Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Meditation is not the name of an activity; it is the art of “doing nothing.” You can experience meditation only when the mind is calm. When the mind is engaged in any task, it becomes tired, because concentration, contemplation, or any mental activity drains the body’s energy. Meditation does not exhaust you; instead, it provides deep relaxation. During meditation, we withdraw from all our senses-seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting. The relaxation gained through meditation is similar to deep sleep, but meditation is not sleep.
Meditation means resting completely, letting go of all activity. Sleep happens only when you stop walking, working, talking, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and thinking. However, even during sleep, involuntary actions such as breathing, heartbeat, digestion, and blood circulation continue, so it is not complete rest.
There are four states of consciousness: wakefulness, dream, deep sleep, and meditation. Meditation is the state where you are internally aware yet deeply restful. Only when the mind becomes still can meditation occur.
Have you ever observed what happens to your mind when you are waiting for someone? During waiting, you experience every passing moment. This waiting can lead you toward meditation. When you wait, you can either become restless or meditative. Experiencing time is meditation. Meditation is the journey from sound to silence, from movement to stillness. Although meditation seems contrary to action, it actually complements action.
We see that everything in life is constantly changing. We can recognize this change because there is something within us that never changes. We know this as the unchanging aspect of our soul or consciousness. Meditation is the journey to the still and unchanging center of our consciousness.
When a desire lingers in the mind, meditation becomes difficult. This is why Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “The mind cannot be at peace until all resolutions are dropped.” For example, if you are about to sleep and remember that you need to turn off the light switch, no matter how hard you try to close your eyes, you won’t be able to sleep. Your mind will repeatedly think, “I need to turn off the switch.” Similarly, if a grain of sand gets into your eye, it neither allows you to keep your eyes open nor closed. In the same way, a persistent thought disturbs you. To calm the mind, detachment is necessary. Reflecting on the inevitability of death calms the mind and leads to detachment, which helps in deep meditation.
Postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), a balanced diet, and knowledge-all aid in entering deep meditation. People often think there should be no noise during meditation, but this is not true. If there is noise around you, listen to it attentively and accept it; do not fight it. The more you try to resist something, the stronger it becomes and distracts you. Therefore, stop resisting first. Practice pranayama to stabilize the mind, which makes meditation easier.
Our diet also has a profound impact on meditation. Food is classified into three types-sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic. Tamasic food induces laziness, lethargy, and inertia. If the body has excess tamasic energy, you may sit for meditation but will drift into sleep. Similarly, rajasic food creates fluctuations in the mind, causing emotional highs and lows, such as becoming very happy or suddenly sad over small things.
When rajas becomes imbalanced, many thoughts arise, and restlessness increases. The body cannot remain still, preventing deeper meditation. This does not mean you should completely avoid rajasic food. If everyone remained calm and still at all times, life would lose its vibrancy. A little rajas adds color to life, but when it becomes overwhelming, you should turn to a sattvic diet. Sattvic food is light and easy to digest, which balances the body’s energy and facilitates deeper meditation.
Meditation brings fulfillment on both physical and spiritual levels. We are fortunate that India has always been the home to the wisdom of yoga, pranayama, and meditation. If we make an effort to include meditation in our lives, the benefits are countless. The United Nations has declared today (21st December) as World Meditation Day. It is a welcome step as meditation needed this much awaited recognition.
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