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| Tripura Bhairavi (spiritual purification by sacrifice and renunciation) |
2. A dullard or a lazy man cannot practice meditation. He who has controlled the tongue and other organs, who has an acute acumen, who eats, drinks and sleeps in moderation, who has destroyed selfishness, lust, greed and
anger, can practice meditation and attain success in Samadhi.
3. Just as you require food for the body, also you require food for the soul in the shape of prayers, Japa, Kirtan, meditation, etc. Just as you are agitated when you do not get your food in time, so too will you be agitated when you do not pray in the morning and evening at the proper time. If you keep up the practice of prayer and Japa for some time you notice that the soul also wants its food at the proper time. The food for the soul is more essential than the food for the body. Therefore do your prayers, Japa and meditation regularly.
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| Shiva in Manifestation (the masculine principle) |
4. When you are a neophyte in meditation, start repeating some sublime Slokas and Stotras (hymns) for ten minutes as soon as you sit for meditation.
This will elevate the mind. The mind can be easily withdrawn from worldly
objects this way. Then, stop this kind of thinking as well and fix the mind on one idea through repeated and strenuous efforts if necessary. Nishtha will soon ensue.
5. You must have a mental image of God or Brahman (concrete or abstract) before
you begin to meditate on Him.
6. When you start a fire on some straw, pieces of paper or a thin piece of wood, the fire will extinguish quickly. But if you blow on it several times using your mouth or a blow-pipe, after some time it will become a small conflagration. You can hardly extinguish it now even with great efforts. So, at the beginning of meditation, the neophytes fall down from it into their old habits. They will have to lift up their mind again and again and fix it on Lakshya. When meditation becomes very deep and steady, they will eventually become established in the Absolute. Then the meditation becomes Sahaja (natural). It becomes habitual. Use the blow-pipe of Teevra Vairagya and intense meditation to re-kindle and enhance the fire of meditation.
7. You should notice whether you remain stationary on the spiritual path, even after many years of spiritual practice, or whether you are progressing. Sometimes you may also regress if you are not vigilant and careful, if your Vairagya wanes and if you slack in your meditation. Reaction may set in. Some have practiced meditation for a period of 15 years and yet they have not made any real progress at all. Why? This is due to lack of aspiration, Vairagya, a keen longing for liberation and an intense, constant Sadhana (spiritual practice).
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| Shiva in Transcendence (absolute transcendence) |
8. During meditation, if your mind is more Sattvic you will be inspired. The mind will start omposing
fine poems and solving the problems of your life. However, you must stamp out these Sattvic Vrittis also. For they are still a dissipation of mental energy. Soar higher and higher until you reach Atman.
9. You will get the full Ananda of the Divine Glory only when you dive deep, when you merge deeply into silent meditation. When you are on the borderland of Divinity or God, when you are at the gate or threshold to God. When you are just at the outskirts you will not get the maximum peace and bliss.
10. Before saturating the mind with thoughts of Brahman you will have to assimilate the Divine ideas first. Assimilation first and saturation after. Then realization comes at once without a moments delay. Remember this triplet always: AssimilationSaturationRealization.
11. There is always a complaint amongst the aspirants: I have been meditating for the last 12 years. I have not made any improvement. I have no realization. Why is that? What is the reason? They have not plunged themselves into deep meditation, into the innermost recesses of their hearts. They have not properly assimilated and saturated the mind with the thoughts of God. They have not performed a regular and systematic Sadhana. They have not disciplined the Indriyas perfectly. They have not collected all the outgoing rays of the mind. They have not determined themselves to realize their goals this very second. They have not given the entirety of their mind towards God. They have not maintained a flow of Divine Consciousness.
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| Shambala (spiritual protection and guidance) |
12. Meditate for 2 or 3 hours. If you get tired, rest for half an hour. Have a cup of milk and then sit down again for meditation. Repeat the process of meditation again and again. You need not go for a walk when you are meditating seriously. Do not allow the mind to have any worldly thoughts even
for a few minutes. This method will keep the mind very, very busy and entrap it within a short period of time. Practice this and you can enter into Samadhi within forty days. After some time you will be able to sit continuously even for 14 hours at a time.
13. You will have to pass through six stages of meditation to be finally able to enter into perfect irvikalpa Samadhi or superconscious state. Form-perception and reflex-perception will totally vanish. Now there is neither meditator nor meditation.
The meditator and the meditated have become one. You will now attain the highest knowledge, the eternal and supreme peace. This is the goal of life. This is the aim of existence.
This is the final beatitude of life. You are an established sage or illuminated Jivanmukta now. You are spiritually liberated while still living. Hence you are called a Jivanmukta. You are absolutely free from pain, sorrow, fear, doubt and delusion. You have become identical with Brahman.
The bubble has become the ocean. The river has joined the ocean. All differences and distinctions will totally vanish. You will truly experience the phrase: I am the Immortal Self. All indeed is Brahman. There is nothing but Brahman.
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| Citra Nitya (Containing all the colors of the rainbow) |
by Swami Sivananda – “Easy Steps on Yoga“
