Meditation

saacha saahib saach naaye bhaakhiya bhaa’o apaar.
aakhah mangah deh deh daat kare daataar.
fer ke agai rakheeyai jit disai darbaar.
muhau ke bolan boleeyai jit sun dhare pyaar.
amrit vela sach naa’o vadiyaa’i veechaar.

True is the master, true is his Nam –
repeat it with infinite love.
People beg and pray, “Give to us, give to us,”
and the great giver gives his gifts.
So what offering can we place before him,
by which we might see his court?
What words can we speak to evoke his love?
In the ambrosial hours before dawn,
repeat the true Nam,
and contemplate his glorious greatness.
_{Guru Nanak Dev}²⁸⁸

How fortunate we are to have come into the shelter of a true master! How fortunate we are if we have been blessed with the opportunity to sit in quiet remembrance and offer our love. Mystics tell us that this is the highest form of service and the one most precious to the Lord.

Meditation is not just an activity we do now and then; it is a lifelong process of bending the mind towards love:

Potentially every soul is God. But we have to become God; we have to go to that level of consciousness. Potentially every drop is the ocean, but it has to evaporate and become the cloud and the rain before it can be one with the ocean.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}²⁸⁹

No matter how much the drop yearns to be one with the ocean, it cannot directly reach the ocean. There is a process involved. It must slip out from under the rock and submit itself to the heat of the sun. This is all that is required of it – simply to turn its attention towards the sun and become receptive. The sun does the rest – separating it from the dirt and impurity, raising it to the clouds, then letting it drop and merge into the ocean. When we meditate, this is what we do – we make ourselves receptive to the process. The master does the rest.

Through meditation we become worthy of his grace and receptive to his love.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}²⁹⁰

No physical action can replace the role of meditation in this process, because the one with whom we wish to merge is not physical:

The master is not the body, he is the Shabd within. How would you merge in that without meditation?
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}²⁹¹

Since the destination is not physical, the body has no role to play in meditation except to not distract the mind. Therefore during meditation the body is brought to a state of absolute stillness. Mind, on the other hand, has the primary role in the process. Meditation is the practice of turning the mind inward and bringing it to stillness as well. The biblical psalmist sang, ,“Be still, and know that I am God.”²⁹² With a still body and mind, our attention withdraws from the world of the senses and becomes receptive to the power of the Shabd reverberating within us, and our soul is free to rise:

The natural tendency of the soul is to rise up, for it is a bird of a different sphere. The mind and the body keep it down. The cream in milk automatically rises when the milk is left alone. The moment the body and the mind are stationary, the soul begins to rise up towards the focus.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh}²⁹³

Everything we do in meditation is for the mind. The soul already loves; it is the mind that is learning how to love:

You see, actually this meditation, this love that we’re trying to develop is for the mind…. When the mind goes to its own source, automatically the soul goes to the Father, because it is already filled with love for the Father…. So all our efforts in meditation are for creating our love, devotion, faith – it is all for the mind.²⁹⁴

Paradoxically, however, meditation is also done by the mind. Meditation is where seva of the mind finds its highest expression. A seeker once wrote to Great Master asking what method he had worked out to go within. Great Master replied:

I took instructions from my own guru and he gave me the exact method. That method is the same as all saints use, which is simply the concentrated attention held firmly at the given centre…. It is all a matter of unwavering attention. Every ray of attention must be centred there and held there.²⁹⁵

This is the essence of the meditative process – to uproot every ray of our attention from the physical world and transplant it in the inner world; to refocus the mind within, then hold it still at the “given centre.” This very method of meditation has been taught to us by our master, and it has three components: simran, dhyan, and bhajan.

Simran, the practice of silent repetition of five names given by the master at the time of initiation, draws our attention out of this world and up to the eye centre. Dhyan, the practice of contemplating on the form of the master, holds our attention steady at the eye centre. Simran and dhyan are done simultaneously; they help focus the mind and bring it to stillness, so it can attune to the Shabd resounding at the eye centre. Then, through the practice of bhajan, we listen to the divine melody of the Shabd and respond to its inward pull.

But the Shabd doesn’t pull the soul-consciousness until every ray of attention has collected at the eye centre, and to achieve this, the discipline of simran is essential. Hazur explains the deep relationship between simran and bhajan:

Unless you come to the eye centre, you cannot be in touch with the Shabd within, and unless you are in touch with the Shabd within, it will not pull you upward. If you want a magnet to pull a needle, you have to bring the needle into the range of that magnet, from where it can then pull…. Simran is the means of withdrawing the consciousness to the eye centre, and then the Shabd pulls the consciousness upward.²⁹⁶

Regular meditation, practised daily for at least one tenth of the day, in the privacy of our home and the intimacy of our heart, is our first and foremost service – our “real” seva:

Seva means that service which is done to please the master, and what pleases the master most is when we attend to our meditation. Withdrawing our consciousness to the eye centre and connecting it with the sound is the real seva.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}²⁹⁷

Seva of the mind
Seva of the mind, known as man seva, plays a critical role throughout the meditative process. First, it is the bridge that connects outer seva with inner seva. Seva with body and wealth, when infused with seva of the mind, prepares us for meditation; it softens the ego and makes us humble, fills us with love and longing for the master, and creates within us the desire – the intention – to meditate.

