Meditations for Divine Qualities
To develop beauty
I meditate inside a moonlit cave.
To develop humility
I meditate inside a tiny cave.
To develop purity
I meditate inside a sun-bathed cave.
To develop power
I meditate inside a spacious cave.
A tree bending down. To develop compassion, meditate on a tree. Although the flowers, leaves and branches are above the ground, they are not looking downward with contempt or a feeling of superiority. The trunk of the tree may be very tall; the flowers, fruits and leaves may all be above us. But when we pass below the tree, the leaves, flowers and fruits say, “Take us; we are ready to be utilised by you.” Because of its oneness with us, everything that the tree has, it is begging us to take.
Expand the dynamic vital. If you want to conquer fear in the vital, try to expand the real vital in yourself. We use the aggressive vital, with its fighting quality, daily. But the dynamic vital, which is the real vital, wants to create something sooner than at once in a divine way, in an illumined way. So if we can concentrate on the dynamic vital and expand our consciousness there, then there can be no fear in the vital.
Digging deep within. If we want to conquer fear in the unaspiring heart, we have to take help directly from the soul. How many of us have seen the soul or felt it? When you meditate on the heart centre, try to feel, every time you breathe in, that you are digging inside.
This is not violent digging. No! It is only a divinely intensified feeling inside your heart that you are going deep, deep, deep within. Each time you breathe in, feel that you are going deeper within. And then, a few days or a few months later, you are bound to feel a tingle; you will hear a very tiny sound. When you hear the sound, try to see if the sound is caused by something or not. Normally when we hear a sound, it is because two hands are clapped together or two objects are struck together. But this sound in the soul is not the result of anything. It is spontaneous. When you feel that sound inside, like a celestial gong, then you are bound to conquer fear in your aspiring heart.
Fire blazing all around. To increase your dynamism, meditate on flames. You can look at a candle flame or any other type of flame. Flames embody dynamism. Fire will burn all our lethargy or lack of enthusiasm. If fire burns our lethargy, then automatically dynamism will come to the fore. Just imagine that fire is blazing all around you. Immediately you will get up, you will run, you will do the needful with utmost speed.
Fire has dynamism. So always imagine flames or fire. If you imagine fire, you may think more of destruction than dynamism, but if you think of flames, climbing flames, then destruction will not come into your mind. Flames take us upward. How can we go upward without becoming dynamic? If I want to climb a tree, if I want to climb a mountain, then I have to be dynamic. Flames show us the way. They are going up, up, up and touching the sky. So, to increase your dynamism, look at flames.
Climb up for the mangoes. To have enthusiasm, feel that you are at the foot of a tree. When you look at the tree, you see that the most delicious mangoes, the ripest mangoes, are at the top, so naturally you will start climbing up with enthusiasm. But if you do not see the tree, and if you do not look up and see the flowers and fruits, then you will not have any enthusiasm to climb up.
The sweetness of a smile. Gratitude comes from sweetness. A child may not say “Thank you” to his mother, but the sweetness of his entire being is expressed through his eyes in the form of a smile. He does not know the word ‘gratitude’, but when the mother sees his sweet smile, she knows that the child is full of gratitude. So the more we can create sweetness in our hearts and in our being, the easier it becomes to offer gratitude to God.
One way to get sweetness is to look at a most beautiful, fragrant flower. When we look at the flower and smell its fragrance, consciously or unconsciously we become one with its beauty and fragrance. At that time, its sweetness enters into us or our own sweetness comes forward; sometimes both happen simultaneously.
If we are really focusing all our attention on the innocent beauty and fragrance of God the Creation through this flower, then jealousy and meanness disappear, and only sweet thoughts remain. And when sweetness comes to the fore in our nature, it becomes very easy to offer gratitude.
Expand into an elephant. To offer gratitude, try to feel that your gratitude is tinier than the tiniest, like an ant. But you will try to increase that gratitude into a huge elephant. You have to try to grow and expand it. When your gratitude is very huge, vast and strong, inside that powerful elephant try to have all the divine qualities: simplicity, sincerity, purity, humility and so forth. Feel that you have all these qualities inside your gratitude-heart.
