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The Real Meaning of Meditation

QUESTION: People often talk about meditation. Can you please
explain what it is all about?
JAGAD GURU: Usually when we think of meditation, we
think of someone sitting quietly with his eyes closed and not
having anything on his mind at all. Others talk about meditat-
ing on a dot or some object. But in fact, this is not really what
meditation is. Meditation is the placement or the focusing of a
person's consciousness - his mind, his heart, his entire being
- on God or on the Absolute Truth. According to the yogis
and ancient scriptures, meditation specifically means having
your mind focused on God. Meditation is not your mind
focusing on anything. This may be concentration -
concentrating on a tennis ball or a form of a woman. But
that is not meditation. Meditation means the object of your
attention or consciousness is God, the Supreme Absolute
Truth.

QUESTION: Is sitting in a yoga posture and having your eyes
closed conducive to meditation?

JAGAD GURU: Having your eyes closed can be
conducive to meditation because if your eyes are closed

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and you're not seeing the things of the world, then your mind
or consciousness may be directed to the Absolute Truth.
But that doesn't mean that you can equate meditation with
having your eyes closed and sitting with your legs crossed
because I could be sitting here with my legs crossed, my
eyes closed, and I could be asleep. I would be sleeping but
you might think I was meditating. Or my eyes could be closed
and my legs crossed but my consciousness dwells on all the
money I am going to make or on a beautiful woman. So this
is not meditation. Meditation means having your heart, your
mind and your entire being really immersed in God.
QUESTION: Why should I meditate? Why should I apply meditation
to my life? What are the benefits? What is the gain?
JAGAD GURU: Let me throw the question back to you. Why
do you think people meditate?
QUESTION: Health, physical well-being or even mental well-being.
JAGAD GURU: Yes. You go to the doctor and he says you
are overstressed. You go in there with an ulcer, high blood
pressure or something and the doctor says, "Change your diet,
start to jog, swim or meditate."
And so you say, "Okay, I think I'll learn how to meditate." You
don't really know what meditation is but you're thinking
that you're going to meditate. So this is one reason.

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In fact, if you recognize the connection between your physical
well-being and your consciousness, then you'll recognize that
the practice of meditation can lower your levels of stress and
therefore have a positive, physical effect on your body. It can
have positive effects both physically and mentally. This is one
reason - to alleviate stress. Meditation can help anyone
whether he is a businessman who is uptight or a student under
stress. They can engage in the practice of meditation which
will help them to cope with living. What's another reason why
people take up meditation?
QUESTION: Anxiety and depression.

JAGAD GURU: Yes. People are in anxiety. Anxiety is deeper
than stress. Stress is superficial. Stress can be caused by a traffic
jam, by business or by your kids screaming and yelling, etc.
Meditation can help alleviate this stress.

But there is a deeper type of trouble that a person experiences.
This can be called anxiety or depression. What do most people
do to get rid of this inner emptiness?
QUESTION: They take drugs or drink alcohol.
JAGAD GURU: Yes. People drink to forget. They are very
unhappy inside so they drink to forget their inner
unhappiness. Or they take so-called anti-anxiety drugs. They

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take Valium or Librium. They take them because they're trying
to wipe out their anxiety, their inner spiritual void. They want
to forget how unhappy they really are.

Through meditation, a person can actually overcome this
anxiety. He can actually begin to fill this void in his life. He
would not fill it up artificially but would actually begin to
experience inner happiness and inner peace. He would feel
freedom from anxiety, depression or spiritual void.

