Dear readers, there was one post on Face book last Sunday, 9.10.16 which had part one only. Since the post was comprehensive, the complete detailed article on ‘The after effects of Meditation’ is pursued on WordPress blog today. It was 9th of 12 posts which are published every Sunday on Facebook mainly. It deals with-
What is our mind? How does it work? Who has the power to start or stop it?
What are its powers and how can we learn to bring it to its highest worth and power?
What training is required to control it? What foods make it healthy and robust?
How can we stop its degeneration and sliding down? Is it possible to remain eternally youthful and radiant?
Presenting the complete article now whose title is-The after effects of Meditation.
Preface – Swami Shivanandji’s cosmic message coming in my meditation telepathically at dusk on 04.10.16 via this new post.
This post is also for your preparation of the Annual Meet and Workshop in Rishikesh, Nov 2016 and your consistent sadhana later on. The next 4 posts will be from Swamiji as our grounding and preparation for our higher studies for the Workshop and subsequent practice of our transformation. It is a long post which will be divided into 3 Parts-I, II and III. Part I is available on Facebook while the remaining parts will be available only on WordPress blog. In the previous post- https://spiritinlife.blog/2016/10/03/my-most-unexpected-communique-with-guru-gorakh-nath-ii-how-to-escape-further-bondage-and-suffering/
I had quoted from Swami Shivanandji’s book – Mind, its mysteries and control. They are basically nuggets of advance knowledge of ancient scriptures and have summaries of Vedantic knowledge. Hence, it has escaped the grasp of majority of readers. Some background of Oriental scriptures is necessary to understand the crux of the matter. Anyhow, do not be disheartened. Simplified version and elongated explanation is provided in the following article to help you understand this subject. The next four articles will be transmitted by Swami Shivanandji, after which I am certain you shall be able to access into the depths of the science and mysteries of the mind as well as into this article.
How to read these extra ordinary posts?
Read with a calm mind, read in parts, then as a whole and contemplate on the subject. After you have finished that, revise, recall and recapitulate your thoughts and synthesize the entire content in your mind as a summary. Apply it in your meditation and silence periods during the day or night. Study your mind, change your old way of thinking and replace your old style of thinking with right thinking, right attitude and right approach to every day situation. The old issues will resolve and the mind will become calm and virtuous permanently.
Part I
Why did you take this birth? Did you ask yourself ever once?
What is the purpose of your stay here, did you find out until now?
Where will you go from here, do you have any idea about this matter?
What will become of you once you die and live in the upper limits of sky?
No one finds out about these matters, no one ever rejoices in sitting alone.
No person is happy in knowing about himself or herself more than the physical body.
No human being takes pride in finding out about the hidden secrets of God and his creation.
No one is interested in taming the mind and changing all past detrimental tendencies.
If this was so, man would have been a far better person than what he or she is presently.
There would have been so much love, happiness and bliss and we would not have disliked so many.
Compassion and understanding would have been in many people and the world more peaceful.
Peace of mind would have been in most people and mental diseases far less than today.
Majority of people would have meditated every day and done more actions of love and compassion.
Maximum people would have been quite tolerant and would have become happy to see others flourish.
Sufficient mental space would have been provided to others to breathe, live and grow.
Personal growth of others and progress in all areas would have been cherished and not thwarted by maximum.
If you are one of them who is a victim of this disease spreading everywhere you will know.
How much it stifles if others do not let you progress and make sufficient inner growth.
In spite of being very kind and understanding, majority of people in the world do not let you live in quietude and peace.
No matter how much you explain with patience, they will always trouble you so that they feel superior!
They do not know or wish to even go inside once to realise that their conduct and speech is so poor and mean.
Their actions so disturbing that nights and days are lost in your recovering and forgiving.
No matter how much you forgive them and overlook their mean behaviour, they have vowed never to improve.
Your prayers and good wishes never touch them because they are so embedded in viciousness and wickedness.
But God is always overseeing who is doing what and what is the intention of their surreptitious actions.