If your sincerity-sky
Concentrates on God,
Then God will come to you
Immediately.
If your gratitude-sun
Meditates on God,
Then God will give Himself to you
Entirely.
Concentrate on grass or a tree. You can concentrate on a blade of grass or a small plot of green grass—anything that you feel is humble. Or you can look at a tree. How humble a tree is! In spite of having countless flowers, fruits and leaves, a tree is always self-giving and serves with such compassionate humility.
When the tree develops flowers and fruit, at that time the tree does not go up and touch the skies. It does not say, “I will have nothing to do with earth; earth is so bad, so ungrateful.” Instead, the tree bends very nicely and shares its fruits with the world. Before the tree bears any fruit, the tree is for itself. But when it possesses something, when it starts bearing fruit, at that time it becomes for the world. The tree does not keep the fruits only for itself. The tree offers them for all the world to eat.
The garden of your heart. Your mind has to surrender to your heart. At every moment the heart is seeing a beautiful flower, whereas the mind is seeing a dry, dead tree. When you use the mind, you see a dead tree right in front of you, but when you use the heart, you see a most beautiful garden. Every time you meditate, imagine a garden with beautiful flowers. First imagine it right in front of you, and then try to imagine it inside your heart. In that way, the beauty and fragrance of the garden are bound to inspire you and make you feel that you are receiving something most precious.
New ideas, new adventure. To overcome boredom in your meditation, use your imagination-power. Write down three absolutely new things that you have never done, you have never thought of. Then those three things will give you inspiration or a kind of challenge. They will create a sensation in your mind or in your being to do them. Life is not boring to one who believes in adventure. Adventure does not mean that you have to climb up the tallest mountain. To allow new ideas, fresh ideas, healthy ideas to enter into your mind—that is adventure.
A plane taking off. When you enter into any new field of activity, there is enthusiasm. Then afterwards it becomes monotonous, boring, and frustration starts. Now, think of a plane. When the plane takes off, it makes so much noise. It gives us the feeling that it will absolutely destroy everything around it. Once the plane is high in the air, its speed is much faster than when it was taking off, but we hear practically no noise. And if the plane has a good pilot, will he not reach the destination? We have to keep in mind that the same Pilot who gave us the inspiration to hurry up and come to the airport, who put us into the plane, who made so much noise when the plane was taking off, is still piloting us to our Destination.
The waves of the ocean. When you look at the ocean, you see huge waves. If you are using your heart to look at it, even with your ordinary naked eyes you will see that it is ever-new. But if you are using the mind, you will say, “Oh, it is the same thing, the same kind of waves.” Nothing is boring if we have the right attitude.
You are an infant. Every day feel that you have taken new birth. If you feel that you are an infant, only a few hours old, then you are bound to feel that there is somebody who will take care of you. The mind always says that we have to take care of ourselves. But the heart says, “No, my father is there, my mother is there. They have infinite affection, infinite compassion, infinite fondness for me. They will take care of me.” This is so true. God is both our Father and our Mother. God is only for those who feel that they are true children.
Only your heart exists. There are two ways we can increase our intensity. The first approach is to feel that all your strength, all your determination and will-power, is in one particular place, here inside your heart. Feel that you do not exist at all except in this tiny place. You do not have eyes, you do not have a nose, you do not have anything. Intensity will come only when you feel that your entire existence is concentrated at one particular place and not scattered.
Repeat ‘intensity’. The second way is to enter into your highest meditation. When you reach your absolutely highest meditation, just for two or three seconds utter the word ‘intensity’ with utmost will-power. When you utter the word ‘intensity’, like a bullet, intensity will enter into you. Not only will it enter into you, but it will also go out of you. Then this intensity will act like a miracle in your life.
