~~OM~~

Mudras during Meditation

1. Do you and Shree Maa use any mudras in your hands during meditation. Can you please let us know what they are?

   Jnan mudra, dhyana mudra, and folded palms.

2. Can you please tell us why is the dhyan mudra more conducive for meditation?

   Each mudra not only indicates, it also invokes a specific vibration both for the worshipper 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

3. Can anything be said now, on meditation in the absolute awareness, on meditation on the form of the Ishta Deva, in other words, our esoteric contemplation that is unsupported by the articles of the altar, or, words of recitation or mantra? And, the transition of the Ishta Deva to the dissolution of that form, or, maybe better said, the Ishta Deva revealing Her own infinite fullness?

   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

4. Do you have any specific instructions on meditation when we get distracted? I have some skin allergies and at times it flares up. My goal is complete stillness.

   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

5. Do you have any instructions for meditation without the support of recitation or even mantra?

   Let it fall away naturally, and when you find that you are day dreaming, bring back the mantra.

Samadhi

6. Is Samadhi equivalent to gaining Brahma Gyan? Does one need a Guru to guide one through a samadhi in the sadhaks initial stages?

   Yes, we need a Guru to guide us.

   No, I don't understand what you mean by Brahma Gyan. If that means having measured the limits of infinity for all of time, then No. If it means being able to give words to what the Rishis described as not this and not that, then No. But Samadhi is certainly an experience worth pursuing and worthy of seeking understanding.

How to meditate

7. How does Swamiji recommend we meditate? I have heard about and participated in the pujas, japa and chanting, but what about meditation? Does Swamiji recommend a particular technique, such as using a mantra? Or just going into the Silence?

   Follow the puja, the mantras, the mantra, until we move into the silence.

8. I would like to know how to meditate, I can't seem to get it right and start thinking of other things. How do you start, breathe, do you visualise and do japa or chant?

   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 every thing you do will be a part of the meditation technique. When we perform our puja/chanting with one pointed attention, it is meditation.

9. How does the individual find their own way to meditate? How do they begin?

   It starts with an inspiration.

   Then sacred study with a respected Guru.

   The Delight of Practice.

   Refinement...

10. 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?

    As many as there are individuals, so many are the ways.

Visualizing in the Spiritual Heart

11. 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?

    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.