By: Ashok Kumar Bhatt
Commonly, meditation is understood to be a religious or spiritual practice. Therefore, it is believed that it is meant for only the religious people and the common people have nothing to do with it. But it is baseless to rear a notion of this kind. Meditation is equally essential for both the common and the religious people.
The word ‘meditation’ has its origin in the Latin word ‘Meditari’, which means ‘to heal’. It is not that easy to give a set definition of meditation, for it means many things to many people. Yet, let us say plainly for our convenience that meditation means to heal what is mentally painful; to prevent mind from going astray; to concentrate on what is good: to seek peace and harmony within; to rise from a lower plane to a higher plane and to conserve mental powers, in order to harness them for physical, mental and spiritual development .
Before we discuss the need for meditation, first, it is essential to differentiate between meditation and thinking. Meditation and thinking are two distinct processes. Meditation is complete absorption within. It is the transformation of thinking for the restoration of one’s well being. So, meditation and thinking should not be taken alike.
Ours is the age of pollution. Pollution is of various types such as water pollution, air pollution, and noise pollution. But there is another kind of pollution, too, and this is mental pollution. Mental pollution is the worst of all pollution, for it shatters the whole fiber of man’s personality into pieces and makes him suffer from a host of psychological maladies of thoughts, feelings and actions. As a result, man beings to take a pessimistic view of life. He does not take things with a smile. Rather, he takes them with a sneer. He feels that he is incapable of developing his lights and of assuming self-direction. Therefore, Sigmund Freud seems to be right when he says that everyone is neurotic to some extent.
Our mind keeps on roaming about like a vagabond. It is never steady and calm. Consequently, it lacks precision, exactitude and clarity: our thoughts are confused, values blurred and actions riotous. This is all due to mental pollution, which is the result of our fads and fancies, lack of simplicity and fixit, material point of view, cut-throat competition, lack of inwardness, craze for leading life in an ostentatious manner, enormous increase in every day requirements, high ambitions, changing social trends and standards of living, etc . All these factors have so polluted common man’s mind that his mind is nothing but a jungle of wild thoughts, morbid complexes, confused perceptions and tormenting mental tendencies. As a result, most people are maladaptive and maladjusted in relation to social changes and surroundings. If we look into the history of crimes and court cases, we shall find that maladjustment and maladaptation, morbid complexes, confused perceptions, tormenting mental tendencies, are the reasons for all crimes and abnormalities. So, what do we need to be fully functioning fellows in the present-day social set-up? We need to be meditative. We should practice meditation in our every day life. Says Dr. Austen Fox Rigs:
"Meditation holds refreshment and rest, conserves energy for future needs, and helps to keep life balanced and elastic."
(Quoted in Swami Yatiswarananda’s book Adventure in Religious Life, pp. 100-101)
We have innumerable cares in life. But very little do we care for our minds. We cherish innumerable desires but never cherish the desire to control our mind. Desire is not a sin but sin is to lack the desire for taking care of our mind. We let our mind wander about purposelessly. The result is the tremendous loss of mental powers. We are always conscious of our body but are never conscious of our mental powers that are latent within us.
Meditation is a way to harness these mental powers for the realisation of self and elevation of personality. Meditation is a way to rule and regulate the springs of mind. Therefore, it is said in the Chandogya Upanishad:
"Meditate on the mind! He who meditates on the mind is the master as far as the mind reaches."
Meditate enables us to explore the interior regions of our being; uplifts us from the quagmire of baser instincts, passions and mean mental tendencies; gives us mental resilience and strength; clears our mind of its dirt; broadens our views and vision; turns us inward and, above all, it makes us master of our body and mind . Says milton:
"He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires and fears, is more than a king"
What are the essentials of constructive meditation? Meditation is likely to turn out to be a fiasco if it is not practiced in right way and in right spirit.
It is difficult but not impossible to bring the mind on the righteous track. We know that the mind is always vaporous, swerving and wavering. So, it is not that easy to discipline it. We should meditate to open a dialogue with our mind to take it in good confidence. This we can do through the following ways:
(i) We should constantly impress on the mind that it is not to be swayed by senses, not to be taken in by sensual and mundane pursuits and not to be instigated by the gust of passions, impulses and instincts.
(ii) We should always bear in mind that greed, jealousy, hatred, anger, lust, are man-eaters. We should incessantly strengthen our mind to conquer these man-eaters with the sword of discrimination.
(iii) In moments of anxiety and fear, we should make our mind hope for the best prepared for the worst.
(iv) We should always impress upon the mind that it has tremendous power to turn sour into sweet, defeat into the victory and lowest into highest.
(v) We should constantly bear in mind that there is inner beauty within us. We should make proper use of our mind to bring this beauty out through thoughts words and deeds.
In moments of anger, anxiety and despair we should not allow the mind to react. Instead, we should pacify it with the help of discrimination, determination and self-direction.
We should always fix our mind on beauty and truth of life.
We should avoid useless talks, wishful thinking, daydreaming and live realistically.
We should learn to be cheerful and take everything, sweet or sour, with a smile.
We should always have the faith that all is not worst and the worst is not to last forever. The best is ahead and we have to achieve it.
We should practice renunciation, which means to give up the meanness of mind to attain the greatness of soul.
We should introspect daily to find our own errors and repair them.
We should minimise desires, for they weaken us within.
We should never react impulsively to what others say.
To sum up, mind is our constant companion in all affairs and ventures of our life. Our defeats and victories, our sorrows and joys, our meanness and greatness, our hopes and frustrations, our passions and patience, our sensuality and sensibility, are all due to our mind. It is mind that makes a heaven of hell; a hell of heaven. If we want to live in peace, there is a pressing need to master our mind. This we can do through meditation. And, hence the need for meditation.