Every generation looks for hope and meaning in life. But, neither hope nor meaning can be sustained without becoming real. Meditation brings about the quotient of authenticity on this real journey in which everyone is essentially alone, but union with guru makes our union an all-pervasive one
Some amount of meditation is advised and recommended by all gurus (realised masters). Because meditation enriches life in such unlimited ways which cannot be described, it can only be experienced. And, the experience is the key differentiating point in every individual’s life. Moreover, the relation between meditation and living guru is the only livewire which keeps eternal flame (Swayambhu Jyoti) burning in the human heart. We are fortunate that we are born in India. India is known for keeping this fire of self-knowledge (Aatm-Gyan) lit eternally. Phrase ‘Amritasya Putrah vayam (progeny of immortal) refers to aforesaid eternal effulgence and illuminance of divine wisdom within.
Still, there are not many at any given point in time who musters the courage to plunge into the reality of experience.
The number of such people who value their authentic experience over rudimentary belief about what constitutes experience is still limited across the world. By freeing oneself from dogmatic beliefs when one becomes disciplined (Shishya) then what one experiences in the presence of a living guru and in the presence of any saintly souls that changes one’s life for better and forever.
Because the ones who have become disciplined, they alone can measure the immeasurable value of self-realisation. Immeasurable experience cannot be measured by us so long as we do not become capable of transcending ourselves from Avidya (material knowledge) driven consciousness. The subject matter of material knowledge (Avidya) is limited to sense-perception while we begin to make sense of para-vidya (divinity) when we become capable of transcending the sense perception and become capable of following pure intelligence (love) to begin with. Higher stages of consciousness are opened up for our experience through our chosen living guru in accordance with worthiness, grace and cosmic necessity. Anything and everything which happens in our life becomes measurable or potentially limited when as individuals, we find ourselves limited to death and birth or sense perception. Self-realisation is that state of awareness in which you do not find your-Self (Aatma) confined to the process of change identified as death and birth. You find yourself unchanged amid changes which are taking place in this process known as life and prominently marked by the point of natural death.
The root word for realisation is-real, which essentially means eternal/changeless or ‘as it is’ (Yathartha). Visibly initiated by the guru of one’s own choice, everyone can experience this state of consciousness in meditation where one finds oneself undisturbed by one’s own physical body. Becoming living evidence of one’s own experience transforms one into jeevan-mukta (liberated beings, here and now). Meditation blessed by a realised master is an authentic medium to become real. That’s why the value of meditation is described as invaluable.
Anything and everything which happens in our life becomes measurable or potentially limited when as individuals, we find ourselves limited to death and birth or sense perception. Self-realisation is that state of awareness in which you do not find your-Self (Aatma) confined to the process of change identified as death and birth
Moreover, irrespective of our location on planet earth, whether we are in Asia, Europe or Africa…we find ourselves either gripped by insecurities related to life span or by fear which makes its way in our mind about what happens after death or before birth? Answers to such questions may be found during meditation. Providing much-needed peace at a cursory level. Mediation also brings about physical and mental well-being on a cursory most level. Now medical science itself is advocating its benefits.
Every generation looks for hope and meaning in life. But, neither hope nor meaning can be sustained without becoming real. Meditation brings about the quotient of authenticity on this real journey in which everyone is essentially alone, but union with guru makes our union an all-pervasive one. In this union, aloneness transforms into oneness. And fear transforms into love. As in the person of guru, we meet love incarnated in the human frame. That’s how it’s only in Eternal Guru Parampara that we hear such expressions as ‘guru is not a person, but without a person being guru, none becomes real’. None experiences love if there is none other to transmit it to the one who is experiencing it. Value of Divine Name has been described in countless words by devotees, saints, and disciples through their authentic experiences, but unexceptionally the name is found transmitted ( donated) through a living guru. Triad of meditation, living guru and disciple, is worth exploring in life, as life becomes worth exploring in the eternal union of these three.
(The writer is the propounder of Sahaj Smriti Yog System of Self Realisation and founder of Darpan Foundation and Darpan Ashram)