You are light. You want to know how you can receive light or how you can bring light to the fore. When you start your meditation or concentration, try to feel that you have come from light and you are inside light. This is not your imagination; this is not your mental hallucination. Far from it! When you start meditating, just feel what you are. It is a real, solid, concrete truth that you embody light and that you are light itself. You will see that there is a spontaneous flow of light from within. First you will feel it inside your heart; then you will feel it in your forehead, in the third eye; and finally you will feel it all over.
The purifying, energising breath. There is another way of seeing light. While breathing, when you draw in the breath, please feel that you are breathing in something that is purifying all that has to be purified inside you and, at the same time, energising all that is unfed. In the beginning, there are quite a few things inside you that have to be purified. There are quite a few things which are hungry. So when you feel that you are feeding, energising and at the same time purifying them, then you will see that light becomes absolutely natural.
Breathe in a stream of love. When you are breathing in, feel a stream of divine love flowing in and through your body. You love yourself, you love God, you love your dearest and nearest ones, and you love humanity as a whole. So first please try to bring to the fore God’s love aspect. Love is the pioneer of all divine qualities. So when you cry for God, feel love—immediate, spontaneous, unreserved, soulful love.
Repeat ‘love’ throughout your body. Every day when you meditate, please say the word ‘love’ before you start your meditation. When you utter the word ‘love’, try to feel that your arms, your legs, your eyes and every part of you has increased its capacity. When you say the word ‘love’, you have to feel that your arms have become stronger, not to strike anybody, but to work for humanity. Then concentrate on your eyes and try to feel that you are using your eyes to see only good things in everybody. When you concentrate on your ears, feel that you want to hear only good things, encouraging and inspiring things. Each time you say the word ‘love’, concentrate on one of your organs. Then afterwards, try to concentrate on your inner consciousness. Try to expand it.
Become the fragrant flower. Feel that you have entered into a garden with many, many flowers. Choose one flower that you like and go near it. Appreciate its beauty and smell its fragrance. Then just say a few times, “How I wish I could be as pure and as beautiful as this flower.” After five minutes, try to imagine that an infinitesimal amount of beauty from that flower has entered into you. Then gradually try to feel that all the good qualities you are seeing in the flower—its beauty, its purity, its fragrance and so on—have entered into you and are inside you.
Now remember how much you loved that flower and how much joy it gave you. At first it had a separate existence. But little by little you brought its beauty and reality inside your own body and inside your own heart. Then try to feel that you do not have a body, you do not have a mind, you do not have anything. Think of yourself only as that most beautiful flower. Because you have become that beautiful flower, you are bound to appreciate yourself and love yourself the way that you loved the flower.
Feel God loves you more. Once you start loving yourself, you have to feel that God loves you infinitely more. If you are suffering from a physical ailment or something else, you may feel that nobody is there to love you or sympathise with you. But there is Someone and that Person is inside you—if you are suffering, then you have to know that He is suffering infinitely more. If you are happy, then He is infinitely happier. Try to cultivate the feeling that the Supreme, who is your highest part, is always feeling what you are feeling, only infinitely more. So if you love yourself, then He loves you infinitely more.
The rising sun. Every morning meditate on the sun. Although it is the same sun that is rising, every day we can see a new beauty inside the sun. Our mind is telling us that it is the same sun that we saw yesterday and the day before yesterday. But when the heart sees this same sun, there is tremendous joy, tremendous thrill, tremendous ecstasy.
We have to see and feel everything with the heart, not with the mind. The mind will tell us, “I have seen the sun already; I have been seeing it for so many years. There is nothing new in it.” But when the heart sees the same sun, the heart sees something new, with a thrilling sensation. That thrilling sensation itself is creating something new, and that newness is creating something special.
For the heart, every day is new, like the sun. When the sun rises, the mind will not care to look at the sun because the mind feels that it is the same old thing. Whether the sun is coming out of the water or out of the clouds, the mind does not care.
