Meditation fad

When people approach me for healing, there’s one repeated request I hear so often.

‘I want to do meditation, but I’m not getting concentration.’

‘Why do you want to do meditation?’ A convincing answer is yet to be received. It has become a fashion to say ‘I do meditation’

Part of the whole

We (jeevatmas)  are all part of the whole (paramatma). There is a constant longing to get back to the paramatma. Ordinarily we feel this longing as a lack and try to fill this lack by accumulating materialistic things and having relationships. These things give us a feeling of fullness or happiness for sometime, then that vacuum resurfaces. Those who are in the routine rat race keep chasing similar objects and may remain in the same track till death. There is nothing wrong with that. All of us will (or were? Remember, time is only in the mind) be there at some point in time.

Once a friend genuinely asked me, ‘I am not interested in spirituality. I love buying clothes, ornaments etc., in abundance. I really enjoy stuffing myself with good food. Is there anything wrong with me?’

I told her, ‘No, nothing wrong. Go ahead and enjoy fully.’

There will be a time when those things stop giving pleasure and then the journey starts deviating in another direction.

Those who stop and analyse the life pattern become aware that the inner self is looking for something beyond the worldly things. Meditation helps to have a look deeper into the self. I would consider meditation in three stages.

Awareness of the thoughts.

Millions of thoughts pass through our mind every day. Majority of them are useless and repetitive, but a lot of our energy is drained through this process. We think that when we sit for meditation, there should not be any thoughts. But the mind has been busy 24/7 so far and suddenly how can it be silent?

So the first step is to become aware when a thought arises. Then, as it used to happen so far, don’t run in the direction of that thought. The moment you become aware of that thought, it loses its hold on you and it passes off. Then of course another thought is going to appear. With practice, gaps start appearing between the thoughts. They are moments of peace and stillness. And you start enjoying it. Spiritual journey needs real tenacity. One has to just keep at it.

Awareness of your Being

As time progresses, besides those moments of peace and stillness, you start feeling something deeper. An awareness of the real you, beyond the body and the mind. Thoughts may still arise, but now the gaps are longer.

When you reach this stage, there will be awareness of that inner being even when you are involved in the worldly activities. It is common for conflicts to appear now. The worldly attractions (as are your friends pulling you into their circle for enjoyment) pull you to one side, and the source of bliss (the drops of which you are getting to experience) to the opposite side.

For one totally into the worldly life, there is no conflict. They may tell lies, cheat friends, take bribes, but have the justification that ‘these are normal things that every body does to lead a normal life in today’s time.’

It needs real determination to cross this stage.

Awareness of the silence

Now there is awareness of total silence. You and the Universe become one. And now, yes, now we reach the stage of ‘no thought’.

A message

I got this message from the universe, for the question whether it is possible to progress in the spiritual path while living a normal life. 

I saw a seedling sprouting from the flower that I had kept on the table for four days. Normally the flower will dry up, the seeds will fall off and germinate when suitable conditions like soil, water and sunlight are available. Here, the plant has taken life straight from the flower. Ok, so it is possible to stay in the world and go to the higher planes of spiritual realm.But.....

...when I took the flower out of the container, I saw the roots. The container had water.Yes, one can go higher up, provided you have proper roots. The roots are the eight limbs of Yoga : yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. The water that is needed is unbroken faith!

Connecting with the energy beyond.

When I heard that BK Shivani (of Brahmakumaris organization) was coming to Belgaum, I was very excited. I wanted to listen to her. Earlier I had listened to some of her talks on television. I probed myself to see what I was intending to gain.

Active spiritual journey started for me in 1980. I have come a long way, I can feel the peace and bliss now and then. I would like to be in that state all the time, yes, that was what I was looking for.

An amazing experience

Every moment of the time spent with Shivani was worth the weight of gold. She explained beautifully that though we cannot escape the results of our karma, how we react to it is totally in our control. We often get disturbed by the behavior of others. If we think logically, can the outer experiences and behavior of others be always according to our liking? Not possible because we are the product of our circumstances and our reactions are influenced by our beliefs and customs, which are formed over many incarnations.

The net result?

By getting irritated or angry, our mental peace is disturbed and it spoils our relationships too. If we can remind ourselves that all of us are souls, passing through different journeys, it will be a little easy to see through the outer behavior and have a glimpse of the soul behind, which is pure, peaceful and powerful. Then we can choose to remain calm and respond in a logical way.

When we respond in a calm manner over and over again, it brings out the similar qualities in the other person. Because these qualities are already inside us, they were just buried deep for long. So the advantage for us is twofold. We are maintaining our mental peace at the present and we are sowing the seeds for a beautiful relationship in the future.

How to maintain calmness

As souls, we are all pure, powerful, peaceful, filled with love, knowledge and wisdom. When the soul is clothed in the human body and we go trough the experiences of life, these qualities are masked by negative qualities. We are microcosms (Jeevatmas), we can get in touch with the macrocosm (Paramatma) which is the embodiment of all those positive qualities. We can then draw these qualities into ourselves. And this is possible through meditation.

She made us do a short meditation and in that charged atmosphere, it was a heavenly experience. We were guided to have the connection with the Paramatma in that short duration. I have been having that connection since long, but this time it felt deeper. On the way back home I was just thinking whether it was only my imagination. At that moment my eyes fell on the board above a shop, ‘Shiva Connections!’ Voila! I got my answer.

Proof from the Universe

Before sleeping we did our usual meditation. At about 12 o’clock, I woke up to some sound. It was not too loud; I listened for some time to locate its origin. I got up and went out. It was coming from the area where the inverter and the burglar alarm were kept. When the electricity goes and then comes back, usually the alarm will make a loud sound that lasts for a few seconds.

I woke my husband up, who tried different methods to stop the sound. In the end he just disconnected and we went to sleep. In the morning he connected it back and there was no problem!

I remembered what my teacher had said to me once, ‘As we increase our connectedness and telepathic abilities, expect more of electronic malfunctions to occur. They are some kind of energy transmission.’ Instances of electrical short circuits, breaks in circuit and surges are associated with our swiftly changing vibrational fields and incoming frequencies of energy.

Golden lessons at our door step

We were returning to Belgaum on 8^th October after a two weeks vacation, and on the way I saw a huge billboard “First time in Belagavi, Live talk show by – BK Shivani (International Management Trainer) – “ Balance sheet of life”, on 18^th October 2015, Sunday. I have listened to a few talks of her on TV and have been impressed. I said to my husband, ‘She is coming on a Sunday, so we can attend it. Please find out about it’. He was too busy with so many other things and I left it to the Universe.

Two days later a friend called me up and asked whether we are in station on 18^th because she wanted us to attend the talk show. Half an hour later she came home and gave me the entry pass for two people. On the next day another friend called up and gave us VVIP passes for the ‘Interactive Get-together & a brief meditation session by Shivani’, on 17^th evening and 18^th morning. Now I was really on cloud nine!

What an experience it was! On 17^th evening we got seats somewhere in the middle row. She explained clearly what meditation is and that during meditation we are establishing our connection with the highest power. Once we can imbibe power from there, we can deal with any situation in life with a calm mind and we will have all the energy to find a suitable solution.

I wished to sit somewhere in the front on the second day. So we went a little early and as we reached the venue, another couple, our friends, also reached at the same time. We entered the hall together and one of the organizers, who knew our friends, led us to the front and we got to sit on the very first row!