Tarak Ghosh
In the
sixth chapter of the Gita (India's Ancient sacred Book), God says – The work
without any desire makes the mind suitable for meditation. When we obtain such
a state of mind of doing the work without desire, we don't lose patience at
all. We can remain unperturbed patients in all the states. At that time it is
understood that the base of the meditation has been attained.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a wise person of India said – If a man does the duty, the work then he attains the god. The duty and the work make the base of the meditation. The person has to remain holding an ideal in the family, in the world and that ideal has not to be given up despite many adversities. The person has to give up many things if he holds any ideal.
Even
he has to renounce all types of enjoyment and desires. Renunciation is the life
of the work without desires. As there is renunciation in the heart, the mind
can't be efferent. The person attains profound attention in meditation. He
becomes satisfied with it and his/her mind takes the rest in the soul, at the
same time all his duties and works leave him.
The
Gita says - If the work is not done without any desire in the beginning, the
mind can never be purified. The work without any desire gives the person that
reward, which is the peace of the heart. It is the precondition of the
meditation. If this peaceful state of mind is attained, the mind becomes steady
in meditation very soon.
To
lead a life holding any auspicious vow is said the work without any desire. The
renunciation is the vitality of obeying his vow. This renunciation gives a man
mental peace. Man being calm and quiet becomes afferent. It helps a man to
accept death as a natural thing. The desire for less working helps a man to
reach the doorstep of meditation. When man surrenders himself to an honest
ideal, the ideal takes the form of God finally.
Following
the Gita, Spiritual Scientist and Social Reformer D. Prajnadas Kathiya Babaji
said - We shall have to make ourselves free by our efforts. We are our friends, and we are our enemies. The mind wants to move away from the ideal in different
ways. Idleness is the main cause. We should not be defeated by ourselves. Any
cunning attitude of the mind should not be indulged.
If you
utter the name of your god, (The act is called the Japa) sitting in a quiet
place, your anxiety will be vanished within a few days. If you practice this
many times, you will get back your mental peace.
Select
a clean spot, neither too high nor too low, and seat yourself firmly on a
cloth, a deerskin, and kasha grass.
Then, once seated, strive to still your thoughts. Make your mind one-pointed in meditation, and
your heart will be purified. Hold your
body, head, and neck firmly in a straight line, and keep your eyes from
wandering. With all fears dissolved in
the peace of the Self and all actions dedicated to Brahman, controlling the
mind and fixing it on me, sit in meditation with me as your only goal. With senses and mind constantly controlled
through meditation, united with the Self within, an aspirant attains nirvana,
the state of abiding joy and peace.
During
meditation, keep the body, the head, and the neck straight, still, and steady,
and gaze at the tip of your nose. If you bend on the front side, you become
sleepy. If you bend at the back side, the inactivity is found and if you bend
at the right or left side, the restless attitude arises. So, it has been said
to practice meditation or Japa keeping your spine straight.
The
mind takes long days to be calm and quiet. The mind is a trickster. It always
deceives us from moment to moment, because it does not have a continuity of
moods. The moods of the mind change almost every day. It is not difficult for
the mind to get dissatisfied with things, and it can be dissatisfied even with
that which it once regarded as a very necessary item in its life. There is no
more difficult thing to understand than our mind. We are the greatest
difficulties in life. Our mind, like a weathercock, moves from one state to
another.
When
it is totally under your control, your mind is purified and this stage is
called a self-absorbed state in the self-joy. With this preparedness of the
mind in a healthy manner towards all things, one has to sit for meditation on
the degrees of Reality, the particular degree that has to be chosen is the
Ishta-Devata. The person becomes luminous by the self-luster. This feeling is
the constantly increasing true form of the feeling. The mind doesn't want to
move anywhere. In this state extreme happiness is felt. The person who has attained
this state, views or realizes the Love in his/her heart and outside also. It is
a unique stage. It is the last stage of meditation. There is nothing after it.
The
mind should be eager to sit for meditation, and it should not feel any kind of
compulsion.