S Janakiraman

The generic meaning of meditation is healing of the mind or taking control of it. The mind is the faculty of the soul, is very inquisitive and travels with great speed. In reality, the mind is where all the thoughts are created or generated. It is similar to antenna where all the signals are received. On the average, while one is awake some 25 to 30 thoughts per minute enter the mind of which less than 10 percent are positive. The term ‘positive thinking’ refers to the ability to understand and live accordance with Vedanta of Indian philosophy.

Meditation

Meditation is a process of though, rather of silencing thoughts which involves effort to overcome the instability of the mind and its savage nature. The latter are the root cause of sorrow, one desires to bring them under control .

There appears to be a gap between one’s actual state and the ideal or posited state. This gap is sought to be filled by meditation. In one sense meditation is looked upon as a means, a way of discipline, control a way to be gradually traversed in order to achieve liberation of freedom. Meditation is a state of consciousness that can be understood only on a intuitive level. Time, space and the loss of causality limit ordinary experiences. But the meditative state transcends all boundaries. While you meditate, past and future cease to exist. There is only the consciousness of ‘Aham Brahma’ in the infinite and eternal.

J.Krishnamurthy the most unconventional thinker of the last century said ‘‘Man in order to escape his conflicts has invented many forms of meditation. They have been based on desire, will and the urge for achievement and imply conflict and a struggle to arrive. All efforts to meditate is the denial of meditation. Meditation is the ending of the thought. It is only then that there is a different dimension which is beyond time’’.

It is next impossible to make the mind steady and silent for a long time. The mind can be put to rest by repeating a sloka or a mantra or apajapa. The mind operates and functions at different levels. Every now and the mind runs away and has to be brought under control. This is an unending process and even those who had been practic ing meditation for several years come across this hurdle. Those who understand the fluctuations of the mind probably become successful in maintaining the concentration through sheer effort and a subconscious determination.

‘Thoughts, memories, imagination and ideas along with confusion in thinking are called ‘vrittis’ and they basically interfere with one-pointed approach which is most necessary in mediation. The moment you achieve freedom of the mind by conscious effort, you have become fit to practice meditation.

Some guidelines

Do not abruptly change your way of life. Begin to evolve bit by bit, thus developing your will power.

Keep a spiritual diary. It may prove an eye opener. Make a daily routine and stick to it.

Check after one week of meditation if the body and the mind seem to be shedding a kind of heaviness and dullness.

Check if you feel more peaceful, happier with yourself and less prone to emotional outbursts

Ask yourself: Is there serenity of mind? Is there a deep-seated con tentment starting to manifest itself

What meditation can Do?

After the age of 35 our brain cells die off at the rate of 100,000 per day and are not replaced. Meditation can reduce this decline as it changes the vibratory make-up of the body and mind. Hence, it helps to retard senility

Mentally, news patterns of thinking come to the sur face and develop as we expe rience a new view of the universe, a vision of unity, happiness, harmony and inner peace. Negative ten dencies vanish and the mind becomes steady. It brings freedom from fear of all kinds. Those who medi tate regularly tend to devel op magnetic and dynamic personalities, cheerfulness, powerful speech, lustrous eyes, health and boundless energy. Meditation is possi ble only when mental mod ifications are stilled.