Blog

We all know that feeling when there is something unknown we have to face. Even though it may not be such a big problem, we magnify the fear into something much bigger. In so doing it makes us feel unsettled and even terrified. The mind gets absorbed into its own imagination forgetting that it created the imagination to start with.

Meditation Master Babaji says it is the cravings of the mind and its habit to cling on to an object which is the basic reason for stress, tension and fear. We have lost control of the mind and it is making us dance to its tunes.

When we sit down for meditation we first concentrate the mind. As it becomes more concentrated it starts to let go of any negative thinking. In so doing it strengthens the mind and also purifies it of its habitual thinking. The mind starts to become more and more quiet. We start to gain back control.

When the mind becomes more concentrated an inner confidence also comes; We can think, ‘If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I shouldn’t lose my peace in any case’. Eventually as we gain more understanding of ourselves, we will have more composure and less fear of the unknown. As we make meditation a regular practice, instead of fear, tension and stress plaguing our minds, peace and composure can be with us throughout the day.

Our mind often tries to define happiness in a certain way – ‘Only if I obtain this object will I be happy, only if achieve this will I be happy’. If we don’t achieve or obtain that thing we are likely to feel disappointed.

Even if we do get what we want, that happiness will not stay there permanently. In due course of time it disappears since the object on which it is based is impermanent. Then again we feel insecurity, anxiety, unhappiness and look for something that can give us happiness again.

Instead of defining what can give us happiness, if the mind can be quiet and composed, then that is the best happiness we can obtain.

As Babaji says, ‘Even for a moment if you have experienced the silence of the mind, then you realise that is when the mind enjoys the real happiness. When the mind is quiet, at peace, then you have peace.’

So the mind is that source of the peace which we are looking for, beyond any definition that we can give –  it is there naturally. That is what we can achieve in meditation as the mind becomes more and more purified of its habits and becomes quiet.

After all, everything we do is for happiness. Whether we realise or not, we want to do something if it makes us feel good, if it leads to some sort of comfort or security. Babaji mentions, ‘If we cannot enjoy anything, we would not like to do that. We need to enjoy. We are looking for that enjoyment, that happiness, that peace. When peace is there, peace is the highest, supreme, then there is a serene quietness. And in that quietness a real enjoyment happens. Enjoyment need not be by extrovert excitement only. A real enjoyment is when we don’t lose it, we are composed, at peace. That is what is real, true enjoyment. So that is how we have to proceed in meditation.’

Many of us when we feel stress or mental suffering may feel like accusing the world around us.

What happens in the world is not in our control – it is not guaranteed that everything will happen according to our wishes. What we can control, however is how we react to a situation. If we can look at our own minds and remedy any problem that is there, we can avoid jumping into a reaction and judging something as stressful. We will be able to achieve that real peace for ourselves, irrespective of what is happening in the outside world.

This amazing achievement is what the Self-Realised masters of meditation realised and achieved for themselves. As Swamiji said, ‘Great people are those who can look at their own problems and remedy them’.

It may be easy to point out others’ faults rather than look at any fault that we may have caused ourselves and see how we can put it right. But if we can put in efforts to do this through the practice of meditation, then we won’t be making the same mistakes over and over again – we can improve and progress as human beings.

If we criticize and blame others all the time we will be wasting that precious time which could be used to better ourselves.

So meditation is taking responsibility for our own mistakes. It is that highest practice taught since ancient times to go within ourselves and remedy any problem that is in the mind. Through this simple technique our mind learns to let go of negative habits and thus becomes concentrated and purified.

Once we start putting in efforts to purify the mind, we will start experiencing that peace within ourselves. Then we can also be in a position to help anyone else, give counsel or at least not bother anyone. As Babaji says, ‘Only if you have peace yourself can you give that peace to others.’

This world is made of dualities; good and bad, right and wrong, pleasant and unpleasant, happiness and unhappiness. One is there because of the other. In a movie, a hero is there because of a villain and vice-versa. If we get involved in one, then eventually that leads to the other.

Just like if we wake up and feel refreshed, we would only like to think good, positive thoughts. But it cannot stay like that all the time. As the day progresses other negative thoughts and worries will also start to come into our mind.

The Masters of meditation realised that the true nature of the mind itself is to be quiet and at peace. Then it is under our control. When it is quiet, it has in fact gone beyond all dualities. It has gone beyond all imaginations, it is simply aware of the consciousness of existence. So when we meditate, we don’t analyse and make a judgement whether something is good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. Once we start to think of either of the two, we get involved, and one after another we keep generating thoughts and get sucked into that whirlpool of thoughts. Instead of this, if we apply the technique to just watch and not think, then our mind starts to recede and become quiet. We get the taste of that elusive peace.

Meditation Master Shiva Rudra Balayogi (Babaji) says, ‘Just become quiet. When a real experience of the Self occurs, there is tranquilised quietness. No definitions are there because mind has been absorbed into the Self.’

Each day can bring up challenges for us as we live our lives. If we have a practice such as meditation, where we are trying to purify and bring the mind under our control, life itself becomes the testing ground.

As the tests and challenges come, we can see from the way we react how much we have progressed, how the technique and the practice has worked.

