What it is, its benefits and how to practise it

Spiritual meditation helps us realise who we truly are. It helps us, therefore, connect to our true self, which inevitably connects us to the universal consciousness, the Supreme Immortal Power we call God. Through spiritual meditation we realise that we are not the body, mind and ego – we are the Soul – a Spark Of Unique Life. We realise that everything is a manifestation of the Divine. That this world is an illusion, a drama — we can sit back and enjoy the show. It leads to a state of Divine peace and bliss. Spiritual meditation, thus, is not just about calming the mind or relaxing, or feeling good. It is meditation with a spiritual purpose — realisation of the truth. It is being in a state of thoughtlessness, which takes us into that state of consciousness that connects us to the Divine. It is that state where we experience true peace and joy, the state of Satchitananda — living in consciousness of the truth which is bliss.

To start with, we must first make the mind still, make it silent. Our focus should be on disciplining the mind. Let us also not be misguided by what we hear, or we see. People think in order to meditate, we must sit cross-legged on the floor, with the spine straight. Meditation is not about how we sit, where we sit, or about posture. We can sit on a chair, comfortably. Spiritual meditation is about silencing the mind, eliminating clutter, eliminating all noise so that we can hear the Divine voice. The mind is like a monkey that jumps from thought to thought. The mind jumps into the regrets of yesterday, then to the worries of tomorrow. It makes us miserable by creating thoughts of fear and anxiety.

The mind can produce a thought practically every second. This can become an overwhelming 50,000 thoughts per day. Imagine the stress we can possibly experience with so many thoughts bombarding us! How can we ever be peaceful? So, what should we do? We have to bring down the MTR, the Mental Thought Rate from 50 thoughts a minute to one thought a minute. How do we do this? By observing the mind. We have to watch the mind, catch it and latch it. Just like we watch a fish swim in the ocean, we have to watch the mind so that we become the observer, the witness. As we become conscious of our mind and we watch it jumping here and there, the monkey mind stops it monkey business. It begins to settle down, it quietens. By cutting the tail of the Monkey, the EY which is ever yelling and ever yearning, we can tame the monkey and make it a monk. Once the mind settles, the intellect takes over. The intellect helps us to discriminate between right and wrong, the truth and the myth. We must practise meditation everyday — we can try to start by meditating for 10 minutes each day and we can gradually increase it over a period of time. There comes a time when we can be meditative all day, we can be in the state of consciousness all day and we can experience true peace and happiness. It is in this state that we connect to our true self, to the Divine consciousness.

Spiritual meditation has many benefits:

• Spiritual meditation disciplines the monkey mind; it stops its agitation. We experience peace.

• We are no longer slaves of desires, cravings and expectations, and hence free from disappointments.

• It makes us truly happy because we realise the truth. We realise we are the Atman, Soul — a part of Divinity, a part of SIP, the Supreme Immortal Power we call God.

• Spiritual meditation enhances creativity and focus because it connects us to our source of existence.

• It makes us emotionally stable. We are not affected by trials and tribulations of life because we have realised the truth.

• Because we live with the awareness of who we are, about the meaning of life, life becomes purposeful, meaningful.

• We flip from negativity to positivity. Negative thoughts of fear, anger, hate, jealousy are done away with. Negative emotions are replaced by positive emotions of faith, hope, trust, acceptance and surrender.

• We experience a sense of oneness with the world. We experience empathy, compassion and kindness towards all beings. We love one and all.

Of course, it is a true seeker, a seeker of the Divine, one who truly yearns for God, who can effectively practise spiritual meditation. But it holds the key to everlasting peace, Divine Love and eternal bliss.