The Santulan Echo team wishes all our readers a very happy new year and we pray that all your good wishes come true in 2023! We would like to share a passage about meditation from Shreguruji’s book – The Untold Secrets of Life – and begin the year by going back to some of the fundamentals of His teachings for us all!
“The meditation system that I practice, and initiate people into, is called SOM or Santulan Om Meditation. It is rooted in the Shrimad Bhagawad Gita.
Every person wants to enjoy life and make it easier. But still there are moments in which one experiences great struggle. One has difficulties with some spans of time in life. In retrospect one could, perhaps, understand why those difficulties had occurred. One can see one’s mistakes. But there are very many instances in which one is not able to locate the reason for the difficulties properly and one spends a lot of energy struggling.
With a little more inner search a person begins to get the feeling that there is something inside him that he has not clearly understood. He wonders whether an outside force or element could be responsible for this feeling. Is this feeling coming from his past life, or even the life before? Is there an agency like God who has anything to do with this? All these thoughts keep disturbing the mind. For problems stemming from actions and thoughts that can be controlled, a person can struggle and find a solution to put the mind at rest. But till such as the above-mentioned questions remain unanswered the mind cannot really become quiet. Since we say that the mind is ‘moving’, that movement implies two polarities. For any movement of the mind there needs to be a point it is moving from and a point it is moving towards. This continuous movement of the mind makes it difficult to locate these points or ends between which it moves, leading to disturbance. Even if one point is oneself, the other point is unknown. This is our problem isn’t it? It becomes very important to find a technique that will make one quiet.
The basic question about meditation is – why should one meditate? Or, why is it necessary to meditate or find a technique that will make you quiet? I would say that we all inherently know that quietness makes us happy. It gives us peace, health, increases energy and allows us to enjoy life. We have seen throughout Indian history that when there is social stability, harmony and peace then everything develops including art and culture. It is very easy if you look at lives around you to come to the conclusion that one should definitely work towards being quiet. Along this search come the basic questions of ‘What am I?’ and ‘What is God?’ i.e. what is that self (one end of the movement of the mind) and what is God, or the Unknown Point.
Basically, meditation is a technique to reduce the distance between Me and Myself, or Me and God. i.e. it is a process of integration which aims to finish all duality. The senses run towards the things that attract them. The Mind, too, is taken up by subjects of the outside world. On the other hand, what is really required is to become One. i.e. to have a Pure consciousness.
You should be awake but not noticing anything, because there is nothing out there to notice. If there is no second ‘thing’ in existence, how will you notice it? There are thousands of methods to achieve this state, all varied in form and pattern, and so many techniques. Meditation is a general term for all this. Yoga means to become One and enjoy Peace. In Yoga, the concept of Chitta-Vrutti-Nirodha means to get rid of the tendency of the mind to swing to and fro.
The following is a simple and very effective technique. Just sit, do nothing and close the eyes. Eyes bring us stimuli even when we do not want them. If there is light or motion anywhere in your surroundings, however subtle, the eyes will bring you that information. At the very minimum, even when closed, they will inform you whether there is light outside or not. This information – light or no light – is the minimum the eyes generate at all times. So, you must close the eyes. In a quiet place, when you are alone, you need not carry on your dualities. Just be with yourself. It may be a good idea to keep note of your breath. The moment you notice your breath, there are two, you and your breath. Calmly watch your breath and become closely aware of it. It should slowly get so close to you that your awareness of it disappears and you only remain conscious. Then you don’t notice even your breath. This is one technique.
Another technique is to produce the sound AUM and to listen to what you produce, simultaneously. Slowly, the centre from which the sound is being produced and the centre with which you’re listening to it come ‘closer’. Ultimately, when the distance has been terminated, there is no listener and no singer.
The above is one of the ultimate techniques of meditation. However, it is difficult to keep the mind entertained simply with Aum. Therefore, the mantras were developed, and all the big musical compositions around them. If one doesn’t find that that is enough, then there are physical postures developed with the same aim. If that too is not enough, we start to make idols of the Gods, create images and start worshipping them. If still not enough then we begin to search for God in holy places and go on pilgrimages. It is true that the effect of the ‘field’ may be very strong in places that are ‘holy’ (with strong energies around them). It may be easier to become one with yourself there because the field is stronger. But if you go to any place with the expectation that you will find god there then you will face difficulties. This expectation is a sign that you have lost the real path of the pilgrimage because God is in you. It is said that once you understand this, there is no use of pilgrimage and the search for god anywhere outside.
In the next issue, we will see the detailed description of how SHreeguruji’s SOM meditation is based on the directions of Shree Krishna Paramatma, as told to us in verses of the Shrimad Bhagawad Geeta! Stay tuned!