The Secret of Meditation and Mind

London 30th June 2007

When I discovered, I found God within me. That does not mean that I am the only God, that you are all not God. I know that the same God is in you also. You discover this and you can also become like God one day. You can have that Supreme Peace which now I have. You can have that knowledge and wisdom, that supreme security of Eternal Existence, whether this body remains or goes, whether this body is having anything or not, whether someone is going to worship this body, or somebody is going to criticize this body it shall not matter for you. At all times there is Supreme Peace.

So that is what is recommended in spirituality. It means the entire universe, including your own physical body, is impermanent. It cannot give you peace and happiness at all times. If you (meaning your consciousness which is just now conscious of this universe, which we call mind) if this can go back and become conscious of the real Self that exists, then there is a Supreme Peace at all times which nobody can disturb. So this is what everybody is looking for, what needs to be done.

When I pondered over so many methods that have been taught in this world from time to time we tried to do so many things, we tried to repeat God’s name because we loved it, we tried to sing the glory of God because we loved it and because we loved it there was a joy, a happiness and we tried to ponder over it. When we sing the glory of God, how is it that I become happy? Otherwise I am not happy? Why is there this difference?

We discovered if the mind becomes quiet then there is happiness. It is like if you are sound asleep you are so happy because you are unconscious of this world but that is not a permanent entity. When the body wakes up and the brain comes back into activity of this world you open up, you cannot be sleeping then. Given a choice you might like to sleep for a long, long time like that because that is the greatest happiness that one enjoys in sound sleep but that is not a permanent entity of the body – it has to come out from the sleep. But that does not become a permanent entity also, once the body comes into action.

This brain is another peculiar relationship of the mind. The brain is the physical, biological organ in this physical body. You have the consciousness of this world because of the brain. The brain is in touch with the universe through its nervous system, sensory organs and so on. It receives all messages and it sends back the order and in the process it reflects and shows the movie like the visual effects and thought processes. Somebody is handling this brain. Who is that? Temporarily we have to recognize that it is the mind, but in return, the brain seems to be handling the mind, because the mind is accepting everything that the brain reflects in good faith.

If the brain says, “This person is your friend”, your mind accepts it and it starts visualizing the same. Even if the person is a foe, he appears to be a friend. That is the trick of the mind. Even if the person is a real foe, he appears a friend and a real friend may appear as a foe. That is a trick of the mind. So whatever the mind thinks, you shall believe. Who is this ‘you’ when we talk? It cannot be the total Self that is all-pervading. Somewhere there is some missing link. The same consciousness called ‘mind’ has imagined another ‘I’ , which is limited. That ‘I’ is experiencing all good and bad, right and wrong, fear and courage and so on- it is experiencing the dualities. To get rid of all these things is enlightenment, liberation, moksha, nirvana all the things that are recommended.

But if you do not think of a supreme target the mind may not feel interested to go back to the Self. That Self, which is Ultimate Truth, is also recognized as God. Because we need a supreme entity which can protect, which can give us happiness, which can give us blessings at all times, and that is the real Self. So that is how you become God Realized or God Conscious or Self Realized – they are all the same things. Through the regular practice of meditation you can achieve this for yourself.

In the beginning anything could be awful because the mind has picked up habits of going out of control since time immemorial – you never know when this problem started. We thought it to be a problem as a child. “Why is it that this happiness doesn’t stay for 24 hours a day, 12 months of the year? All times? Why is it that I am experiencing unhappiness, tension? Everyone experiences this, whether one is a child, a teenager, a middle-ager or old person everybody experiences this happiness, anxiousness, excitement, every experience.” That is how we were thinking. But is there something the problem in me? Or something the problem in this world? Whenever I talk of me, me -what is this ‘me’ ? Is this body me? Or something else? Like this every time.

So this is how you start off thinking about yourself and motivate yourself to know the Truth. Then we discovered whatever we imagine we see only such a thing. So in the same way, whatever you think about yourself you become that ultimately. If you simply keep thinking that you are this human who is born in this world, then you will always be a human. This human is born, it dies, this body we recognize it as a human body. So that is what we thought, somewhere there is a problem with this, something is wrong. Somewhere it seems I have misidentified myself to be this body. But where is that ‘I’ ? This is possible when you practice this meditation.

As I was telling, so many methods have been taught. As we discovered, everything is, “First control the mind.” Controlling the mind does not mean you try to beat it with a cane and try to force it. When I talk of control, because my Master often used the terminology of ‘mind control, mind control’ so because of that we might be using that. That doesn’t mean you have to be forcing it. Controlling means practicing a discipline. A discipline is not a forced item upon yourself. When you remain disciplined you can be perfect. If you are disciplined you will get up in the morning at the right time, if you are disciplined you can sit if you want, if you want you can be walking. If you are disciplined, if you want to talk you can talk – if you don’t want to talk, you don’t talk.