So more important than using meditation for overcoming stress
is taking up the practice of meditation to overcome anxiety,
depression or spiritual emptiness. People don't know the
meaning of life. Through meditation a person can experience
the meaning of life. They begin experience actual fulfillment.
QUESTION: What are the other reasons why someone should begin to
actually practice meditation?
JAGAD GURU: Self-realization. It is not the most common
reason but it is the main spiritual reason. According to the
ancient Vedic text and the great spiritual teachers of
meditation, the most important reason for beginning the
practice of meditation is the desire for self-realizationto
understand who you really are. What is your real essence?
What is your real purpose in life? What is your relationship with

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God? This is so important. Nothing is more important than
knowing who you are. If you don't know who you are, how are
you going to know what is your purpose in life? How do you know
what to do? How do you know what your normal or natural
function should be? Who are you really? Most people identify
themselves as being their body. "I am male, Filipino, young,
handsome, macho, etc." They think, "I am the material body. I
am flesh and blood." But in fact, our real identity is spiritual. In
fact, we are spirit soul, the life particle, the spark of God only
temporarily in this body. I am living in this body but this body
is not me. I am a child of God spiritual in essence. This
means that I need spiritual food, spiritual happiness. I can't be
satisfied by material wealth, fame, power, etc. What is going to
make me really happy? What is that spiritual food that I need?
My connection with God. Union with God.

Meditation means union with God. The word "yoga" also
means union with God, when the individual spirit soul links up
with the Supreme Soul; when the individual spirit soul is
focused completely on Godhis mind, body, heart, his entire
being is immersed in God. This is the meaning of yoga. This
is the meaning of meditation. It is also the meaning of prayer.

Real prayer is meditative. In other words, in deepest prayer, a
person is in meditation. He is linked up with God. Real

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meditation is prayer and true prayer is meditative. For the
living entity or individual to be happy, he needs to be linked up
with God. That is what meditation is. Meditation is that union
or connection with God. When I'm hooked up to God in that
way, I'm meditating upon God. I'm not worried about whether
my business fails or succeeds. I'm not worried about whether
or not people like me. I'm not worried about so many things...
It's not that I become forgetful of everything else just because I
am focused on one thing. In other words, if I focus my mind on
a dot temporarily, I may also forget my troubles. Or I may drink
a lot of alcohol and forget my problems. But this is different. In
linking up with God, one is experiencing full comfort, full
protection, full security and full consciousness. Meditation
does not put you in a state of diminished consciousness but
full, joyful consciousness. It is stated in the ancient text of the
Bhagavad-gita that in this condition of trance or samadhi, the
living entity is joyful.

The stage of perfection is called trance, or samadhi, when
one's mind is completely restrained from material mental
activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's
ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice
in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless
transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through
transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs

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from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater
gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even
in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom
from all miseries arising from material contact.
Bhagavad-gita
Chap. 6 Text 20-23
The individual is fully awake, fully alive and experiencing a type of
inner joy. In the Bhagavad-gita, it is also stated that the sage or yogi is
happy within.
Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense
pleasure or external objects but is always in trance, enjoying the
pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys
unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme.

Bhagavad-gi ta Chap. 5 Text 21
He is satisfied within due to meditation or the condition of being linked
up with the Supreme Lord.
QUESTION: You've been explaining how self-realization is the most
important reason why a person should take up meditation. In this connection,
what is one of the main things that a person conquers by self realization?
JAGAD GURU: The fear of death. You see, if you are immersed in
meditation, then you are also talking about being in full consciousness
of who you arethat you are spirit soul, you are eternal. Eternal means

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you don't die. Full consciousness of your real identity means you fully
know and appreciate that you are not your body. Your body dies but you
don't die. So if you know that you don't die, that means you can't be
afraid of death. Why are you not afraid of death? Because you know
you are eternal. How can you be afraid of death? We are reminded of
the verse in the New Testament, "Oh death, where is your sting?" To
everybody, death has a sting. It is very painful. But for one who knows, "I
am eternal," death has no sting. The only sting that might be there is the
sense of fear. What will my future be? I will continue to exist but what
will protect me?

When a person is immersed in meditation, however, he is linked up
with the Supreme Protector. He is linked up with the Supreme
Support. He is supported and cannot fall. There is no question of
being unprotected. An ordinary person may feel, "Where will I go?
What will happen to me after I leave my body?" These fears are not
present in a person who is in a state of meditation because he is linked
up with the Supreme. He is fully protected. He is experiencing inner
happiness and inner protection.

