Sathya Sai Baba on Meditation

• We always have enough time to talk, visit cinemas etc. There is certainly time for meditation. The power is from God (referring to the feeling of strength after meditation).

• Early morning is best. Mind is quiet and there is not the pressure of responsibilities. There is difficulty during the day. People are around, and there is work. If meditation is attempted, even work may suffer.

• Real meditation is getting absorbed in God as the only thought, the only goal. God only, only God. Think God, breathe God, love God. Concentration means: when all senses and desires fall away and there is only God. In between concentration and meditation, like a separation between the two, is contemplation. Concentration to contemplation, then meditation. As long as one thinks "I am meditating" that is the mind and not meditation. As long as one knows he is meditating, he is not meditating. In absorption in God, one puts aside every form and merges into God. In that process the mind naturally stops.

• Meditation for its proper practice, should be at the same place, at the same time.
In that way, it surely will be successful. If one is away from home in travel, in his mind he can go to the accustomed place no matter where he is. Truth is in every place at all times. When away from Swami, by remembering Him doing this or that, the battery is "recharged". That also is genuine meditation. Meditation is constant inner inquiry as to who am I, what is true, what is ego action, what is loving and what is harsh. Meditation is thinking on spiritual principles, searching out the application to oneself of what Baba says, and the like.

• For the one who has completely surrendered to God and whose heart is filled with love for God, these 'college courses' (referring to Hatha Yoga etc) are not needed and have no meaning and are quite unnecessary.

• The Atma is everywhere, but for the purpose of sitting in meditation, the life principle can be considered as being 10 inches above the navel and at the centre of the chest. An inch in this measurement is the width of the thumb at the first joint.

• Without concentration nothing can be done. And we use that concentration throughout the day. Why is that same concentration so difficult to come in spiritual matters? Because the mind is outward turned, and by desire the mind clings to objects. But the mind can be trained to concentrate inwardly, and the heart can be cultured to grow with love for God. How? By sadhana. The best sadhana is that every act through the day be done as worship of God.

• A fence is placed around a young tree to protect it. The same precautions must be observed in meditation. People think it is all right to meditate in any place. There are currents, there is will power. There is a strong current passing into the earth. Because of this, the earth exerts a strong attraction. In meditation it is advisable to insulate oneself from such currents. For this reason, meditators sit on a plank and cover their shoulders with a woollen shawl. Once the person has grown strong in his meditation, he may sit anywhere and not suffer for it.

• The light is first moved into the heart which is conceived as a lotus, the petals of which will open. The Jyothi is then moved to other body parts. There is no particular sequence. But important is the final body station, which is the head. There the light becomes a crown enshrining and covering the head. The light is then moved outside, from the particular to the universal. Move the light into relatives, friends, enemies, trees, animals, birds until the entire world and all its forms are seen to have the same light at their centre as has been found to be within oneself.

• The idea of moving the light into the universal phase, the idea of universality is that the same divine light is present in everyone and everywhere. To impress this universality on the mind, we do the spreading of the light outside one's own body.

• One should understand that what comes about in meditation as one moves deeply into it, is not the thinking of the light, but the forgetting of the body and thereby the direct experience that the body is not oneself. This is the stage of contemplation when the body is totally forgotten. It cannot be forced. It comes about by itself and is the stage that naturally follows correct concentration.

• Seeing the light and moving the light here and there is to give work to the mind, to keep the mind occupied in the right direction so that the mind will not be thinking of this and that and thus interfering with the process of becoming more and more quiet. Spreading the light into its unviersal phase, sending the light into every other body,
and when one is so concentrated in it that he is no longer conscious of his body, is the stage of contemplation. As contemplation deepens, the stage of meditation comes about of its own volition. It cannot be forced.

• If the meditator remains conscious of himself and that he is engaged in meditation, then he is not meditating but is still in the preliminary stage, at the beginning of concentration.

• There are three stages: concentration, contemplation and meditation. When contemplation deepens it moves naturally into meditation. Meditation is entirely above the senses. In the state of meditation, the meditator, the object of his meditation and the process of meditation have fallen away, and there is only one, and that One is God. All that may change has fallen away and Tat Twam Asi, That Thou Art, is the state that exists.

• As one gradually returns to this customary and habitual state of consciousness, the Jyothi is again placed in the heart and kept lighted there thoughout the day.

• The three stages, concentration which is below the senses, meditation which is entirely above the senses and contemplation which lies between and is partially within the senses and partially above the senses, which is on the border of each, this is the experience in genuine meditation whether the object taken be form or light.

• There is no essential difference. If the devotee has a form of God to which he is particularly devoted, he may merge that form into the Jyothi, and that form is most attractive to him and is the object of his concentration and is seen to be within the light wherever it is seen. Or, the concentration may be just on the form of God, for God is universal in every form.

• Again, the object chosen is just a device to allow one to sink deeply into quietness and to allow the body, which is non-self, to fall away out of consciousness. Anything concrete, such as light, form or sound may be chosen as the object of concentration. It is possible to just move directly into the stage of meditation.

• Meditation as described by Swami is the royal road, the easy path. For meditation to be effective there must be steady practice with no hurry and no worry. With steady practice, the person will become quiet and the state of meditation will naturally come about. To think otherwise is weakness. Success is assured. Call upon God, He will help you. He will respond and He himself will be your guru. He will guide you. He will always be at your side. Think God, see God, hear God, eat God, drink God, love God. That is the easy path, the royal road to your goal of breaking ignorance and the realization of your true nature, which is one with God.

(Extracted from: Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba by Dr. John Hislop, pages 145-156, 22. Conversation recorded in 1968)