Chapter 1. Meditation: The Language of God

Meditation tells us only one thing: God is.

Meditation reveals to us only one truth: ours is the vision of God.

WHY DO WE MEDITATE?

Why do we meditate? We meditate because this world of ours has not been able to fulfil us. The so-called peace that we feel in our day-to-day life is five minutes of peace after ten hours of anxiety, worry and frustration. We are constantly at the mercy of the negative forces that are all around us: jealousy, fear, doubt, worry, anxiety and despair. These forces are like monkeys. When they get tired of biting us and take rest for a few minutes, then we say that we are enjoying peace. But this is not real peace at all, and the next moment they will attack us again.

It is only through meditation that we can get lasting peace, divine peace. If we meditate soulfully in the morning and receive peace for only one minute, that one minute of peace will permeate our whole day. And when we have a meditation of the highest order, then we get really abiding peace, light and delight. We need meditation because we want to grow in light and fulfil ourselves in light. If this is our aspiration, if this is our thirst, then meditation is the only way.

If we feel that we are satisfied with what we have and what we are, then there is no need for us to enter into the field of meditation. The reason we enter into meditation is because we have an inner hunger. We feel that within us there is something luminous, something vast, something divine. We feel that we need this thing very badly; only right now we do not have access to it. Our inner hunger comes from our spiritual need.

Meditation is not an escape

If we enter into the life of meditation in order to escape from the world and forget our sufferings, then we are doing it for the wrong reason. If we enter into the spiritual life because of outer frustration or dissatisfaction, then we may not remain in the spiritual life. Today I have failed to satisfy my desires; so I am dissatisfied with the world. But tomorrow I will say, “Let me try again. Perhaps this time I will get satisfaction.” But eventually we will feel that the desire-life will never satisfy us; we will feel the need to enter into the inner life. This is aspiration.

In the life of aspiration, we want only God. If we sincerely want God, then naturally He will give Himself to us. But He will do it in His own way and at His own time. If we pray and meditate with sincere aspiration for certain qualities, even if God does not grant them to us, still we will be satisfied. We will simply say, “He knows best. Right now I am not ready for these things. But He will definitely give them to me the day I am ready.” In the life of aspiration it is not our achievement that gives us satisfaction; it is our aspiration. Aspiration itself is our satisfaction.

Conscious aspiration and effort

Spirituality cannot be achieved by pulling or pushing. We cannot pull down spiritual light by hook or by crook. When it comes down on its own, only on the strength of our aspiration will we be able to receive it. If we try to pull the light beyond our capacity of receptivity, our inner vessel will break. How do we receive this light from above? How do we expand our consciousness so that our receptivity will increase? The answer is meditation.

Meditation does not mean just sitting quietly for five or ten minutes. It requires conscious effort. The mind has to be made calm and quiet. At the same time, it has to be vigilant so as not to allow any distracting thoughts or desires to enter. When we can make the mind calm and quiet, we will feel that a new creation is dawning inside us. When the mind is vacant and tranquil and our whole existence becomes an empty vessel, our inner being can invoke infinite peace, light and bliss to enter into the vessel and fill it. This is meditation.

When we think that it is we who are trying to meditate, then meditation seems complicated. But real meditation is not done by us. It is done by our Inner Pilot, the Supreme, who is constantly meditating in and through us. We are just the vessel, and we are allowing Him to fill us with His whole Consciousness. We start with our own personal effort, but once we go deep within, we see that it is not our effort that is allowing us to enter into meditation. It is the Supreme who is meditating in and through us with our conscious awareness and consent.

Each person’s soul has its own way of meditating. My way of meditating will not suit you, and your way of meditating will not suit me. There are many seekers whose meditation is not fruitful because they are not doing the meditation that is right for them. If you do not have a spiritual Master who can guide you, then you have to go deep within and get your meditation from the inmost recesses of your heart.

This is very difficult for a beginner. You have to go deep, deep within and see if you get a voice or thought or idea. Then you have to go deep into this voice or thought and see if it gives you a feeling of inner joy or peace, where there are no questions or problems or doubts. Only when you get this kind of feeling, can you know that the voice that you have heard is the real inner voice which will help you in your spiritual life.

But if you have a teacher who is a realised soul, his silent gaze will teach you how to meditate. A Master does not have to explain outwardly how to meditate, or give you a specific technique of meditation. He will simply meditate on you and inwardly teach you how to meditate. Your soul will enter into his soul and learn from his soul. All real spiritual Masters teach meditation in silence.

The ultimate aim of meditation is to establish our conscious union with God. We are all God’s children, but right now we do not have conscious oneness with God. Someone may believe in God, but this belief is not a reality in his life. He just believes in God because some saint or Yogi or spiritual Master has said there is a God, or because he has read about God in spiritual books. But if we practise meditation, a day comes when we establish our conscious oneness with God. At that time, God gives us His infinite peace, infinite light and infinite bliss, and we grow into this infinite peace, light and bliss.

Q&A

Question: How does one meditate?

Sri Chinmoy: There are two ways to meditate. One way is to silence the mind. An ordinary man feels that if he silences the mind, he becomes a fool. He feels that if the mind does not think, the mind has lost everything. But this is not true in the spiritual life. In the spiritual life, when we silence the mind we see that a new creation, a new promise to God, dawns in the mind. Right now we have not fulfilled our promise to God; we have not totally dedicated our existence to God. When we can silence the mind, we are in a position to please and fulfil God.

Another way to meditate is to empty the heart. Right now the heart is full of emotional turmoil and problems caused by the impure vital which has enveloped it. The heart is a vessel. Right now this vessel is full of undivine things, things that limit and bind us. If we can empty the heart-vessel, there is someone who will fill it with divine peace, light and bliss, which will liberate us. When we empty our heart of ignorance, God’s Wisdom-Light will come and fill it.

Question: If a person does not believe in God, can he practise meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: If a person does not believe in God, he can practise meditation but he may not achieve anything. Meditation is the path that leads to God. If you do not believe in God, then naturally you will not follow that path.

Question: Is meditation the highest reality?

Sri Chinmoy: You can say that for a beginner meditation is the highest reality. But when one becomes an advanced seeker, one knows that meditation only leads to the highest reality. If someone has been living in ignorance, if he has never prayed or meditated in his life even for a minute, for him meditation is naturally the highest reality that his consciousness can achieve. But when he has practised meditation for a few years, he knows that meditation itself is not the highest reality. The highest reality is something he achieves or grows into by walking along the path of meditation.

Question: As one evolves spiritually and achieves realisation, does the focus of his meditation change?

Sri Chinmoy: After one has achieved realisation, it is not necessary for him to meditate the way a seeker meditates. When someone has attained realisation, which is oneness with the Supreme, his meditation is continuous. When a seeker has realised God, he does not meditate to achieve something or to go beyond something. He meditates to bring down peace, light and bliss for humanity or to awaken the consciousness of others.

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What is meditation? Meditation is man’s self- awakening and God’s Self-offering. When man’s self-awakening and God’s Self-offering meet together, man becomes immortal in the inner world and God becomes fulfilled in the outer world.

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Meditation is the language of God. If we want to know what God’s Will is in our life, if we want God to guide us, mould us and fulfil Himself in and through us, then meditation is the language that we must use.