Meditation Requires Effort - 1

 

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Meditation Requires Effort - 1

Swamiji keeps telling us to meditate alone for half an hour alone and for half an hour in collectivity at least once a week, if not daily. Seriously, how many if us actually do this? Swamiji in his discourses has mentioned that he comes and wakes those people who he feels have the slightest potential at 3.30am, but he can’t help it if they go back to sleep. Many do wake up and meditate and then go back to sleep.

When Swamiji wakes us up, space, distance, is meaningless when there is His love. We may be sitting alone and there may be a distance of miles, thousands of miles. We may be thousands of miles away from Swamiji, but if there is love, the distance disappears; Swamiji will be right beside us.

Love is nearness, love is closeness. Distance in space, or nearness in space, is physical and meaningless. Wherever we are, it makes no difference. If we have a deep love for Swamiji, and if we can remember that love and surrender to Him, He will be there working with us, within us. Remember this, and then we will never be lonely or alone.

Secondly, when one penetrates deeply into meditation, fear grips us. Sometimes one encounters death, one feels that now one is going to die. One returns back, hurries back to the surface. That is bound to happen. Before we are reborn, we will have to pass through a death. But don’t be afraid. If a moment comes while meditating, when we feel that now this is the last moment and we will not be able to come back again to the world, to the body, feel thankful, feel a deep gratitude, and welcome the moment. It is a rare moment that comes only when our meditation has gone very deep.

It is a good sign; welcome it. Don’t be afraid of it because if we are afraid, we can miss it; and once missed it may take a very long time to get that rare moment again. Sometimes even lives may pass before one comes to that rare moment again. Once the fear takes hold of us, we become deeply, unconsciously afraid, and we never come back to the point where death is encountered again.

Remember this. Many have missed many rare moments. Accept that death is going to be there. Not your physical death, but the death of the ego. But because we are identified with the ego, we feel that - “I am going to die.” We are not going to die at all! We are immortal; we are deathless. There is no possibility; death is the only impossibility. We cannot die, so don’t be afraid. If fear is felt, we can remember Swamiji; and even in that moment of death, He will be there. We can feel reassured that He is there and we are not going to die; someone is there who will help us.

Thirdly, meditation needs tremendous effort. We have to be doing it continuously. Make it a point to do it every day. If we can choose a certain hour, and do it in that particular hour every day, it will be very good. If we can choose a particular place also, and can do it regularly in that particular place, it will be even more helpful. But if it is not possible, then do it any time, any place.

If we can create a special place – a small temple or a corner in the home where we can meditate every day – then don’t use that comer for any other purpose, because every purpose has its own vibration. Use that corner only for meditation and nothing else.