Secondly, seva of the mind builds our resolve to sit in meditation – it converts this intention into action. Seva of the mind is what brings us to the meditation seat every day, keeps us there for the full time, helps us sit still and repeat the names, and helps us stay still and listen within.

Finally, seva of the mind helps us slowly dissolve negative attitudes towards meditation – analysis, expectation, judgement, frustration, comparison, worry, and fear – and instead approach meditation with positive attitudes such as humility, surrender, and selflessness.

Hazur suggests a beautiful attitude of exploration and openness on the inner journey:

To have success in meditation, the aspirant must enter upon it with the determination to explore its possibilities. He must not start with reservations, but should be willing to go where he is led, but without expectations. The essence of meditation is one-pointedness to merge in the Shabd to the exclusion of all other thoughts even when they happen to be enticing.²⁹⁸

Clearly, how we approach our meditation seva matters. We can choose to meditate reluctantly, or we can meditate with positivity and joy. The attitudes we choose will yield different results. So the role of mind seva in meditation – creating the resolve to sit and elevating the attitude with which we sit – is worth a deeper exploration.

The resolve to sit
Initiation by a true master is an event of unfathomable significance. Hazur says:

This initiation is not just some ceremony. The Lord has made you his own. He has chosen you for eternal liberation and wishes you to come back to him.²⁹⁹

We serve with the mind when we approach meditation with an awareness of the magnitude of the gift we’ve been given and when we bring to our inner seva some of the same qualities we develop and hone in outer seva – responsibility, dedication, self-discipline, obedience, and the determination to truly listen.

To meditate with responsibility is to be aware that when we were initiated we made a solemn commitment to the master, and it is up to us now to honour this commitment, every day, for the rest of our lives. It is true that at the time of initiation the master also makes a commitment – to take our soul back to the Lord. And the master will keep his commitment; as Great Master used to say, there are no failures in Sant Mat. But this doesn’t mean we have nothing to do or that the master will do it for us. Hazur clarifies that Great Master’s assurance is contingent on our effort:

Failure means that I have done my best to attend to meditation but I couldn’t succeed. Failure doesn’t mean that I never attended to meditation. That is not failure. That is not even attempting.³⁰⁰

We cannot abdicate our responsibility because we believe the master will fulfil his. The master’s responsibility is completely different from the disciple’s, and Great Master beautifully explains the difference:

It is the business and duty of every disciple to make his mind motionless and reach the eye centre. The duty of the master is to help and guide on the path…. The primary factor in this success is the effort of the disciple…. The master teaches and the disciple learns. The progress of the disciple depends upon how fast he learns his lessons. The efforts of the disciple and the grace of the master go hand in hand.³⁰¹

The master often tells us that a teacher can teach a child but cannot study or learn for the child. He says that someone can cook a meal, place it before us, and even feed it to us; but they cannot digest it for us. The same is true on the spiritual path – we have a role to play in our own liberation.

Serving with responsibility is not just about having a broad understanding of the commitment we’ve made; it is also about the micro-level choices we make on a daily basis. Kabir Sahib once observed an ant carrying a grain of rice. Along the way it spied a lentil, and it seemed puzzled how to carry both. Kabir said it couldn’t carry both; it would have to make a choice to drop one and take the other. In the same way, said Kabir, a spiritual practitioner will have to choose between the Lord and the world.³⁰²

With every action we take a step either towards or away from God. The default setting of the mind is to move outward, so choosing to redirect the mind inward takes effort, sometimes tremendous effort. Tiny though it may seem to us, mystics emphasize the great significance of our effort:

Whoever believes he can reach God
by his own efforts toils in vain;
Whoever believes he can reach God without effort
is merely a traveller on the road of intent.
_{Abu Sa’id al-Kharraz}³⁰³

This brings us to the power of self-discipline and obedience. Between intention and action there is a gap, and seva of the mind bridges that gap. We often say that our lives are too busy, that we don’t have the time to meditate. But the master reminds us that twenty-four hours in the day is sufficient time to work, sleep, fulfil our obligations, and meditate. We often say that we will meditate when our circumstances get better, but the master tells us that when circumstances get better we will feel no need to meditate; the need to meditate is now, when circumstances are not good.

Our master asks us to think deeply about what we want from life, because sooner or later whatever we put our effort into we will surely get. We may think we love the master, but our actions reflect what we truly love. We are always able to find time to do the things that are important to us, so if we struggle to find time to meditate, the issue may not be a lack of time, but our priorities.

Emphasizing the need to make meditation our highest priority, Great Master said, “This done, all is done; this not done, all else done is as if nothing is done.”³⁰⁴ And Baba Ji, quoting Guru Nanak Dev, reminds us frequently that to connect with Nam is an initiate’s highest privilege and greatest responsibility:

eko naam hukam hai nanak
satguru deeya bujhaaye jee’o.

