Meditation for Self-Improvement

Rituals are of the nature of prayers to some deity, seeking help to achieve some material result. This is what simple believers do when they go to temples or perform rituals at home. Meditations are different in nature. There is some thinking involved in them, as the name suggests.

When we meditate on any subject, serious or mundane, the mind is focusing on it and then thinking on it. The thought process is compared to a regular stream of similar thoughts, undisturbed by dissimilar thoughts. It is like a long thread of oil poured gently from a beaker, says one text. A modern example is a laser beam in which the light waves of equal magnitude and wavelength move in a stream.

Meditations are at two levels – for self-development and for self-knowledge. In the latter, the person needs some intellectual content to meditate on. It is the serious stuff from the Vedanta texts. But here we may see the first level which talks of self-improvement. We get a sample of these in the tenth chapter of the Gita. Krishna talks of his vibhuti-s, glorious manifestations, in the form of several deities, sages, or qualities. One can choose any form, not necessarily from the Gita. We see many people meditating on Hanuman, on Saraswati, on Ganesha and so on.

Even here, Vedanta guides us. It says that the person should try to identify himself with the personality of the deity, almost like a cricket fan identifies himself with the favorite player. The difference is that the cricket fan may sit on a couch and eat chips but the person meditating on, say Hanuman, does meditate on the glorious actions of Hanuman. He studies texts like the Sundarakanda and tries to imbibe qualities such as sharp intellect, courage, ability to respond to emerging situations, good bodily strength, great articulation etc., which are the characteristics of Hanuman. In fact, there is a verse on Hanuman describing all these qualities. The seeker meditates on it while recalling the instances where Hanuman showed different qualities on different occasions. He feels the presence of the deity in him, tries to follow his ideal, and almost identify with him.

Is it a superstition? Does it really work? Such questions can be raised in the case of all prayers too. It is the devotion and sincerity of the person which gives the result. The psychology of meditation is that the devotee gradually attains the qualities of the deity to some extent. All great poets are meditators (called upasaka-s) of Saraswati. Any chosen form can be the object for meditation.

But the final aim of our sages is that once a person is attracted by this process, he/she would gradually get into the knowledge of the Highest Reality, God.

(Writer is former

DGP, Andhra Pradesh)