What happens beyond the physical realms no one can see or predict; what will happen tomorrow is a mystery.
God never allows the wicked to go on a rampage and override the fairness of God endlessly.
The punishment is already decided, it is only waiting for the right and fair time when they will be caught unexpectedly.
You must have a steady faith and not bother at all to revoke any relationship or show anger to any.
Maintain your calmness and always do kind and polite actions and keep a dignified speech.
No matter what they have done to you, it will be positively forfeited and you will be given justice.
They all will repent and cry when the final justice comes and they will have no recourse and place to go.
Meditation will make you more pliant, more tolerant, forgiving and more devout in your daily practices.
Calmness of breath and stillness of mind is the secret to avoid all wrongdoings and bungling.
Years after years and lives after lives, the mind has not been kept in control and rein.
No time was given to read the mind, speak to one’s own conscience and wait till it speaks to you in return.
So, what is our mind? How does it work? Who has the power to start or stop it?
What are its powers and how can we learn to bring it to its highest worth and power?
What training is required to control it? What foods make it healthy and robust?
How can we stop its degeneration and sliding down? Is it possible to remain eternally youthful and radiant?
Part II
In the dense jungles of the mind, there is the Light of God hidden in it.
We do not know this because the dark cloud of our bad deeds hide it.
The layers of that dark cloud get intensified if we do not remove it by doing only good deeds.
Our past and future are dependent on how we perceive and how we like to perform our daily deeds.
Meditation helps the mind’s noise to fall quiet, it reforms the mind by showing the right attitude and action.
The side effects are none and after effects millions if you meditate you will everyday see.
Beginning from stopping the gnarling waves of stormy mind, the knots begin to open slowly.
Age old knots of complexities of the buried, distorted, conceptions and concepts are torn apart with the rays of Light.
When the knots untangle gradually, there is serenity in the mind and there is prolonged, deep sense of rest and relaxation.
The body cooperates with the mind to make it more restful and calm and they both begin to co-ordinate in symmetry.
Various body organs fall in line with the will of God and they function in complete coordination and tethering.
Mind, body and the Soul slowly come together and become one unit and function as a united unit.
The alignment of the united unit consisting of mind, body and the Soul if tuned in with the will of God.
Brings about ample changes in yourself if you record it daily and allow yourself to live with the will of God.
The body was never yours in the first place please remember, such a thought in your meditation will break the platform on which you stand feebly today.
In meditation we must separate the body and the mind and allow Soul to manifest and shine in us as Light of God.
The illusionary ego is the foundation on which all humans build their castle of dreams and get deluded.
That must be broken and demolished so that space is created in the mind for the rays of Light to come in.
In meditation you must sit down to demolish all useless thoughts and counter thoughts which are bugging and detrimental.
You should bring in loving, philanthropic, noble and egoless ideas and concepts to show true Self that you are.
By doing so, the dust of the dark cloud in your mind will dissipate, the mind will focus on divine subjects and plans.
You will stop doing those actions which are not in your favour and were bringing havoc in your lives.
You will never visit those alleys which were dark and dingy and stopped you from doing noble things.
Your mind will brighten with meditation and you will always feel happy, cheerful and enthusiastic.
Day by day you will begin to connect with the Universal Mind since you will become a proficient practitioner.
Your days will be full of selfless actions, you will get sleep which will make you conscious of your deathless Spirit.
Your body will become your servant and will serve night and day without getting any fatigue.
Your mind will fill up with fresh, constructive and innovative ideas which come straight from the depth of God’s own wish.
Part III
The mind, I shall tell you now and it should forever be remembered, is a portion of Universal Supreme Consciousness.
God made man in his own image and wished him to go in the world to enjoy its magnificence, beauty and harmony.
Without attachment was the condition; but God also made his creation and world with its characteristics of expansion and extension.
The mind should never have been either attached or dispersed in the first place because that is the point from where the story spoils.
The mind’s characteristic is to flow typically downwards and outwards and never stay in one place or corner.
