Dispelling Myths About Meditation: What It Isn't

Meditation means thoughtlessness. Meditation means a state of total silence in the mind. Total silence in the mind, such silence where there are no words, no thoughts, no logic, where there is only seeing, where there is only Darshan. Where there is only the pure experience of seeing.

Meditation means: entering into thoughtlessness. But God knows what else is prevalent in the name of meditation which is not meditation. First, if we understand what meditation is not, then it will be very easy to understand what meditation is.

Meditation takes us beyond where it leaves thoughts in the temple of God. It leaves thoughts at the door. Meditation takes us inside the door. It is important to understand what meditation is not because many false meditations are prevalent in the name of meditation, many pseudo meditations are prevalent. First of all, concentration is prevalent in the name of meditation, which is not meditation. Generally, it is understood that becoming concentrated is meditation. Becoming concentrated is also a state of thought, not of meditation.

If someone becomes concentrated on a single thought, then it is not a state of meditation. That is the fickle state of thought, and the concentrated state of thought is two, it is a state of thought only. If a person concentrates his mind on Ram, on Krishna, on Christ, on Allah, on someone else, on Om, on someone else, if a person concentrates his mind on a word or thought, then also it is not meditation. Even then it is a mind revolving around a thought. Thought is present. And where thought is present there is no meditation.

Yes, if you concentrate on a thought, there will be some results. The first result will be that, if only one thought remains in the mind, then the mind immediately goes into drowsiness, sleep, hypnosis, unconsciousness. Actually, the mind desires something new every moment. The nature of the mind is fickle. If it keeps changing, it is pleasant. If something remains unchanged, the mind gets bored. Gets filled with boredom. Gets nervous. Gets nervous and falls asleep.

You went and watched a movie today. Tomorrow you have to watch the same movie again. You liked it very much today, tomorrow you will say, okay. The day after tomorrow if you have to watch it again, then you will say, please, I don't want to go now. If you have to watch it again, then you will get nervous. And if a law is imposed that you will have to watch it all your life, then you will go mad. Or you will rebel that I don't want to watch it now.

One thing alone makes the mind restless, boring, frightened. When you get nervous, the only option left for your mind is to fall asleep, so that it can forget the stuck thing. When a mother puts her child to sleep, she says, "Raja beta sleep, raja beta sleep, raja beta sleep, raja beta sleep" and the child falls asleep. The mother thinks that perhaps the child fell asleep because of the sweet music, but she is wrong. Raja beta just got bored, got nervous. You are telling him, "Raja beta sleep, raja beta sleep, raja beta sleep"...he is filled with boredom. And not just Raja beta, if this kind of misbehavior is done to Raja beta's father, he will also fall asleep. This is misbehavior. He is being bored. The same word, the same sound, being said in the same monotonous, monotonous voice, induces sleep.

People do not fall asleep in religious congregations without a reason. They have heard the same thing a thousand times. The same thing is being said again. Now there is nothing to hear. People are sleeping. Some doctors even say that people who cannot sleep should go to religious congregations. The stories of Rama and Krishna work even on those on whom sleeping pills do not work. They have been heard so many times that now there is no option but to sleep. They are so familiar that they have become boring now.

The mind wakes up to the new, and falls asleep to the old. It falls asleep to the repeated. It remains awake to the new for a little while. Then it falls asleep to the repeated. As soon as the new comes, the old mind starts sleeping. The trick to put the mind to sleep is to stop it on one thing by repeating it. A person can sit and keep on saying: Ram-Ram-Ram, Om-Om-Om, choose any word and keep on saying it. The mind will get frightened. Then drowsiness will take over, then the mind will fall asleep, then the mind will go into sleep. The science of hypnosis, hypnotism says, repeat any one thing and you can become unconscious. Repetition is the medicine to bring unconsciousness. Keep on repeating any thing intensely and you will fall asleep, the mind will become unconscious, the conscious will merge into the unconscious.

