SRI AUROBINDO SADHANA
Meditation should be done in all circumstances, lying, sitting, walking, alone, in company, in silence or in the midst of noise etc.
To stand back from your thoughts, let thoughts occur in your mind as they will and simply observe them and see what they are. This is called concentration in self observation.
Concentration is gathering together of the consciousness and either centralizing at one point or turning on a single object. There can also be a gathered condition throughout the whole being, not at a point. In Meditation one can simply remain with a quiet mind thinking of one subject or observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with it.
Concentrate on any of the seven centres:- first behind the heart, third eye between the eye-brows, on the head or above the head etc.
One can concentrate on a thought or a word, one has to dwell on the essential idea contained in the word with the aspiration to feel the thing which it expresses.
Japa should be repeated with a sense of its significance, a dwelling in the mind on the nature, power, beauty, attraction of the Godhead it signifies and is to bring into the consciousness i.e the mental way. Japa comes up from the heart or rings in it with a certain sense or feeling of bhakti making it alive i.e. the emotional way.
OM is the mantra, the expressive sound symbol. The function of a mantra is to create vibrations in the inner consciousness that will prepare it for the realization of what the mantra symbolizes. OM mantra is used for opening upwards and outwards as well as the descent.
The object should not only to practice yoga for internal progress and protection but also to do a work for the Divine.
It is the spirit and the consciousness from which it is done that makes an action yogic- it is not the action itself.
To be free from all egoistic motives, careful of truth in speech and action, void of self-will and self-assertion, watchful in all things.
One must be able to do the same work always with enthusiasm and at the same time be ready to do something else or enlarge one’s work at a moment’s notice.
Work itself must be taken as part of Meditation. Naturally when working, you must think of the work as an instrument of the Divine.
Remember the presence in work.
All work should be done quietly from within-working, speaking, reading, writing as part of the real consciousness – not with the dispersed and unquiet movement of the ordinary consciousness.
The individual is only an instrument in the hands of a universal energy, though his ego takes the credit of all he does.
The actions are of importance only as expressing what is in the nature. You have to be conscious in all your actions.
Outward struggles, troubles, calamities are only a means of surmounting ego; rajasic desire and attaining to complete surrender.
The nature of bhakti is adoration, worship, self-offering to what is greater than oneself; the nature of love is a feeling or a seeking for closeness and union. Self-giving is the character of both.
