Part A
Mana ki andar ki sadhana karo
Mana ko bahar ki vastuo se door karo
Mana ko aadat dalo chup hone ki, shanti ki, pratiti ki,
Eeshwar ke anubhuti ki, atma prakash ke darshan ki
Aur bahut kaal tak eeshwar ke dhyan mie rehene ki.
Atma bodh kathin hai kyunki is mei parishram and thakan adhik hai
Parantu ek bar prarpt karne ke bad sada sada ke liye vishram hai.
Isliye mana ko modo, mana ko sansari baton se sada door rakho
Chahe hum sansar mei rahe parantu yadi hum kuch samay pratah kaal eeshwar ka dhyan kare
To mana poora din shaant rahega, itni takat hai eeshwar mei ki shanti poora din bahegi
Isliye nirantar eeshawar ka dhyan karo jab tak ki
Avastha aisi aa jaye ki sare din mei kabhi bhi bhagwan ya guru se dhyan hatega hi nahi.
Vaha paripakva avastha tak aa jao aur eeshawar mei vishram karo
Us shanti me doob jayo aur anek janmo ki thakan ko door karo.
Om shanti shanti shanti Om!
Translation-
Perform inner sadhana of mind
Detach your mind from worldly subjects
Habituate your mind to remain silent, to remain calm and to live in divine perceptions
Make it a habit for the mind to experience God, to see Divine Light
And let your mind have the habit of remaining in constant communion with God over a long period of time
Given that Self Realization is arduous to attain since it demands extreme effort and one is exhausted in the process
Yet once you achieve it, there is rest for forever
Therefore transform your mind, keep it away from worldly chitchat and repartee
Although we may live in this world but if we spare sometime in the morning to meditate on God
The mind will remain calm because God has so much power that
Peace begot from God will linger throughout the day
Therefore always meditate on God until you
Arrive at a stage when your mind never off tracks from the thought of God or Guru
Come up till this established stage and rest in God forever
Immerse in that God peace and get rid of the weariness of many lives
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti Om !
Meditation is a gift of God, I now understand when at the airport yesterday I could yet again connect effortlessly to get an answer to someone’s question which was put up to me recently. The more I remain connected with divine bliss and peace, the more I understand the great words of the great illumined masters who advocate to me that no matter what happens outside, dive deep within yourself, you shall find deep peace, divine peace, blissful peace waiting for you to be savored. I express my thanks and gratitude liberally to all my Spiritual Masters to have shown me this pathway and gave me great wisdom. It is they who have reiterated so often the importance of diverting the wandering mind inwards and harnessing the infallible ananda, shanti permeated in Brahma, the Self which is all ours. My heart is so full of thanksgiving and gratefulness this moment to have received such mellifluous and peace-giving gifts such as meditation and along with that the inculcating of the qualities of devotion, tranquility, gratitude, faith, sincerity and the most important of all-obedience towards my gurus.
That morning, I had prayed to God to tell me how can I continue serving them in spite of my overtly disrupted routine and kindly let me know what is it that I must now begin to write for the next post so that all those who are following the blog sincerely may get their answers; their doubts should be dispelled and they should get over their shortcomings as quickly as possible. The response came in instantly in this poem which flowed without a break as I kept on writing in my diary.
After the wisdom filled poem, Swami Dayananda Shaligram spoke these following golden words for all the seekers, whether they are just the beginners or have advanced much higher on the spiritual step ladder. A disciple, he said should have these qualities if he/she wishes to open the door of the kingdom of God.
“Control the senses by controlling your mind. Once the mind is controlled, the senses automatically come under our control.
It is the manas, or the mana , our mind that first wanders and then proliferates further in worldly affairs and material stickiness. Beware of its nature of proliferation. We have come here to wind up our sansara, to tie up the loose ends and conclude our accumulated karmas done over past so many lives. Instead we are spreading out, diversifying and expanding our physical and material worlds. The mind should be hooked and anchored to the mind of the Guru or God whatever the state of the disciple is and not become dull because of constant rubbing in of worldly matters. The more time the mind is immersed in thoughts of God, the lesser it will trouble you.
