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A fish, when caught in the fisherman’s net and carried to the shore, flops and flounders on the dry land; it struggles desperately to return to the water which is its real abode. Similarly, man’s real home is God; he feels restless and disconsolate as long as he forgets his real nature, which is divine. Meditation is the bridge which connects man with God. The methods of meditation are many, but their main purpose is to provide a way to escape from the net of maya [Cosmic Illusion], the cause of all suffering, and to bring peace and bliss in the mind of man. Buffeted by the tensions and
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why meditation
If you are brave enough, in six months you will be a perfect Yogi.
To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean,” says the persevering soul, “at my will mountains will crumble up.” Have that sort of energy, that sort of will, work hard, and you will reach the goal.
Therefore do not hate anybody, because that hatred which comes out from you, must, in the long run, come back to you. If you love, that love will come back to you, completing the circle.
The first sign that you are becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful. When a man is gloomy, that may be dyspepsia, but it is not religion. To the Yogi, everything is bliss, every human face that he sees brings cheerfulness to him. That is the sign of a virtuous man.
First hear, then understand, and then, leaving all distractions, shut your minds to outside influences, and devote yourselves to developing the truth within you.
The greatest help to spiritual life is meditation. In meditation we divest ourselves of all material conditions and feel our divine nature. We do not depend upon any external help in meditation. The touch of the soul can paint the brightest colour even in the dingiest places; it can cast a fragrance over the vilest thing; it can make the wicked divine — and all enmity, all selfishness is effaced. The less the thought of the body, the better.
meditation benefits
byvivekanand :)
Meditation means the mind is turned back upon itself. The mind stops all the thought-waves and the world stops. Your consciousness expands. Every time you meditate you will keep your growth. Work a little harder, more and more, and meditation comes. You do not feel the body or anything else. When you come out of it after the hour, you have had the most beautiful rest you ever had in your life. That is the only way you ever give rest to your system. Not even the deepest sleep will give you such rest as that.
What is the efficacy of prayer? Swamiji: By prayer one’s subtle powers are easily roused, and if consciously done, all desires may be fulfilled by it; but done unconsciously, one perhaps in ten is fulfilled. Q: You have written in your Bhakti-Yoga that if a weak-bodied man tries to practise Yoga, a tremendous reaction comes. Then what to do? Swamiji: What fear if you die in the attempt to realise the Self! Man is not afraid of dying for the sake of learning and many other things, and why should you fear to die for religion?
The mind is analysed by itself. The greatest science, therefore, is the science of the mind, the science of psychology.
To control the mind you must go deep down into the subconscious mind, classify and arrange in order all the different impressions, thoughts, etc., stored up there, and control them. This is the first step. By the control of the subconscious mind you get control over the conscious.
So I think the practice of meditation even with some trifling external object leads to mental concentration. But it is true that the mind very easily attains calmness when one practises meditation with anything on which one’s mind is most apt to settle down. This is the reason why we have in this country [India] so much worship of the images of gods and goddesses. The real aim is to make the mind functionless, but this cannot be got at unless one becomes absorbed in some object.
The cause of all miseries from which we suffer is desire. You desire something, and the desire is not fulfilled; and the result is distress. If there is no desire, there is no suffering.
y we suffer
It never catches the straw, but goes round and round in the hope of getting it, and in so doing, grinds out the oil. In the same way you and I who are born slaves to nature, money and wealth, wives and children, are always chasing a wisp of straw, a mere chimera, and are going through an innumerable round of lives without obtaining what we seek. Such is the life-story of each one of us; such is the tremendous power of nature over us. It repeatedly kicks us away, but still we pursue it with feverish excitement.
like that ox
THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE STUDENT Three things are necessary to the student who wishes to succeed: First: Give up all ideas of enjoyment in this world and the next, care only for God and Truth. We are here to know truth, not for enjoyment. Leave that to brutes who enjoy as we never can. Man is a thinking being and must struggle on until he conquers death, until he sees the light. He must not spend himself in vain talking that bears no fruit. Worship of society and popular opinion is idolatry. The soul has no sex, no country, no place, no time. Second: Intense desire to know Truth and God. Be
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to do here
Knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside. What we say a man “knows,” should, in strict psychological language, be what he “discovers” or “unveils”; what a man “learns” is really what he “discovers,” by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.
source of all knowledge
We say Newton discovered gravitation. Was it sitting anywhere in a corner waiting for him? It was in his own mind; the time came and he found it out. All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in your own mind.
Sri Ramakrishna used to say sometimes, “Do rely on Him; be like the dry leaf at the mercy of the wind”; and again he would say, “The wind of His grace is always blowing, what you need to do is to unfurl your sail.”
master used to say
The Lord is very merciful to him whom He sees struggling heart and soul for Realisation. But remain idle, without any struggle, and you will see that His grace will never come.
note for devote
Let us not be caught this time. So many times Maya has caught us, so many times have we exchanged our freedom for sugar dolls which melted when the water touched them. Don’t be deceived. Maya is a great cheat. Get out. Do not let her catch you this time. Do not sell your priceless heritage for such delusions. Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached. Hold your money merely as a custodian for what is God’s. Have no attachment for it. Let name and fame and money go; they are a terrible bondage.
Feel the wonderful atmosphere of freedom. You are free, free, free! Oh blessed am I! Freedom am I! I am the Infinite! In my soul I can find no beginning and no end. All is my Self. Say this unceasingly.
