The Purpose of Meditation

When our Covid-19 lockdown was first imposed on us more than a year ago, it seemed that here was a good opportunity to do lots of extra meditation. But did that actually happen? No – well, not nearly as much as intended. Why not?

Probably it comes back to our old problem: that if we work hard at something, we want to see some reward. And when that doesn’t happen with meditation, we may lose a bit of enthusiasm. But then, how many times have we been told that we’re not meditating for results – in the form of light or sound or inner experience? So, what then?

Our Master has always insisted that we should not look for results in meditation, because that’s not what it’s for. We just need to keep doing this because our Master has requested us to do it, whether our mind cooperates or not. By gradually attaching to the Shabd within, whether we are aware of it or not, our meditation is cutting the attachments that keep bringing us back, life after life. And it reduces our many desires that keep pulling us back to the plane where we hope these might be satisfied.

So even simple common-sense should tell us that we need to meditate, as much as possible, if we want to escape from these repetitive physical rebirths and let our souls return to where they once knew perfect happiness and the love of our Father. Results or no results, meditation is the most important thing we could ever do.
It’s this that transforms us.

But sadly, we keep forgetting what the main purpose of this rare and precious human birth is: to return to our source. We’ve forgotten who or what we are and where we should be heading.

What exactly is this transformation we are engaged in? Surely it’s an expanding of our consciousness, until we rise to a level where we can finally merge back into the great consciousness that is God himself.

For that to happen we have to realize who we truly are – something much finer and higher than this coarse physical being. And that’s what our meditation actually is for: to enable us to become pure and perfect enough to merge back into the ultimate perfection, the Creator himself.

But quite honestly, for most of us that’s a prospect that seems almost too unreal even to consider at this time. But then, here’s something else to think about: the very fact that we were marked for initiation is proof that by the time we were initiated, a degree of transformation had already taken place – a little spark had been lit and there was a lessening of our load of karmas. Perhaps it started even in a previous life. And it is evidently a process that’s ongoing, even if very slowly.

If we look back over the years, we’ll see that we have already changed. To quite a large extent our whole mindset is now different. No doubt it’s largely our way of life and our meditation that have been changing us. We may take our four principles for granted and we may think our meditation is ineffectual – and we may complain that we see no results. But already our changed attitudes and behaviour are a significant result of our way of life.

We find that by now we’ve developed a more sensitive conscience. We try to treat others with more love and kindness, and often we’re happy to serve them. And if we have the opportunity to do seva, we really value it. We find that we want to be good human beings (as Baba Ji keeps advising). We want to live in our Master’s will. Part of this is accepting what we have been given in this life and not constantly wanting more. And trusting that whatever karma he has allocated to us in this life must be for our ultimate benefit. We feel gratitude for the many blessings that have been bestowed on us.

We also find that we’re less dependent on others for our happiness – we don’t cling to them as much as we used to. And we can find peace and satisfaction in solitude. In fact, we become a bit uncomfortable when we’re surrounded by too many people.

So many worldly activities and entertainments no longer interest us. We’re contented to live more simply, no longer chasing excitement. In fact, we find that our wants have changed. We want a more spiritual satisfaction, and most of all, we want our Master – we want to see him, hear him, feel closer to him. And every now and then we have a clearer vision – a sense that there’s another reality that’s more significant than what we’ve always thought of as real.

The truth is that all those familiar things around us that constitute our present reality are what are actually unreal. And the whole reason for the Master seeking us out and initiating us is to help us see that this world is unreal and cannot last. And that we belong elsewhere.

But again, if we’re honest we’ll admit that this higher reality is still a bit beyond us, because this physical world and our own physical bodies are all we know. Great Master tells us in Spiritual Gems: “As long as we are covered with mind and matter, we cannot see Reality.”

We’ve also been told that our ultimate goal is God-realization. But what do we understand of this? Absolutely nothing. What do we even know about God? The Masters tell us we can never understand God – we can only become him. And we will become him through love – that same love that’s given to us as a gift when we meditate. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II, Maharaj Charan Singh explains:

It is said that God is love and love is God, because the characteristic of God is love. We become one with him. We lose our own identity – we merge in him; we become another being.

What Hazur is saying is that God is love; inside us there is a spark of the same love, and the two will eventually merge into one. In this we are serving the purpose of our being sent down into the creation. So it’s love, the outcome of meditation, that helps to transform us. And to prepare us for this we’re given love for our Master, and ultimately for the inner Master and the Lord himself.

But we also have to accept the fact that by ourselves we can actually do nothing. Everything depends on his grace. To quote Hazur again from Spiritual Perspectives:

Everything happens by grace. Without his grace, nothing can happen. Unless he wishes, nobody can reach him. We are all blind, groping in the dark.… He is the one who is pulling us from the back. We are only an instrument, so to say.

We are only his instruments. The action is all his. We can only dance according to how he pulls the strings. And thank goodness for that! Because it makes the ultimate outcome inevitable. Whatever we can or can’t accomplish, eventually he is going to take us back to the Father. All that we need to do is obey what he tells us to do and live in his will.

We hear what the Master tells us. And still we worry about our own helplessness to achieve what our hearts want. We’ve been told so often how important our effort is, and we look at our efforts, and they just seem so inadequate. But those efforts will become better – in time. It may take fifty years or even sixty years or more, but what does time matter to the One who has been directing the creation for all infinity?

In the meantime his grace must be working in some way that we just don’t see, preparing us for a destiny that someday will be incredible. We just need to keep trying, and sooner or later he will bring us to him. And till then, we just live our way of life as best we can and we keep working at our meditation.