When entering spiritual life, many people are seeking to improve themselves in some way: to gain better concentration, to improve their health, to improve their mental development. They are attracted to meditation because of the benefits to them personally.
But as mind grows in magnitude, as the Sadhaka, the spiritual aspirant, deepens in their spiritual process, they come to realize that there is a point in which acquiring, even things that are very beneficial, is a bondage—that the very act of desiring and acquiring is the building of the ego structure, the development, the satiation of the ego. And the real process of meditation has to do not with getting, but with giving; not with acquiring, but with letting go; not with having, but with surrendering—that the true process of meditation regardless of the technique that is applied is about letting go of control, of definitions through which you have defined and confined yourself, definitions of self that have limited you, letting go of beliefs about yourself, about who you are, letting go of all of the structures and constructs of the mind and allowing the heart, the open being, to shine forth, letting go of your will, letting go of your desires. And instead feeling, experiencing that divine presence, allowing yourself to feel, experience love unconditional, deep truth, aware being, and surrender all that you have thought to be yourself into that ocean of love, into that deep truth, into that conscious awareness. Surrender; let go.
So as you progress along the path of meditation, of Sadhana, you move from the effort to acquire more and more into the experience of surrender, of presence, of the unitary whole of being, the infinite Self that abides in everything and everyone; perceiving the interwoven, interconnected network of life, of existence; feeling the consciousness, the presence of that infinite aware beingness, intelligence of the universe, unbound, undefined, unconfined, unlimited, with no beginning and no end. Can the mind really perceive this?
When through deep meditation this awareness and presence of the unitary whole, the nondual essence of being comes, the mind becomes stunned. There are no words to hold that reality. There are no definitions to confine it. It is beyond the comprehension of the mind. Rather than breeding ego and importance, it breeds humility, the realization that you are but a drop in a vast, vast ocean. And once dropped in the ocean, you become one with the sea itself, with that which is in all beings, so that all beings are within you and you are within all that is. For that love, that consciousness, that which is beyond the descriptions of words, the definitions of the mind, holds you. Your intelligent awareness dissolves into that vast intelligent awareness out of which the stars are created and the whole pattern of the universe has come into existence.
When the realization begins to dawn that there is that which is vast, which is great, which is love undefined and unconfined, which is the home from which you have come and unto which you return, then the small attributes and acquisitions of the ego pale by comparison. For beneath all the searching and yearning and striving in life lies a deep restlessness that is a longing for that home of homes, a longing for that peace, that love, that union of being where “I” and “thou” dissolve into one and all separations dissolve into the illusion they are.
In that wholeness, you are one. You are whole. You are more than the body; you are more than the mind, the thoughts. You are more than the sum total of your experiences. You are aware being. You are unconditional love.
This knowledge is the great treasure of human life for which all seek—so many in avenues that will not bear fruit. But all seek this knowledge, this truth, this home from which you have come. There is a deep knowing inside, deep inside, that there is wholeness; there is love fulfilled; there is this greatness that lies within each and every being, in every particle of this universe, in every atom.
No one is outside of this infinite essence. No one is alone. You are never alone. You are not helpless. For that force that guides the stars guides you too. That force that has created all existence, that guides, patterns the universe, is within you, around you: in the chirping of the birds, in the play of light and shadow in the leaves, in the rain, in the snow, in the sun, in the blades of grass and the rock, and the eyes of all whom you love.
So great is the treasure to be found in the depths of your meditation. So many start out seeking small treasures, but when they really go deep in meditation and touch the soul, the Atman, then the realization comes of how much more there is and the real treasure of human life that you are yearning for and learning to access.
That cosmic force is calling to you always. Through the restlessness within you, through all the needs and yearnings and sorrows, through your loneliness, through your pain, through your joy, it calls to you: “Come to me. Come to me.” It calls you home to rest in peace, where duality dissolves and the sacred music is playing in the halls of eternity.
May your lives be successful and your journeys bright. Namaskar.