Mudras During Meditation
Question:
Do you and Shree Maa use any mudras in your hands during meditation. Can you please let us know what they are?
Swamiji Says:
Jnan mudra, dhyana mudra, and folded palms.
Question:
Can you please tell us why is the dhyan mudra more conducive for meditation?
Swamiji Says:
Each mudra not only indicates, it also invokes a specific vibration both for the worshiper and for the environment. So the position of dhyan mudra makes a meditative vibration flow throughout the worshipper and also puts that vibration into the atmosphere.
Discussing Meditation
Question:
Can anything be discussed on the meditation of the absolute awareness or on the meditation of the form of the Ishta Deva? In other words, can anything be discussed about our contemplations itself, without any support from the altar, or recitation of scriptures and mantras?
Swamiji Says:
Ramakrishna used to sing a beautiful lyric: How many books, but how can they contain You? Sure, much can be said. But how valuable is it?
Disturbances During Meditation
Question:
What can one do in meditation if distracted, either physically, such as an allergy on the skin, or mentally?
Swamiji Says:
What a privilege that the Goddess is giving darshan on your skin! Watch Her to the extent of your capacity, and thank Her for the blessing of awareness.
Meditation Without Mantra
Question:
Do you have any instructions for meditation without the support of recitation or even mantra?
Swamiji Says:
Let the mantra fall away naturally, and when you find that you are day dreaming, bring back the mantra.
Samadhi
Question:
Is Samadhi equivalent to gaining Brahma Gyan? Does one need a Guru to guide one through a samadhi in the sadhaks initial stages?
Swamiji Says:
Yes, we need a Guru to guide us.
I don’t understand what you mean by “Brahma Gyan.” If you mean having measured the limits of infinity for all of time, then the answer is No. If you mean being able to give words to what the Rishis described as not this and not that, then the answer is No. But Samadhi is certainly an experience worth pursuing and worthy of seeking understanding.
How To Meditate
Question:
Is there a recommended technique for meditation, such as using mantra?
Swamiji Says:
Follow the puja, the mantras, the mantra, until we move into the silence.
Question:
How does one meditate?
Swamiji Says:
Meditation means focusing our attention. The object of meditation is up to you. There are as many objects upon which to focus attention as there are people who meditate. Eventually everything you do will be a part of the meditation technique. When we perform our puja/chanting with one pointed attention, it is meditation.
Question:
How does the individual find their own way to meditate? How do they begin?
Swamiji Says:
It starts with an inspiration. Then sacred study with a respected Guru. The Delight of Practice. Refinement…
Question:
You have said that in meditation we remove all distinctions between ourselves and the Divine and become One. What would you consider to be the preferred way of meditating?
Swamiji Says:
As many as there are individuals, so many are the ways.
Visualizing In The Spiritual Heart
Question:
The Sages and saints describe the spiritual heart as being located on the right side of our chest (as opposed to the fleshy heart on the left-side). How does one make the visualization of the Goddess or the Ishta in the spiritual heart happen? Are there some steps that saints used to make this happen?
Swamiji Says:
The process is called avayava yoga: physically looking at the part and conceiving its connection to the whole, then looking at the whole, and conceiving that the external form is actually inside, then closing our eyes in dharana, and bringing the image completely inside.
Where To Focus In Meditation
Question:
When we try to move your perception inside is there a particular body part (head or heart) that we should try to focus our attention?
Swamiji Says:
Watch and hear Swamiji’s answer by clicking on this icon: .
Holy Rivers Inside The body
Question:
Where in the body do the three holy rivers (Ganga Jamuna, and Saraswati) unite?
Swamiji Says: