La Vraie Signification de Méditation (1ère partie)
Question: People often talk about meditation. Can you please explain what this is all about?
Jagad Guru: Usually when we think of meditation, we think of someone sitting quietly with his eyes closed and not having anything on his mind at all. Others talk about meditating on a dot or some object. But in fact, this is not really what meditation is. Meditation is the placement or the focusing of a person's consciousness--his mind, his heart, his entire being on God or on the Absolute Truth. According to the yogis and ancient scriptures, meditation specifically means having your mind focused on God. Meditation is not your mind focusing on anything. This may be concentration-concentrating on a tennis ball or a form of a woman. But that is not meditation. Meditation means the object of your attention or consciousness is God, the Supreme Absolute Truth.
Q: Is sitting in a yoga posture and having your eyes closed conducive to meditation?
Jagad Guru: Having your eyes closed can be conducive to meditation because if your eyes are closed and you're not seeing the things of the world, then your mind or consciousness may be directed to the Absolute Truth. But that doesn't mean that you can equate meditation with having your eyes closed and sitting with your legs crossed because I could be sitting here with my legs crossed, my eyes closed, and I could be asleep. I would be sleeping but you might think I was meditating. Or my eyes could be closed and my legs crossed but my consciousness dwells on all the money I am going to make or on a beautiful woman. So this is not meditation. Meditation means having your heart, your mind and your entire being really immersed in God.
Q: Why should I meditate? Why should I apply meditation to my life? What are the benefits? What is the gain?
Jagad Guru: Let me throw the question back to you. Why do you think people meditate?
Q: Health, physical well-being or even mental well-being.
Jagad Guru: Yes. You go to the doctor and he says you are overstressed. You go in there with an ulcer, high blood pressure or something and the doctor says, "Change your diet, start to jog, swim or meditate." And so you say, "Okay, I think I'll learn how to meditate." You don't really know what meditation is but you're thinking that you're going to meditate. So this is one reason. In fact, if you recognise the connection between your physical well-being and your consciousness, then you'll recognise that the practice of meditation can lower your levels of stress and therefore have a positive, physical effect on you body. It can have positive effects both physically and mentally. This is one reason - to alleviate stress. Meditation can help anyone whether he is a businessman who is uptight or a student under stress. They can engage in the practice of meditation which will help them to cope with living. What's another reason why people take up meditation?
Q: Anxiety and depression.
Jagad Guru: Yes. People are in anxiety. Anxiety is deeper than stress. Stress is superficial. Stress can be caused by a traffic jam, by business or by your kids screaming and yelling, etc. Meditation can help alleviate this stress. But there is a deeper type of trouble that a person experiences. This can be called anxiety or depression. What do most people do to get rid of this inner emptiness?
Q: They take drugs or drink alcohol.
Jagad Guru: Yes. People drink to forget. They are very unhappy inside so they drink to forget their inner unhappiness. Or they take so-called anti-anxiety drugs. They take Valium or Librium. They take them because they're trying to wipe out their anxiety, their inner spiritual void. They want to forget how unhappy they really are. Through meditation, a person can actually overcome this anxiety. He can actually begin to fill this void in his life. He would not fill up artificially but would actually begin to experience inner happiness and inner peace. He would feel freedom from anxiety, depression or spiritual void. So more important than using meditation for overcoming stress is taking up the practice of meditation to overcome anxiety, depression or spiritual emptiness. People don't know the meaning of life. Through meditation a person can experience the meaning of life. They begin to experience actual fulfilment.
Q: What are the other reasons why someone should begin to actually practice meditation.