It can hold unlimited images, sounds, speeches, smells and sensations of various types of touches.
It can always review back and forth and evaluate itself but only if you have a desire to do so.
Evaluation, reasoning, logical conclusion, segregation of information, alignment of information and deductions.
As well as various emotions are displayed, screened and processed in the mind without any mistake.
The brain cells when broken by some accident or injury can be again repaired and re-joined to other cells and pathways to continue functioning.
It can perform daunting and extra ordinary tasks and can acquire unusual dexterity in recreating our destiny.
Each cell of the brain like other part of the body, can be made weak, medium or hefty and healthy.
Our mind can be made of different types and can make us do anything we demand from it.
It can go back in time backward and forward and can recall so many of our past lives and its joys and horrors.
The mind can perform any new skills, we can adapt to any new situation if we want and agree to it.
The mind’s powers are so many; none of us have really explored or have known from saints or exalted Seers.
The mind will help you to use your intelligence and wisdom to choose and select the virtuous things.
The mind has also the qualities to imagine, visualise, memorise, to strive and to organise till the last details all inputs and stimuli.
It can record anything and everything till the last detail and does not forget anything unless you wish it so.
All the recordings are done by each cell in the brain and meditation can spark off additional power for only good things to be retained.
Like a jungle of roads and inroads of a super highway, like the complex network in the sky.
The mind can make connections with each road or lane of the nerves which are mainly pathways.
From nerves to nerve cells connection are made inroads to store information in the cells of the brain.
The more cells any human has, the more information capacity of storage one can have.
So we must meditate more to store only useful, compassionate, constructive, useful and beneficial thoughts and ideals.
If we meditate more, the body receives more energy from the Cosmic Consciousness which can be stored in the cells of the entire body.
The brain cells can grow at an unanticipated fashion and rate if we segregate and organise the useful and useless knowledge and information.
New benign cells are needed and we must make them grow in our upper brain to receive the light and rays of Cosmic Consciousness.
For this you must have regular hours in daily life, cure all your mental diseases, must rest and sleep enough.
You should have only foods which are fresh, well cooked, soft and tender and loaded with all vital nutrients.
Water, sunshine, sufficient oxygen, air and space and other elements are mandatory to grow those special cells.
Proper blood circulation, cleanliness, hygiene, fitness and exercise will promote progress and growth in your overall development.
Include enough raw foods, vitamins, trace elements like copper, boron, magnesium and potassium and all that.
Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, dry fruits and salads are mandatory for brain’s growth and increment.
If food, exercise, sleep, sufficient water and sunshine and exercise are also taken care of.
Each day, the mind will show tremendous sparkling and prosperity in all areas of its progress.
Apart from this, a few hours of maintaining silence in a day or at least a week.
Keeping noise and people away and meditating on spiritual subjects and ruminating.
Will take you to unprecedented heights of spiritual gains and mental prosperity.
And give you unprecedented joy, health and goodness and also a chance of face to face with the Light Masters and their divinity.
You must meditate every day; it is mandatory for all human beings for it brings in our lives abundant, lasting peace.
Peace was begot naturally by man in ancient times, he did not have to try so hard to achieve it.
However, today we are in modern world where we have become, greedy, restless and very competitive.
We must go back to ancient times in our mind but we cannot do so in physical body.
We must retrieve our lost happiness and joy and peace which was so natural to earlier people to achieve.
We must meditate somehow by eliminating all unproductive activities from our life and being contented.
We must realise ourselves this time at least, we have lost so much time and energy in trivial and wasteful activities.
The after effects of meditation are countless, you will agree with me all the more if you control your mind and put it on God eternally!!
**Other helpful books by Swami Shivananda for your reference-
- Mind its mysteries & control
- Health & Diet
Pranam Dear Ma,
We must retrieve our lost happiness and joy and peace which was so natural to earlier people to achieve.
We must meditate somehow by eliminating all unproductive activities from our life and being contented.
