Mind, Meditation and The Self

Swami Chinmayananda

oi-Priya Devi

By Priya Devi

Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 18:07

The impossible is achieved through the process of self perfection called meditation-Swami Chinmayananda

Ask anyone these questions, "Is it possible to conquer death? Is it possible for us to be present everywhere? How about becoming someone who knows everything and is All Powerful?

Can there be a state free from all ,kinds of disease and old age?

Can we experience infinite happiness?

Is it possible to become God...?"

The answer will be a clear-cut "Impossible"!!

In fact, all that has been asked above is nothing but the description of our true nature, which, in our present state of ignorance, appear to be an impossibility. Pujya Gurudev (Swami Chinmayananda) is only pointing out to us the possibility of attaining this supreme state in ourselves through a thoroughly developed technique of perfection called meditation.

At the seat of meditation, the only thing that needs to be done is to quieten the mind. Once the mind is hushed in silence all the characteristics of the Self becomes available for experience, just as we see our face clearly when the dusty mirror is wiped clean.

Just like heat in the fire, whiteness in the milk and sweetness in the sugar etc are their nature and hence cannot be separated from them, so is the Existence Consciousness and Bliss our true nature and can never be separated from us.

But then why is it that we don't experience these characteristics of the Self in us? It is only because of our disturbed mind. We have filled our minds with various wrong notions about ourselves. These wrong notions are nothing but consolidated thought patterns strengthened due to our repeated unconscious ways of thinking during our response to the world outside. This has been happening in all our countless past lives and hence these wrong notions, which are nothing but a bundle of thoughts, appear to be so real and insurmountable. (meditation helps to quieten the mind)

Just like a fire ball, when rotated with high speed appear like a circle in the space, in the same way intense and continuous flow of these thought patterns gives a false appearance to the Self which we generally call as the personality of an individual. These firmly etched strong impressions of the mind are the ones which, like a wall, prevent us from knowing our Self. (Meditation helps to quieten the mind to know the self)

About the author

This article is written by an anonymous author as per the teachings of Swami Chinmayananda for the 'Vedanta Vani' magazine of Chinmaya Mission. The article is about Mind, meditation and the Self.