What is meditation?

Gauracandra · March 22, 2003

What is meditation? This is the question answered in this week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program.

Meditation means what your mind is focused on. In this sense meditation is neutral, it is not necessarily spiritual. A surfer meditates on the waves, a politician meditates on power, a businessman meditates on money. Some people think that meditation means sitting down in one spot with your eyes closed. I saw a cartoon once of a Buddhist, with a bald head and orange robes, sitting down. And in the cloud above his head, the thought bubble, there was a beautiful woman. Others think the point is to close your eyes, and get to the point where you are about to fall asleep, but then don’t fall asleep. In this case you are actually meditating on not falling asleep. Still others think meditation means thinking of nothing. How can you think of nothing? “Oh, I almost had it. But then I thought of not thinking of nothing.”

The point is everyone has their consciousness on something, even if they are trying to think of nothing, that too is something. In one sense people want to take their minds off of worldly things. This is good, and is closer to the point of true meditation. They want to avoid material forms, names, questions, problems, and concerns. But they have nothing to put their mind on. They are looking for voidness. But this is not spiritual.

What is real meditation? Meditation in the spiritual sense is meditation upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Now the impersonalists who deny the existence of the transcendental form of God must struggle to meditate on blankness. This so called meditation is simply a farce.

God is a person and you can keep your meditation upon Him. On His beauty, words, names, transcendental form, and pastimes. Real meditation means to remember God in a favorable manner. An atheist is also always remembering God. “There is no God, there is no God.” But this is not favorable.

Now if a person wants to meditate on God, it isn’t something you do just by sitting down with your eyes closed. There is nothing wrong with this, but this is not the goal. Meditation means lovingly remembering God and your relationship with Him. Who are you? Who is God? And what is your relationship with Him. If you know that you are spirit, part and parcel of God, and you are trying to please Him, then your life will be a meditation upon God.

A family man maybe is working many hours each day, into the evenings. But when he looks at the pictures of his wife and kids on his desk, then he gets the motivation to keep going. This shows how your life activities and your meditations motivate you. This man has centered his life on serving his family. If your life is centered on God then the same principle applies. In such a case your whole life will become a life of meditation upon God. This is how to dovetail your life with the Lord.

At our center we teach Bhakti yoga. It has several different approaches. One is to dovetail your abilities in God’s service. A businessman tends to make money. He can, unlike many on Wall Street who endlessly make money for power and control, he can keep what is necessary for himself and his family. The rest, because he knows it doesn’t belong to him, he gives to God. This applies to any business. For tailors, for surfboard shops. Any business. Except a slaughterhouse and the like. But everything belongs to God.

Then when a person sees money, it acts to instigate him to think of God. He doesn’t think of a big yacht, or power. In this sense, money, which is the root of all evil, helps him think of God. Instead of worshipping money, he worships God.

A person’s whole life can be centered on God. A woman can have children, nurse her children, and raise children who love God. The point is to arrange your life in such a way as to remember your eternal relationship with the Lord.

I can’t go into all the methods right now. But one method is so simple, sublime, and easy. Anyone can hear and chant the names of God. By doing so you can always remember God. Everything is contained in His holy names. So if you want to really meditate, then simply regularly hear and chant the holy names of the Lord.

Thank you very much.

March 22, 2003

"So if you want to really meditate, then simply regularly hear and chant the holy names of the Lord."

Chanting allah will make one a terrorist like bin laden.

that is of course, one needs to know koran as they know it.

when they chant allah u akbar, they carry swords and ganaders in hand. their mind is filles with not the emotions of love for allah, but hate for kafirs.

so it proves allah is not Lord's name.

some unfortunately think so.

when Hk's chant hare krishna, they carry mridangam and cymbals, not swords and granades. their minds are filled with love for krisna.

who can appreciate them? not the terrorits.

hindus do.

jai sri prabhupada!

theist · March 22, 2003

Please stop spamming every thread with this message.Lest you become a sort of cyber terrorist yourself. Not everyone wants to think of war news and jihad this and that.Some do and for those of us that are interested we have appropriate threads for it.

stonehearted · March 22, 2003

Our anonymous guest wrote: Chanting allah will make one a terrorist like bin laden.

that is of course, one needs to know koran as they know it.

when they chant allah u akbar, they carry swords and ganaders in hand. their mind is filles with not the emotions of love for allah, but hate for kafirs.

so it proves allah is not Lord's name.

some unfortunately think so.