The one Nam is the Lord’s command.
O Nanak, the true guru has given me this understanding.
_{Guru Nanak Dev}³⁰⁵

Love means obedience, and obedience involves sacrifice. We don’t have the time to meditate, we make the time for it – by making sacrifices on other fronts. Hazur says:

The time we give to meditation is a sacrifice…. We have to abstain from society so that we can give our time, adjust our time for meditation. We shun certain company which we don’t relish anymore, which we don’t like anymore, which distracts us from the Father, which pulls us, which is slippery. This is the type of sacrifice we have to make.³⁰⁶

The mind likes to run in familiar grooves, and when we try to train it to do something new it will makes excuses: I don’t have the time; I have too many responsibilities; I’m in physical pain; I just can’t do it; I’m making no progress; it’s too dry; I can’t concentrate; I don’t feel the ‘pull’ to do it; the master will do it for me anyway; when he wants me to do it, he will make me do it; or, I’ll definitely do it, but I’ll start tomorrow.

Let us recognize these thoughts for what they are – excuses of the mind – and gently but relentlessly redirect the mind towards the master. We remind ourselves that we simply cannot afford to compromise with what is most important to us. We may be able to postpone other things, but we can’t postpone love; we love the master and want to remember him – today.

Hazur often said that if the mind is in your control, you can’t have a better friend, and if the mind is not in your control, you can’t have a worse enemy. To help tame the mind, we can choose to exert the self-discipline and obedience it takes to make meditation a habit. This habit then creates a powerful new groove for the mind to run in, and slowly the excuses stop. The power of habit is why we are urged to be regular and punctual – to fix a time for meditation and keep the commitment.

Hazur would say that whether the mind takes to it or not, we should sit, considering it to be our duty. This is the discipline of love. When all is said and done, the only thing the master really asks of us in meditation is to have the self-discipline to show up and do our best. And we do this not for anyone else, but for ourselves. This is a commitment we’ve made to our own soul.

When asked once if there is a penalty for not meditating, Hazur replied:

The penalty is that you have missed the opportunity. There are no penalties in Sant Mat…. There are no penalties in the way of love. We have missed the opportunity. What greater penalty can there be?³⁰⁷

Seva of the mind includes the mental resolve to practise not only simran and dhyan, but also bhajan – to listen within, even if we cannot yet hear the divine melody. It is during bhajan that we do the great work of life, developing the ability to hear within:

eha seva chaakri naam vasai man aaye.

This alone is the service of the Lord
by which his Nam dwells in you.
_{Guru Amar Das}³⁰⁸

The mind is powerful, however, and prefers to take the easier way whenever possible. So when we are unable to hear the Shabd within, we may be tempted to skip the bhajan part of our practice. We may tell ourselves that when we achieve some measure of concentration through simran and dhyan, then we will sit in bhajan. But if we do this we may miss the whole point of the spiritual practice! Everything else we do on the path – darshan, satsang, seva, and even simran and dhyan – these are all means to one end. The ultimate goal is surat shabd seva – the seva of connecting the soul with the Shabd – and this happens during bhajan. So if we do everything else, but don’t sit in bhajan, it’s like running a race every day but always stopping just before the finish line and saying, “I’m done!”

The master tells us that if we want to get the full benefit of simran, we have to complete it with bhajan. Otherwise it’s like cooking a meal over and over again, but never eating it. He tells us to make a habit of sitting in bhajan, just like a shopkeeper opens his shop. Whether customers come or not, every day the shopkeeper opens the shop.

The ultimate seva of the mind is to approach meditation with the resolve to listen within – never to treat our bhajan practice casually. To sit in bhajan when we can hear the Shabd is easy to do, because the divine melody is so sweet it holds our attention. But to sit when we cannot hear anything within is not so easy. This is where seva of the mind comes in.

We begin the practice of meditation with the support of attitudes like responsibility, dedication, self-discipline, obedience, and the resolve to listen within. And we continue in this way until the Shabd takes over and seva of the mind is no longer needed. Eventually the day will come when we cannot imagine our existence without this vital connection with the Shabd:

mere preetama hau jeeva naam dhyaaye.
bin naavai jeevan na theeyai mere satgur naam drirraaye.

O my beloved! I live by meditating on your Nam.
Without your Nam, my life does not even exist.
My true guru has implanted your Nam within me.
_{Guru Ram Das}³⁰⁹

Most of us evolve slowly to this stage, but we can rest assured that even if we don’t yet hear the inner melody, our daily effort to listen to the Shabd doesn’t go unnoticed by the Beloved.

Also, while we may not yet be able to hear the inner melody during bhajan, this doesn’t mean that the Shabd is not doing its part. In the silence and darkness, that primal power is cleansing and stilling us, detaching us from this world, slowly making us worthy of the Lord. The silence of bhajan is no ordinary silence.

Is it not immense good fortune that while living our ordinary, noisy, hectic lives, we have the opportunity to sit in silence and connect with the divine power that created and sustains the entire creation? Ultimately, what is Shabd if not the hand of God reaching out for us?

The astonishing fact is that when we do simran and dhyan, we reach for the hand of God. And when we do bhajan, we touch the hand of God.

The attitude with which we sit
While the resolve to sit in meditation is our primary mind seva, we can further enhance our practice when we also inculcate an open, accepting, and positive mindset towards meditation.

Seva with the mind involves consciously cultivating attitudes that nurture and elevate our meditation practice. Before we explore some of these attitudes, however, it is worth noting that they represent ideal qualities. The master knows that we are struggling souls. Even if we are not able to bring these qualities well or consistently to our meditation practice, he accepts our every effort, because he knows that over time these qualities will automatically emerge in our nature.

