. As you progress in your meditation, the chant slowly becomes a mental whisper to finally end in silence. Try not to fall asleep. All the time the intellect is aware of what is going on. Start with 1 or 2 minutes and then slowly increase the time of meditation. For best results, meditate in the early hours of morning when there is quiet and silence around. (4 AM to 6AM).

CONCLUSION :
Meditation helps in your spiritual growth. It leads you towards your final Goal of Self realization. You realize that you are GOD which you were seeking all along in your spiritual quest. At that point in time, you have exhausted all desires ( both manifest and unmanifest) of the world. Nothing happening in the unreal world affects you. You look at the world as a witness to all the happenings around you, but not affected by them. Birth, Death, Disease or Old age happening around you, do not bother you. In fact at this point in time, your Mind and Intellect cease to exist. The thought flow ceases. Mind becomes extinct. The individual self merges with the Supreme Self. You become enlightened. You feel YOU are GOD, the almighty. The purpose of your birth in this world is achieved. This is the Vedantic approach to Meditation.