As I reminisce my journey and the exclusive moments on and off, I am compelled to revisit the feelings and thoughts that came to my mind after I saw that beautiful lake. Meditation was so easy and natural there. At that moment, I realized that-
The mind by nature is calm and quiet and humans long, long ago must be meditating naturally!! Meditating is the natural way of living.
The sound of the rustling wind, the chirping of birds on trees and the natural foliage that passed us in between urged me to go deeper inside myself and look for more inside while the car was racing through the dusty patches. Today in the noise and hustle bustle of the city, we long for some solitude and quietude. Our present life styles and consciousness is man created and is not natural I have concluded. No wonder we do not meditate. In my opinion, everyone must meditate and it must be taught to us like we have learnt so many other skills of life. And why don’t we meditate? That’s because we have got used to living in a fake, chaotic, restless society and are accustomed to this synthetic living style.
Since I have come back, I have been trying to practice silencing my mind as much as I can and as long as it can be made quiet. I just close my eyes in between two activities and dive and plunge inside off and on. I find peace inside. This unalloyed peace pulls me to itself again and again as if there is a depth-less ocean inside me filled with pearls and other enticing lovely beauties. I am making an attempt these days to quickly empty my mind with the faces, actions of people and whatever images that get formed in it after my interaction with them. With regular attempts, it gets emptied quickly and I am back to my quiet self, my natural state. How beautiful it is just to close the eyes and drink the nectar of elixir and the sweet honey words of the Formless that guides me and teaches me my next lesson! God is forever encouraging me to delve deeper and still deeper in the sunken mines of treasures of diamonds and rubies that are buried at the deepest surface. I sometimes wonder what took me so long to understand that contemplation and meditation are such sweet gifts to humanity by God and we do not recognize this wealth bestowed on us by the Almighty?
Yesterday night, as I was practicing to dive deeper till the last levels of my mind, I saw during meditation that there is nothing left to be seen or to be emptied at that moment. There was no thought, no movement and the mind’s activities were completely nullified. I became a spectator of this great moment and was just there. Just then pure white Light began to dissipate and filled up my vision. Like the mist on a mountain top, the light spread evenly and I entered it. The Light became denser like the thick rain clouds and filled up every dot of space of my vision. The thin luminosity became brighter and more radiant and covered and extended the space completely. Like a very thick fog scattered in all directions, the Light filled up my inner eye’s vision. Next what I saw, left me completely breathless and astounded. Among the brilliant Light, there was a wooden plank or ramp and from behind this thick white Light, Mahavatar Babaji emerged and he began to walk down the plank. His face was glowing brightly and he had a serene smile on his face. I was standing down gazing at the fabulous scene that was going on.
The very image of dear Babaji left me in a joyous spirit and I waited in anticipation to know what would happen next. Babaji came down towards me, looked into my face, smiled at me and took my left hand in his right one. He held me and I was certainly jubilant. He then embraced me unexpectedly and when I got closer to him, I saw a huge white Light emanating from his heart. The Light’s circumference was very, very large. His Light originating from the heart began mingling with a small light in my heart. Both the lights became united and one light in a moment. Overjoyed at what was going on, I silently thanked him profusely from the core of my heart and I was soaking with gratitude.
His compassionate eyes, which are always so serene, fell on me. Out of gratitude and contentment I felt at that instance that the purpose of this life has been met. What more do I have to ask for or achieve now? I am so blessed to experience this kind of divine touch and illumination from my beloved Divine Father!! Like a little child, I wanted to hold him forever and I did not want him to go or leave me. All this happened in a few moments but I was aware throughout and was absorbing every bit of my memorable experience.
Babaji made a gesture to me as if we should now proceed. We both began to go towards the plank and we walked up on it till the top after which we both disappeared in the luminosity of vast white Light.
He then uttered two very beautiful words from his sacred mouth – Chetna shakti and Atma shakti.
He explained to me, “Every individual has his own level of awareness and understanding. That is his level of consciousness or chetna. The chetna or consciousness has its own power. Most people are from low level of consciousness because their awareness is confined to merely materialistic, gross and physical level. The higher the awareness, the higher the consciousness or chetna. When the Chetna shakti of the individual joins and unites with Atma Shakti or Universal Spirit, that is Super consciousness. It takes place at Brahmarandra or crown chakra.
All sacred knowledge, truth and divine illumination takes place at Brahmarandra.
Illumination comes from God, beauty comes from God, truth comes from God. The state in which there are no thoughts is called nirvikalpa.
The sages, saints and yogis compare the state of the mind with that of a lake. They tell us that we must still our mind like the still waters of the lake. The reflection of the moon cannot be seen by us unless the water is without any ripples and movement.
The light rays of the sun can only be reflected provided the surface is clean. Likewise, our interior of the core of our heart should be absolutely purified if the rays of illumination from the Super Consciousness are to arrive at us.
There are two aspects here. First is the stillness of the mind and the second is the purity of the mind. They both go hand in hand.
Every one has his own type of consciousness. Individual consciousness is the power of that person’s thoughts. It is the collective power of his physical, emotional and mental bodies. Each individual has his own mental body, emotional and thought body. After this is the realm of the Atman or Super Consciousness. This collective power of all the bodies is also called the Chetna Shakti. When the individual purifies and stills the mind, his consciousness rises and when he unites his mind with continuous meditation with the Universal Self or Super Consciousness, his individual self is enlarged.
The aura becomes more powerful than before, thinking abilities increase, intellect and memory are sharpened and the meditator gains extra powers to gain access to the limitless powers of the Divine. We become more aware as we move away from dross and physical to Spiritual realms gradually.
This process of uniting your limiting self to the infinite power called Super Consciousness is not complete and cannot be achieved without meditation.
Those who live in wilderness and nature do this naturally without their knowledge. The silence of the mountains, valleys, forests have taught us to be quiet. That’s how the human being has learnt to remain quiet and meditate. It goes to prove that it is natural for us to remain in periods of quietude and tranquility.
So why don’t we learn to meditate and know our true and natural state of mind? Today the noise outside and the chatter inside seem natural and real. We have lost our freedom to choose between noise and tranquility. So you choose now.”
Key Terms: #Mahavatar Babaji # Chetna, #ChetnaShakti, #AtmaShakti, #Brahmarandra, #No thoughts NirvikalpaState, #Super Consciousness