Humility, simplicity, and surrender
True humility is an outcome of meditation, and this quality takes time to develop. But even now we can approach meditation with a deeper awareness of where our spiritual effort stands in the big picture.

We begin with the awareness that we’ve been given the gift of meditation not because we are such good human beings that we are worthy of it, but simply because of grace:

If we look within ourselves and think we have become worthy, we never become worthy. We have been here in this creation for generations and generations, and we have been collecting so many karmas every time we have been here. If we must account for all those karmas, it will be impossible to become worthy of the Lord…. So what we need is the Lord’s grace, his forgiveness, nothing else.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³¹⁰

Even if we have been doing our meditation with great diligence, what credit can we take for it? Hazur says: “‘I’ only comes when we don’t do it. When we truly meditate, then ‘I’ just disappears…. Then we know our insignificance.”³¹¹ If we think, I am sitting in meditation, or I have never missed a day of meditation, then, even if we don’t express the thought to anyone, our ego becomes an obstacle:

You see, we have limited free will, but we should attend to meditation without thinking that I am doing it, I am achieving it. Then there is always a danger of building ego. That ego, even spiritual ego, will be in our way.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³¹²

Even if we have been doing our meditation with great diligence, it doesn’t have the power to liberate us. Hazur once asked, ,“Do you think your meditation is taking you up? Nobody’s meditation is taking him up to the Father…. It is the Father himself, through the master, who is taking us back to the Father.”³¹³ Nevertheless our meditation is essential, because it is a heartfelt cry to the Lord for help. With meditation we are knocking at the door – over and over again. Without our knocking the door won’t open, so knocking is vital. But putting even this into perspective, Hazur says that if the Lord didn’t first will it, we would never be able to knock:

Unless the Lord wishes, we can never think about him…. We think we are loving the Lord, we think we are finding the Lord. Actually he is the one who’s pulling us from within, giving us facilities, opportunities, environments, creating all that atmosphere within us…. So it is a gift given to us by him.³¹⁴

Once we realize how truly limited we are, we begin to see why the master has kept our responsibility so simple. Baba Ji tells us that all we have to do is sit down, close our eyes, start our simran, and let go. Can it really be that easy? It is said that meditation is simple, but it feels complicated because it goes through us:

Meditation is really very simple. We complicate it. We weave a web of ideas around it − what it is and what it is not. But it is none of these things. Because it is so very simple it escapes us, because our minds are so complicated, so time-worn, and time-based.
_Krishnamurti³¹⁵

Saints invite us to approach meditation with the innocence, simplicity, and wonder of a child. A child leaps joyously off a table into her father’s arms – no doubts, no questions, no fear that she won’t be caught. We too can let go – and approach meditation with the mindset that we are here to surrender our ego to the One we love.

Each time a thought arises in meditation, we may notice that we seem to be the main character in every scene we conjure up. So each time we let go of that thought and return our mind to simran, we are letting go of ‘I’ and replacing it with ‘You.’ Over time, we focus our attention more and more on the Beloved, until eventually our self – our ‘I’ – dies from lack of attention. This is how, bit by bit, we surrender our ego in meditation.

We may experience a natural fear – of surrendering to the darkness within, of facing the unknown – but we can remind the mind that we are always protected by the master:

Whenever a disciple sits in meditation, he’s never alone. He’s never alone, and he’s never allowed to go astray within. There is always a guiding hand, a guiding force, to lead the disciple within…. The one for whom we are meditating is always there with us to guide us, and we shouldn’t ever worry or feel fear at all.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³¹⁶

We may also fear merging with God – losing control, losing our own identity. But the master tells us that when we grasp that Oneness we achieve something far greater than we could with our limited I-ness.

When by giving we can become God, what else is left? If by giving yourself – as a drop you become an ocean – have you gained or lost? If in losing your own identity you become the Father, have you gained or have you lost?
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³¹⁷

Harmony
Harmony usually applies to having loving, peaceful relationships with others, but it is equally important to be in harmony with ourselves. When we analyze and judge the quality of our meditation, we create a state of dissatisfaction and disharmony in our mind.

We have an expectation that we should be able to create an unbroken flow of simran, because all the mystics have urged us to do this. Sardar Bahadur Ji says that simran “should be incessant, unceasing, continuous, and constant.”³¹⁸ And Great Master says:

We have to practice simran so assiduously that, even while talking, it should continue to roll on its course. The five holy names must spin ceaselessly around their axis. Sitting, standing, walking, eating, awake or asleep, the repetition must go on.³¹⁹

When we find ourselves unable to achieve such a high level of concentration, we feel frustrated. But we can remind ourselves that the saints are presenting the ideal, the ultimate goal. We don’t begin with concentration – we end with it. It takes the practice of a lifetime to achieve ceaseless simran.

For now, each time the mind runs out, we can gently and calmly bring it back to the darkness within and restart our simran – without analysis or judgement. If we give in to guilt, anger, or impatience when the mind slips away from the words, we create a negative association with them. Instead, each time we bring the mind back and remember simran again we can feel joy over this small victory. And we can be thankful to the master, because who but the master actually brings our mind back to the words? Such an attitude builds a positive association with the words.