So people have different reasons for wanting to meditate. You may want
to conquer death; you may want to be self-realized; you may
want to overcome your deep, inner spiritual fears or anxieties; or
you may simply want to reduce your stress which is so in-
significant in comparison to the real problems of life. Stress is

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nothing. Like a little headache is no big deal. It's nothing
compared to being afraid that your plane is going to crash. Will you
be worrying about minor stress when your plane is five thousand
feet in the air and going down 1,000 feet every five seconds? In
such a situation, will you worry about a little indigestion? No.

You can begin meditating for other reasons, that's all right. But
meditation actually brings a higher spiritual, inner happiness or
pleasure to a person. This is the most important reason why a
person should begin the process of meditation.
QUESTION: Im interested in learning meditation but how much is it going
to cost?
JAGAD GURU: Nothing. If a person says, "I'm going to teach
you meditation on such and such a date. Come and bring $50,"
he's a fake. Any bona fide process of meditation comes from
God. And if it is coming from God, it is a gift of love. Anyone who
is actually the representative of God will be passing on that gift as
a gift of love. He is not going to be saying, "Pay me $50 and you
can sit in my presence for two minutes". What is this nonsense?
A bonafide representative of God will never charge money for
teaching meditation.

Nobody buys or sells mantras. Mantras are really names of God
or glorification of God. Nobody can buy or sell God. So if you

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think you've bought a mantra this is false. In fact, you've bought
an imitation. It has no spiritual potency. No so-called mantra,
process or anything else which you have paid for is going to have
any spiritual effect. It might have some hypnotic or psychic effect
but it's not going to have any actual spiritual benefit to you.
QUESTION: Some psychologists try to teach people to meditate on
numbers 1 through 10. They claim that this will relieve peoples stress or
tension. Is this right?
JAGAD GURU: As we said before, meditation means focusing
one's mind, one's entire attention and one's entire being on
God. This is the meaning of meditation. Now, God is Number
One. But that doesn't mean that number 1 is God. And number
10 is not either. And neither are numbers 1 -10 the Absolute
Truth or God.

Now if you focus your attention on the numbers 1-10 or the
number 1 and you say over and over, "One, one, one," this may
help drive things out of your mind temporarily. But in fact, it is not
going to give you the inner happiness that you need as a spiritual
being. It is not spiritual food.

As a spark of God, you need God. When you meditate, you
actually experience union or connection with God and you taste
spiritual satisfaction. In other words, real meditation is not just a

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temporary alleviation of your troubled condition. Meditation means
you gain positive satisfaction and joy. It means your life is actually
focused on a source of great happiness.

Now the numbers 1-10 are not the source of great happiness. This
doesn't mean that you can't relieve a little bit of stress due to some
superficial cause, by thinking of these numbers. If the cause of your stress
is superficial, then you can alleviate a little of your stress via this technique.
But you can be rid of stress by running around the block. You can jog a bit
or do some kind of exercise. You can even change your diet and this will
also help alleviate your stress.

In other words, we are not saying that the process of meditation is the only
way a person can relieve some of his stress. There are other ways. But
relieving of stress is a very superficial effect or one, small benefit from the
practice of meditation.

The real benefits from the practice of meditation go much deeper than
relieving stress. They are more important: You can overcome your fear
of death; you can actually achieve the highest joy and inner peacethe
freedom from anxiety. This is the real fruit of meditation. These are the
real benefits.
QUESTION: Do I have to join anything or change my religion?
JAGAD GURU: No, you don't need to join anything. You don't need to

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pay money. You simply need to apply this process of meditation to your
own personal life. If you apply this process in a regular fashion, then you
will actually experience the fruits. If you think it is simply a matter of
joining something, this is not going to help you. You can join something
but that will not have any effect. Everybody is joining and quitting things.
Some people are changing their religion from this to that, thinking it is
going to make a big difference. It does not. It is not going to help you.
QUESTION: Swami Muktananda teaches that I am God, but I have
forgotten; and that if I meditate through his system of meditation,
the siddha-yoga process, then I'll remember my true identity as
God. You seem to be saying that we are not God.
JAGAD GURU: Well, you know, if you were God, then you wouldn't
need to try to remember your true identity, would you? The idea that God
needs to meditate in order to achieve self-realization is so ridiculous and
offensive. God doesn't forget who He is. That is one of the meanings of
the word God. God means He Who doesn't forget Who He is.