Jagad Guru: Self-realisation. It is not the most common reason but it is the main spiritual reason. According to the ancient Vedic text and the great spiritual teachers of meditation, the most important reason for beginning the practice of meditation is the desire for self-realisation - to understand who you really are. What is your real essence? What is your real purpose in life? What is your relationship with God? This is so important. Nothing is more important than knowing who you are. If you don't know who your are, how are you going to know what is your purpose in life? How do you know what to do? How do you know what your normal or natural function should be? Who are you really? Most people identify themselves as being their body."I am male, Spanish, young handsome, macho, etc. They think,"I am the material body. I am flesh and blood." But in fact, our real identity is spiritual. In fact, we are spirit soul, the life particle, the spark of God only temporarily in this body. I am living in this body but this body is not me. I am a child of God - spiritual in essence. This means that I need spiritual food, spiritual happiness. I can't be satisfied by material wealth, fame, power, etc. What is going to make me really happy? What is that spiritual food that I need? My connection with God. Union with God. Meditation means union with God. The word "yoga" also means union with God, when the individual spirit soul links up with the Supreme Soul; when the individual spirit soul is focused completely on God - his mind, body, heart, his entire being is immersed in God. This is the meaning of yoga. This is the meaning of meditation. It is also the meaning of prayer. Real prayer is meditative.
In other word, in deepest prayer, a person is in meditation. He is linked up with God. Real meditation is prayer and true prayer is meditative. For the living entity or individual to be happy, he needs to be linked up with God. That is what meditation is. Meditation is that union or connection with God. When I'm hooked up to God in that way, I'm meditating upon God. I'm not worried about whether my business fails or succeeds. I'm not worried about whether or not people like me. I'm not worried abut so many things. It's not that I become void or zero. It's not that I become forgetful of everything else just because I am focused on one thing. In other words, if I focus my mind on a dot temporarily, I may also forget my troubles. Or I may drink a lot of alcohol and forget my problems. But this is different. In linking up with God, one is experiencing full comfort, full protection, full security and full consciousness. Meditation does not put you in a state of diminished consciousness but full, joyful consciousness. It is stated in the ancient text of the Bhagavad-gita that in this condition of trance or samadhi, the living entity is joyful.
The stage of perfection is called trance, or samadhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterised by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.
-Bhagavad-gita Chap.6 Text 20-23
The individual is fully awake, fully alive and experiencing a type of inner joy. In the Bhagavad-gita, it is also stated that the sage or yogi is happy within.
Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure or external objects but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realised person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on Supreme.
- Bhagavad-gita Chap.5 Text 21
He is satisfied within due to meditation or the condition of being linked up with the Supreme Lord.
Q: You've been explaining how self-realisation is the most important reason why a person should take up meditation. In this connection, what is one of the main things that a person conquers by self-realisation?
Jagad Guru: The fear of death. You see, if you are immersed in meditation, then you are also talking about being in full consciousness of who you are - that you are spirit soul, you are eternal. Eternal means you don't die. Full consciousness of your real identity means you fully know and appreciate that you are not your body. Your body dies but you don't die. So if you know that you don't die, that means you can't be afraid.
Why are you not afraid of death? Because you know you are eternal. How can you be afraid of death? We are reminded of the verse in the New Testament, "Oh death, where is your sting?" To everybody, death has a sting. It is very painful. But for one who knows, "I am eternal", death has no sting. The only sting that might be there is the sense of fear. What will my future be? I will continue to exist but what will protect me? When a person is immersed in meditation, however, he is linked up with the Supreme Protector. He is linked up with the Supreme Support. He is supported and cannot fall. There is no question of being unprotected. An ordinary person may feel, "Where will I go? What will happen to me after I leave my body?" These fears are not present in a person who is in a state of meditation because he is linked up with the Supreme. He is fully protected. He is experiencing inner happiness and inner protection. So people have different reasons for wanting to meditate. You may want to conquer death; you may want to be self-realised; you may want to overcome your deep, inner spiritual fears or anxieties; or you may simply want to reduce you stress which is so insignificant in comparison to the real problems of life. Stress is nothing. Like a little headache is no big deal. It's nothing compared to being afraid that your plane is going to crash. Will you be worrying about minor stress when your plane is five thousand feet in the air and going down 1000 feet every five seconds? In such a situation, will you worry about a little indigestion? No. You can begin meditating for other reasons, that's all right. But meditation actually brings a higher spiritual, inner happiness or pleasure to a person. This is the most important reason why a person should begin the process of meditation.