Meditation – A Non-Stop Remembrance of God

Meditation - Constant remembrance of God of own choice and faith

There are many misconceptions about meditation. The word is often used in the sense of thinking about something. If you are thinking about something, you might be approaching an object from different angles or you might be thinking about aspects that do not represent the object as a whole any more. This all still comes under the Yogic heading of dharana (concentration), which includes deliberating or reflecting on an object, and it usually creates a beta brain-wave pattern. If, through focusing, you prevent any other object than the one chosen(God) from entering your mind, this creates the brain-wave pattern of concentration, the beta pattern.

In meditation, the mind relaxes and switches to an alpha pattern, which brings a deeper communion with the object (God of your choice), but it is only called dhyan (meditation)if there is an uninterrupted flow of awareness toward God. In Yogic meditation we practice asan and pranayam, with the senses withdrawn from the world (pratyahar)whereas the mind is always concentrated on the God of Own choice to purify the mind.If we then add the continuous awareness of God and His presence that is not present in the dharana (concentration), then it is called dhyana (meditation). In dharana there is a stop-and-go process that we constantly have to kick-start by dodging the distractions. In meditation, there is uninterrupted flow toward God, His Names, His Form, His Virtues, His Pastimes and His Associates (God-Realized Saints), which means that the connection with God is not interrupted any more.

Meditation means the uninterrupted flow of our mind toward God

The use of the term “object” while meditating is another source of misunderstanding. As it is often taken to mean a thing. But the object is only what we are focusing on –for e.g. our God of choice like Radha-Krishna, Sita-Ram, Lord Shiva, Jesus,Mary, Allaha, etc. The ultimate thing to meditate upon is God – the Omnipotent,Omnipresent and Omniscient. The mind has the tendency always to attach itself to the next thought arising. And if it has a choice between God and worldly thoughts it usually chooses worldly thoughts. So one has to make an incessant effort to focus his mind in dharana(concentration) till the mind gets attached and habituated with the focused God of own choice or faith.

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 qualities—sattva, rajas, and tamas (modes of goodness, passion, and ignorance). Provided the object of meditation 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. Shree Krishna told Arjun in the Bhagavad Geeta:

māṁ cha yo’vyabhichāreṇa bhaktiyogena sevate
sa guṇānsamatītyaitān brahmabhūyāya kalpate (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:

śhuddhayatihi nāntarātmā kṛiṣhṇapadāmbhoja bhaktimṛite

“The inner-self, the mind, cannot be cleansed without fixing it in devotion on God.”

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says:

sarvaśhāstra sāra yaha govinda rādhey
āṭhoñ yāmamana 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.