For thousands of years repetition and concentration have been considered meditation. Repetition and concentration is hypnosis. It is hypnotic sleep, not meditation. Here in the West, whatever Mahesh Yogi and all such people talk about, they are only about hypnosis and drowsiness. They have no connection with meditation. And the reason for the effect of such things in the West is that the West is restless and troubled due to lack of sleep. Sleep has been disrupted in the West. There is too much stress, too much tension, too much worry. People are so tense from morning to evening that they cannot even sleep at night. They need a medicine to induce sleep. They need a tranquilizer. People are taking medicines, tranquilizers. But even tranquilizers work for a few days, then they also wear off. So there is no other reason for the new effects of concentration in the West, the only reason for it is that chanting mantras also helps in inducing sleep. Chanting mantras also induces sleep. There is this much benefit. But sleep is not meditation.

So first of all, keep this in mind that concentration is not meditation. Concentration is a different thing. Meditation is a different thing. Concentration means repetition of a thought. Meditation means thoughtlessness, not repetition of a thought. Suppose there is a small child and a hundred boxes are kept in a room. That small child jumps from one box to another, from the second to the third, from the third to the fourth, from the fourth to the fifth. The boxes change. The child keeps jumping. He is playing a game. Then we removed the ninety-nine boxes, now only one box is left. Now that child jumps on only one box. Jumps. The game is still going on, but he is jumping on only one box. Then we removed the box also. Now there is nothing left to jump on. Now that child has sat down. Now there is nothing to jump on. Neither there is one, nor there are hundred. There are three states of mind. There is a state of restless mind: from one thought to another, from the second to the third, from the third to the fourth, this is the normal state of the mind. Then stop it, separate all the thoughts, save one, the mind jumps on one, keeps jumping on one. The work of jumping continues. One is still left. Then remove even one. Now nothing is left, there is no place to jump. The mind has settled down, has become calm, has become silent.

The first state is of restlessness. The second state is of concentration. The third state is of meditation. Meditation means: where there is no object left – no subject, no thought, no word, nothing in the mind. The mind has become completely silent, calm. Concentration is a state of thought, of still thought.

A river is flowing, this is the state of restless mind. A river has stopped, has frozen, has become a pond, this is the state of concentration. There is no river left, it has been washed away in the sun, only the sand of the river has remained, now the river is not there, this is the state of meditation. Without differentiating between meditation and concentration, no one will be able to understand what meditation is. Most people consider concentration as meditation and sit and waste their time. They just put themselves to sleep in a state of drowsiness. Of course, sleep is also fun. There is also fun in falling asleep. There is sorrow, pain, trouble in life, one feels like forgetting it.

A man drinks alcohol, he is free from troubles. As long as he is drunk, there is no sorrow, no worry, no problem, neither the wife is sick, nor the child needs medicine, nor is there a search for a job. Everything is over. The man has drunk alcohol, he has become carefree. From Somarasa to Lysergic Acid, from the sages of the Vedas to America's latest sage Aldous Huxley, man has been inventing new ways of using alcohol and becoming unconscious. When a man drinks alcohol, we say that he is doing bad. Why? Why does he do bad? He is doing bad because he simply forgets life. He does not change life. What else is bad? Forgetting does not change life, it remains the same. And the longer we keep forgetting, the more time is wasted. In that time, the misery of life could have been changed.

A person forgets everything by sitting in a movie theatre for three hours. A person forgets everything by singing bhajans in a temple. A person forgets everything by playing drums and cymbals and dancing loudly. A person is forgetting in twist, a person is forgetting in jazz, a person is forgetting by sitting in a corner and chanting Ram-Ram, Ram-Ram, a person drinks alcohol, a person takes mescaline, marijuana, opium, bhang-charas-ganja. All these people are trying to forget. The efforts to forget are different. They can be good or bad. But the basic thing is that they are trying to forget the sorrow, the pain, the darkness in life. The darkness does not vanish by trying to forget, the ignorance does not break, the suffering does not get destroyed. Then when we come out of forgetting, the sorrow is still there, the pain is still there, the ignorance is still there.

