Brahmamuhurta-Best Time for Meditation O Aspirants! Get up at Brahmamuhurta and practise meditation. Do not fail at any cost. Brahmamuhurta is the morning period from 3.30 a.m. to 5.30 a.m. It is very favourable for meditation. The mind is quite refreshed after good sleep. It is quite calm and serene. There is the preponderance of Sattva or purity in the mind at this time. In the atmosphere also, Sattva predominates at this period. The mind is like a blank sheet of paper or a clean tablet and comparatively free from worldly Samskaras or impressions at this period. Raga-Dvesha currents have not yet deeply entered the mind. The mind can be moulded very easily at this period in any way you like. You can charge the mind now easily with divine thoughts. Further, all the Yogis, Paramahamsas, Sannyasins, aspirants and the Rishis of the Himalayas start their meditation at this period and send their vibrations throughout the world. You will be immensely benefited by their spiritual currents. Meditation will come by itself without any effort. It is a terrible spiritual loss for you if you do not utilise the period in divine contemplation and if you snore at this time. Do not become a Kumbhakarna. Become a Yogi like Jnana Deva. In the winter it is not necessary that you should take a cold bath. A mental bath will suffice. Imagine and feel, “I am taking a bath now in the sacred Triveni at Prayaga or Manikarnika at Benares.” Remember the pure Atman. Repeat the formula, “I am ever pure Soul.” This is the most powerful wisdom-bath in Jnana-Ganga. This is highly purifying. It burns all sins. Answer the calls of nature quickly. Cleanse the teeth quickly. Do not waste much time in cleansing the teeth and taking bath. Be quick. Hurry up. Get ready soon. The Brahmamuhurta will pass away quickly. You must utilise this precious time in Japa and meditation. Wash the face, hands and feet quickly. Dash cold water on the face and top of the head. This will cool the brain and the eyes. Sit in Siddha, Padma or Sukha Asana. Try to climb the supreme height of Brahman, the peak of divine glory and splendour. If you are not in the habit of getting up early, have an alarm timepiece. Once the habit is established, there will be no difficulty. The subconscious mind will become your willing and obedient servant to wake you up at the particular time. If you are a subject of chronic constipation, you can drink a tumbler of cold water or lukewarm water as soon as you get up after cleansing the teeth. This is Usha-Pana treatment in the science of Hatha Yoga. This will give you a good motion. You can drink Triphala water also. Soak two Harad (Myrobalan), two Amalaka and two Thannikkai in a tumblerful of cold water at night. Drink the water in the morning after cleansing the teeth. You can keep a ready powder of these three drugs and put one or two teaspoonfuls in the water. Cultivate the habit answering the calls of nature as soon as you get up from bed. If you suffer from incurable, old constipation, due to old sins, do meditation as soon as you get up. You can answer the calls of nature after finishing your morning meditation with the help of a cup of hot milk. As soon as you get up from bed, do Japa and meditation. This is important. After finishing your Japa and meditation, you can take to the practice of Asana, Pranayama and study of the Gita and other religious books. Every Sandhya time, or dusk, is also favourable for meditation. During Brahmamuhurta and dusk, Sushumna Nadi flows readily. You will enter into deep meditation and Samadhi without much effort when Sushumna-Nadi flows. That is the reason why Rishis, Yogis and scriptures speak very highly of these two periods of time. When the breath flows through both nostrils, know that the Sushumna is working. Whenever the Sushumna functions, sit for meditation and enjoy the inner peace of Atman or Soul. Repeat some Divine Stotras or hymns or Guru Stotras or chant OM twelve times, or do Kirtan for five minutes before you start your Japa and meditation. This will quickly elevate your mind and drive off laziness and sleepiness. Do Sirshasana or Sarvangasana or any Asana for five minutes. Do Pranayama for five minutes. This also will make you quite fit for the practice of meditation and removes laziness and sleepy condition. O Man! It is Brahmamuhurta now! Do not snore. Do not roll in the bed. Throw away the blanket. Get up, start your meditation vigorously, and enjoy the eternal bliss of the Inner Self.

