Lord Sai Baba on Meditation
- We always have enough time to talk, visit cinemas etc. There is certainly
time for meditation. The power is from God (referring to the feeling of
strength
after meditation).
- Early morning is best. Mind is quiet and there is not the pressure of
responsibilities. There is difficulty during the day. People are
around, and there is work. If meditation is attempted, even work may
suffer.
- Real meditation is getting absorbed in God as the only thought, the
only goal. God only, only God. Think God, breathe God, love God.
Concenration means, when all senses and desires fall away and there
is only God. In between concentration and meditation, like a separation
between the two, is contemplation. Concentration to contemplation, then
meditation. As long as one thinks "I am meditating" that is the mind and
not meditation. As long as one knows he is meditating, he is not
meditating. In absorption in God, one puts aside every form and merges
into God. In that process the mind naturally stops.
- Meditation for its proper practice, should be at the same place, at the
same time. In that way, it surely will be successful. If one is away
from home in travel, in his mind he can go to the accustomed place
no matter where he is. Truth is in every place at all times. When away
from Swami, by remembering Him doing this or that, the battery is
"recharged". That also is genuine meditation. Meditation is constant
inner inquiry as to who am I, what is true, what is ego action, what
is loving and what is harsh. Meditation is thinking on spiritual
principles, searching out the application to oneself of what Baba
says, and the like.
- For the one who has completely surrendered to God and whose heart is
filled with love for God, these 'college courses' (referring to Hatha
Yoga etc) are not needed and have no meaning and are quite unnecessary.
- The Atma is everywhere, but for the purpose of sitting in meditation, the
life principle can be considered as being 10 inches above the navel and
at the centre of the chest. An inch in this measurement is the width of
the thumb at the first joint.
- Without concentration nothing can be done. And we use that concentration
through-out the day. Why is that same concentration so difficult to come
in spiritual matters? Because the mind is outward turned, and by desire
the mind clings to object. But the mind can be trained to concentrate
inwardly, and the heart can be cultured to grow with love for God. How?
By sadhana. The best sadhana is that every act through the day be done
as worship of God.
- A fence is placed around a young tree to protect it. The same precautions
must be
observed in meditation. People think it is all right to meditate in any
place. There
are currents, there is will power. There is a strong current passing into
the earth.
Because of this, the earth exerts a strong attraction. In meditation it is
advisable to
insulate oneself from such currents. For this reason, meditators sit on a
plank and cover their shoulders with a woollen shawl. Once the person has grown strong
in his
meditation, he may sit anywhere and not suffer for it.
- The light is first moved into the heart which is conceived as a lotus,
the petals of
which will open. The Jyothi is then moved to other body parts. There is no
particular
sequence. But important is the final body station, which is the head. There
the light
becomes a crown enshrining and covering the head. The light is then moved
outside,
from the particular to the universal. Move the light into relatives, friends,
enemies,
trees, animals, birds until the entire world and all its forms are seen to
have the same
light at their centre as has been found to be within oneself.
- The idea of moving the light into the universal phase, the idea of
universality is that the same divine light is present in everyone and
everywhere. To impress this
universality on the mind, we do the spreading of the light outside one's
own body.
- One should understand that what comes about in meditation as one moves
deeply
into it, is not the thinking of the light, but the forgetting of the body
and thereby the
direct experience that the body is not onself. This is the stage of
contemplation when
the body is totally forgotten. It cannot be forced. It comes about by itself
and is the
stage that naturally follows correct concentration.
- Seeing the light and moving the light here and there is to give work
to the mind, to
keep the mind occupied in the right direction so that the mind will not be
thinking of
this and that and thus interfering with the process of becoming more and
more quiet.
Spreading the light into its unviersal phase, sending the light into every
other body,
and when one is so concentrated in it that he is no longer conscious of his
body, is
the stage of contemplation. As contemplation deepens, the stage of meditation
comes about of its own volition. It cannot be forced.
- If the meditator remains conscious of himself and that he is engaged in
meditation,
then he is not meditating but is still in the preliminary stage, at the
beginning of
concentration.
- There are three stages: concentration, contemplation and meditation.
When
contemplation deepens it moves naturally into meditation. Meditation is
entirely
above the senses. In the state of meditation, the meditator, the object of
his
meditation and the process of meditation have fallen away, and there is only
one,
and that One is God. All that may change has fallen away and Tat Twam Asi,
That
Thou Art, is the state that exists.
- As one gradually returns to this customary and habitual state of
consciousness, the
Jyothi is again placed in the heart and kept lighted there thoughout the day.
