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Swamiji: Understand that meditation is an exclusive 'mental and inner pursuit'. For meditation, the mind alone is employed. The first step in meditation is to sit alone in a room after closing its door. No undigested solid food should be there in the stomach. You may sip, if required, a little tea or coffee at least 15 minutes before sitting.
Sit in a comfortable pose. Close the eyes. Then, try to observe all the mind-processes using one part of the mind. But do not follow or interfere with or act upon them at all. As you will look at a plant swinging in the air, with some tiny leaves vibrating, look at every bit and piece of the inner mind processes. Do this for about 25 to 30 minutes. It should be done with relaxation, but with attention. This will, besides other benefits, give you knowledge of what your mind, thoughts and other things inside are.
If you continue like this, the idea as to how to proceed further will emerge. A name of God, chanting it repeatedly, can be of help. Sooner or later, you have to seek a Sadguru, an Enlightened Teacher, to initiate you into the right meditational practice that will take you into your own Soul depths. The practice has an ineffable good effect on the biological body. As sleep helps cure bodily weakness and disorders, meditation, a conscious sleep, has far greater effect.
This does not, however, mean that no medicines or other health cares are necessary. Ayurveda holds that most of the diseases in the body are caused by the mind's ill health. By meditation and spiritual introspection, when mental ills abate and subside, bodily diseases also disappear. For those that still survive, medicines are prescribed.
I do not have any book on meditation to suggest for you. "Brahmavidya Abhyaasa - Reality and the Method to Trace It" is a book I have written on Vedantic practice. In the latter part of this book, I have also discussed meditation.
The purpose of spiritual life, spiritual discussions and spiritual centers is only one - 'It is to treat the human mind and enable it to live in this world with freedom, harmony and integration.' There should be no occasion when we will not be able to assimilate any kind of input arising from our own actions or actions of others. We must be able to assimilate any input coming from persons, places or events.
In the same manner we must also be able to generate whatever outputs are necessary during the course of our interactions with the world, so that we will be able to go forward confidently, and effectively. In this background, I would like to stress a key point: mind is a product evolved by Nature. It is not your mind or another's mind but a human mind. Just like we have a human body, a common product of Nature, into which blood from other bodies, after matching, can be transferred, so also our mind is a common product of Nature.
This human mind being a product of Nature, can be studied and understood, and can be reformed, refined and harmonized. Unlike the body in which some defects cannot be set right at all, any defect of the mind can be set right. Any problem of the mind can be redressed. If you have any deficiency at the mind level, it can be addressed by proper introspection and understanding.
A few basic approaches to make our mind healthy, harmonious, and integrated include:
Remove constricting elements: Undue desire is the chief constriction of the mind. Similarly ego and pride are the other most common constrictions. We must remove all such constricting elements.
Incorporate expansive qualities:
Simultaneously, by proper exposure and attitude we can also fortify the mind with whatever new, healthy features we want to acquire. To facilitate this growth, every incident, event, or accident in life should be received with an attitude of assimilation, making them a source of enrichment for our mind.
Keep the mind free of external factors: Don't make the mind unduly dependent upon external factors. The mind by its fundamental characteristic is quite independent. It is good if external factors are favorable. But, even if they are not, the mind can still find its freedom, joy, and effectiveness. For this to happen, we need the pursuit of right introspection.
Again I emphasize that the mind is a product of Nature. It can be treated and refined as much as we want. Your mind when properly developed will be free on one hand, joyful, light and sublime on the other.
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