In the same way, if you give discipline to this mind, if you want to think you can think, and if you don’t want to think you can keep it quiet. What I am trying to tell you is, when you practice this meditation you need not worry what will happen to your present life in this world, you can be a very normal personality. If you are a businessman, or you have a job or you are a householder, or a monk – whatever you are is really no problem. You can practice this meditation and one day you can achieve this Self Realization by remaining a normal person in this world. As my master every time said, “You need not run away to a forest or cave. Just remaining in your home you take out some time.” He insisted though, for one hour. For the first 30 – 40 minutes – to some it may be 15 minutes – to bring the mind back and make it quiet you should be struggling. It is like the mind is running like a monkey all the time. You would like to keep it quiet but it does not remain, it runs.

So this is the basic idea of all exercises, you try to remember God, which means you try to make it single-pointed. You try to remember some name of God, some mantra, everything is so the mind can remain single-pointed. You try to do some bhajans instead of running here and there. So when we are talking the idea is that instead of running around the streets of London let your mind be at least in this hall. Then you can be totally attentive and try to understand what we convey, so you feel encouraged to do this meditation.

When you close the eyes you shall see hundreds and thousands and billions of thoughts and visions coming. It can be anything – good, bad, right or wrong – because it will appear to you as your mind has visualized. If your mind has visualized a certain thing as fearful or wrong then the mind becomes disappointed. If the mind has visualized a certain thing as good, right and beautiful it becomes excited. So that is a trick of the mind, always it keeps wandering and wandering. In meditation, when such a thing happens, if you can remain quiet and not analyze. Then the mind becomes concentrated. If you are chanting a mantra, your mind has to be on the mantra. Only then the mantra becomes powerful for you.

Because people keep asking questions about so many other methods also if you are trying to breathe long inhale and exhale you can try to concentrate on that, the restless mind comes a little bit on that. But eventually the mind has to go back to the Self. It has to abandon all imaginations. That is the basic idea of this technique of meditation which my Master taught. It is one of the highest meditation techniques practiced in ancient India. And my Master got it from the Divine’s manifestation. And that is what we try to teach. It can be very easy when you understand, when you practice. Simply close the eyes and just keep watching. Practice that watching with a little bit of will power so then you will understand all these things. You will understand what you are really one day, and what is this mind, its all tricks and imaginations.

Otherwise mind is simply a bundle of thoughts. If all the thoughts go away, still it remains; it does not vanish because the consciousness is there. So that is how you can regain the consciousness of your Self. It is like a reverse gear; you lose the consciousness of the world and become conscious of your real Self. But in the sound sleep it does not happen. Why? Only the brain goes into sleep and the mind gets temporarily kicked off the reflections of the brain. It is something like there is a projector and a movie is being projected. Whatever you try to use to pierce the screen the projection will always be going on and you cannot stop the projection without the proper technology. There is a small secret button somewhere in the projector. So if you press that button the projector itself vanishes. Then there is nothing to be projected. That is the secret of meditation and mind, what happens.

Because you see, if the brain stops functioning the mind is still there. It has acquired habits since a long time. So until it becomes cleansed, and becomes quiet and stands still it cannot go back to the Self. That is why meditation practice is a natural method. By sleeping we cannot become Self Realized otherwise it would have been so easy for people to become Yogis, just by going into sleep we could have become. Sleeping is only a temporary relief for the body’s condition. As long as the brain is active, the mind is active. As long as the mind is there, the brain is also active – such is the tricky situation. One is fuel for the other. The brain could be active because of blood and oxygen, this is a different thing of science and medical discoveries. But the spiritual discovery is that it also has the mind which operates the brain, which uses the brain. So one is existing because of the other.

In meditation, without affecting the health of the brain, skillfully you try to withdraw the mind. How can you withdraw the mind? If you don’t give it any job. What is the job of the mind? It recognizes the existence and it analyses and makes a judgment. When it makes a judgment it absorbs an imprint. Like, if I think this is a microphone, that is my analysation. So by telling so in my mind I am making a judgment that this is a microphone indeed. And the mind absorbs the same imprint -“This is a microphone.” And that’s it, whatever is this we don’t know really. Because the entire world would accept this as a microphone, I am also accepting this as a microphone. What is it really?

If you think about this world’s existence also, for the sake of understanding we have given it so many names. The Law of Newton – it always existed. Gravity always existed. One time someone discovered it. So many times fruits would have fallen on so many heads but nobody would have thought about it. One person thought about it and it came to be known in that person’s name – “This is it. That is why this is happening.” But what is that? It existed always. So that is how spirituality tries to view the root cause of everything. Not simply getting satisfied with the nearest or immediate cause. That is possible when you go back to the Self. That is what I would recommend.