We must realize ourselves this time at least, we have lost so much time and energy in trivial and wasteful activities.
Thank you.
Love and Regards,
My dear Chaya, Pranam.
Through you I wish to tell you and others that this post is a small capsule and a short summary of a book by Swami Shivanandji-MIND, its mysteries and control. Each paragraph can be further explained in detail. However, to save our time and effort, with the kind grace of God, we are able to understand that book through this concise form of post.
Now read it again from that perspective also.
These lines are for you and all other seekers who will have the fortune of getting in touch with Swamiji through this medium and article.
“We must meditate somehow by eliminating all unproductive activities from our life and being contented.
We must realize ourselves this time at least, we have lost so much time and energy in trivial and wasteful activities.”
Practice them in your life.
My blessings with you.
Yours Ma
Dear Ma,
So true… I have wasted a lot of time and energy on trivial and wasteful activities and also have been contended.
I will make sincere effort to practice your instructions.
I will re-read the post.
Thanking you for your guidance and blessings.
Love and Gratitude,
Chaya
Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya
Pranam Ma
It is very kind of you and Swami Sivananda Guru Maharaj ji to choose this subject. It is really a difficult subject to grasp. Recently i come across one story in a post and that it is quite relevant here for people like us-
{
Change Your Nature To Transform Your Life
One day all the disciples went to their master and said, “Master, Master, we all are going on a pilgrimage.”
Master: “Why you want to go on a pilgrimage trip ?”
Disciples: “So that we can improve our devotion.”
Master: “Ok. Then do me a favour. Please take this ‘karela’ (bitter gourd) along with you and wherever you go and whichever temple you visit, place it in the altar of the Deity, take the blessings and bring it back.”
So, not only the disciples, but the ‘karela’ also went on pilgrimage, temple to temple.
And finally when they came back, the Master said, “Cook that ‘karela’ and serve it to me.”
The disciples cooked it and served it to the Master. After having the first bite, the Master said, “Surprising”!!
Disciples: “What’s so surprising?”
Master: “Even after the pilgrimage the ‘karela’ is still bitter. How come ???”
Disciples: “But that’s the very nature of the ‘karela’ Master.”
Master: “That’s what I am saying. Unless you change your nature, pilgrimage will not make any difference.”
So, you and I, if we do not change ourselves, no teacher or guru can make a difference in our lives’
}
“Without attachment was the condition”; -but here we are full of attachments. we are entangled so much in the world that we don’t even know what we are missing.
-We must fill-up our mind with fresh, constructive and innovative ideas which come straight from the depth of God’s own wish.
-We must retrieve our lost happiness and joy and peace.
-We must meditate somehow by eliminating all unproductive activities from our life and being contented.
-We must realize ourselves this time at least, we have lost so much time and energy in trivial and wasteful activities.
-The after effects of meditation are countless, you will agree with me all the more if you control your mind and put it on God eternally!!
Please accept my Pranam Ma
Gratitude
Dear Ma,
In response to the above story posted by Paripurna bhayya:
Why is it so difficult for one to “change the nature” inspite of one being aware of the need to change, eagerness and genuine will? Kindly enlighten us.
Bhayya, thank you for posting this story.
Regards,
My dear Chaya, changing an old nature takes time and can be done by constant vigilance and repetition. It is difficult to change one’s nature because the mould becomes hard and hence the delay. So keep trying and nothing is impossible if you really wish to do, it is just a matter of time. PRACTICE IS THE KEY!
Pranam and God bless you.
Ma
Thank you Ma…I now understand that our hard crust is so difficult to break… constant vigilance is absolutely necessary otherwise we do not know when we fall back. I have realized how we ourselves are such a hindrance to our growth. The hardened walls which I didn’t even know existed before, are staggeringly and mockingly in plain sight. Our personalities become so ingrained, our likes and dislikes so strong, our outlook and approach so preconceived…that we don’t realize when we have crystallized our ego in such unpliable mould.