There may be times when we are able to achieve a degree of concentration but then are not able to hold on to it. When it slips away we might feel disheartened; we might feel we have lost what we had gained. But the master assures us that the Lord doesn’t give a gift, then take it away. At this stage there are natural ups and downs in our ability to concentrate because the karmas we go through in life distract the mind.

When we do achieve a certain degree of concentration, we may get excited and start analyzing: What am I seeing, what am I hearing? The master explains that the moment we start thinking, the mind gets engaged and the attention falls again. He urges us to stop analyzing and simply enjoy the experience, whatever it may be. Then the mind will cherish meditation more and more.

When we struggle to concentrate, we might be tempted to compare our progress with that of others, but this doesn’t benefit us either. In truth, we cannot gauge our own progress, let alone that of anyone else. Our rate of progress on the spiritual path depends on many factors – karmas, attachments, efforts – and these are unique to each person. Of these factors, we can only really see our own effort. So we can forget about everyone else, and just focus on our own effort.

You have seen moths. The moth is in love with the light, and there are a thousand moths on that light. Ask that moth if he knows any other moth there. He knows only one thing: the light he’s in love with. He’s not conscious of any other moth – and if he’s conscious of the other moths, he is not a moth at all.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³²⁰

We tend to analyze not only simran, but dhyan and bhajan as well; we worry about our inability to see the inner form of the master and to hear the inner sound. The master puts our concern into perspective. He says that we cannot do dhyan, and we cannot do bhajan; the only thing we can actually do is simran. It simply means that in dhyan, when we try to visualize the inner form of the master, we may not be able to see the inner form because that is the fruit of concentrated simran. It will come to us automatically when we are ready. And when we sit in bhajan, we may not yet be able to hear the Shabd within, because that is also the fruit of concentrated simran.

So the master clearly separates our effort – simran, dhyan, and bhajan – from the fruit of the effort, which are the visible signs of progress. Seva of the mind involves remembering this distinction and simply focusing on the effort.

If we are unable to listen to the Shabd, we can listen attentively for the Shabd. And if we are unable to see the inner form of the master, we can simply gaze attentively into the darkness at the eye centre and do our simran, feeling that we are in his presence. Being present in the darkness is no small achievement. That darkness is not nothing; it is our first step on the journey within. Hazur often reminded us that when we gaze into the darkness, we are exactly where we need to be:

When you close your eyes, you are here in the centre of the darkness in the forehead, and being there, you do the simran. You also feel that your master is there and that you are there in the darkness and you are doing simran in the presence of the master.³²¹

When we make every effort without analyzing the quality of our ‘performance,’ we can find simple joy and inner harmony in the practice. Ultimately it is not the quality on any particular day that matters; it is the sum total of our efforts – the sheer determination to never give up – that eventually turns the tide of the mind inward. Hazur assured us that “quality will come with quantity.”³²² When the master does not judge the quality of our meditation, we need not judge ourselves.

Hazur only emphasized that we need to attend to our meditation. There is such sweetness in the simplicity of this request. To ‘attend’ just means to be present. All we have to do is show up and do our best to stay attentive.

What is in our hands today is simran. When we realize that these words are precious jewels, we don’t take them for granted. The words we repeat are not just words – they are infused with the power of the true master. Great Master says these words are ‘energy-charged’ and help the transference of spiritual energy to the disciple.³²³ When we repeat these words they don’t just disappear into the ether; each word is heard, registered, and added to our credit. Repetition of simran is the process of becoming pure love.

Concentration is the next step. Concentration is about threading the words into an unbroken chain. But well before we reach this goal, we can take delight right now in the practice of gathering up those jewels and trying to thread them. They scatter, and we gather them up again, and again, and again. The more we practise the easier it becomes to gather and thread them. Even if they scatter a million times, so what? There is joy in simply sitting amongst the precious jewels, playing with them, threading them for the master.

ratan laal amol amolak satgur seva leejai.

The most precious and priceless gems and jewels
are obtained by serving the true guru.
_{Guru Ram Das}³²⁴

Balance and detachment
We need to keep a balanced frame of mind towards meditation. We may nurture the hope that if we meditate all hours of the day and night we might be able to speed up our spiritual progress, but Hazur cautions that too much meditation when we are not spiritually ready can cause the mind to react:

Sometimes people just try to close themselves off in a room and don’t want to lead a natural, normal adult life. They try to meditate all day and the mind reacts, and they lose their balance…. Meditation is a slow process. That is why it is known as sahaj marg [the natural way]. You have to be part of the world and also attend to meditation. You cannot fight with your mind day and night. You also have to divert it into worldly affairs, and then bring it back to meditation…. We have to lead a normal human life.³²⁵

We are to live in this world and engage with it, but at the same time, when we meditate we are to hold all thoughts of this world at bay. This is quite a challenge. Cultivating a sense of detachment towards the thoughts that assail us during meditation helps, and the masters have given some practical suggestions on how to do this.

Baba Ji likens the thoughts that arise during meditation to files that have been uploaded in the mind over lifetimes. He tells us that each time such a file is downloaded during meditation, we are simply to press the delete button – by doing simran. If we start scrolling and become absorbed in the file instead of deleting it, then we will go in the direction the file takes us. The purpose of simran is to erase these files, these endless thoughts.

