How to Meditate on the Form of God ?

The mind is such a machine created by God that it cannot remain empty; it keeps working on something or the other. To still the mind into a state of thoughtlessness creates an unstable condition for the mind that is difficult to maintain. This is just as while riding a bicycle, if you apply the brakes and bring the bicycle to a standstill, you will fall either to the left or to the right. But if you simply turn the handle to one side, the cycle will stop moving forward and very easily turn in the direction of the handle.

Meditational techniques for stopping the thought process and stilling the mind are highly unsuccessful. In Bhakti Yog, we do not try to still the mind; we divert it to God. Please read the answer to the previous question, to get a detailed explanation of this. Now, I would like to explain to you how to meditate upon God. In endless past lifetimes we have been habituated to interacting with forms. All the personalities we loved and all the objects we were attached to had forms, and so attraction to forms is a natural sanskār (tendency) of the mind. So make the Form of God as the basis of your meditation. If we endeavor to meditate merely upon the Name of God, or the syllable “Om”, the mind will not easily experience sweetness in it. But if we have the all-attractive form of God before us, the mind will effortlessly be drawn towards it. This meditation upon the form of God is called Roop Dhyān. Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj states:

saba sādhana janu deha sama, rūpa dhyāna janu prāna

khāta gīdha aru svāna janu, kāmādika śhava māna (Bhakti Śhatak 10)

“All spiritual practices are like the body; meditation upon the form of God is like the life airs. Just as the body without life airs is worthy of being eaten by dogs and vultures, similarly sādhanā without meditation upon the form of God, is eaten by lust, anger, greed, and envy.”