| In any meditation that we do, we are confronting our own mind, our own manas. The sensory input will always be there and we are accustomed to give attention to it and that is why even during meditation we are giving attention to it. So which are the things that we will be normally having as thoughts or experiences during meditation? If you put this question, you will have 1. The sensory inputs 2. The mental constructs of sensual inputs 3. You will have something to do with restlessness 4. You will have a tendency to sloth or indolence or sluggishness 5. Doubt, whether with all these things you can still achieve it or not. These are the various forms of thoughts, feelings that you will have during meditation. In order to understand it better we should also understand what the nature of mind itself is. What are the conditions in which the mind is there? The mind is - - Kshipta i.e. disturbed - Moodha i.e. it is almost sluggish / indolent; - Vikshipta i.e. instead of thinking about the object that you want to think about, but something else. Then you have got, - Samadhan, the state of mind where you have got fairly a balanced condition. And the last one would be - Nirodh, when you do not have anything else to do. These are all the various characteristics of our mind. These are the basic characteristics of mind. Any mind, whosoever it is, at any point of time will be governed by this, whether it is a Vikshipta or it is a Moodha or a Kshipta, or a nirodh or samadhan. In any meditational practices that you are now trying, you are trying to arrive at samadhan, a state of settledness. How to get at this? Tradition has it that we give some ideas and then allow the mind to concentrate over that i.e. you give a pratyahara, try to have a dharana over that and once your dharana is over you get into dhyana on that. This is the traditional method. Now, putting it very concretely, you are terribly disturbed, annoyed, so you think about a pleasant object - may be a rose, may be a sheet of water or may be somewhere with absolutely peaceful surroundings. Go there, think about that place, think about that rose, have a dharana. That is you are given an object on which you can do the dharana and then that can lead you to samadhan. These are the methods that have been given, there are various examples can be given that you can see for yourself. I am only trying to tell you that when you want to come to the state of settledness, this is what we do. In order to reduce restlessness in our tendencies while at work, modern management has chosen to suggest that you will have some light music all the time going through all the floors of your work space. It gives you certain amount of detensioning, they say, that is the pratyahara that is given and a dharana that is being done by you without even being aware and you will have a samadhan out of it. That is the logic behind that particular approach. Now, in this case when we have fixed our goal, suppose your goal is to make money, you should have plans, clear cut plans. That is the goal. The goal is the artha, then we should have clear cut plans as to how to go about this job and how do we do it? We should avoid that which is not likely to achieve that goal, we should choose that which enables us to achieve the goal. Anukoolsya sankalpam and pratikoolasya varjanam, Atma nikshepam - you should have confidence, Maha Viswasa. These are all the things that you are supposed to have if you have got to achieve that. Similarly, when you have fixed a goal now, of a balanced existence, when you want to live a balanced life, not giving too much weight for the artha and kama and dharma, not giving too much of weight to moksha but try to have both because God wanted us to have both and live with both the wings. We should know how to be moderate and if that is the goal that you have taken, if that is the goal, if the goal clarity is there then only there will be a purposeful action. Without a goal clarity there is no purposeful action. Suppose you think that by attending to certain meditation classes or going to yoga classes you are going to have some capacity for performing miracles or achieve siddhis, if that is the goal, surely this could not be the method for it. Goals will definitely decide as to what should be the path that you should take. Knocking at all doors saying that everything leads to Brahm doesn't make any sense. We should know that God has manifested and manifestation means Ekoham Bhaushyami! - One becomes many, I now will to become many, and when He has willed Himself to become many it will be many. We cannot say all of them are the same. If that is so God must be a great fool. Different methods have got different meanings. Everyone of them have got its own relevance. What we try to have, what we suggest in Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga is that you should have a balanced approach to everything. You should be in a position to achieve both the things. You should be in a position to fly with both the wings. If that is what is the goal, then the sankalpa should be what? That I should achieve it, achieve that state of mind, where I will be balanced, I will be efficient in work and at the same time I will be always restful, peaceful, I will be in a position to move towards life with certain amount of perfection in my work, which grants happiness to others and to me. Happiness to others and to me. If you are trying to say that your happiness is your own, individual, that it has got nothing to do with others then it is a gross ignorance of a simple fact that we all exist together. There is interdependence among us, there is no independence. Independence is an illusion. Incidentally we are celebrating the 50th year of independence. I don't know what it is, but this much I know, we seem to have lost our independence. We seem to be today facing with the problem of interdependence. Problem of interdependence which I am advocating, we should be interdependent but we are facing the problem of interdependence where somebody elsewhere in the world is able to command and give instructions to my mind as to what I need, whether a Pepsi cola or Coca cola or something else. He seems to be aware of my needs so much that he is asking me to take care of all that and makes me restless in achieving it. This is not interdependence, it is exploitation due to interdependence. We are interdependent but it is an exploitation and from that exploitation we should move towards cooperation. Then the MNC's will not be objects of suspicion. They will be objects of love for us. As on date MNC's are objects of suspicion or exploitation. Man has to grow further and he can grow only when his thinking grows. Now, that being the goal, that being the goal of our life, namely, to live happily and to make others happy showing the best that is in us in action -all these things being our goal. Not the absolute Ultimate Reality about which everybody seems to be eager to talk about because that is one thing you do not know. So you can always talk about what you do not know. You can definitely write novels of flying Horses with horns, name them also, non-existent objects have also been named. They are called unicorns. I do not know who remembered? Who saw that and why it was named so. We have several things like that. We can imagine. Similarly people have imagined about Reality as they like. They have pleasure. It gave them pleasure. It gave pleasure to many others who heard. I am talking to you about a life situation where you have to live with others, you have to live in a balanced condition, you should be at peace with yourself, you should be at peace with others and express the best potential that you have got for the good of all, which includes you. When you say all, you are already included in that. If that is the goal that you are keeping in mind and you want to achieve it, you require enormous determination People who are slaves of small habits which they have developed during this life time - may be a cup of coffee, may be a tea, may be a smoke, may be a drink, may be a cinema, may be some ente
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