Roop Dhyan Meditation
The mind is a subtle machine that constantly generates thoughts. These thoughts create our personality. You look at someone and say, “He seems to be a very aggressive person,” or “He appears to be a very simple, straightforward person,” or “He seems to be very kind,” etc. The nature of thoughts that resides in the mind shapes both—personality and physical appearance.
The Latent Powers of the Mind
Modern scientists estimate that we only use three per cent of the potential of our mind. At present, our mind is scattered. Just as, if the channel button of a television set is spoilt, the channels keep changing sporadically. Similarly, our mind too keeps flipping from topic to topic. But if we can learn to concentrate our mind, we can increase the extent to which we are able to utilize its potential.
Concentration increases the effectiveness. Water vapor keeps rising from lakes, and ineffectively drifting in the sky. But the same water vapour, when concentrated in the form of steam and focused on the piston of the railway engine, becomes so powerful that it is able to push the engine along a railway track, with thousands of tonnes of carriages at high speeds. Similarly, an unwavering mind has tremendous powers. This is the reason why different people in different cultures around the world use a variety of meditation techniques to improve their concentration. Some mediate on the breath, others on the centre of the eyebrows, other on the psychic centres in the spinal cord, others on a tranquil lake, and others on light, etc. These different meditation techniques do improve the focus of the mind; however, their benefits are incomplete and impermanent. The reason is that they do not address the issue of purification of the mind. As long as lust, anger, greed, envy, illusion, etc. reside in the mind, these forces destroy whatever concentration was gained. It thus becomes vitally important to understand how to purify the mind.Purification of the Mind
To cleanse the mind, we must fix it on an object of meditation that is itself pure. The material realm is dominated by the three modes of material nature—sattva, rajas, and tamas (modes of goodness, passion, and ignorance). If the object of meditation is material, it cannot purify the mind. Beyond this material realm, is the Divine realm of God, His Names, Forms, Virtues, Abodes, Pastimes, and Saints. If we fix our mind anywhere in this area, it will become pure.
स गुनान्समतीत्यैतान् ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते (भगवद् गीत 14.26)
māṁ cha yo ’vyabhichāreṇa bhaktiyogena sevate
sa guṇānsamatītyaitān brahmabhūyāya kalpate (Bhagavad Geeta 14.26 )
“I am Divine. If you fix your mind on Me, it will rise above the three modes of material nature.” Jagadguru Shankaracharya says:
शुद्धयति हि नान्तरात्मा कृष्णपदाम्भोज भक्तिमृते
śhuddhayati hi nāntarātmā kṛiṣhṇapadāmbhoja bhaktimṛite
“The inner self, the mind, cannot be cleansed without fixing it in devotion on God.” Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says:
सर्व शास्त्र सर यह गोविन्द राधे
आठो याम मन हरि गुरु में लगा दे
sarva śhāstra sāra yaha govinda rādhey
āṭhoñ yāma mana hari guru meñ lagā de
Hence in Jagadguru Kripaluji Yog, we learn to meditate on the Names, Forms, Virtues, Pastimes, Abodes, and Associates of God. Meditation on God can be of endless varieties, of which a few sample meditations are described below.
Yoga for the Body, Mind & Soul
Swami Mukundananda
There are endless varieties of Learning meditation, but Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj is the 1st Jagadguru who has taught the practical way of concentrating one’s mind on God, called Roopdhyan. It cleanses the mind from within, bringing about peace, concentration & purity.
ReplyDelete