But the heart is waiting for the sun. The heart says, “When will it come? When will it come? When will it come?” The heart’s eagerness always sees newness in everything. If we use the heart, then everything is new. Every day, even though we are doing and seeing the same thing outwardly, the heart is constantly feeling new joy, new joy, new joy.
A child entering a garden. Feel that you are a child entering into a garden. When a grown up enters into a garden every day, he sees the flowers and says, “They are all the same as they were yesterday.” A child of four or five sees the same flowers that the grown up sees, but he gets a totally different kind of experience, which is all joy. When his heart sees a flower, that flower is something new for him. We see the same kinds of flowers for so many days, and once we see them, it is enough for us. Even the second day, it is all old. But every time the child sees the garden, for him everything is new.
You are seven years old. If you can feel sincerely that you are a seven-year-old girl or boy, so much poison that is inside your mind will disappear and easily you will be able to escape from your mind-jungle. Such enthusiasm and joy will enter into your life! Every day you will see your life in a new way and your sweet, sweeter, sweetest qualities you will be able to bring forward once again. At that time, you will blossom like a flower, petal by petal. For a seven-year-old child there is no doubt, no depression, no frustration, no negativity. The child is just jumping with joy and playing and playing in his heart-garden.
See your goal in the distance. Feel that you are seeing a garden two miles away. You have to tell yourself, “No matter how difficult the road is, if only I can arrive there, I will get so much joy. As soon as I reach the flowers and breathe in their fragrance, I will be the happiest person.” If you keep in mind the goal of happiness, then automatically you will develop patience.
Heart chakra and crown chakra. There are two chakras one can invoke for peace. One is the heart chakra and the other is the crown chakra. If we go to the heart centre, the peace that we will get will be only for our earthly existence, our daily activities. In the case of the heart, we will not be affected if the people around us are quarrelling or fighting. But if we go beyond this chakra and open up the crown centre, the Sahasrara chakra or thousand-petaled lotus, we will get infinite Peace, eternal Peace and transcendental Peace, because that chakra is connected with the highest height.
When you soulfully meditate,
The first thing you get
Is peace,
And this peace
Marks the beginning
Of your heart’s journey
Along the path of perfection.
Slowly or quickly. If you feel nervous or upset, there are two ways to bring down peace. One way is to breathe in quietly and say ‘Supreme’ three times very slowly. But if you find this difficult, you can invoke the Supreme as fast as possible. Fear or anxiety has a speed of its own. If you are about to be attacked by your enemy, then try to utter the Name of the Supreme much faster than the speed of the attack you are getting from anger or fear. If you can do this, the Supreme will immediately conquer your anger, frustration or fear.
Invoke the colour blue. Among the colours, blue is the best in order to invoke peace, because blue indicates Infinity. When one has Infinity, then he automatically invokes peace. Each colour has peace, but one can invoke peace best with blue.
If your meditation
Is truly high and deep,
Then you are bound to have
A silent dialogue with peace.
Remain one-pointed. To attain perfection, our meditation has to be one-pointed. It cannot be the kind of meditation in which the mind is one-pointed one moment and the next moment it is roaming in a wild forest—thinking of our friends or what we had for breakfast. If a single thought enters through the mind’s door, it is like a nail being hammered into the wall of our meditation. If there are no thoughts, then there is no hammer, no nail, nothing—just peace. Unfortunately, this kind of meditation is extremely difficult to have.
Pilgrimage to the sun. To make faster progress, think of the sun and think of yourself as a pilgrim who is either running or flying towards the sun. Or you can imagine a sun inside you that is extremely, extremely beautiful—infinitely more beautiful and more powerful than the outer sun. Feel that as a pilgrim, you are running as fast as possible, and the faster you are running, the more beauty, the more power, the more light, the more affection, the more love, the more fondness you are seeing in the inner sun. The faster you are running towards the sun, the more its own divine qualities are increasing, and at the same time they are beckoning you. The inner sun has all these divine qualities: love, affection, sweetness, fondness, concern and so on. If you can see yourself as a pilgrim running towards the sun, you will be able to make the fastest progress.