The idea of Muktananda and all the "New Agies" is ridiculous. They
teach the same thing, "Yes, you are God but you forgot. But if you
meditate (pay me first and I'll teach you how), then you'll remember that
you are God."

But we ask, "If we are God, how is it that we forgot?" God does not forget
that He is God; He does not need to undergo a process of meditation;

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He does not need to become self-realized. We are god in a sense
little g'sbecause we are spirit. We are the same essence as the
Supreme Person. But above us is the God with the big G. And God
with the big G never forgets He is God. God does not need to pay
anybody to learn to meditate.

Right now, these people are telling you that you are in ignorance.
Right?
QUESTION: Right.
JAGAD GURU: Otherwise, why would they tell you that you've
got to meditate? If you have to meditate in order to be self-realized
that means that you are in ignorance. So how is it that they can
say you are God? If you are God and you are in ignorance, then
they are saying that God gets covered up by ignorance. This is an
atheistic and nonsense idea.

If God fell under ignorance, then there would be no God. We would
not have anyone to meditate upon. You must meditate upon God.
But if they're saying that God fell down and is now roaming
around, trying to figure out where to go, then who are you going to
meditate upon? The one who you supposedly were going to
meditate upon is now wandering around on the wheel of birth and
death, suffering and looking for a guru. It means there's no way
out of this mess at all. This is a crazy idea.

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In reality, we are not the Supreme Lord and we have the
tendency to be covered up by forgetfulness. We can forget who we
are. We need to undergo a process of meditation so that we can
clear our hearts and minds in order to be resituated in
remembrance of who we are. We need to be cleansed of illusion
which is now covering our eyes.

God never gets covered up by illusion. We do. Therefore, we need
to meditate.
QUESTION: Do I have to radically change my behavior in order to
meditate? Right now, I smoke and drink.

JAGAD GURU: Well, people may feel, "There's no use of me even
trying to begin meditating because I still smoke dope and
cigarettes. I still eat meat and I'm not living a perfectly spiritual
lifestyle." But in fact, a person can begin the practice of
meditation from any platform or conditioneven if you're still
drinking and smoking. Anyone can immediately begin the process
of meditation. God is not going to keep Himself from you or keep
this method from you if your behavior is not perfect. You can't say
to somebody that it is a requirement or that they have to give up
certain activities before they begin this practice of meditation. It is
not a necessity.

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However, this doesn't mean that giving up certain things won't
improve or be more conducive to real meditation. Don't deceive
yourself into thinking that you'll progress in your meditation if you
live however you like. You may believe that you can eat, drink, make
merry and do whatever you want without affecting your
consciousness. No. Through meditation, you're trying to purify
your consciousness, heart and mind. So what you have to do is
gradually try to give these things up. Then your meditation will be
really successful.

But how can you give up these bad habits? You have to
experience a higher spiritual taste in order to break your bad
habits. Through the practice of meditation, you can begin to
experience a higher happiness within, so you can quit smoking
dope. In other words, bad habits begin to drop off. But you also
need a little bit of will power. You shouldn't think, "I'm going to wait till I
lose my desire to smoke dope." The desire will still be there but not
that much that it cannot be overcome. Through meditation, a person
can come to a point where he will have inner strength, and say," I don't
want that anymore. I don't need that anymore. I can give it up. I will
give it up."
QUESTION: I originally began to meditate so that I could
become a better and more efficient businessman and it did
actually work.

