"Can you call back? She is meditating"
By Harkiran Sodhi

"Hello!"

"Hello, may I speak to Priyanka please."?

"Can you call back in an hour? She is doing her meditation."

This is not an unusual answer to get today when you call up many homes towards the late evenings and often early mornings. Meditation is the ‘in’ thing, particularly with those who are educated and achievers in their fields today. The surprising thing though is the fact that more and more young people, who should possibly be better attuned to anything but a searching of the soul, are turning towards this age-old soul healing remedy.

Preeti is in her early twenties and goes to college. She took to meditation when she did a course on alternative healing and in that was told about the benefits of meditation. "I went in very reluctantly into the whole thing, calling it mumbo-jumbo. But by the end of the course I was trying to turn other non-believers into believers," she says. Today this young girl happily wakes up at the crack of dawn to put in an hour of meditation and tries to repeat the session once again in the late evening.

Priyanka, a young working girl, has been meditating for three years now. Migraines were her bete noir and no medication seemed to help her get relief, till a friend put her onto Sehaj Yog and meditation. Today, migraines are a word in other people’s dictionaries but not hers.

Baljit Singh in his early forties meditates every day and has done so seriously since the last one year. Before this, he dabbled in it since his school days. His initiation into meditation came through yoga, both of which his father had introduced him to.

Meditation may be facing a revival in its new form or avatar today in India, but it has been a part of life since the earliest recorded history of our country. As children when we heard mythological stories, they were filled with sagas of sages who meditated for many years together. They had such a level of dedication and concentration that they were able to brave the elements as well as withstand the rigours of hunger, sleep, thirst etc, only to emerge with super powers after being blessed by the gods for their perseverance.

In some form or the other, meditation has been practised since ancient times. It is believed to bring in quietism, besides making one spiritual and enriching one’s life. Meditation has also been used to prepare one for physical work or otherwise strenuous activity. Warriors have been known to meditate before going for battle.

Most of the major religions around the world are based on the concept of meditation. The Hindu philosophical school of yoga follows a process that is said to help the purification of the body, mind and soul. The Buddhists picked one aspect of this yoga practice, dhyana (or concentrated meditation) and formed their own school from it. Ch’an is what it is known as in China and Zen is the Japanese equivalent.

Meditation is possibly one common link that binds many of the alternative medicine and healing programmes popular today. Some of these like ‘the Silva method of mind control’, ‘pranik healing’ and ‘the Art of Living’, encourage the person to train the mind and introduce him to what he really is.

The question that troubles many beginners and other uninitiated souls is how does one actually meditate. There is no real answer to this question. Some might like to sit and chant a chosen word silently, while others lie down and try to focus their mind by being totally calm and at peace.

Baljit feels that the goal of meditation is to empty your mind in an effortless way. If you have to put an effort then that goes against meditation. To empty out numerous thoughts from the mind, many you can focus on any object or symbol, sitting cross-legged with your eyes closed.

As a prelude, it is recommended and helpful to relax each body part. Start with your head, go on to the shoulders, arms, torso, abdomen and then the legs and feet. You can get to know when your focus is correct and your body is relaxed, as that part will warm up or tingle.

You don’t really need to meditate for a long time. Often the time taken is not in the process of meditation itself but the steps leading to it. It usually takes the body long to relax and reach a state where meditation is possible.

Preeti also feels better sitting down to meditate. "Initially I tried to lie down but I found at times that I almost dozed off, especially as I wasn’t used to waking up so early in the morning. I try to keep a symbol in my mind and to try to focus on it. The symbol is my Guruji’s picture. Otherwise I try to recite a mantra to help me reach a calm state."

Priyanka meditates for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening. She sits on the floor (though you can sit on a chair if you so desire) with her arms stretched out. She has her Guruji’s photograph along with a lit candle in front of her. "You can feel the vibrations coming in torrents and you can feel your kundalini come up."

Practice is possibly the best way to reach a level in meditation that you would like to. "Just as a writer only learns spontaneous freedom of expression after so many years of often gruelling studies, and just as the simple grace of a dancer is achieved only with enormous, patient effort, so when you begin to understand where meditation will lead you, you will approach it as the greatest endeavour of your life, one that demands of you the deepest perseverance, enthusiasm, intelligence and discipline," says Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

In most religions though the prescribed way is to verbally or mentally repeat a selected efficacious syllable, word or at times even a text. Some tell you to focus your attention on a visual image and keep it there for the required time. This is said to enhance informal contemplative practice and the visual image could be anything from a flower to a tree or mountain.

The Tibetans use the diagram of the mandala as a visual image and feel that this is the collection point of universal forces, which are accessible to man through meditation. Many religions use beads, the rosary or even music as a means to meditation.

Medi-tation came later into practice in the West than in the eastern parts of the world. Disen-chantment with the materialistic values and lifestyle led many westerners to turn to the Eastern philosophies and ways of life. Meditation was one of the ways adopted by them to attain inner peace and contentment, they felt they lacked.

In the late 1950s, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced the concept of Transcendental Meditation to the West, which he learnt from Guru Dev, its founder, for 13 years. He soon had many followers, including celebrities like the pop group Beatles.

Transcendental Meditation is described as, "a type of meditation practised twice a day, in which the subject mentally recites a special mantra. Concentration on the repeated utterances decreases mental activity, and as a result the subject is expected to reach a higher state of consciousness."

Many people who have not tried meditation wonder what could possibly be gained from sitting quietly and concentrating on some thing till your mind is empty and calm. Preeti swears by the ease with which she can now memorise all her books. She now finds exams "fun and easy". Apart from this, her quick and volatile temper has got curbed to quite an extent.

Baljit claims that meditation has helped him both physically as well as mentally. On the physical side, his pulse rate has dropped from 72 bpm to 60 bpm, a level he had when he was younger and in prime physical condition. Apart from this, he has a better quality of sleep and is more refreshed in the mornings. His capacity to work as well as the quality of work has improved considerably.

Mentally, he feels he is much calmer now and far better able to cope with anxiety, deadlines and work pressure. And best of all, he feels he enjoys life now far more than he ever did earlier.

Priyanka’s migraines are nothing more than a bad memory now. Apart from this, she feels "calm, happy and powerful." She says meditation has helped her accomplish a lot, "I have achieved a lot easily and effortlessly. I have a job, I am financially well off and I get all my work done well. There is a difference between being intelligent and wise. Meditation makes you wise rather than just intelligent. Your instincts become stronger and you get attuned to yourself and to life."

As Sogyal Rinpoche says: "The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live and die, well. Meditation is the road to enlightenment."