The sun dispelling the clouds. When you look at the morning sun, darkness disappears. At first the sun may be covered by clouds, but then it emerges from the clouds. Similarly, our human nature—our whole existence—has to come out of darkness. Then only can we make the fastest progress.
Again, you have to make progress slowly and steadily, not overnight. God-realisation is not like instant coffee.
Concentrate on a flower. As soon as you look at a flower, your mind becomes beautiful, your mind becomes pure, your mind becomes fragrant. If you look at a flower, your mind will be filled with pure thoughts. But you have to look at the flower most sincerely and intensely. You cannot gaze at it casually and allow your mind to roam freely. Your power of concentration has to be on the flower.
Look at a flower early in the morning and smell its fragrance, and immediately you will feel how pure the flower is. Or you can feel that there is a flower inside your heart blossoming petal by petal, let us say a rose or a lotus. The moment you see a flower, consciously or unconsciously you breathe in the purity of that flower. If you feel that a rose is blossoming petal by petal from within, then naturally the fragrance and purity of the rose will permeate your whole inner and outer existence.
Become a candle flame. If you do not have a flower, you can also use a candle flame. Do not concentrate on the base or the wax, but only on the flame. Imagine that you have become the flame itself. By looking at the flame, you will see that it is burning away all your impurities. The candle flame is constantly climbing up high, higher, highest. While it is climbing, it is illumining your ignorant existence.
Become the vast sky. One way to develop purity is to observe a small object, such as a flower or a flame. Again, by observing something larger than the largest, you can also develop purity. Look at the sky. That is the first step. The next step is to feel that you are inside the sky. First look at it, how vast it is. Then look at one portion of the sky and imagine that you have entered into it. Once you have entered into it, try to become the vastness itself. Impurity comes from the limited mind, whereas purity comes from vastness. The human mind is impure because the human mind is unable to become one with the Universal Reality. If something is vaster than the vastest—the sky or the sun or the Himalayas—then that vastness itself can give you purity.
Poise in the depths of the ocean. Another way to develop purity is to imagine the ocean. On the surface you are seeing that the ocean is full of turmoil and restlessness, but at the bottom there is poise. You can imagine that you are entering into the depths of the ocean.
These are several ways you can try. You can look at a flower or a flame. Again, you can choose something that is vaster than the vastest, higher than the highest or deeper than the deepest. Imagine that thing and try to enter into it.
Imagine your mind full of fragrance. Purity is already inside your heart—inside everybody’s heart. The mind is the part of us that lacks purity. So you have to exercise your imagination. Imagine that your mind is a most beautiful flower—whatever flower you like most, which gives you utmost joy. Imagine that you do not have a nose, or ears, or eyes; only feel that your entire head is a most beautiful flower that is full of fragrance.
Then look at your flower-face in the mirror. While looking lovingly at the flower for a few seconds, you cannot have undivine thoughts. When the beauty and fragrance of the flower are entering into your mind, you cannot think of undivine things.
Grow into your image in a mirror. Look at yourself in the mirror and feel that you are totally one with the physical being that you are seeing. Then try to enter into the image that you are seeing. From there you should try to grow. You will grow with one thought: God wants you and you need God. Repeat: “God wants me, I need God. God wants me, I need God.” Then you will see that slowly, steadily and gradually this divine thought is entering into you and permeating your inner and outer existence, giving you purity in your mind, vital and body.
Breathe in purity, breathe out impurity. Quietly and slowly breathe in and feel that with each breath you are bringing into your system peace, light and bliss. These qualities are nothing but purity itself. Then, when you breathe out, feel that you are breathing out all the ignorance and imperfection inside you. Through conscious breathing you can bring purity into your system; and each time you breathe out, throw out impurity.
Breathe in through your heart, out through your crown chakra. Impurity does not originate inside you; it is coming from outside—from the undivine consciousness of the outer world. It starts with the breath, when you inhale. Our impurity does not start below the navel; it starts in the nose, when we breathe in, and then it goes downward. So when you breathe in, you have to feel that it is the flower that is breathing in; you have to feel that the beauty and fragrance of the flower are receiving everything that is coming inside you.
