Q: Can you please tell us more about meditation and how it can help in losing our ego.
Yes, but let me first tell you how and why meditation techniques came into being.
Man, ever since his creation, has wondered about and researched what it is that has created this beautiful universe; what it is that has created this beautiful earth and rolled it into space; what it is that makes the rivers flow and the mountains grow. He concluded that there is a force or energy that is conducting all this. He concluded that there was some tremendous energy that is running the whole show. He then started wondering about how to establish a connection with that energy.
The first people to come to this conclusion, and do research and establish a connection with this energy, were the rishis or realised souls or enlightened masters. Once they attained enlightenment, they created many ways for future generations also to realize this energy. The ways that each of them gave are the various meditation techniques and religions.
Each of them realized God through a different way, through a different technique, and recorded their way independently. This is just like how scientists create research reports on their discoveries and inventions. Each rishi gave a report on his enlightenment and this became a religion or a meditation technique.
These early realized souls formed different religions to establish these ideas on the life force that is conducting this world. We call this life force Jesus, Allah, Shiva and so on. You don't even have to believe in any God. Atheists don't believe in any God, but they have to believe in their own existence, is it not? If we believe in our own existence and search for an answer to the question 'Who am I?' that becomes a meditation technique, and we can realize God. Anyhow, these different ways or meditation techniques became different religions over time.
But what happened after that? People left this basic idea behind all the religions and started fighting in the name of religion.
A small story:
A Tamilian, an Englishman, a North Hindu and a Bengali were traveling together.
They saw a lake from a distance.
The Tamilian saw it from the south and called it thanneer, which is the Tamil word for water.
The Englishman saw it from the west and called it 'water'. The North Hindu saw it from the north and called it 'paani'.
The Bengali saw it from the east and called it 'jal'.
All four of them were referring to the same thing, 'water'. But they started fighting over it saying that what each of them was saying was the correct thing.
None of the four people attempted to get into the lake and see for themselves what water exactly is. The Tamilian was holding on to what his grandfather told him; the Englishman claimed that his grandfather told him it was 'water'; the North Hindu and the Bengali were also clinging onto what their respective grandfathers had told them.
They landed up fighting without even attempting to drink a mouthful and see.
This is exactly what we are doing also. People who fight over religion are doing the same thing. They have to understand that from whatever angle the early-realized souls saw, from that angle they named it; but everything is one – Existence or God. Krishna and Christ mean the same. People have seen them from different angles, that's all.
These four people, without getting into the lake, are arguing about what their forefathers told them! What will happen? They will only fight because each of them thinks that what their forefathers said was right. If they decided to put aside what their grandfathers said and get into the lake and see for themselves, they would understand that all their grandfathers meant the same thing! Then there would be no fight.
Today, only those who have not got into the lake and had a mouthful of water are fighting. Those who are spreading terrorism in the name of religion are those who have not got into the lake called spirituality and tasted the truth. The four people who are fighting are simply standing on the shore and fighting. So understand that the truth is expressed in various forms, that's all.
Coming back to meditation, simply put, meditation is allowing your mind to relax, that's all. Meditation is not concentration. When you concentrate, you actually try to exclude everything from your mind, which is an impossible task.
Just sit for two minutes and try to exclude everything from your mind; you will go mad! Every single thing that you try to exclude will come back and torture you. So concentration is not meditation. Meditation is simply including everything and relaxing.
Whenever you find time, just relax and be aware of everything around you. Listen with your heart to all the sounds happening around you. It may be the sound of birds, the sound of the calendar in the breeze, the sound of the fan above you, the sound of people around you, or whatever. Just listen with an open heart. Mind you, they are all not distractions. You are flowing with them and so they are not distractions. When you flow with them, they cease to be distractions.
As you do this, you will realize that there is a certain silence, a composite core inside, that is actually witnessing all this. You will become more and more aware of that silence inside you. You will get glimpses of that silence in you.
Slowly, you will lose consciousness of your body also. You will only have awareness. You will feel yourself only through your awareness, not through your body or through your mind.
Meditation will help you realize that you are only a watcher in life. It will help you center yourself well inside your being and carry on with your outer world tasks much more efficiently and blissfully because you will be carrying an inner silence in you that does not allow you to get distracted or perturbed by anything. If you continue doing this, you start leaving the 'I' and 'mine'. Your ego dissolves. Your ego is nothing but the strong feeling and identity that you have about your mind and body.
Why do you think we are trying to create a worldwide movement for meditation? Meditation is the only key to global peace. When you start looking inward, you are no more distracted by the outer world distractions like power, money, vengeance etc. All your base energies will get transformed into higher spiritual energies. The collective consciousness will undergo a shift and automatically peace will prevail.
That is why I am focusing on transformation of individuals. When a set of individuals gets transformed with an experiential understanding, they will in turn inspire others from their own experience and this will continue to create a positive new mental set-up in society.
Unless your understanding becomes an experience, transformation is not possible. Meditation can make your understanding an experience. Meditation is the only hope for transformation of the individual and therefore transformation of humanity.
When you meditate, your intelligence grows. You start getting clarity on all issues. You no more need to ask people for alternatives. You simply know, that's all. You know because you are so much in tune with your inner intelligence. You know that it cannot be wrong.
You will know from your being that you are on the right track. There may be moments when the going gets tough, because you are against the majority, but you will know that the outcome is going to be beautiful and liberating! All you need to do is persevere and have deep faith in your own intelligence.
When you nurture yourself with meditation, your capacity will expand and you will be able to do so many things in the outer world. There will be no limit to what you can do and express. You will find yourself growing in different dimensions.
Anything will come easily to you when you are functioning with your inner intelligence and not with your ego. When anything becomes tough for you, it is only because your ego is making you alienate yourself from that thing. When you lose yourself and start merging with Existence, nothing will be complicated; you will simply flow. Your intelligence will automatically work for you to harness the Existential energy in you.
You will start seeing yourself as a miracle person! Things which seemed beyond you will suddenly become seamless. You will move from ignorance to deep awareness.