Lord Buddha observed, “All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” From this, we can infer, “All we shall become is the result of what we think now.” That being so, nothing can be more important than being able to choose the way we think– our feelings, aspirations, and desires; the way we view our world and ourselves. What is it, then, that can open the avenues of hope? Admittedly, it is the mastery of mind. It is upon training, controlling, and mastering the mind that we can surely begin to reshape our life and character, rebuild relationships, thrive in the stress and strain of day-to-day life, become the kind of person we want ourselves to be.
Today, meditation is being widely used as an art or technique of training one's mind. Surprisingly, majority of the prevalent types of meditation has nothing to do with the eternal meditation taught by past masters and mystics!
Today's prevalent techniques of meditation may be relaxing, inspiring, and good for physical health. However, for accomplishing enduring and beneficial changes in mind, they have no more effect than writing on water. To say the least, the more prevalent ones are not capable of helping us attain the primal aim of human life. Endeavoring to achieve the goal of enlightenment, salvation, and freedom with these half-baked techniques of meditation is a far cry from the real achievement. The eternal technique of meditation is all encompassing– be it general well-being, mastery of mind, peace of mind, lasting happiness, and self-realisation.
When I talk of eternal meditation taught by past masters and incarnations, the point of reference is the parables found in holy epics like the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Qu’ran, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Bible. The Bible puts it thus– “Human Body is the temple of Living God.” The Vedas and the Upanishads say, “Tat tvam asi– You are Brahman.” The Sufi texts say, “Anal haq, anal haq, i.e. I am God, I am God.” All these verses point to a highly sublime thought, which one cannot internalise until one gets a mystic, like past masters, who can put one through cosmic experience of innate divinity. Simply telling a person to internalise a sublime thought or a spiritual concept is like expecting a barren woman to bear child. Not many of us know that masters like Jesus Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Avila, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, and many more of their ilk blessed their disciples/seekers of Truth with cosmic vision, and made them experience the light of consciousness. It is this divine light upon which the seekers meditated and controlled their mind and, hence, transcended the human suffering.
The mystics speak the same language, for they come from the same country of the soul. The knowledge they impart has always been the same, as it is eternal. Like, in the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord, in human garb as Krishna, says that it is the ancient yoga and that He is not stating any new doctrine but is only restoring the old tradition, the eternal verity, handed down from masters to their pupils. The teaching is just a renewal, a re-discovery, a restoration long forgotten. Remember, the genuine spiritual teachers do not lay claim to originality but only affirm that they are expounding the ancient truth. It is the eternal source of all religions and philosophies, the philosophia perennis, the eternal religion, by which all teachings are judged.
Saint Augustine calls it “the wisdom that was not made; but is at present, as it has ever been and so shall ever be.” Likewise, Lord Krishna tells His disciple Arjuna, “In the beginning of creation, I proclaimed this imperishable yoga to Vivasvan, Vivasvan told it to Manu, and Manu gave it to Iksvaku. But, with the efflux of time, this teaching becomes obscured. It is to renew faith in this eternal knowledge that great teachers incarnate on earth from time to time.”
Over the past many decades, humanity had a spiritual vacuum. Obviously, to fill this gap, divine intervention demonstrated its infinite power. We have today amidst us Shri Ashutosh Maharaj Ji, spiritual head of Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan (Divine Light Awakening Mission), who has restored the eternal verity and is gratuitously imparting eternal knowledge– the ancient yoga. People who have been blessed acknowledge and affirm the transcendental cosmic experiences, just like the disciples of past masters.
I had read a number of times, in my adolescent days, a saying by Saint Augustine– “I can tell my hand what to do and it obeys. Why cannot I do the same with my mind?” I used to ponder over these words of wisdom but always longed to actualize them in my life. God, the ever merciful one, rewarded me finally by blessing the shelter of this magnanimous and compassionate master. I am, now, no longer an emotional drifter, moving from one self-proclaimed Guru to another. Now, I know that the mind is infinitely teachable. I know the natural and eternal technique of controlling it. I am able to hinder it from jumping uncontrollably like a monkey and make it dwell like a laser wherever I place it. Now, when I tell my mind to stay focussed, it stays focussed on the real self within, making peace and happiness my natural allies.