Early in the morning breathe in consciously seven times, and while you breathe in try to feel that you are actually breathing in through your heart and not through your nose. Try to feel that your breath is entering you through your heart centre. And while you are breathing out try to feel that your breath is going up, up to the top of your head and out through the thousand-petalled lotus, the crown centre at the top of your head. If you can feel, and not just imagine, that you are breathing through your heart, immediately purity will enter and start revolving and functioning in you. When purity starts performing its role, impurity from the navel and lower centres travels up and is released. Do this early in the morning and in the evening also, if possible. Then your system is bound to be purified.
Enter the seven higher worlds. While breathing in, with each breath try to repeat ‘Supreme’ slowly seven times, and again do it seven times while breathing out. Inside you there are seven higher worlds and seven lower worlds. When you repeat ‘Supreme’ while breathing in, feel that you are going into the seven higher worlds inside you. Once you have reached the seven higher worlds, you will find solid power.
When you breathe out, think of the seven lower worlds within you and try to throw the strength of the higher worlds into them. Accumulate everything in the higher worlds and then, when you aree breathing out and saying ‘Supreme, Supreme, Supreme…’, enter into the lower worlds with peace, light and bliss to purify the lower worlds. First go up; then enter into the lower worlds where it is all ignorance and impurity. If you can purify the lower worlds after having reached the heights, you do not have to worry at all.
The sun and the moon. Look at the morning sun, the early rising sun. How beautiful it is! Do you see anything impure in it? No. Look at the moon. Do you see anything impure? Anything that you feel is outwardly pure, keep that thing right in front of your mental vision when you meditate.
Repeat ‘Supreme’ in your crown chakra. There are many ways to develop receptivity or to get immediate receptivity. Two ways I can tell you. One way is to repeat the word ‘Supreme’ over and over again, as fast as possible—just as fast as the Indian musicians say ‘Sa, re, ga, ma, pa, da, ni, sa.’ But it must be done in silence. First select one place in your body, let us say your crown centre [at the top of the head], and concentrate there while repeating ‘Supreme’ as fast as possible. Then select another spot and concentrate there, and repeat ‘Supreme’ again. It is better to go from the top down than from the bottom up.
It does not have to be a psychic centre. It can be any place that you like. Suppose you like your right eye. Then concentrate there and chant ‘Supreme, Supreme, Supreme’ in silence.
Or if I have given you a spiritual name, you can chant your own name, or ‘Guru, Guru, Guru’, or any other thing in which you have all faith. Since you always have faith in the Supreme, that is usually the best.
If you can do this in seven different places in your body, at one particular place you are bound to find yourself receptive. You can concentrate anywhere—the head, the forehead, the heart, the navel, the foot—anywhere. In at least one particular place, if you have concentrated seriously, you are bound to receive. Receptivity does not always have to be in the heart. Even in the foot you can receive something.
Bring light into your heart. Receptivity is the flow of cosmic energy and cosmic light. When you concentrate on any place, try to bring light into yourself. After you have brought it inside, the next thing is to bring it to the absolutely right place, the heart. The best reservoir to store what you have received is the heart.
The child lost in the woods. Another way to create receptivity is to make yourself feel that you are only three years old, a mere babe in the woods. You have no mother, no father, no brother, no sister, nobody at all to protect you, and you are alone in a forest on a very, very dark night. All around you is darkness.
Nobody is there to help you; death is dancing right in front of you, and you are totally lost. Then what do you do? You cry within for help: “Save me! Save me! I have nobody here! Save me!” When that kind of inner cry comes, the Supreme is bound to open your heart, or I will be there to say, “Do not feel helpless; you are God’s child. Why should you have to be insecure?”