- The three stages, concentration which is below the senses, meditation
which is entirely above the senses and contemplation which lies between and is
partially within the senses and partially above the senses, which is on
the border of each, this is the experience in genuine meditation whether the
object taken be form or light.
- There is no essential difference. If the devotee has a form of God to which
he is particularly devoted, he may merge that form into the Jyothi, and that
form is most attractive to him and is the object of his concentration and is
seen to be within the light wherever it is seen. Or, the concentration may
be just on the form of God, for God is universal in every form.
- Again, the object chosen is just a device to allow one to sink deely into
quietness and to allow the body, which is non-self, to fall away out of consciousness. Anything
concrete, such as light, form or sound may be chosen as the object of concentration.
It is possible to just move directly into the stage of meditation.
- Meditation as described by Swami is the royal road, the easy path. For meditation
to be effective there must be steady practice with no hurry and no worry. With steady
practice, the person will become quiet and the state of meditation will naturally come
about. To think otherwise is weakness. Success is assured. Call upon God, He will
help you. He will respond and He himself will be your guru. He will guide you. He
will always be at your side. Think God, see God, hear God, eat God, drink God, love
God. That is the easy path, the royal road to your goal of breaking ignorance and
the realization of your true nature. Which is one with God.
- Light a lamp or a candle. Gaze straight ahead at the flame. Then take the candle
flame, the Jyothi, into the heart and see it in the midst of the petals of the heart.
Watch the petals of the heart unfold and see the light illumine the heart. Bad feelings
cannot remain. Then move the flame to the hands and they can no longer do dark
deeds. In turn move the flame in like fashion to the eyes and ears so they may
henceforth take in only bright and pure sensations. Then move the light outward and
into your friends, relatives and enemies, and then into animals, birds and other
objects so that all are illumined by the same light. Christ said,
"All are one, be alike to everyone."
- To sit straight is important. Between the 9th and 12th vertebrae is the life-force. If the
spine is injured at this point, paralysis occurs. If the body is in straight position, as
if it were wound around a straight pole, the life force may rise up through the straight
body and give the quality of intense concentration of the mind.
- Moreover, just as a ligthning rod attached to the roof of a building attracts ligthning,
in like fashion a perfectly straight body provides a conductor, so to speak, for divine
power to enter the temple of your body and give you the strength to accomplish your
task and reach your goal. As another example, the divine power is always here, just
as radio signals are here. But to hear the radio music there must be an antenna.
Further, if the tuning device is not properly adjusted, there will be some sound but
no music. In like fashion, the divine power, which is always present, may flow into
you if the meditation is correct and the body straight.
- First you are in the light. Then the light is in you. Finally, you are the light and the
light is everywhere. Enjoy for a while, then bring the light back to the heart and hold
it there for all the day. The form of God may also be included. Krishna, Rama, Jesus,
Sai, as you wish. The form of God selected may be seen in the centre of the flame
wherever it is carried, and then you are with God everywhere.
- The stomach is four parts: 1/4 part air, 1/4 part food, and 1/2 part water. Too much
food results in dullness of the mind. Food in moderation does not result in sickness.
Too much milk is bad. It is rajasic.
- The type of food you eat, that kind of thought will come to your mind. If you have
satwic food, there will be satwic effect. Fruit and milk everything that is cool and not
hot like strong onions. Meat gives the blood its effect, like passion and similar
qualities. Dirty thoughts come with fish. Although fish is always in water, it has a bad
smell.
- If you are keen on spiritual life, eating meat is not worth while; but if you are keen on
worldly life, it is all right. There is another spiritual reason. When you kill an animal
you give it suffering, pain, harm. God is in every creature, so how can you give such
pain? Sometimes when someone beats a dog he cries, he feels so much pain. How
much more pain then in killing. Animals did not come tor the purpose of supplying
food to human beings. They came to work out their own life in the world. When a
human being is dead, the foxes and other animals may eat, but we have not come
to provide food for those that eat the human body; we have not come for that purpose.
Similarly, man eats the animal, but the animal has not come to provide man with
food. But, we have taken to eating meat as a habit.
- In Dwapara Yuga, before Kali Yuga, 5680 years back, milk came into favor. Eleven
thousand years is the full length of the Kali Yuga. (ie 3712 BC to 7288 AD).
The world is also turning round like a fan. Even if the Kali Yuga stops,
it still has a
few more revolutions to go before the final ending. (speech dated 1968)
There are four Yugas. The sequence is circular, and when the last is finished, the
whole cycle starts all over again. Kali Yuga still has 5,320 years before ending.
(AD 7288. Year now is 1997, another 5,291 years to go!!)
Extracted from Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba by Dr John Hislop, pages 145-156, 22.
Conversation recorded in 1968 period.