So not controlling the mind can prove to be detrimental and create more diversions for the mind. Because we have done so much wandering in so many lives that it becomes difficult to control and bring the mind to rest by meditating now. Also the mind refuses to budge and cannot be controlled by any tool or method for the reason that it has become a habit for it to fritter, chatter or just be malicious and negative.
It takes a lot of time and unrelenting effort and persistence to master the mind but even your slightest effort adds up to the bank balance of your good karmas. So practice some form of mind taming by controlling it by various types of spiritual and mind training methods and techniques available to you. You may practice anything, but do it regularly and sincerely over a considerable time period to get results.
There is peace inside us. Our mind must be made peaceful so that its peace helps us to realize God within us. No matter what practice you perform, never give up until you get the desired results. It is ‘tamas’ or dullness in us which stops us and hinders our spiritual growth. To avoid that, do not postpone your spiritual duties; perform all your daily duties and do no waste your time in negative or unproductive thinking. Perform actions which are helpful in your spiritual goals by saving time everyday.”
Such great wisdom packed in such a small package! Friends, I am expressing my gratefulness once again at the holy feet of Shaligram Maharaj who with great compassion and concern has summarized the pearls of great wisdom in Bhagwat Geeta in small capsules for us to open and assimilate. I offer my many, many thanks and pranams to him for this post!
Part B
On the last day of my stay in the Ashram on 17th morning before my meditation, I went to the holy Banyan Tree in its compound to pay my respect and seek blessings. 
This time during my trip to Delhi I did not get the probability to sit down at leisure at its trunk in order to have a long discourse with it because of consistent time constraint. So I just stood there silently with much reverence and gratitude and my eyes shut with devotion and I let the moments flow uninterruptedly. In a few instants I got energized and revived as I received abundant pranic energy which gave me respite from the tiredness caused by excess carbon dioxide inside me because the hectic activities consumed most of the oxygen in my cells.
Each pore of my body opened up little by little and each cell began to expand with unconstrained pranic energy entering them with a huge gush. I felt completely rejuvenated in no time and felt at that time as if I was never inflicted with any exhaustion during my hectic days. I inhaled the brilliant air passionately to absorb all the pure oxygen as fast as I could that was prevalent in the vicinity.
When some amazing moments passed by, I felt so privileged when I heard the tree talking with me once again, “Do you think I would have let you go to Bombay with this kind of weariness? You are doing selfless tasks most of the day after finishing your personal duties and so you must benefit from me. Now inhale deeply a few more times and store that vital force inside your brain to be used up for writing the next article. I too wish to serve Mahavatar Babaji in his mission by giving you prana instantly so that you can use it for his blog.” I was gratified as I felt so very humbled to have got a shot in the arm with fresh air and I bloomed and revived like a sunflower which was drooping in absence of the Sun!
Keeping that intention and sankalpa in my view, I inhaled deeply all the fresh air surrounding me along with the blessings bestowed as I prayed and wished quietly in my heart that all the readers who happen to read this post must also get the special mental force bestowed on me. Instantly reading my mind, at this point the holy tree said, “On your next post due on 20th Aug, put a picture of a red hibiscus flower, the red hibiscus which is blooming on that bush next to me. Pluck not the one that your eyes see easily but the one that is just below it and the one which is hardly visible to anyone. That one is sacred and has tremendous energy, it will give you and your blog subtle pranic energy.
Genuine saints never exhibit their real divine powers; they keep their siddhis or extraordinary divine powers a secret because they do not like to flaunt them, just like this red beautiful flower. I revealed to you its hidden subtle powers of subtle energies. But people are ignorant and foolish, just because the good souls are extremely humble and refuse to flaunt their divine powers, they are not respected.