At times you are not receptive just because you have become too secure; you have become complacent because you are satisfied with your material possessions. Once you are satisfied with the things that you have, why should you cry for something more? When you have this kind of complacent feeling, at that time your inner cry ceases.
But if you feel that you are absolutely helpless, and that you are desperately in need of God, then naturally your inner cry will be strong. You need not feel that you are helpless and lost every day and every hour—far from it. But if you are complacent, if you feel that what you have is sufficient, then why should God take care of you? You do not need His Help. As long as you are complacent, you can have no receptivity. You have to change your attitude; you have to feel that you are totally, totally helpless and lost without God.
When you pray,
Think of a lost child within you
Crying helplessly.
When you meditate,
Think of a morning flower
Smiling and smiling,
Radiating its beauty
And offering its fragrance.
This is how you can make friends
With your soul
And fly with it infinitely higher
Than the confines of the mind.
Expand your pond into an ocean. If you see that you have a little receptivity, then dig more. Do not be satisfied with the receptivity that you have. Today, if it is a tiny pool, make it into a pond, then make it into a big lake, then into a sea. Receptivity can be expanded like that, gradually. Starting with a small hole, gradually make it large, larger, largest. Once you receive some light, try to grow into the light itself.
Increase your physical strength. Some people need to be physically stronger in order to receive more. Otherwise, you will not be able to develop more receptivity. When light, abundant light, descends from Above, it will be very difficult for you to hold it if you are not physically stronger.
Connect your heart-flower and shrine flower. While you are placing a flower on your shrine, try to feel that this flower is reminding you of your heart, which you want to be as beautiful as the flower. You cannot see your heart, but you can look at a flower and say, “How I wish my heart were as beautiful as this flower!”
Then try to feel that this flower is breathing, the same way that your heart is taking in your life-breath. Connect your heart-flower and the outer flower. While you are looking at the flower on the shrine, feel that your breath is entering into it. Then again, feel that the flower has entered into your heart and there it is breathing. Your heart-flower and the flower that you have placed on the shrine are going to and fro; they are constantly interchanging. The flower that is on the shrine is entering into your heart, and again it is coming out to be on the shrine.
If you can do this during your meditation, then your heart will become purer than the purest, and you will be able to absorb God’s Compassion, Love, Blessings—anything that He wants to give you—in absolutely abundant measure because your heart is all ready to receive.
Speak like a child. To simplify your life, just think of yourself as a four-year-old child. Try to imagine the way he thinks of reality. If you have to form a sentence, instead of twenty words, just use three or four words. If you have to talk to someone about a so-called complicated matter, see how you can simplify it. No matter with whom you are talking, you have to feel that you are a child and that person is also a child. Always try to have a childlike consciousness and to see each and every human being as another child. When a childlike quality comes into your life, everything automatically becomes simple.
Cry like a baby. Try to imagine right in front of you a baby crying pitifully for its mother’s attention. The cry of a baby is absolutely sincere. If you can identify yourself with the child’s sincere cry, with its helplessness, then sincerity will automatically dawn.
The drop entering the ocean. First think of a tiny drop of water and then throw that tiny drop into the sea. When you do that, you will not be able to see the drop any longer. You will see the sea itself. You do not want to surrender or you find it difficult to surrender because you feel that if you do, then you will no longer exist. But what happens when the drop enters into the sea is that it becomes one with the sea. Think of yourself as a drop and think of God as the ocean. This moment you are a tiny drop—outside, alone and helpless—and the next moment you are one with the vast ocean.
Replace your existence with the Supreme. Stand about three and a half feet [one metre] away from a wall. Then, make a very tiny black circle on the wall at eye level, and inside the circle make one dot. It has to be black. With your eyes half open, gaze at the circle, focusing all your attention on it. Try not to see anything else except the circle. After two or three minutes, try to feel that you are totally one with the circle, that your whole existence is inside it. Then go beyond the circle to the other side of the wall. When you go through the circle and beyond it, try to look back at your own physical reality, the reality that is standing in front of the wall. You started from the physical body, but now you have sent your subtle body to the other side of the wall. From there try to look back at your physical. This will give you some satisfaction.