Fruits of Meditation Even Indra, the Lord of the Devas, who is rolling in abundant wealth, cannot enjoy that bliss which comes to a sage who has a Self-centred mind free from desires, who is resting in his own Svarupa and who has equal vision for all. Learn the science of self-control. Possess a steady mind by constant practice of meditation. Fix your mind upon God. You will have divine life. Light will shine. There will be inflooding of all divine qualities. All negative tendencies will vanish. All conflicting forces will be reconciled. You will enjoy perfect harmony, undisturbed happiness, abiding peace. Meditation is the only real, royal road to the attainment of salvation. Meditation kills all pains, sufferings and sorrows. Meditation destroys all causes of sorrow. Meditation gives vision of unity. Meditation induces sense of oneness. Meditation is a balloon or the aeroplane that helps the aspirant to soar high into the realms of eternal bliss, everlasting peace and undying joy. Meditation is the royal road to attain Godhead. It is the grand trunk road which takes the aspirant direct to the destination of divine consciousness. It is the mystic ladder which takes the Yogic student from earth to heaven. It is the divine ladder of Yogis which pushes them to the heights of Asamprajnata Samadhi. It is the step in the staircase of Chidakasa to take the aspirant to the highest storey of Advaita Nishtha and Kaivalya Mukti of Vedantins. Without it, no spiritual progress is possible. It is the aerial ropeway that allows the devotee to glide easily to the other shore of Bhava Samadhi and drink the honey of Prema and the nectar of immorality. Regular meditation opens the avenues of intuition knowledge, makes the mind calm and steady, awakens an ecstatic feeling and brings the Yogic student in contact with the source of the Supreme Purusha. If there are doubts, they are all cleared by themselves when you march on the path of Dhyana Yoga steadily. You will yourself feel the way to place your footsteps on the next rung of the spiritual ladder. A mysterious inner voice will guide you. Hear this attentively, O Yogindra! If you wind the watch at night, it will run smoothly for twenty-four hours. Even so, if you meditate for one or two hours in the Brahmamuhurta, you can work very peacefully throughout the day. Nothing can disturb your mind. The whole system will be charged with the spiritual vibrations or divine wave. Many of your doubts will be cleared by themselves during meditation. Some will have to wait for some time for the clearance of some doubts. However much the teacher explains to you, you cannot understand certain things at a certain time. You will have to evolve a little more. When you have evolved, those doubts, which tormented you three years ago will become clear now. You may have an acute pain, when you get an appendicular colic or when you develop a big abscess. In sleep, you experience no pain at all. When you are under chloroform, there is no pain also. Only when the mind is connected with the body, pain manifests. If you can detach or disconnect the mind from the body, there will be no pain. Atman is a mass of bliss (Anandaghana). If you withdraw the mind from the body and objects and fix it on Atman through constant meditation, all pains will come to an end. Meditation is the only way which can destroy all human miseries. There is no other way. Real rest can be had during meditation when the mind rests in Atman. Change of work can give rest. Remaining idle without work and allowing the mind to wander about wildly like a rutting furious elephant and building castles in the air cannot bring rest. The man who cannot fix his mind in meditation cannot have knowledge of the Self. The unsteady man cannot practise any meditation. He cannot have any intense devotion to knowledge of the Self or any burning longing for liberation or Moksha. He who does not practise any meditation cannot possess peace of mind. How can there be happiness for the unpeaceful? In dream also you will begin to exercise control gradually. You will check the mind when it does an evil act. The force of your Sadhana done in the wakeful state will come to your aid in the dream. This is a sign of your spiritual growth. Watch the dream carefully. This world is full of miseries and sufferings. If you want to get rid of the pains and afflictions of this Samsara, you must practise meditation. Meditation is the pathway to Divinity. It is the royal road to the kingdom of Brahman. It is a mysterious ladder which reaches from earth to Heaven (Vaikuntha or Kailasa or Brahmaloka), from error to Truth, from darkness to Light, from pain to Bliss, from restlessness to abiding Peace, from ignorance to Knowledge, from mortality to Immortality. Meditation leads to knowledge of the Self which brings about Eternal Peace and Supreme Bliss. Meditation prepares you for the integral