I remember this line from the post- I got a new life, a new light in Badrinath – I, “The power and extent of this deluding maya is so intense and grave that even if we recognize it and begin to work on it for its removal with the help of a highly self realized Guru, even then the whole process might take many lives!”
The blog is so deep that each post takes on a different and deeper meaning and light once you experientially realize the contents.
Dear Farha, I am pleased to see that you are holding very useful lines from the blog and are also realizing a few very important lessons.
Example-#I have realized how we ourselves are such a hindrance to our growth.The hardened walls which I didn’t even know existed before, are staggeringly and mockingly in plain sight. Our personalities become so ingrained, our likes and dislikes so strong, our outlook and approach so preconceived…that we don’t realize when we have crystallized our ego in such unpliable mould.
#The power and extent of this deluding maya is so intense and grave that even if we recognize it and begin to work on it for its removal with the help of a highly self realized Guru, even then the whole process might take many lives!”
Commenting on the last lines particularly this one-even if we recognize it (Our Maya) and begin to work on it for its removal with the help of a highly self realized Guru, even then the whole process might take many lives!”
I am very relieved to know that you have now got a hang of the importance of your own welfare and how much one should be involved in it. In fact, these realizations are for all of us. Those who are wise, will make their resolutions and start working on it without wasting any time. You should spend the rest of your life for your own progress and development. Investing time in such endeavours yield great profits in future and all our suffering and grief come to a halt.
Stay blessed.
Yours Ma
Thank you, Ma.
Pranam.
Thank you for your advice and guidance, Ma. Shall definitely follow it all my life.
Just a quick note to say a BIG Thank you to Beloved God, all the Divine
masters and Mom for helping me to make this Rishikesh 2016 trip possible
inspite of outer chaos due to 500/1000 Rs notes being banned. As you said at the workshop mom,the spiritual path is not a rosy one and one should be ready to face any obstacles. Fearlessnes is one of the qualities of the spirit and we should be fearless while facing any obstacle in life. Gratitude <3
Dearest Ma,
Questions such as “Why did I take this birth?”, ” What is the purpose of my life”,”Where will I go from here?”, “What is mind and how to control it?” always used to raise into my mind and I was becoming restless because there was no way to know the answers to these questions.
But now after reading your post and reading the other books which I got from Manasa, now I am realizing the power of Meditation. The power of our Mind.
Meditation is a precious gift given to us by Almighty God, Gurus and holy masters.
This post is really a worth reading. It has a deep meaning. Every sentence, every word is valuable.
Ma, you have explained the benefits of Meditation in clear and simple ways.
Part III of this post is very very helpful.It’s like a light-house for me which shows the light & guidance in the ‘ocean of ignorance’ of my life.
Thanks Ma for sharing all this sacred knowledge will all of us-seekers.
Seeking your guidance/ blessings to move ahead on the path of self-realization.
Pranam Guru Ma,
Sincerely Yours,
Supriya.
Dear Ma,
Wondering why a particular problem keeps repeating itself in my life, started complaining to my parents and friends and voicing my sorrows but got no solution, just sympathy and temporary relief. Even tried to think about it on the surface of the mind, to reason it out with logic of what had happened, got tired of thinking and thought maybe it was because of a few mistakes. Then finally tried to meditate and just sat with my inner love, did not have to ask as I got the feeling that it already knows my plight. It has been experiencing everything together with me and it knows best, also what I missed and have forgotten. When I try to remember, It had tried to call me but I did not value it or believe in its strength. It gave me the deepest and highest answer that cannot not be formed in words but my conscious mind was desperately trying to do something in all its anxiousness and did not listen. I don’t know how many more bad experiences I need to understand that all my actions are done to result in that deep love and also that all actions must be done with the spirit of deep love without caring for result. I still find it very hard to believe that all solutions to my problems are within me as I have created them. I just want to be simple pure love. Why do I still use the word want, why cant I just be? Why do I resist? Why do I keep asking where is it, when I know it is inside? When will I develop real faith on my own inner voice? my khuda hiding behind the khud.