The more we think, the more we fall away from Reality. Thinking leads us astray from the Real. The Real does not need thinking. It needs awareness. That is what Meditation is. Meditation is awareness. Alertness, wakefulness and understanding. It is seeing, observing, watching and witnessing your own Inner Self. It is not concentration, contemplation and thinking. Meditation is going beyond mind. It is not controlling the mind. It is just witnessing the mind without any identification with the mind.
Religion is in us. No books or teachers can do more than help as to find it and even without them we can get all truth within and answer to our question. We have to break our chain which we have forged. Of course, God is our eternal help which comes from within and not from without. As Swami Vivekananda Ji narrated in Song of Sannyasi: -
Where sleekest thou? The freedom, friends, this world
Nor that can give. In books and temples vain
Thy search. Thane only is the hand that holds
The rope that drags thee on. Then cease lament
Let go thy hold, sannyasi bold! Say
"Om Tat Sat, Om!"
God is the soul of our souls, our inner Self. No wonder we love Him. Whom else or what else can we love? We love the world for not world's sake but for His sake. Everything is beautiful and is shining because of Him. Parents love their children not for sake of children but for His sake. We do not know how fortunate we are to have been born as human beings. We are blessed more than any other creature. We have our freedom to seek Him and we do not use it. We must remember that finding God will mean the funeral of all sorrows and solution of all questions.
That God, that self is our own Self
जब अपने ही दिल में खुदाई है, काबा में सजदा कौन करे
That own self is the seat of Eternal Bliss. If there is any source of happiness, it is our own Self. We must remember that pleasure or happiness by whatever process or means it may be brought about emanates from our own Self. Happiness is within and not in the external objects as ignorant persons think.
Everybody loves Freedom. Children, teachers and office goers are thrilled at the very thought of Sunday and holidays. In the West, holidays are a very big business and a great celebration. It is but natural to derive happiness from the mere thought of liberty and independence because one's own Real Self is Absolute Liberty. If a man tries to obtain freedom away from his own Self, he has to be disappointed. On this account the aspirant admits that true happiness which arises from freedom can never be got through worldly objects. The man who has merged himself in the Real Self is really a free man because the Real Self is the source of freedom. The man who has no realization of his inner Self can enjoy freedom and happiness nowhere in the world. A man of realization achieves the nectar of salvation or Real freedom. One who is the real source of divine love is really a great soul.
The baffling question is that scriptures and saints have pronounced that we are the Happiness incarnate; we are the glorious sun, why do we behave like beggars? Why should we be baffled by worldly worries? When we have realized that God is our own Inner Self, we cannot have pain or trouble. If a realized soul passes through the world, he would be filled with ecstasy to see it full of love. On the other hand, one whose heart is mangled with enmity and hatred will find only enemies all around himself. The entire world will appear to him consist of errant people.
Therefore clarion call of Swami Sh. Gurudev Vishvas Ji is:-
"O Children of Bliss! O Seeker after Bliss! Walk within with the bright light of Meditation. Thick dark clouds of ignorance will disperse and the glorious sun of your own True Self will be shining. Change your angle of vision. Consider the strangers as your friends and see God even in your enemies. Cover whatever you see in the world under your God-hood and make yourself free from all the anxieties, worries, complexities and temptations of the world. We should be one with Him through deep Meditation. Dedicate your little self, pony ego to Him. When we dedicate our entire self to Him, we become the Pious Self. When we dedicate our eyes to Him, they become His eyes and not ours. Our arms dedicated to Him become His arms. So our little self-dedicated to Him becomes His.