Meditation, and ideal way to keep the mind perfect |20 April 2012

It’s everyone birth-right to know oneself better. The immediate purpose is to train the mind and use it effectively and efficiently in our daily life. Even though it may appear no easy task, it can nevertheless be obtainable without much effort and positive benefits gained, if one is serious about meditation.

Realising the benefits, meditation has been practiced by eminent personalities -- Moses (1300 BC), Mahavira (599 – 527 BC), Budha (563 – 483 BC), Confucius (551 – 479 BC), Jesus (AD 0 –33), Muhammad (AD 570 – 632). Some of the benefits of meditation can be summarised as follows:
• If you are a busy person, meditation can help you to get rid of tension and to find relaxation.

• If you are a worried person, meditation can calm you and help you find peace of mind.

• If you are a person who has endless problems, meditation can help you to develop courage and strength to face and overcome them.

• If you lack self-confidence, meditation can help you gain the self-confidence which is the secret of success in life.

• If you have fear in your heart, meditation can help you to understand the real nature of the problems that are making you afraid – then you can overcome the fear in your mind.

• If you are always dissatisfied with everything and nothing in life seems to be satisfactory – meditation can give you the chance to develop and maintain inner contentment.

• If you are skeptical and uninterested in the religious way of life, meditation can help you to go beyond your own notions and to see some practical values in spirituality and may give religious guidance.

• If you are frustrated and heart–broken due to a lack of understanding of the uncertainty of life and the world, meditation can truly guide and help you to understand the fleeting nature of worldly conditions.

• If you are a rich man, meditation can help you to realise the nature of your wealth and how to make use of it not only for your own happiness but also for others’ happiness.
• If you are a poor man, meditation can help you to develop contentment and not to harbour jealously towards those who have more than you.

• If you are a young man at the cross-roads of your life, and you do not know which way to turn, meditation can help you to the right path to reach your chosen goal.

• If you are an elderly man who is fed up with life, meditation can bring you to a deeper understanding of life; this understanding in turn will relieve your pains and increase the joy of living.

• If you are short tempered and highly emotional, you can develop the strength to overcome the weakness of anger, hatred, and resentment to become a calmer and sober person. You can manage your anger and emotions very well.

• If you are jealous, you can understand that negative mental attitudes never contribute anything for your benefit.

• If you cannot reduce your craving for sense-desires, you can learn how to become the master of your sense-desires.

• If you are addicted to drinking or to drugs, you can overcome the dangerous habit which has enslaved you.

• If you are a narrow-minded person, you can develop understanding that will be beneficial both to you and your friends and family to avoid misunderstanding.
• If you are strongly influenced by emotions, your emotions will have no chance to mislead you.

• If you suffer from certain disorders such as nervous breakdowns and mental disturbances, depression etc., meditation can activate the positive forces in your mind and body to regain your health, especially if they are psychosomatic problems. The mind and body get healthier and we are able to enjoy the bliss in life.

• If you are a weak-minded person or one who maintains an inferiority complex, meditation can strengthen your mind to develop courage to overcome your weaknesses.

• If you are a wise person, meditation will lead you to supreme wisdom. Then you will see things as they are, and not as they appear to be.

• If one is towards the fag end of life and is scared of death, meditation will make you accept the reality of life and acceptance of the inevitable.

• Meditation removes the blockage of the seven chakras known to be the energy centers in human body. Once the blockage is removed, the whole body starts absorbing cosmic energy, the unique gift of nature to us, easily helping us lead a more satisfying and contented life.

If such are the undisputed benefits of meditation proved through research in medical science, why not practice it regularly to make our lives more enjoyable and worthwhile? Five to eight minutes of meditation can keep us fit and healthy and if combined with yoga exercises is bound to give us a ‘HEALTHY MIND IN HEALTHY BODY’- unique gift of nature to us. These benefits are not for sale in any shopping complex or departmental store, but you can enjoy them while in your home, office, hotel, or outdoor, wherever you are without any extra equipment, instrument or medication through meditation. The mind is like a double edged sword – key to happiness or key to misery. It is for us to make our lives more enjoyable and worth living or miserable with pain. Fifteen to 20 minutes of yoga exercises coupled with meditation daily can keep us really fit and healthy – the undisputed key to happiness. To understand the mind and to use it well is a task that transcends a peaceful and contented life. Meditation, though appearing difficult, can be easily performed independently once learnt properly.

JEO JYOTI FOUNDATION OF INDIA (JJ INDIA) plans to organise YOGA SESSIONS at different locations in Seychelles between April 21 and mid May. For further information contact ‘khanna@seychelles.net’