The way to meditate

Meditation aims at achieving calmness, peace and silence through a conscious psychophysical process. The process as well as the outcome takes us to the root of our existence, the essence of which is consciousness and unblemished bliss.
It is an advanced yogic method of self-realisation and it takes one through a progressive path to ultimate attainment. At each step, we undergo revelation. It involves cultivation of calmness, concentration, serenity and increasing awareness of self and surroundings beyond the din and bustle of worldly disturbances and turmoil.

Meditation adds meaning and significance to life and fights stress, but very few bother to practice it. The reasons are not very far to seek.

First, it requires strong willpower and an inner urge to meditate. Laziness and lack of determination keep us away from it. We are required to give it the requisite priority and adopt the habit of starting it now. If we postpone it for tomorrow, that tomorrow may never come. Secondly, it calls for faith or intuitive awareness of the presence of eternal cosmic principles or super power which fulfills our sincere efforts. If the same is missing one has to introspect and analyse the purpose of human life and existence. When the mind is silenced the intuition speaks and inner voice whispers. Egotism and intellectual arrogance prohibit peace and silence.

It takes time to gain any good thing in life. Hence patience is a must. We should not crave for instant result.

A beginner is always baffled as to how to start meditation. Right action and virtuous living prepares the foundation. But some practice must follow. One way is to sit comfortably in relaxed position with spine erect and breathe in and breathe out.

This develops concentration and preparation for watching the mind. When mind becomes one-pointed after continuous watch, it is withdrawn from the five senses and fixed on silence. When the body-mind complex is totally silenced with practice and divine wisdom inner peace and silence emerge from within.

Insure the inner-self

We always insure our cars, our homes and our health by taking up policies and paying regular premiums.

But when we come across an accident that stirs, shakes and hurts us deeper than what do we have to fall back upon?

Yesterday, a friend met me completely shaken by the loss of a young nephew, and pained by the trauma that the parents must be undergoing.
The child had succumbed to a viral suddenly turning into a fatal pneumonia, while the father was out of station, travelling for work.

Even though I tried to console her, I found myself a bit jittery. The situation doesn`t seem very alien, except for the final disaster. We all are used to our kids coming back home with sudden virals, breathless, needing emergency treatments.

Life can hit us anytime, anywhere. There is no bigger fear in life than for your kids who define your whole meaning to be, your physical mental and spiritual existence.

We tell our kids that people go to God`s home when they die and that we should try to be good , do good, that there is God, the supreme soul who is watching us. But do we really believe in it. As grownups, we have accumulated skills, wealth, gadgets and friends to last us perhaps more than one lifetime, but we never empowered ourselves for the most unexpected, devastating yet inevitable event. We never stopped and even tried to develop deeper until we were really faced and had to forcibly deal with it.

It is also crucial for us to visit our inner-self more often, to exist and understand life at deeper levels. It is not that will come in one day. Just like the regular premiums we are required to pay, we need to look within regularly, much before something hits us in our faces.

This is the only treasure that grows with use, is infectious, can be shared and lasts even when we are no more.

The Ladder of Stress

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE STRESS. WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS HOW WE TAKE IT

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,“ said Shakespeare. Stress is a neutral emotion but it causes distress and many psycho-physical ailments when we view it negatively indulging in self pity.

But positive attitude makes it tremendously motivating and the ladder for success. There is no such thing as positive or negative stress. What really matters is how we take it. In fact, there is no problem which cannot be transformed into a stepping stone for further growth and development with right attitude.

Our altitude of success is proportionate to our inner drive which enables us to tap much more energy than we usually use. The residual reserve energy released by stress leads to better performance and resultant success. But negative emotions weaken the performance and affect our biochemical secretions inviting various ailments.

It is neither possible nor desirable to avoid stress in today's highly competitive world. A smooth sea never makes a good sailor. We must not try to remove stress. We should face the challenges with positive attitude using additional energy released by positive acceptance of stress.

The onward march of civilisation has been possible by voluntary acceptance of stress by different pioneers. Apple has been falling on the ground from time immemorial. But Newton became stressed to trace the law behind. Edison made almost ten thousand futile experiments to invent electric bulb.

Even his friends ridiculed his repeated failures and advised him to give up. But his own inner drive provided him the energy to react, “Who says I have failed? All these times I discovered how an electric bulb cannot be made.“ This positive acceptance of stress led to his phenomenal success. Even when his laboratory was burnt into ashes he took it positively, “Thank God! He has burnt my mistakes into ashes so that I can start afresh.“ Those who succumb to stress accept failure as destiny. It takes courage and positive attitude to accept stress as motivator. Those who can do it become successful.

कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती.

नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है,
चढ़ती दीवारों पर, सौ बार फिसलती है.
मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है,
चढ़कर गिरना, गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है.
आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती.

डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है,
जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है.
मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में,
बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में.
मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती.

असफलता एक चुनौती है, इसे स्वीकार करो,
क्या कमी रह गई, देखो और सुधार करो.
जब तक न सफल हो, नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम,
संघर्श का मैदान छोड़ कर मत भागो तुम.
कुछ किये बिना ही जय जय कार नहीं होती,
कोशिश करने वालों की कभी हार नहीं होती...!!