- At the time of meditation, you must become absorbed in Him. Can you reach the precious stones at the bottom of the sea by floating on the surface?
- The heart is a well-known place, meditate on God there.
- When you have a toothache you attend to all your duties, but your mind remains attached to the toothache. In similar fashion, you can meditate with your eyes open – and also while talking.
- By meditating on God night and day, one sees Him everywhere. Just as after you concentrate on the flame of a lamp, you begin to see flames everywhere.
- Someone asked Hanuman the date of a particular day. Hanuman replied, ‘Brother, I neither know the day of the week, nor the date, nor the constellation of stars. I only meditate on Rama.’
- I have heard that anything is possible in His creation. So instead of worrying about these things, I only meditate on God. One day Hanuman was asked the date. He said, ‘I don’t know either the day or the position of the stars. I only contemplate Rama.’
- One acquires the nature of the ideal one meditates upon. By meditating on the Lord night and day, one attains His nature. A salt doll went to fathom the ocean; it became one with it.
- O my mind! Contemplate Krishna, who gives beauty to man. You will completely get rid of the fear of Yama. By contemplating Him, all anxieties and worries of the world vanish.
- Shivanath says, ‘Too much contemplation of God deranges one’s brain.’ He says, ‘By meditating on the universal consciousness, one loses consciousness.’ God is the very Self of consciousness! That one should lose the power of consciousness by meditating on Him through whose consciousness one is conscious of the world!
- By God’s consciousness even inert things gain consciousness – it is behind the movement of hands, feet and body. One says the body is moving, but doesn’t know that it is God who is moving it. One says that the hand has been scalded by water. The water does not scald anything. It is the heat in the water, the fire in the water, that scalds the hand.
- Such concentration is developed in meditation that a person sees nothing and hears nothing. He is not even aware of touch. A snake can wriggle over his body, but he does not know it – neither the one who is meditating, nor the snake, are aware of each other.
- The sense organs cease to function during deep meditation. The mind does not look outward. It is as if the door of the outermost room of the house is shut. There are five organs of sense – form, taste, smell, touch and speech – they are left outside.
- Do you know what one experiences in meditation? The mind becomes like a continuous flow of oil – one has just one thought, that of God. No other thought intrudes.
- It’s good to meditate before dawn and then late at night; and also every day at twilight.
- The fact is that the less people know about such activities, the better. People of sattvic nature meditate in their minds or in a forest or some solitary place. Sometimes they even meditate inside a mosquito net.
- Those who never enter into worldly life and develop dispassion by meditating on God day and night from their very childhoods, like Sukadeva, are truly blessed.
- If you want to meditate on God, you should first try to meditate on the attributeless. He is without attributes, beyond mind and speech. But it’s very difficult to become expert in such meditation.
- The heart is the most well-known place. You can meditate either there or in the Sahasrara. These are rules for meditation according to the scriptures. But you can meditate wherever you want. Every place is filled with Brahman. Where is Brahman not present?
- Meditation on the Formless and on God with-form. To meditate on the Formless is very difficult. In that meditation whatever you may see or hear will melt away; then you will contemplate your true Self. Contemplating his own Self, Shiva dances. He dances, exclaiming, ‘Who am I, who am I?’ This is called Shiva Yoga. While meditating, your gaze should be fixed on the forehead. You must give up the world and meditate on your real Self after confirming, ‘Not this, not this.’
- There is Vishnu Yoga. You fix your sight on the tip of your nose – half within, the other half on the world. Meditation on God with form is like this.
- God certainly resides in all beings, but there is greater manifestation of Him in man. Is man something insignificant, brother? Man can think of God, he can meditate on the Infinite. Other living beings can’t do this.
- What you do day and night is coming out of your mouth. A man belches what he eats: if he eats radish, he belches radish, or he belches coconut if he eats coconut. You live day and night in the midst of ‘lust and greed,’ so that’s what you’re belching out. If you only think of worldly things, you develop the nature of a revenue record-keeper – you become dishonest. By thinking of God, a person becomes trustworthy. Nobody who has attained God will say such a thing.
- Those who meditate on God and pray day and night to be rid of attachment to worldly things and their love for ‘lust and gold,’ those who feel that sense pleasures are bitter, who like nothing but the nectar of the lotus feet of Hari, have the nature of swans. Put milk and water before a swan and it will drink the milk and leave the water. And have you seen the gait of a swan? It walks straight, in one direction. The movement of a pure-minded devotee is directed only towards God. He wants nothing else, he likes nothing else.
Meditation – Chanting of God’s Name
- If you ask which form of God should be meditated upon, well you should meditate upon that form you like best. But you must keep in mind that all forms of God are one and the same.
- Those who have time should practice meditation and chanting of God’s name. Those who cannot do so should bow down to God very lovingly and with respect, both morning and evening.
- Japa is higher than worship, and meditation is higher than repetition of the name. Higher than meditation is ecstasy. Chaitanya Deva experienced prema. When you attain prema, you have the cord to tie God with.
- The less people know about your meditation on God the better for you.
- Those who have practiced meditation and japa sincerely will have to come here.
- Japa is sitting quietly in solitude and repeating His name. Repeating His name with a concentrated mind – performing japa – one gets the vision of God’s form and realizes Him. Think of a chain tied to a wooden log submerged in the Ganges, its other end fixed to the bank. Proceeding along each link of this chain, you enter the water and eventually reach the log. In the same way, by repeating God’s name, you become absorbed in Him and realize Him.
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