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 MEDITATION
“There is nothing like meditation on
earth. Each day it is new to me and so fresh.
I find it difficult to understand why every-
one does not take to it. Millions dedicate
their lives to art, music, literature, or science
which reveals but one facet of the priceless
jewel hidden in the world.”’
—Eknath Easwaran
“Meditation is neither cult nor dogma,
but a practical method, a dynamic process,
for uniting the finite with the infinite, the
human with the divine.”
—Eknath Easwaran
“The purpose of meditation is to make
the mind ‘one-pointed’ so that we may be
able to harness all our vital forces and direct
them in one single direction.”
—Eknath Easwaran
Blue Mountain Center of Meditation
Box 381, Berkeley, California 94701
a non-profit corporation
EKNATH EASWARAN
Eknath Easwaran hails from an ancient
Hindu family of Kerala State, India, from
which he receives as a family legacy his deep
love for the Sanskrit Scriptures. He looks
upon his saintly grandmother as his spiritual
teacher because she taught him through her
personal life that the Supreme Goal is to
know God and become united with Him. Her
teaching was later given broader dimension
through his devoted study of the life of
Mahatma Gandhi as a translation of the
BHAGAVAD-GITA and the SERMON ON
THE MOUNT into daily practice. The teach-
ings of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana
Maharshi have influenced him profoundly.
Professor Easwaran was Chairman of the
Department of English, University of Nagpur,
before resigning his post to devote his entire
life to conveying the timeless truths of the
spirit to a wider audience. He first came to
the United States in 1959 on the Fulbright
Exchange Program. The enthusiastic support
of many American friends encouraged him to:
establish in Berkeley in 1960 The Blue
Mountain Center of Meditation, a non-profit
corporation, for the study of the Scriptures
of all religions and the regular practice of
Meditation as adapted to the West.
In 1962 Eknath Easwaran went back to
India where he spent nearly four years at his
home on the Blue Mountain (Nilgiris ) in
South India. He returned to the United
States in 1965 as a permanent resident and
resumed classes in meditation at the Blue
Mountain Center of Meditation in Berkeley,
and is reaching many more in other parts of
the world through THE LITTLE LAMP, a
small spiritual journal imparting practical ad-
vice on meditation. In addition, Professor
Easwaran is conducting a credit course, stu-
dent-initiated, in The Theory and Practice of
Meditation at the University of California,
Berkeley.
He likes to call his way the Family Yoga.
It is his purpose to bring the ancient Hindu
art of meditation out of the hermitage and
the cloister into the midst of life by adapting
it to the needs of modern man. Everyone is
encouraged to make meditation the basis of
life and to develop within his own religious
and cultural environment. He presents spirit-
ual and practical values of a universal nature
to enable the individual, with the aid of med-
itation, to (1) solve his own personal prob-
lems and improve family and community rel-
ationships, (2) release and harness his deeper
resources, (3) fulfill the Supreme Purpose of
Aptoors
human existence by realizing God within his
own consciousness. His humor and human-
ness make him a teacher of enormous appeal
to people of all walks of life. The following 9001
prayer of St. Francis of Assissi is a great fav-
orite with him and one which he has made an
integral part of his life:
SIDE 1
“Lord, make me an instrument ofthy Peace.
THREE STAGES OF MEDITATION
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon; (Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi)
Where there is doubt, faith;
This answers the question:
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light; What takes place in Meditation?
Where there is sadness, joy.
Oh Divine Master, may I not so much seek SIDE 2
To be consoled as to console,
INSTRUCTION IN MEDITATION
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love; Meditation is a dynamic discipline
For it is in giving that we receive;
which pays rich dividends on every
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is dying that we-are born to eternal level: physical, emotional,
Nites’
intellectual and spiritual.
GLOSSARY OF SANSKRIT WORDS Eknath Easwaran chants a few Sanskrit
verses from the BHAGAVAD-GITA and
ABHYASA: Regular practice quotes from the mystic poets Jalalu’l-Din
BHAGAVAD-GITA: Quintessence of THE Rumi (13th century Sufi) and Thomas
UPANISHADS. A practical manual of Traherne (17th century English). He shows
daily living.
us how the words of Jesus can be a guide to
DHARANA: First stage in Meditation, daily living and uses ancient Indian tales and
Concentration.
modern idioms to drive home the basic values
DHYANA: Second stage in Meditation, of all religions. The record ends with the
Contemplation.
chanting of the popular and powerful Hindu
KRISHNA: A divine Incarnation, Lord of mantram:
Love.
MANTRAM: A spiritual formula.
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA: A divine Incarnation, Lord of
Joy.
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA |
SAMADHI: Third stage in Meditation, KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
Identification.
UPANISHADS: Ancient Hindu Scriptures.
YOGA: Union from the root yuj to unite.
Cover photograph by Barbara Elsasser
RECOMMENDED READING LIST: Cover design: Wayne Pope
Produced by Chris Strachwitz
BHAGAVAD-GITA, translated by Swami Recorded at KPFA in Berkeley, California,
Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, by Warren Van Orden in April, 1968.
A Mentor Religious Classic.
THE UPANISHADS, translated by Swami
Prabhavanada and Frederick Manchester, © 1968 by Arhoolie Records, Box 9195,
A Mentor Religious Classic. Berkeley, California 94719
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