Shiva Rudra Balayogi (Babaji) gives the example of someone training to be a doctor. ‘When you go for medicine, for four, five, six years you read and want to become a doctor. So what you have read and what you have practised, when you have experienced, what you know comes to light only when you go out and try to become a doctor. In the same way, for every person who can claim they are doing a lot of meditation, it comes to light only when they behave in the society, in their day to day life. Their attitude, their words, their thinking. All these things tell what they have practised and what they have not practised.’

Whatever the state of the mind, it will behave in that way. Babaji says, ‘You can cheat the whole world, but you cannot cheat your own consciousness’. We know what is in our own mind, first and foremost. And whatever is in the mind will come out, it will behave as it is habitual to behave.

Since meditation is a purification process it will cleanse the mind of its habitual thinking as long as we practice consistently every day. So our behaviour, our thinking will undergo a transformation. We would be able to remain composed in life in spite of any difficulty that comes up and achieve the best concentration of the brain. We be able to behave in a mature, considerate way always.

More and more in the world today, people have high expectations that things should happen instantly. When it doesn’t one is likely to lose patience.

But everything takes its own time. Like when we are cooking a meal, we need to wait for the vegetables to cook properly, otherwise it would not be ready to eat.

Once the proper technique to meditate is known, we need to simply apply the technique and adopt patience. If we are in a  rush and demand that the result should come here and now we will become frustrated and end up giving up the practice.

Babaji mentions that patience gives you ‘the ability to bear with, wait and go for the actual result’.

In meditation, the actual result is achieving that elusive peace and happiness, that contentment. This happens when we go on practising the technique to just watch. Our mind becomes more and more concentrated, settles down and becomes quiet. Then we can experience that real peace.

Click the video above of Meditation Master Shiva Rudra Balayogi (Babaji) talking in detail about the importance of patience.

Meditation and Q&A with Babaji

We have weekly meditations and Q&As every Saturday with Shri Babaji live online.

Saturdays 12.45pm BST
1 hour Meditation and Q&A

These are precious opportunities to meditate with a Realized Master and benefit from the special teaching and guidance that Babaji can provide.

Register your place here

The brain is an amazing physiological organ in the body. Through the brain we can think, act, apply wisdom, and achieve many things.

But if we simply go on believing everything the brain is reflecting we will get affected. Instead of being the master of this organ, we become the servant and dance to its tunes. So we need to be the master. Whatever the brain is reflecting, we don’t have to be affected, we can exercise restraint and proper judgement.

If someone acts in a certain way we might judge quickly that person to be a bad person. But actually that person could be our well-wisher, simply we may have rashly misjudged their actions. So that is the danger – we can see a friend as a foe and a foe as a friend.

Through meditation we are able to de-link ourselves from the brain’s clutches. We can think freely, see the reality, keep our mind intact and in peace. We can use the brain to its best ability to live successfully in the world.

As Meditation Master Shiva Rudra Balayogi (Babaji) explains;

‘When you practice deeper meditation and achieve control of the mind you are able keep the mind totally quiet and withdrawn from the clutches of the brain. You are also able to discriminate good and bad, right and wrong independently by using your brain but not by the brain’s order only. You are able to exercise determination, remain disciplined and not become a victim of the brain’s reflections. This we call as an exercise of will power. As we practice deeper meditation we also discover that we do not have to depend for happiness on the world’s objects which are reflected by the brain, but keeping the mind quiet supreme peace can be experienced.’

The ancient sages of India said there are six ‘shapes’ or ‘enemies’ (Arishadwarga) that the mind goes into. Greed, anger, stinginess, false pride or ego, attachment to materialistic things and jealousy. All of us would recognise these shapes. We know that when our mind goes into one or more of these, it is the first casualty.

Say we lose our temper. Before anyone else gets affected, we experience and are affected by that anger in our mind first. It may take a long time to cool down properly. One hundred times we may resolve, ‘I never want to do that again. Why did I lose my temper? I should have restrained myself’. But one hundred times we may again jump into these shapes in a similar circumstance. Why does this happen? It is because the mind has become so habitual –  it seemingly acts automatically. This means we have lost control of our mind, we are unable to restrain it.

So that is why it is important to remedy this for us to regain control of our mind. Only then there is peace, security and contentment. Meditation is that method taught since ancient times to purify the mind of its habits, cool it down and bring it under our control. As Meditation Master Shiva Rudra Balayogi (Babaji) says,

‘When you are driving a car on the road, imagine how it will be if that car has no gears and brakes. Such a car can be disastrous for the driver and dangerous to others. The uncontrolled mind is like that. When emotions take over and one lets loose the tempers of the mind, such a monkey-mind can be disastrous to that person and dangerous to others. We need to regain control over it and bring it to a halt like a runaway car.’

The mind often loses its peace because it is either brooding about the past or is anxious about the future. But the past has finished – it is not going to come back under any circumstances. We can use the past to learn from any mistakes we may have made, but other than that we can let go.

The future also hasn’t happened yet – there is no evidence of it until it comes to the present. We can, and we often must plan for the future, but we don’t have to be anxious unnecessarily. The present moment is, in fact, the only moment that exists. Meditation is that training where we keep the mind in the present moment.

As Meditation Master Shiva Rudra Balayogi (Babaji) says, ‘When you do not brood about the past or become anxious about the future, you are ready to face the moment – that is the power of now. Then you able to focus a hundred percent of your concentration in the present. You can shape a better future by putting perfect effort in the present. The meditation practice helps you neutralise your mind into the present.’