In a letter to a disciple, Hazur shares this advice: “If thoughts go out too much or seem to rush in from all sides at the time of bhajan and simran, gently push them aside, reason, and say firmly, We’ll discuss these things after meditation.”³²⁶

When we are sitting in meditation, we should think that we have no connection with anybody else in the world except this darkness in the forehead. We should cut off from everything in the world and just be in the darkness…. Automatically this darkness will change into light.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³²⁷

Do we really have the capacity to cut off from everything in the world – to detach our attention at will? In fact, we do. This is an innate ability of the mind that can be developed with practice. Each time we sleep, for instance, we disconnect from our desires, worries, and cares. And nothing is lost, nothing is forgotten. When we wake up, we pick up from wherever we left off. So we can reason with our mind that, in much the same way, the thoughts that plague us during meditation can wait for a little while:

Man has the capacity to detach himself from the world and its objects. We are detached from it daily when we go to sleep. In shorter periods, we get detached frequently. When we give up one thought and take up another, we have passed through the gate of detachment; only the duration was small. This duration can be prolonged at will. Of course this requires practice.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh}³²⁸

Worldly thoughts aside, even the desire to see something within scatters the mind. Hazur says, “When you are anticipating or when you are excited about it, it does not come at all, because then the mind is not actually concentrated but is scattered in excitement.”³²⁹ The master advises us to sit in meditation with a detached and relaxed attitude, with no preconceived notions and no excitement. Hazur would reset our expectations, saying, “It comes when you least expect it.”³³⁰

We should never sit in meditation with any excitement or with longing to see something at once, for then the mind gets frustrated and runs out. We should attend to meditation with an absolutely relaxed mind and just do our duty. When it comes, it just comes. Our excitement or our anxiety does not bring anything. It is the concentration that brings it; concentration with love and longing and his grace bring it. So when it has to come, it comes automatically.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³³¹

Love
Hazur would often say that meditation is the only way to grow and strengthen our love. As a result, we tend to think of love as an outcome of meditation. But at the same time he would also say that we should meditate with love and devotion. Hazur’s advice to meditate with love has given rise to many questions over the years, perhaps because we judge our own meditation and perceive it to be mechanical, dry, and barren. It doesn’t at all feel like the worldly love with which we are familiar, and it makes us wonder if we are meditating with enough – or any – love.

Hazur responded to someone concerned about doing ‘mechanical’ simran, not feeling love and devotion while repeating the words:

Brother, first we have to start mechanically. Attending to simran with love and devotion means love and devotion for the master.³³²

To someone else concerned about not feeling adequate love during meditation, Hazur clarified that “Meditation is nothing but love.”³³³ This means that the act of meditating is itself an act of love – the practice, not the ‘success’ of our efforts, is love.

If we were to keep in mind Hazur’s definition – love means obedience – we wouldn’t worry about approaching meditation with enough love. Simply giving time to the master in meditation is love. And when we give him the whole of our attention in meditation, that is the highest form of love. Someone asked Hazur, “Could you explain to me about doing simran with love and devotion? To me these are just words, and I don’t understand what they mean.” Hazur replied:

Put your whole mind in these words; you will automatically feel the love and devotion. Let no other thought come in your mind. Let the whole of yourself, the whole of your mind, be in the simran. Love comes automatically.³³⁴

Much of the battle to give the master our attention during meditation is fought outside of meditation. If our attention is distracted and scattered throughout the day, then naturally it will be distracted and scattered during meditation. Great Master puts it simply: “Thoughts of the external world keep the attention out, and thoughts of the internal world keep it in.”³³⁵

Seva of the mind is about forgetting and remembering – forgetting the world and remembering the master. If we serve with the mind throughout the day – filling our mind in free moments with simran, satsang, and seva – it becomes much easier to bring our attention to the eye centre during meditation. The more we remember the master throughout the day, the more love we will bring to our meditation.

If your master is within you, if you’re always surrounded with love and devotion for the Father, then whatever you do in this world, it’s all meditation, it is all seva…. He should reflect in your every activity, your every word. Then every breath is meditation.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³³⁶

In essence, regardless of whether we have been able to achieve focused attention or any visible signs of progress during meditation, our ongoing effort to forget the world and remember the beloved is love.

Selflessness, patience, perseverance, and acceptance
We are conditioned by the world to expect that when we put in a certain amount of effort we will get a proportionate result. So when we meditate we expect to see some form of spiritual progress. If, instead, we find ourselves meditating in silence and darkness year after year, we may assume we are not making progress and feel disappointed. But Hazur says: “A lover is never discouraged because he’s in love with the Being, and he’s concerned only with his love.”³³⁷

The root cause of our disappointment is expectation – we want something in return for our effort, some visible signs of progress. But the master urges us to meditate selflessly – without any desire:

Many people practise simran, but all credit and all glory to him who practises simran without any desire.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh}³³⁸

We don’t knock at the door because we want gifts from the giver; we knock because we are in love with the giver. If we demand spiritual progress – even if we frame it as begging – we are in effect saying to the master: I am doing my job, why aren’t you doing yours?