Meditation is not an attempt to forget. Meditation is an attempt to know the truth of life. It is not an attempt to forget the truth of life. It is not forgetfulness. It is complete remembering. It is complete memory of the truth of life. It is complete awareness. So there is an inverse relationship between meditation and concentration. Concentration is not meditation. And if you are trying to concentrate, then you are just trying to go to sleep. You will not enter meditation, truth, the temple of God by doing so.

But many people, after getting intoxicated, think that they have entered the temple of God. By getting intoxicated. And that is why today thousands of types of saints and sages are found smoking ganja and opium. The only reason for this is that they think that this is also an intoxication. Take more support from this intoxication and reach quickly.

No one can reach anywhere through intoxication. No one can reach anywhere through any kind of intoxication. One has to reach by being awake, by being full of consciousness. Awareness is needed, not unconsciousness. So meditation is not concentration.

Then what is meditation? Meditation is awareness. Meditation is to be completely awake towards all the subjects of the mind. There are many thoughts in the mind, and we are asleep.

One day Buddha is speaking and a man sitting in front of him is moving his toe. Buddha stops speaking and asks the man, my friend, why does this toe move? As soon as Buddha says this, his toe stops moving. If you were also sitting and moving your toe and Buddha says, your toe -- it would stop moving as soon as you hear it. The man says, I don't know anything, it was moving just like that. Buddha says, you are saying a very strange thing! Your toe and you don't know? And it moves just like that? Is the toe yours or someone else's? Are you conscious or unconscious?

A man is sitting on a chair and is moving his legs. He has no idea why his legs are moving? A man is sitting and is changing sides again and again. He is changing sides while sitting. He has no idea why he is changing sides? Maybe he is not even aware of what he is doing? Buddha says, is this thumb yours or someone else's? He says, it is mine. So Buddha says, it is yours, and you don't know? It moves and you don't know? And I asked, and why did it stop suddenly? He said: As soon as I became aware, I stopped. Until I was not aware, it used to move.

Just like the toe of the foot is moving, the feet are moving and all the leaves and branches of life are moving, in the same way the mind is also moving without knowing. We don't know what is going on inside? We have hardly ever sat down and looked inside our mind, what goes on inside? If we see, we might get scared. If you close your room for ten minutes and keep a paper and a pen, and whatever goes on in the mind, write it honestly, whatever is going on, then it will be difficult to tell even your close friend. Because even he will immediately say on seeing it that let's go to a doctor, your mind has gone bad. Does this go on in your mind? If we have ever looked inside, we will find a completely deranged mind sitting inside us. What is going on there? What is the difference between a mad person and us? The only difference between a mad person and us is that whatever is going on inside us, we somehow suppress it, we control it, it does not come out immediately. Sometimes it comes out, it comes out at appropriate and inappropriate times. We call it anger, that we made a mistake in anger. Everything that was going on inside came out. But generally we keep it under control.

Every person is walking while controlling his madness. The one who is controlling himself we call him normal and the poor one who cannot control himself, we call him mad. There is no more difference than this between mad and normal. There is a difference of degree. There is no other difference. Any one of us can go mad at any moment. If there is a slight shock and what was controlled inside spills out, then everything is messed up.

This which we are carrying inside, this chitta of ours, this mind, these infinite webs of thoughts inside, have we ever seen them with awareness or have we just turned our backs towards them? Those who have explored the mind say that it is difficult to find a person who has not committed suicide within himself, no matter how many times he has not murdered. It is difficult to find a person who has not wished for all the crimes that can be committed in some corner or the other, somewhere in the darkness of the mind. All crimes, all sins, all evils, all madness are present in the form of seeds within all of us. And the thoughts of all of them keep on swaying, the waves keep on swaying. Everything keeps on going on inside. But we never wake up and see it. We have our backs towards it. We are also afraid that all this may not be visible.

Perhaps that is why we want to remain entangled somewhere or the other for 24 hours so that what is inside may not be visible. If it is visible, then we will get scared that what is this madness inside? This is me, this is the me about whom I praise, sing, this is me? The ego which I declare? This mad me, who do I think is me? So the mind is afraid. We remain outside only, we do not go inside at all.