Complete satisfaction will come when you look at only the dot inside the circle, and not the circle itself. Try to see your own self there, your own face of aspiration. Feel that you exist only there and nowhere else. Then try to feel that your existence, your face, your consciousness, everything, is replaced by the Supreme. Once you feel that your previous existence has been totally replaced by the Supreme, you will have established your inseparable oneness with the Will of the Supreme.
The illumining flame. If you want to feel the clarity of Truth, please always try to see the burning, illumining flame within you which is constantly trying to illumine the unlit part of you.
Listen to the inner message. Go deep within and try to listen to the message of your inner being. Try to feel that there is Someone who is always ready at every moment to offer you a divine message. Inside this message you will see the clarity of Truth. Then it is up to you to utilise this clarity in your life of aspiration. There are many people on earth who have not heard the inner message. Again, there are many who have heard the inner message of Truth, yet they find it difficult to apply what they have learned in their day-to-day life because of their lack of faith in themselves. They see the Truth, but they feel that this Truth is so vast that it will devour them if they try to utilise it. This is absurd. Truth cannot devour or destroy anybody; it only energises, illumines and fulfils us.
The sun blazing in the forehead. Let us meditate on our forehead. Let us imagine that it is now midday. It is twelve o’clock and the sun is very, very bright. It is a blazing sun inside our forehead, in between the eyebrows but slightly above. There burns a blazing sun and it is twelve o’clock noon. This is for our identification with the will-power consciousness.
Dig deep into your heart. The easiest and most effective way to cultivate will-power is to concentrate on your heart and then dig there every day. But do not be satisfied with your digging. Today you have dug and you have come to a certain point. Then tomorrow again you have to dig further. The deeper you can go, the sooner you will feel and see the light. First you feel, then you see, then you become. First you will feel that there is something inside like a very tiny insect: that is the light. Then you will see it with your inner vision or with your human vision. Finally you will grow into it.
Feel the pulse in your thumb. Hold the end of your thumb tightly with your first finger, and try to feel a pulsation only in the tip of your thumb. Feel that that pulsation is your life energy, your breath, your mission, your realisation, soul and Goal. It is all there in the tip of your thumb. Then look at your thumbnail and feel that there is your dream and reality. When an idea comes to you to do something, you will get all the will-power you need from your thumb.
Incidentally, the thumb can also be used to determine whether or not a person has will-power. If a person’s thumb is pointed at the end, generally that person has will-power. The more pronounced the point, the more will-power he is likely to have.
Go deep into your third eye. Sit cross-legged in front of a very small mirror, with your back straight. Do not hold the mirror in your hand, but set it up at eye level, so that you will be able to see only your face. Try to see your third eye. Inside your third eye imagine a deep hole, and try to see inward, not downward, through the hole. Go as far in as possible. When you reach your ultimate capacity, try to see all your love there—the love that you have for your life. When you have seen all your love, try to imagine the Supreme in that place. Feel there is your love-field and offer it to the Supreme. Then you will be able to accomplish in the inner world all the things that you wanted to do.
Will-power in the body, vital, mind and heart. Physical will-power enables you to keep your body firm, but not stiff. You will not move to and fro during your meditation. Your physical will-power will keep you properly stationed in one place. To use your physical will-power, feel that divine energy is descending and flowing like a river all over the body.
Vital will-power is the outgoing energy or thought of dominating others. While you are meditating, you may have some desire to show your friends that you are far superior to them. Instead, expand yourself, feel that you are like a bird and you are spreading your wings to cover each and every one in the whole world.
Mental will-power is operating when you think you know much more than others. Instead, use your mind’s will-power to eliminate any thought. The best use of your mental will-power is not to allow any thought to enter your mind.
If you use your psychic will-power, which is the heart’s will, then you will feel that you have become inseparably one with the rest of the world. During meditation it is always safest to use your psychic will, heart’s will, oneness.