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JAGAD GURU: Now what?
QUESTION: Now Im thinking that maybe I was missing the point..
JAGAD GURU: Yes, you missed the point. Some people engage in
meditation in order to clear their minds. They want to work more
efficiently, waste less energy and make more money. But what is the
value of making a lot of money if money doesn't satisfy you? Through
meditation, you begin to experience this higher happiness within
yourself that makes you realize that this happiness is higher than any
other happiness you can get, higher than anything that I can buy with
all the money that I worked hard to get. So therefore, the happiness
that I get from meditation is itself greater than the happiness from
trying to make a lot of money. Meditation no longer becomes a means
to an end but becomes the end in itself. It no longer becomes a means
to a materialistic end. I begin to experience that this relationship with
the Absolute Truth is by itself what I have always been looking for. It
doesn't mean I have to stop doing business. It doesn't mean that I
can't appreciate that my business is more efficient. However, it also
makes me wonder, "Why am I doing business?" Gradually, through
meditation, you come to realize that everything and everyone belongs
to God. And your rightful position and function is not simply to exploit. In
other words, you can't really be happy as long as you're just trying to
exploit other people making a lot of money for yourself and enjoying
the world. So then you have to see a higher purpose for business. You
begin to think, "Well, you know, maybe there's a higher reason for my

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doing business. Maybe I can use my money in a positive way, that is of
service to God and of service to the children of God." In this way,
doing business itself becomes a meditation. It is called karma-yoga.
This is a type of meditation we also teach.
QUESTION: Sometimes I don't know whether I should or shouldn't do
something. It's like I don't know whether it's right or wrong and / was
wondering if meditation would show me the way.

JAGAD GURU: Yes, of course, through the practice of meditation
your mind and heart become gradually cleansed or purified. Now the
Lord in your heart (called the Paramatma) is continually and always
giving you advice on what you should do and what you should not do,
as far as pleasing Him. What is pleasing to the Supreme? How do you
know? What should you be doing or not doing on a daily practical
level? What is the right way to act? How do you know that? You don't
know unless your mind and heart become more and more cleansed, so
that you can actually hear the voice of God within yourself, so that you
can actually know intuitively from within what you should and shouldn't
do. In other words, you don't want to be in a situation where you
always have to be told to do this, do that, that's bad, that's good,
from some outside sources. Rather, you should want to come to
that state where intuitively, from within yourself, you know what is
right and what is wrong. Meditation helps you come to this state.
QUESTION: Several years ago, I learned that meditation has to

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do with controlling the breath. But if I understand what you are
saying, meditation means putting your mind on God.
JAGAD GURU: Yes. A lot of people have the illusion that sitting
with your legs crossed, eyes closed, concentrating your attention
on your breathing or focusing on the point beneath the navel or a
point between the eyebrows, is meditation. However, asanas,
sitting postures, breathing exercises, kundalini yoga practices,
trying to raise the life air, are not meditation. These can be
called premeditation practices.

These practices may help you relax your body and mind a bit so
that you can easily focus your attention. In other words, focusing
on your breathing helps bring you to a more relaxed state.
You're able to withdraw your senses, your mind, your attention
from the world around you. After you have withdrawn your
attention from the world, you're supposed to place or focus your
attention upon the Supreme. You're not supposed to just focus
your attention on your breath. Your breathing isn't God. Your
navel isn't God. The chakra at your navel isn't God either.

If up to now, all you've been focusing on is your breathing or
your navel, then you haven't really learned meditation yet. All
you've been learning this whole time are pre-meditation
techniques. And you could spend all your time and all your
money trying to learn pre-meditation techniques and never

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really come to the point where you actually start meditating
upon God. "Okay, I've meditated upon my navel and my breath.
I focused and tried to raise the life air and now I've got the life
air up to my throat. But when do I actually begin
meditating upon God?"

The reason many people never get to that point or many
teachers never take you to that point is because they don't
believe in or know God. They just keep getting you to focus your
attention on things which are not in fact the Absolute Truth or God,
because they believe that you are God. That's nonsense. I'm
sorry to tell you that you've wasted your time and energy. You
have to learn a bona fide process of meditation. You have to learn
how to meditate on God. This is meditation and nothing else is
meditation. Everything else is pre-meditation techniques. It is not
that such techniques are bad. But they are not complete. You
have to learn the proper, complete system of meditation.
Thank you very much