Babhru: When Siddhasvarupananda said we should chant and meditate on the names of the Lord, that's just the core. The result of such chanting depends on the quality of our practice. Not everyone who meditates on Krishna's name does so with love. Kamsa is one example. We have to commit ourselves to chanting in a scientific way, giving up offenses and surrendering ourselves to the holy name in order to reap the transcendental fruit of chanting. If we don't do so, even pious Hindus, no matter how much they love Bharat, will not appreciate the real nature of the holy names of God for a very long time.

So the presence of terrorists who are Muslim does not prove that Allah is not a bona fide name of God. We have Christian terrorists in the US, and there are Jewish fanatics in Israel.

Esteemed guest: when Hk's chant hare krishna, they carry mridangam and cymbals, not swords and granades. their minds are filled with love for krisna.

who can appreciate them? not the terrorits.

hindus do.

Babhru: Well, not all Hindus. There's a long, rich history of certain Hindus' inability to appreciate pure vaishnavism. One incident in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita involved Gopala Chapala, a fanatic tantric priest, as I remember, whose envy of the vaishnavas caused him to try to slander Srivasa Thakura. I have noticed over the last few months that those of you who post such notes abbreviate "Hare Krishnas" as "HK's" very consistently. Some may wonder if that indicates an aversion to even typing the holy name (although I note that here you have the HKs chanting Hare Krishna).

"HKs" aren't a monolithic group, so many won't identify strongly as Hindus and will therefore not be very susceptible to the kind of appeals made here. Yes, many Muslims over the past centuries have committed atrocities against those who practice Vedic (and other) religions. Most of them are long dead. Among those who are still living, let's direct our ire to those who are actually terrorists. Just as most reasonable Christians condemn the acts of right-wing Christian militia and other terrorists, most reasonable Muslims condemn the acts of fanatical fundamentalist Muslims.

paul108 · March 23, 2003

It drives me crazy when I see people write "HK." I wonder how they can find it so troublesome to write out "Hare Krishna." Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Narayanidd · March 23, 2003

My dear vaisnavas,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

If I'm not mistaken Allah means "most merciful."

How can this not be a name for the Lord who is the most merciful in all the worlds?

Even if those who chant this name, with their hearts full of hate, does not mean it is not a name for the Lord; who has innumerable names.

Your servant,

Narayani d.d.

p.s. I have "Hare Krsna" tattooed in sanskrit on my neck. A follower of Islam stopped me and said that it was the same as Allah but with the line on top.

theist · March 23, 2003

It drives me crazy when I see people write "HK." I wonder how they can find it so troublesome to write out "Hare Krishna." Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Hare Krsna,

Yes we cheat ourselves and others when we do this. I especially hate this one; xtians instead of Christians.

These Holy Names are our only hope.

stonehearted · March 23, 2003

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

March 23, 2003

"Among those who are still living, let's direct our ire to those who are actually terrorists. "

they usually die in their own act and take a large number of kafirs with them. they win.

a lot of manning, planning, funding, training, logistics, etc. goes behind an act of terrorism. there is an ideology that supports this activity. to them it is god's work. so the need is to direct our ire to them, the root cause of any event of terrorism.

would hare krishnas agree?

jai sri prabhupada!

March 23, 2003

"I wonder how they can find it so troublesome to write out "Hare Krishna."

no, it is never trouble some, but blissful.

to make all believe it, here i pay my det of writing hare krishna.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,