This which we are carrying inside, this chitta of ours, this mind, these infinite webs of thoughts inside, have we ever seen them with awareness or have we just turned our backs towards them? Those who have explored the mind say that it is difficult to find a person who has not committed suicide within himself, no matter how many times he has not murdered. It is difficult to find a person who has not wished for all the crimes that can be committed in some corner or the other, somewhere in the darkness of the mind. All crimes, all sins, all evils, all madness are present in the form of seeds within all of us. And the thoughts of all of them keep on swaying, the waves keep on swaying. Everything keeps going on inside. But we never wake up and see it. We have our backs towards it. We are also afraid that all this may not be visible.

All the illness of our mind, all the poison of our mind, all the poison of our mind is born from our absence. We are absent. Every person is absent within himself. We are completely absent from one place, we never go there. There is no one there to give us a proxy. Everything is dark there. We never go there. We keep roaming outside. We roam everywhere, except one place, the place that we are, that I am. We do not enter there, we never go there. Meditation means going there. Meditation means to wake up to what is in the mind. Meditation means to be filled with awareness towards whatever is there, good, bad, dirty, madness. But only one can be filled with awareness who is not filled with repression towards the mind. That is why there is no repression in the process of meditation. This is the first sutra of meditation. No suppression. Because the person who has repressed will be afraid to go inside. He has collected all the dirt inside. Now he will be afraid to go inside. Does he know what is inside? And we have all repressed - anger, lust, greed, we have repressed everything. Everything has accumulated inside. And it has accumulated so much that it seems difficult to even muster the courage to go there. We do not want to go there.

But remember, to reach the door of the Lord's temple, you will have to pass through it. No one can reach the Lord without passing through himself. No one can reach the Lord without going through himself. Wherever one is and wherever one comes from, one will have to pass through one path - that which I am. No one can reach God without passing through it. I am the door. And one will have to pass through this door. And we are afraid of this door. We are afraid because of repression. We have hidden everything there. We are not even ready to go there to see what is there.

Meditation means: not repression, but awakening. Whatever is in the mind should not be repressed. Repressing means pushing it into the unconscious, pushing it into darkness, where it cannot be seen. Like a man builds a basement in his house. Whatever garbage, waste, junk, whatever he has killed someone, whatever he has stolen from someone, he keeps dumping it in the basement. The basement keeps getting filled up. He doesn't tell anyone that there is a basement in his house. Because he has committed murders there. He has kidnapped other people's wives there. He has brought other people's wealth there. What has he not done there? So he doesn't tell anyone about the basement. He himself is scared of going there. Whatever he has done there is so terrifying that how can I go there?

We have divided our mind into two parts. One is the sitting room a little above where we welcome guests and have nice conversations. The sitting room is completely false. There is no place in the house more false than the sitting room. The sitting room is not the real place. The curtains we have put up there and the furniture we have placed there are all just a sham. It is only for those who come from outside, it is a deception for them. But no one will be deceived because they have also created a similar deception in their own house. The sitting room is a false place. It is not our real house. The real house starts behind the sitting room, and we ourselves are afraid to go there.

So one is the part of the mind which is called conscious. The mind is not divided into two parts. We have divided it. One part is that which is called conscious. There we welcome guests, greet them, greet them, have nice conversations. There are rules of etiquette. There is society. There is culture. There is civilization. It is just there. It is a very small part. If we divide the mind into ten parts, then this is one part. Nine parts are dark inside. The real man lives there, fierce, wild. The man who has lived there for thousands of millions of years lives there. There is no civilization, no culture, no etiquette there. We are real there. We do not go there. We do not even peep there. We try to spend our lives in the same drawing room which is completely false. And then we can never reach the truth. We will have to know our nine parts too. There is no way to escape from these nine parts. Man runs away from these nine parts in alcohol, and also runs away from them in chanting mantras. He runs away from them in prayer and worship too. He runs away from them in mescaline and lysergic acid too. He runs away from them in cinema, music, dance too. Man runs away from those parts of himself, which he cannot even muster the courage to see, cannot muster the courage.