experiences or direct intuitive knowledge. Truth is Brahman. Truth is Atman. Truth is quite pure and simple. You cannot realise the Truth without reflection and meditation. Be silent. Know thyself. Know That. Melt the mind in That. Without the help of meditation you cannot attain knowledge of the Self. Without its aid you cannot grow into the Divine state. Without it you cannot liberate yourself from the trammels of the mind and attain Immortality. If you do not practise meditation, the supreme splendour and fadeless glories of Atman will remain hidden from you. Tear the veils that cover the soul by practising regular meditation. Rend asunder the five sheaths that screen the Atman by constant meditation and then attain the final beatitude of life. The fire of meditation annihilates all foulness due to vice. Then suddenly comes Knowledge or Divine Wisdom which directly leads to Mukti or

Necessity for Meditation Meditation is the only way for attaining Immortality and Eternal Bliss. Those who do not concentrate and meditate are slayers of Atman (Atmahanah)-Isa Upanishad, Mantra 3. They are in fact living corpses and miserable wretches. The wise cut asunder the knot of egoism by that sharp sword of constant meditation. Then dawns supreme knowledge of the Self or full inner illumination or Self-realisation. The liberated sage has neither doubts not delusions now. All the bonds of Karma are rent asunder. Therefore be ever engaged in meditation. This is the master-key for opening the realms of eternal bliss. It may be tiring and disgusting in the beginning because the mind will be running away from the point every now and then. After some practice it will be focussed in the centre. You will be immersed in the Divine Bliss. Great Rishis and sages of yore like Yajnavalkya, Uddalaka, etc., acquired the knowledge of the Self which is a means to secure the highest communion through intense meditation. Just as you require food for the body, so also you require food for the soul in the shape of prayers, Japa, Kirtan, meditation, etc. Just as you are agitated when you do not get food in time, so also you will be agitated if you do not pray in the morning and in the evening when you have kept up the practice of prayer and Japa for some time. The food for the soul is more essential than the food for the body. Therefore do your prayers, Japa and meditation regularly. Just as you grow jasmine, rose, lily, honolulu and temple-flowers in your garden, so also you should cultivate the flowers of peaceful thoughts, thoughts of love, mercy, kindness, purity, etc., in the vast garden of your Antahkarana. Through introspection you will have to water this garden of mind and with meditation and sublime thinking remove the weeds of vain, useless, discordant thoughts. When you see the flower on a mango tree, you know pretty well that you will get mangoes quickly. Even so, if you have Santi in your mind, be sure that you will get good meditation and the fruit of Jnana quickly.Like attracts like. This is a great law. Entertain good thoughts. Do meditation. You will attract Sadhus, Yogis and Siddhas. You will be benefited by their vibrations. Your new spiritual vibration will attract them.

What Is Meditation? “Dhyanam nirvishayam manah”:-That state of the mind wherein there are no Vishayas or sensual thoughts is meditation. “Tatra pratyayaikatanata dhyanam”:-A continuous flow of perception or thought is Dhyana (meditation). There is continuous current in the mind of one object like the flow of water in a river (Pravaha). There is only one Vritti in the mind. It is Ekarupa-Vritti-Pravaha. Meditation is the keeping up of an unceasing flow of God-consciousness. It is the flow of continuous thought of one thing or God or Atman, like the continuous flow of oil (Tailadharavat). All worldly thoughts are shut out from the mind. The mind is filled or saturated with Divine thoughts, Divine glory and Divine presence. Meditation is regular flow of thought with regard to the object of concentration. Meditation follows concentration. Meditation is the seventh rung or step in the ladder of Yoga. Yogis call this ‘Dhyana.’ Jnanis term this ‘Nididhyasana.’ Bhaktas style this ‘Bhajana.’ Yama (self-restraint), Niyama (religious observance), Asana (posture), Pranayama (restraint of breath), Pratyahara (abstraction or withdrawal of the senses), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), Samadhi (superconscious state or blissful union with the Supreme Self) are the eight steps of Yoga.Lord Jesus says, “Empty thyself and I shall fill thee.” This corresponds to the teaching of Patanjali Maharshi: “Yogas-chitta-vritti-nirodhah”-“Yoga is restraint (annihilation) of all mental modifications (functions).” This emptying process or making the mind blank is no doubt a trying discipline. But continued practice of an intense type will bring success. There is no doubt of this.