Whatever comes from God is sacred; whatever is sacred should be revered. If you show no respect to your teacher or Guru, you will make errors after errors and consequently you will not get bliss and real joy from God. So tell all the readers to read each word with reverence and instill full faith and devotion in the givers.
This blog has unrestricted yet incomprehensible divine, supreme knowledge bestowed by the compassionate Grace of Shri Mahavatar Babaji. It is timeless and priceless; realize its value and worth. Don’t squander your valuable time in unproductive actions and activities. Contemplate on every word that is being said here, value the time and energy being spent on creating this blog and respect all those who have made it possible. By showing reverence and devotion to those, you shall appreciate and comprehend the hidden knowledge preserved in it, secreted yet disclosed in these words. The Mahatmas are ever waiting for you to change your behavior and wrong actions and have compassion for you yet the human takes infinite time to turn his mischievous mind towards divine qualities. Therefore, do not hesitate to peep inside your inner being and throw out all the trash and negative thoughts and habits like anger, ego, envy, pride, lack of humility and gratitude.”
As if this was not enough, the kind Banyan Tree unfolded yet another secreted piece of scientific knowledge of Yogic world. He revealed to me, “And for those who are real devotees and are seriously practicing meditation I want them to know this- the more prana or vital force you have, the more you will be able to meditate. The higher realms of spiritual kingdom can be accessed with the blessing of the divine guru and high level of fine energy called sukhshma prana.
The more Iccha shakti you have, the more prana your body will contain effortlessly. If you have a strong will or Iccha shakti, the more prana you shall have from prakriti or nature because of which you will be able to meditate more deeply. We can draw in prana mentally from nature in meditation for this purpose. If you meditate on a healthy or holy tree situated anywhere, you can draw huge ‘prana’ while sitting at home when you focus your mind deeply on such a sanctified and revered tree; while staying at home, you shall be revived. Iccha shakti is vital to improve your power of meditation. Therefore improve and increase your power of will.”
I thanked the gracious tree copiously and prayed to it that I should never forget any word of such great wisdom gifted to me by its grace. The red hibuscus flower was hiding so much in the thick bush that I had to bring it in my room in the Ashram to take its picture. Here is that sacred beautiful flower!!
After I left the Ashram that night in my house, I thought of my splendid experience with the holy tree many a times, more so about the revelation that we can acquire greater heights in our meditations by our power of will and I was so very delighted to discover this truth!
I became so much richer and wealthier with this knowledge!!
As I bring to a close this post, I remember a few lines from Bhagwat Geeta from Chapter 2 from verses 64, 65 & 66. The eternal spiritual wisdom in it stands true even today: these shlokas seem to conclude everything that a struggling seeker must acquire and I would be keen on to quote them here…
Raagdveshviyuktaiastu vishyaniindriiyaishrachran I
Atmavashyaivirdheyatma prasadamdhigachati II 64
But the self controlled Sadhak while enjoying the various sense objects through his senses, which are disciplined and free from likes and dislikes, attains placidity of mind.
Prasade sarvadukhanam hanirsyopajayate I
Prasannachetaso hvashu buddhi: paryavatishthate II 65
With the attainment of such placidity of mind, all his sorrows come to an end; and the intellect of such a person of tranquil mind soon withdrawing itself from all sides, becomes firmly established in God.
Naasti budhiryuktasya na chayuktasya bhavana I
Na chabhavayata: shantirshantasya kutu: sukham II 66
He who has not controlled his mind and senses can have no reason; nor can such an undisciplined man think of God. The unthinking man can have no peace; and how can there be happiness for one lacking peace of mind?
(Refer the previous post and one more titled- ‘The state of Super Consciousness-I to read all the other conversations with the sacred Banyan Tree)
The picture of the lovely sunflower has been gifted to me recently by one blog reader. Thanks Nish.
Very little is known about Swami Dayananda Shaligram of Ganeshpuri.He was the foremost disciple of Swami Nityananda. Other posts divulging about his shrouded personal life and spiritual teachings are in these articles-What is renunciation?-II,& How to make your life extraordinary from ordinary?