But the seeker will have to see them. He will have to know them. He will have to enter them. He will have to go into that whole mind of his where he has never gone. Meditation means: conscious entry into one's unconscious. Meditation means: whatever is within me I will uncover it and encounter it, I will see what it is. It is necessary for this that I do not repress it. It is necessary for this that I do not make any decision, any judgment towards any tendency of the mind. Because as soon as I make a decision, then whatever I call bad I will not want to bring to the fore. And whatever I call good I will want to bring to the fore. Whatever I call bad I will remove and whatever I call good I will keep at the door. Then the mind will start fragmenting. The person who wants to meditate does not need to make any judgment, he does not need to decide that this is bad, this is good. He only has to know what is. Whatever is I will know. Whether it is bad, good, sin, virtue, whatever it is, I do not make any decision. I will go without any decision, I will go without any decision and see what is it.

And it is a matter of great surprise that the person who does not decide in advance that this is bad, this is good, this is a sin, this is virtue, this has to be done, this has to be not done, this has to be done, this has to not be done, who does not make such divisions, his mind becomes unbroken, one. And the person who gathers the courage to see his mind in its totality as a witness in a very unbiased manner, a revolution begins to come in that person's life, of which we do not know anything.

As soon as he starts seeing unbiasedly, all those things, which seemed very heavy till yesterday, start to leave. They start to leave like shadows. This unbiased witnessing, this courage and bravery to see whatever is in the mind without any choice, without any decision, is the sign of a meditator.

Meditation means: I should know and see whatever is within me. Neither I should judge, nor I should say bad, nor I should say good. Neither condemnation nor justification. Whatever is there, I should see it and know that it is there. Just this, meditation means standing impartially before all the layers of the mind.

But we, we are in a very strange state of mind. We cannot stand with anything impartially. We cannot stay with anything for even a moment without taking sides. If we stand near a rose, we cannot stay without saying that it is beautiful. It is not possible that we do not say anything and stay with the rose for a moment. Whatever the rose may be, whether it is beautiful or ugly, we do not say anything, our mind does not make any decision. Just look at the flower and stop. We cannot stop. That we look at the moon and stop and do not decide whether it is beautiful or ugly. If we see the face of a woman, the face of a handsome young man, then it is impossible that we stop for a moment without thinking that I should get it, I should become its owner. Our whole habit is to take sides immediately. We do not stop for even a moment impartially.

Meditation means: to stay impartially with what is. Do not take any decision in a hurry. Because as soon as a decision is made, meditation leaves, thoughts start. Understand this. As soon as a decision is made, meditation ends, thinking begins. Decision is thought, side is thought. As soon as I say that the rose is beautiful, thinking begins, the flower departs. Darshan ends. Meditation ends. Thought comes in between. If I don't say that the rose is beautiful, if I don't say that I have seen this flower before, if I don't say that I want to pluck it and put it in my buttonhole. If I don't say any of this. The rose is there, I am here, there is no thought in between. Then the union between the rose and me happens in meditation.

And in the same way, we should see all the flowers of our mind, all the thorns, whatever is there, see it. We have to experiment a little in this direction. We have to make a little habit of this. We have to take some practice in this direction. Because our constant habit is that as soon as Darshan happens, we do not give the word. Something happens and we immediately give the word that it is like this. And that word stands at the door. Darshan stops. Meditation disappears.

Meditation means: wordless, thoughtless witnessing. No thoughts, just witnessing, just watching. Practice it outside as well. Even when you pass by a flower, even when you pass by your wife, even when you pass by your son, even when your husband is in front of you, even when a stranger passes by, even when you see a star in the sky. Practice meditation outside as well. Be quiet, see what is, and then find out what happens just by seeing? Then practice it inside as well. When thoughts come, when anger comes, when lust, when sex happens. Then see what is inside, what smoke is going on, let me see, let me see silently, let me recognize what it is. And I will be able to recognize only when I see completely. Let nothing come in between. If you practice meditation outside as well as inside, you will be free from thoughts, and the ability to know what is will be strong. And a completely new door will open which we have not known till now. A unique possibility of great beauty will open, which we have never known. A completely new wind of a truth will blow which we are totally unfamiliar with. Some flowers will bloom, there will be some fragrance which we do not recognize, something unknown will enter us.

