KEYS TO DEEPER MEDITATION
Excerpts from Finding The Joy Within You by Daya Mata
Goal of Meditation
Above all, God-communion is a vital personal necessity to every one of us because in the ultimate sense our happiness and well-being depend on it. Gurudeva teaches us how to attain that experience of God, through meditation and devotion. Let me review, just briefly, some of the points that help the devotee reach the Goal of meditation.
Keys to Deeper Meditation:
1. Physical and mental relaxation
2. Urgency to find God
3. Patience
4. Detachment
5. Calm and quiet waiting.
1. Physical and mental relaxation
First of all, when it is time for meditation, let the world recede. Forget everything else. Whatever problems you have, leave them at the door as you enter the chapel or your place of meditation. Do this consciously. Mentally shrug them off. Feel that you have actually taken hold of them and thrown them out of your consciousness.
Train yourself to thus immediately empty your mind not only of all burdens of worldly responsibilities, but also all love of bodily comfort, all attachment to self-will.
It is vital that you so discipline yourself that simply by using your will power you can throw out of your mind every mundane preoccupation and say truly,
"Nothing exists for me now but
God."
2. Urgency to find God
If you knew at this moment that your death was imminent, what would you do? I know, because I have faced that crisis. You would be thinking just one thought: "I'm going to lose my life!" And you would feel such an urgent need for God that you would instantly realize that nothing else is important. Take with you into meditation that consciousness of the urgency of finding God, and the realization that at any moment death could come - as it will, one day, to each of us.
When you meditate, cling to the thought that God is the only reality. He is the only Eternal Existence. Everything else in this universe is unreal, an evanescent part of the great mayic veil that clouds Reality.
3. Patience
The next point is to develop the patience to sustain meditation. Be content with taking small steps first; do not become impatient or tense when you meditate. There has to be an attitude of unconditional surrender:
"Lord, I am on fire for You. I am plunging toward You. But do what You Will. Come when You wish. I shall go on seeking You no matter what."
Pray in this way, and you will be amazed at how the divine consciousness, that divine intelligence, that divine love of God responds to your soul's call. But not if you are impatient.
"Lord, I am on fire for You. I am plunging toward You. But do what You Will. Come when You wish. I shall go on seeking You no matter what."
4. Detachment
When devotees have difficulty going deep in meditation, usually the reason is that they are anxious for a quick response. Do not look for results in meditation, because that attitude creates anxiety within you. Then you become restless and tense because you are not getting some hoped-for response from God. Instead, forget results, forget time, and persistently pour out your heart to the Lord. Call to Him, cry to Him, weep for Him. If you do not feel that longing, mentally take His name, or pray,
"Reveal Thyself, reveal Thyself."
Go deeper and deeper, plunging your attention within. He will come when He wishes. This you must understand. You cannot force God; you can only surrender to Him. Then He will respond.
"Reveal Thyself, reveal Thyself."
5. Calm and Quiet Waiting
If you meditate in a hurry, or with a sense of anxiety, the very Object you seek will elude you. When anxiety, tension, and restless impatience cloud your consciousness, you will be unable to behold God's presence within. There has to be a calm, quiet waiting. Rabindranath Tagore expressed it beautifully in these words:
Have you not heard His silent steps?
He comes, comes, ever comes.
"Silent steps"- you have to abide in the inner stillness, with an attitude of devotional, worshipful waiting. Then you begin to perceive that Joy, that Love, that Divine Presence welling up within you:
Have you not heard His silent steps?
He comes,
comes,
ever comes.
