Sat Sri Akaal Ji.
In short, here are my comments on this topic. If somebody takes interest then maybe we can discuss further.
Quote:
| il_sikh: I know that the way to salvation is meditation on God.
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snavneet: There is no way of meditating on God directly. Godliness is a state that we realize if our meditation is complete and acceptable to God. At the beginning of our spiritual journey, we don't know God at all! Then, how can we meditate on God? Hence, in the beginning we meditate on something that reminds us of God. We may meditate on the Naam, on the
Guru, on our breath, etc. The purpose of meditation is to first help us to realize the essence of God within us (Self-realization) and then to realize the same essence in everything else too (God-realization). Meditation ultimately leads us to Samadhi. Samadhi is a state of complete relaxation. In this state, the mind ceases control and what prevails is pure consciousness in full awareness. A state of Union with God, with the whole of existence. Meditation begins with great effort, gradually becomes effortless and ends in effortlessness. It begins with concentration and focus, and ends in the deepest form of relaxation, peace and bliss. In God, we find rest for eternity. Everything that we "do" requires effort and everything that God wills, happens effortlessly. In Union with God, we become like God. Hence, meditation begins with effort and ends in a state of effortlessness.
Quote:
| il_sikh: But I'm just wondering how is that actually done? Is it like other eastern faiths (like Buddhism, Jainism), sitting and reciting Waheguru over and over, or is there more to it? How do we, as Sikhs, meditate on God? I realise being conciously aware of what you're doing, being calm, etc. is required. But what else?
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snavneet: At the shallow end of meditation, you will find many ways and techniques. At the deeper end, you will find that all forms of meditation practiced by people from different spiritual backgrounds, are essentially the same. In
Sikhism, the most accepted way to meditate is Sumiran, which involves recitation (Jaap) of the Naam. The journey begins with Jaap and ends in Ajapaa Jaap. Three stages of Jaap are usually identified. One is Oral Jaap, where one may recite any name given to God. It could be Waheguru, Ram, Allah, etc. Oral Jaap helps to pacify the minds processes. As long as our minds control our lives, we cannot reach the state of egolessness, which precedes Union with God. Our minds are the walls that separate us from God. We have to become masters of our minds. Gurbani says, "Man Jeetai Jag Jeet", we have to win over our minds and we will come out winners in life, the whole of existence would be our reward! Oral Jaap is followed by Mindful Jaap. In this stage, the mind co-operates a lot more than in the first one. The Jaap is no longer Oral, but it becomes subtler. The mind does the Jaap. Most of the grosser distractions of the mind vanish when one matures in this stage. The third stage is that of Ajapaa Jaap and this is a gift from the
Guru. Here there is no effort put in by the meditator, but yet one hears the Jaap taking place within oneself. One realizes that it had always been there, but was veiled by the processes of the mind. One realizes that this Unstruck Melody of the Ajapaa Jaap pervades the whole of Creation. The Ajapaa Jaap puts us in a state of infinite bliss. This Ajapaa Jaap is the True Name of God, the one given by God. This is the Sat Naam that Gurbani points to. This stage comes to us as Gur-Parsaad, a gift from the
Guru, once our effort has matured to its peak, once we are just ripe enough to be plucked by God Himself!
Dear il_sikh ji, we may discuss this in more detail if you wish. Simply put, meditation is a technique that helps us to put our true self (soul) in the driver's seat of our lives. Once this happens, God's Will (Hukam) dawns upon us in its perfect resplendence. Then our minds are no longer in control. We live by God's Will alone.
In this thread, i have seen the sangat debating on the idea of one-pointedness of the mind while practicing meditation et al. Here are my views.
The idea of one-pointed devotion towards the realization of God Union has been mentioned many times in Gurbani, in many different ways. Instead of quoting many lines from Gurbani and mixing up everything, we should take it up, one line at a time, and try to reach a consensus.
For example, take this stanza from
Ang 295 of
Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji:
Guru Arjan Dev Ji tells us,
"
Prabh Kee Ustat Karho Sant Meet, Saavdhaan Ekaagar Cheet."
Simply put, it means,
"
Praise the Lord, o saints, o friends, Beware, do it with one-pointed consciousness."
This same line was taken up and explained beautifully by the late Gyaani Maskeen Singh Ji to elucidate the idea of one-pointed devotion.
Now, anyone who would want to argue about the etymology of the last 3 words in that stanza would try to find new meanings for the words "Ekaagar" and "Cheet". But i am sure, that the meaning cannot be twisted enough to mean anything else. "Ekaagar" definitely means "bringing together into one", "integrating into one", "uniting into a functioning whole", "desegregating", "assembling into one", "fitting together into one" and one can go on and on! But in simple language, it can be termed as 'one-pointedness'. And "Cheet" simply means consciousness. Our mind is the splitting up of our consciousness. So, on the one hand we might be singing praises of God and on the other hand we could be thinking of our business, our family, etc. So, our focus is never on one act or one thought. The Cheet is broken up into a countless pieces. Guruji tells us to put some effort in atleast bringing it together while singing the praises of the Lord. Since ordinary waking consciousness is totally consumed by the mind, which splits the 'Cheet' into many pieces, Guruji warns us (Saavdhaan) to bring together the wandering fragments of our mind and devote them totally to one act, which is that of praising the Lord.
I hope this helps a bit!