The unknown never enters except through meditation. Thought is a repetition of the known. And when we stand near a flower and say that yes, I have seen it, I have recognised it, we recognise it, the thought is old. These are flowers seen before. When did I see this flower? I had never seen this flower. Even God must be seeing it for the first time. No one had ever seen it. To see this flower, all the flowers should go away, the thought of flowers should go away, all the words should go away, I should stand straight in front of it. As for the flower, so for myself, I should stand in front of all the states of the mind. I should stand straight, see whatever is there. I should not be afraid. It will appear very bad, but it appears bad only because we have formed the notion of bad. I should not be praised either. A lot of virtues can also be seen. A lot of love can also be seen there, but I should not be praised, I should not be condemned either, because as soon as I become that, the mind, the heart becomes unstable, meditation dissolves, thinking begins. The vibration of thoughts should not come in between. Like a mirror, like an empty mirror on which there is no dust, I should move in the direction of seeing myself. This process is called meditation. Meditation is: self-introspection. Meditation is: witnessing towards oneself. Meditation is: becoming a witness for oneself.

Swami Ram went to America. People there faced a lot of difficulty, because they were not familiar with Swami Ram's habit. Ram always spoke in the third person. He did not speak like this that I went to a place and some people started abusing me. He used to say that today it was very fun, Ram went to a place, some people started abusing Ram. People said: Who are you talking about? Ram means you, right? Ram said: I don't know, I used to stand far away and watch that Ram was being abused. Ram used to get restless. Ram used to get filled with anger. I used to stand far away and watch and laugh that Ram is in big trouble. Today he is in big trouble. What abuses are being hurled. What will you do now? And I used to watch whatever Ram used to do. It was very difficult for people to understand what this man was saying. Have you ever had the courage to stand far away and see what the mind does? What does Ram do? What does he do when he is abused? Have you ever stood far away? Have you ever become the third person? If you don't become that then you cannot know anything about meditation.

Meditation means: to become a third person. We are always two persons. If you come to me and abuse me, then there are two persons there. One is you who abuses, and the other is me who responds to the abuse. But there is another person who is watching all this - abuse has been given, abuse has been taken, abuse has been responded to. That third person is also within me, isn't it? And there is a third person within you too. There are four persons there. But there are three persons for each person. One is the one who is being abused, the one who is getting restless on hearing the abuse, and the one who is abusing, and the one who is watching both of them. If this third person develops, then meditation will develop. Meditation means this third person, the third. This should be clear.

Try experimenting a little and you will be surprised. There is an injury in the leg, there is pain, there is suffering, the head is aching; look a little - are there two persons or three? There is pain, the one who is experiencing the pain, there is another person who is observing both of them - there is pain and there is pain and there is another person, there is another person. He will gradually appear with one more witness.

Alexander came to India. He returned. His friends had told him to bring a hermit too. When he was about to leave after looting everything, he thought of bringing one more hermit. So he asked someone in a village, is there any hermit? There was one hermit. He sent two soldiers to bring him and tell them that we will give you royal honours, facilities, respect. Come with us to Greece. This is the order of the great Alexander.

The soldiers went with naked swords and told the hermit to come, the great Alexander has said so. The hermit started laughing, he said, he is mad to call himself great. They said: You don't know, whom are you calling mad? You will get into trouble. You have been ordered, come with us.

The hermit said: You probably don't know, the meaning of sannyas is this: one who has stopped obeying everyone. Now we don't obey anyone. Now we don't obey anyone at all. Those people said: You don't know that Alexander will get his head chopped off. He said: You go and tell Alexander that the meaning of being a sannyasi is that we know that the neck is separate, there is no question of separating it now, it is separate.

Alexander was informed. Alexander himself went. And he said: You are not afraid? Do you see this sword? That sannyasi said: Afraid! I am seeing the one who is afraid, I am seeing the one who is frightening as well. And me? I have nothing to do with it. Neither with the one who frightens, nor with the one who is frightened. I am seeing both.

I don't know whether Alexander understood or not. But he said: It will be better if you come with me, otherwise I will kill you before I go. That sannyasi said: You kill me, it will be fun. You will also see the neck falling and I will also see the neck falling, we will both see the neck falling.

This observer inside is meditation. This ability to see is meditation. This ability to stand in life and see whatever is happening is meditation.

The third sutra is: meditation. Watch life. Watch the mind. Watch whatever is happening. Become a watcher. Don't fight, don't decide, don't choose, watch, just watch.

But it is very difficult for us to watch. Even when we go to watch a play, we forget that there are only spectators, and we also forget that what is happening on the screen, what is happening on the screen of the movie, is just a play of electricity, shadow and sunlight, there is no one there. Some sad event happens there and we watch in the hall. People are wiping their tears by avoiding each other. We look around to see if anyone is watching. And that is why darkness is very helpful in cinema, darkness is very useful. If someday cinema starts being made in light, it will not be as much fun because there will be a great fear that someone might see. People are wiping tears. What are they looking at while wiping tears? The screen? And the shadows formed by the rays of electricity moving on the screen, the lines of sunlight and shadow? There is no one there.

Vidyasagar went to see a play in Calcutta. He got so agitated after seeing the play. There is a man who is after a woman, harassing her. Finally, in a jungle, in the dense darkness, he has caught hold of the woman, he is about to rape her when Vidyasagar forgot, he jumped on the stage, took out his shoe and started hitting that character. That character showed more intelligence than Vidyasagar. He took the shoe in his hand and greeted the people and said: I have never received such a big award for acting. It is true that an intelligent man like Vidyasagar understood acting. I will keep this shoe safely. Now I will not give it to you Vidyasagar ji. This is my biggest award. It will be remembered that once I acted in such a way that it seemed true. And Vidyasagar also felt that it was true. He forgot that the play was being performed.

If we cannot remain a witness even there in the play, then how will we be able to remain in life? We understand the play as life. And the one who meditates will have to understand life as if it is a play. The one who goes into meditation will have to know what all this is? If someone has abused you, what is it? The sound of words and some sounds which shake the eardrums, what else is it? And if someone has thrown a shoe at you and the shoe has hit your head, what else is it? Pressure of some molecules on some other molecules, what else is it? Pressure of some molecules on some other molecules, what else is it? A meditative person will have to know. And if someone has cut the neck, the sword has passed through the neck, it has gone through it. There was space there, that is why it has gone through it. Things were separate, that is why they have become separate. What else is it?

In the practice of meditation, you will have to constantly know what is there? You will have to search and be awake. And then gradually something amazing will happen and the doors to the amazing will start opening. As soon as the mind becomes a witness, a unique peace, a silence, a void starts coming. A space starts appearing in between. The sky starts coming in between. Things start appearing in their reality. The drama becomes a drama. And when the drama becomes a drama, then the possibility of that which is true descends. As long as the drama is true, the truth will remain untrue. When the drama becomes a drama, the untruth will become untrue. The false is known as the false. When we know the deceptive, the false is false, then its realization, its revelation, that which is true, that which is not false, starts descending. Meditation is entering the door. But not reaching God.

Meditation is entering the door. I have entered your house, but this is not reaching you. And complete entry into the temple of God is possible only when we become one with God.

So the third sutra is: meditation, witnessing. In this the door will open. You will reach inside. But still there is a hindrance. God is different, you are different. You have reached the temple, He is different, you are different. The truth has been seen. But the truth is He, you are this. Now if this gap is also broken, then only the truth can be lived and known in its fullness. Till now the truth was seen from outside, from a distance, till now the truth was recognized from outside, from a distance. The truth has not yet been achieved. One does not only have to know the truth, one has to live the truth also. One does not only have to see the truth, one has to become the truth also. Complete entry into God is not possible without becoming God yourself. One has to rise above meditation also.

Tomorrow in the fourth sutra we will go beyond meditation also – Samadhi.

Translated From: Prabhu Mandir Ke Dwar Par 05