New to Meditation? Start Your Mindfulness Practice Today

According to the Eight Limbs of Yoga Sutras, as mentioned by sage Patanjali, Meditation is considered to be the seventh limb, while the eighth limb is Samadhi. Various methods of concentration practice lead to meditation. The primary purpose of meditation is to comprehend and grasp the true nature of the object of meditation. When it comes to meditation, the mind is the instrument.

There is a requirement for a certain amount of study regarding the nature of the mind’s functioning and activities, which is necessary before one undertakes meditation. The existence of the mind can only be discovered and found using these activities. It reveals the inner consciousness and spirituality of the person and establishes the connection with the Supreme Being.

Pravaha of Thoughts

To delve deeper, we need to understand that there is a continuous current present in the mind of one person, like water flow in a river, also known as Pravaha.

When Should Meditation?

Only one Vritti is in the mind, which is called Ekarupa-Vritti Pravaha. The meditation should only be done at the particular appointed time ona daily basis.

The meditative mood will eventually come by itself without putting any effort. One needs to sit in the same place, the same Meditation chairs, for meditation daily. The act of Meditation of God needs to become a habit.

How to Meditate?

First, meditate on Lord Vishnu with all available sorts of ornaments. Then meditate on Him without keeping any ornament.

What is Mindfulness Meditation?

Mindfulness is, without a doubt difficult thing to do. It is quite tough and may be impossible for any beginner to take and start subtle meditation all at once. There needs to be graduated practices, and the mind should be rendered quite subtle for different higher practices of meditation and concentration. There needs to be a gradual ascent in the Yoga’s successive stages.

The object of meditation in the starts needs to be the Personal God, the body of Virat or the flute- bearer Lord Krishna or Rama or four-armed Maha Vishnu or any other object the person wish. Later on, the meditation should be practiced on Impersonal God. In case of Savitarka meditation the person has to has a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the objects along with their excellence and defects as well as the features, present, past and present. It should also have those of near and remote, even those who are unheard of or never thought of. The entire knowledge of the elements and objects will gradually be revealed to you.

In meditation, you will know everything about yourself and your spirituality. Close your eyes and withdraw your senses. Merge yourself deep in the Supreme Soul, which is the Light of Lights and the Sun of Suns. It will reveal the complete knowledge to you. You will get to know the direct intuitive knowledge as well as diving wisdom through direct perception. Your doubts will vanish. All the torments present in your mind will disappear. All heated discussions, hot debates, and angry thoughts will vanish. Peach and Jnana will be the only things that will remain.

In meditation, you need to forget the body and the surroundings. You need to forget all relatives and friends. Forgetting these is essential for the highest Sadhana. It assists in meditation by a great deal. By just remembering God, you can easily forget all these materialistic things and merge with God by practicing silent and deep meditation. You will taste the spiritual consciousness by means of withdrawing the mind from different sensual objects and fixing it on one particular object of meditation. This will lead you to Samadhi, which is the highest goal of Yogis.

However, you need to carefully monitor yourself whether you are remaining stationary in the path of spirituality even after doing meditation for years, or whether you are progressing. There may be times when you may even fall downwards or retrograde if you are not careful and vigilant enough. Some people practice meditation for several years but fail to make any spiritual progress. It is due to lack of earnestness, Vairagya, and the keen longing for liberation, along with intense, constant Sadhana. The energy is wasted in different wrong channels through Raga and also through undercurrents, which are lurking, subtle desires. Suppressed desires will grow and start harassing you. Unconsciously, you will become these desires.

When you make advances in the spiritual practice, it will become quite difficult for you to meditate and do your daily work at the same time because the mind will feel a double strain in such a situation. It works in various channels and grooves with various Samskaras during Dhyana. It becomes quite difficult to adjust itself to various kinds of uncongenial activity as it comes down from the elevated and higher plane of sublime thinking. The mind needs to move in the opposite direction, and the mind gets groped in darkness. It starts to get bewildered, puzzled, and confused. You must have experienced how your mind gets confused in simple daily activities of life when you go to different places in matters of bathing, resting, eating food, and even answering the calls of nature.

When you sit for meditation again in the evening, you will certainly find it difficult to wipe out the new worldly Samskaras that you have gathered during the entire day, and to get a calm, as well as one-pointed mind again. This struggle of the mind to achieve calmness can lead to a headache. The Prana, which moves inwards in our body in various grooves and channels, and which is quite subtle during meditation, now has to move through completely new channels during daily worldly activities. It becomes quite gross during work. The Prana is essentially taken up to the head during meditation.

If you wish to advance in meditation, you may have to follow what Grihastha Yogic students do. They stop all worldly activities for a certain period of time in case they desire to advance further. They force themselves to give up the world in order to remain really sincere. Work is essentially a hindrance in meditation for any advanced Yogic student.

Conclusion

Mindfulness and meditation are not practices to be rushed. They require patience, gradual discipline, and a steady refinement of the mind. By progressing step by step through the stages of yoga and meditation—beginning with concrete forms and moving toward subtler awareness—the practitioner naturally develops deeper concentration and understanding. With consistent practice and devotion, the mind becomes calm, receptive, and capable of higher realization.