A beggar comes to your door to ask you for alms, but first he wants to be assured that he is going to get something from the house before knocking at the door. Otherwise, he is not going to beg. This is a wrong attitude…. I assure you, if we really beg from our heart, he is always ready to give. If we come one step, he comes ten steps to receive us. But our devotion must be pure…. We have to love him for his sake.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³³⁹

Hazur assures us: “Progress is always there even though we are not conscious of it.”³⁴⁰ This means we are making continuous progress; it just may not be visible to us. We tend to associate spiritual progress with something we can see – inner sights and sounds. But progress is much more complicated than we can comprehend.

Hazur often said that the spiritual journey has two stages. In the first stage we withdraw our attention from the extremities of the body and bring it to the eye centre, and in the second stage the soul moves from the eye centre upward. If the withdrawal of the consciousness has two stages, then progress too must have at least two stages.

In the first stage – below the eye centre – the process feels like a struggle. Progress is slow; progress may not be visible. Progress in this stage manifests more as a gradual transformation of our attitude towards life:

You may not have experiences within, but definitely you will feel the effect of meditation. You will enjoy that bliss and happiness and contentment within yourself, and your whole attitude towards life will change. That effect of meditation will be there always whether you experience anything or not.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³⁴¹

In the second stage – above the eye centre – the process is much easier. Progress is rapid; progress is visible. This is the stage of realization – increasing, deepening levels of realization.

Everything lies inside the focus. Your wildest dreams or imaginings cannot picture the grandeur of what lies within. But the treasure is yours and is there for you. You can have it whenever you go there. Take it from me, and once for all, that everything, including the Creator, is within you, and whosoever has attained it has attained it by going inside the focus.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh}³⁴²

Seva of the mind involves understanding that progress has multiple stages and that our expectations therefore need to be reset. If we are in the first stage of effort – below the eye centre – it is unrealistic to expect to see the full “grandeur of what lies within.”

Great Master refers to the two stages as ‘going within’ and ‘the rise within’:

Please be not in a hurry. With patience and perseverance, complete the course of concentration. Going within takes time. The rise within is comparatively easier. This part of the course is tasteless. Taste comes with concentration. Slow but steady wins the race.³⁴³

The master is urging patience and perseverance. But we are impatient to see a light we’ve never seen before and to hear a sound we’ve never ever heard before. We tend to forget that the greatest treasure has already been given to us – the master whom we love is already in our life. We can see him, we can hear him, and we have the opportunity to build an inner relationship with him through meditation.

Sometimes we confuse impatience with longing, but longing is something quite different. Longing comes from love, and in love there is only acceptance. The mystic Rumi speaks of the need for patience and acceptance as we traverse the many stages of the inner path:

Thousands of stations exist
between dust and the human form.
I have led you from town to town –
I will not leave you on the road.
Say nothing, don’t froth,
leave the lid on the pot.
Keep boiling patiently,
for I am cooking you thoroughly.
You are my polo ball,
struck by the polo stick of my command.
Though I have made you run,
I am running after you.
_Rumi³⁴⁴

We are disciples of a true master – we have no need to worry about spiritual progress. If we persevere, love will prevail. Great Master assures us so beautifully that “mind is not stronger than the sound current.”³⁴⁵

The process, however, is slow. Hazur has called our quest to reach the eye centre a lifelong struggle. And Sardar Bahadur Ji explains why the process can take a lifetime:

Our attention has been ‘out’ for ages and to draw it ‘in’ again requires both time and effort. The tendencies established for such a long time are at once up against us when we attempt any reorientation. It is certainly not impossible, but it is naturally difficult and slow.³⁴⁶

And Great Master explains that struggle is a natural part of the process and serves a spiritual purpose. Likening the rise and fall of the attention to the struggle of an ant trying to climb a smooth wall, he says:

The rise and fall are natural and so is the struggle. For that which is achieved after struggle gives strength, self-reliance, and incentive to go ahead. Achievement thus obtained is lasting and can be reproduced at will.³⁴⁷

To be able to approach meditation with an attitude of acceptance, it is helpful to consider why, in the early stages, the master might not make our inner progress apparent to us. It is possible that we could become so absorbed in the sweetness within that we wouldn’t want to leave it, and we would neglect our worldly responsibilities. It is possible that if we were to get the gift too easily we would not value it. Maybe we don’t yet have the spiritual maturity to digest inner experiences. Maybe we haven’t yet developed the spiritual control necessary to not misuse the inner powers that come with progress. Maybe we haven’t yet developed the spiritual strength we need to withstand the tremendous power of the Shabd within. In short, we may not be ready for inner experience.

Let him accomplish things in his own way rather than in the way that you desire. Try to adjust yourself to all that he does and you will never be unhappy.
_{Maharaj Jagat Singh}³⁴⁸

If we still want to calculate progress, we might first consider the progress of our own efforts. Ultimately, only three things are in our hands: we can be good human beings, we can saturate our days with simran, and we can steadfastly follow the four vows. It is easy to assess the progress of our efforts on these three fronts.

We can have faith that even if the master initially withholds visible signs of progress, he never withholds grace. Great Master used to say that when a labourer gets his wages after a day’s work, is the master so unjust that he will keep back his grace from a diligent disciple?³⁴⁹

On the spiritual path the rewards are never proportionate to our efforts – and we can thank God for that, because our own efforts wouldn’t take us very far. At first the master may not reveal the treasure because we are not yet ready to receive it; but when he sees we are ready, the floodgates open. And what he gives then is far beyond our limited expectations, far out of proportion with our feeble efforts, and far, far more than we deserve.

