What is Meditation and its Benefits?

Agastya: Baba, so meditation, ultimately, is just a procedure to stop thinking and bring our attention onto the Self rather than on the non self. It’s currently, you know, involved in everything the mind’s projecting and not paying attention to itself. Could you comment on what meditation is and how it helps achieve the goals of spirituality or of life?

Baba:  Yeah, definitely. If people remember, who have listened to my talks in the earlier years, when I said, meditations basic meaning is your ATTENTION TO. So here you need to pay attention to your Self. Attention is not through a thought which is an imagination, but through an observation which can give you the awareness of your Self. That is what the meditation means. You meditate upon your Self. So pay attention to, be attentive to. So here, since time immemorial, I would say that you have forgotten about your real self. You are so preoccupied with your own imaginations that are in the form of thoughts and visions in your mind that you don’t remember that all the things in the mind are your own imaginations. Either previously done or presently you are into that, or you have future anxiousness, or some imagination. So all these combined gives you a lot of stress, unhappiness. So this is a significant point.

Why do you need to meditate? The next question that will be coming. That means why do you meditate? Why do you need to become aware of your Self – so that it can give you the supreme peace, enjoyment, happiness at all times, helping you to overcome all stress and unwanted thoughts. That is the basic idea of meditation. First step is that you need to silence your mind. That’s what I keep talking, quietening your mind. For that, the technique is given that you just watch in between eyebrows, but no target is told. What is it that you are supposed to watch is not told. Just go on watching the front portion, whether darkness is there, whether thoughts are there, whether visions come or don’t come. But mentally, you just don’t try to think – “Why is this, why not that, what is it that has to happen”, all these things do not bother. Just keep watching. So that is the basic idea of meditation.

Agastya:  So in summary, the meditation is to bring the attention onto the your Self, rather than onto all the imagined things that are in the mind.

Baba:  Yeah. Further, a few more points to tell. Your mind is made up of consciousness and energy. Consciousness means, wherever you apply your consciousness or your mind, you become aware of that thing. Now, my simple example always has been, when I am talking, if you apply your mind, if you watch me, then you can become aware of what I am trying to convey. Otherwise, your mind could be going, running away somewhere else, paying attention to something else. So just now, your mind is too preoccupied paying attention to its own imaginations, that are in the form of thoughts and visions. That you need to get rid of. That’s why you need to just watch. When you are watching you are not thinking. Then slowly all the thoughts and visions will disappear, will dissolve, will evaporate. So that is when automatically, your minds attention turns to itself, means your attention to turns to your Self.