This is no light proposition, but your getting Nam means more than if you had inherited a million dollars, or many millions. You are one of the lucky sons of Sat Purush (the Lord), and he has chosen you to get Nam and go with the master to Sach Khand. You must reach there. Nothing can prevent you.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh}³⁵⁰

Practising the attitudes of selflessness, patience, perseverance, and acceptance, we can tell ourselves that from now until the day we die we will attend to our meditation every day with love and faith – not because we want anything from the master, but simply because we want to be with him.

Please remember there is no place for any disappointment or dejection in Sant Mat. It is a path of joy and hope. When the Lord has chosen you for eternal liberation, then what other power can keep you back for long in this creation…. The master will see you back home. So give up all your worries and with love and devotion do your duty every day…. The master is always with you and so is his love.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³⁵¹

Gratitude
Someone once asked Hazur, “What should be our approach to meditation?” He responded:

Our approach to meditation should be that of gratitude. The Lord has given us the opportunity of this human form and then the environment in which to attend to meditation. So we should always approach meditation with gratitude.³⁵²

At our level, we can barely appreciate the gift of meditation bestowed by a true master.

You will value the saints when you will go within and see for yourself what the master does for the disciple, and how, through the maze of mind and matter, he lifts the soul.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh}³⁵³

Meditation nourishes our soul’s hunger for the divine, expands the boundaries of our consciousness, connects us with the primal power of the Shabd, and allows us to experience Truth. Through meditation we realize that we are not separate from that ocean of infinite love, and we become filled with a deep longing to surrender to it.

Just as a man, weary with the day’s work, resorts to his home to take rest, so we habituate our soul, on being tired with worldly work, to take rest in the holy sound. The attention has to be brought inside, and when it likes to rest there, like the wanderer coming home, it will find peace within.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh}³⁵⁴

Meditation is our place of refuge, our source of contentment and bliss, our life support system. Out in the world there is noise, struggle, and constant motion. Inside, there is spiritual oxygen; there is stillness, peace, and rest; there is the master waiting for us. We meditate because we need it. We meditate because our soul recognizes something that the mind, at this level, cannot – that the Shabd and the master are our truest friends:

Shabd and Nam are the only real, everlasting, and unfailing friends, and these we should try to cultivate. Shabd never deserts, nor does the master.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³⁵⁵

Meditation gives us inner strength and enables us to fulfil our worldly responsibilities with grace. Our attitude towards worldly relationships and life events changes, and we begin to see the Lord’s hand in everything that happens. We learn to swim along with the waves, as Hazur would say,³⁵⁶ and begin to accept what comes to us lightly and cheerfully.

Meditation gives mental strength and spiritual bliss, and enables us to face life with great hope and courage.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³⁵⁷

Baba Ji once said that the ‘wage’ of meditation is love. Meditation strengthens our faith in the master and builds a bond of deep spiritual love. Physical seva may bring us close to the physical form of the master, but through meditation we develop a truly intimate relationship with the inner master – we develop a love and faith that is unshakeable:

By meditation you develop love that comes with experience, with conviction. Meditation takes our roots very deep in love; nobody can shake us then.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³⁵⁸

Hazur says, “We have only one future: to go back to the Father. There’s no other future.”³⁵⁹ A deep peace comes with knowing that our destination is guaranteed, that we have been marked to return to the Father. And a deep sense of gratitude comes from knowing that meditation is our path to that future.

Meditating every day helps us build a routine in which spiritual aspiration is part of our daily life. Meditating every day gives us hope that there is a purpose to our life and we are working to fulfil it. Meditation is the compass that always points to our true north – our master. Meditation is a daily reminder that we have not come here to engage with this world one more time; instead, we have come to say our final goodbye to this creation. Meditation gives meaning to our seva, meaning to our life.

Through meditation we fulfil the very purpose of human life.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³⁶⁰

Meditation is the way we express our love for the master, the way we thank him for finding us and bringing us back to life, the way we try to please him, the way we beg his forgiveness for turning away from him so often, the way we ask to feel his presence, the way we cry for help, the way we show our obedience, the way we sing his praises.

The practice of meditation begins with seva of the mind – with obedience – but, over time, the joy takes over and we begin to meditate because we have fallen in love with meditation itself:

When you fall in love with somebody, you automatically want to remain in the company of that person…. Similarly, when you fall in love with meditation and you feel peace and bliss within, then whatever little time you can manage, you would at once like to attend to meditation, because you want to be there in that peace, in that bliss. It will increase by itself. You don’t have to put forth an effort then at all.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³⁶¹

If the master were to tell us today that to attain liberation we need only do physical seva – if he were to take away the requirement to meditate – would we be happy? We would more likely feel bereft. A day without meditation would be a day without joy, a day without hope. A day without meditation would be a day without our most beautiful seva.

And in the quiet moments, when we feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the gift we’ve been given, all we can do is meditate. Because we know that the only way to express our gratitude for meditation is to attend to meditation.

The best gift you can give to your master is the gift of meditation. Nothing else matters.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh}³⁶²