Divine Words of wisdom by Sathya Sai Baba – On Meditation 1. Role of meditation for steady body and mind Your browser does not support the audio element. 1992-09-27 Document Download Audio Social Share Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Description One should steady one’s body to have steady mind. If one’s body is continuously in motion, how can one steady one’s mind? Mind can be compared to the water in a pot. When the pot is moved, the water inside too will move. That is why one needs to train one’s body to be still in meditation. Meditation includes control of body. A steady body holds a steady mind. Intellect blossoms only when both the mind and the body are steady. Wisdom shines when intellect blossoms and once wisdom shines, one gets liberated. One is unable to control the body and sit still for two minutes and even the sitting posture is not correct. When one sits with a bent spinal cord, the nerves ‘ida’ and ‘pingala’ get disturbed. The power of ‘kundalini’ which travels from ‘mooladhara’ or the last vertebra of the spine to the first, goes in the wrong way thus making today’s man a mad monkey; not just a monkey but a mad monkey! A monkey cannot sit still even for a moment; it goes on moving one limb or the other. Its looks are also not steady. The reason for man’s fidgeting is the fact that man has evolved from monkey and though he has developed, the traits of the monkey behaviour still remain.   2. Concentration, Contemplation, Meditation Your browser does not support the audio element. 1979-05-25 Document Download Audio Social Share Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Description On the day of Diwali, a row of lamps or cressets are kept and with one flame all the other flames are kindled. With one flame we are able to light many lamps. The flame which kindles is the “Parabrahma jyothi”, the eternal flame and the lamps that are being lit are the “Jeevana jyothi”. At last the flame that kindles and the flame that is kindled appear alike. “Brahmavid brahmaiva bhavathi” because these two flames become identical, one and the same, it is said that one who knows “Brahma”, the Divine, “Brahmavid”, he will ultimately become “Brahma”, The Divine, himself. Therefore “jyothi” (flame) meditation is the highest form of meditation. Take for instance, this body, it changes always. But this flame doesn’t undergo change. A little example to illustrate this: There is a tub filled with water. If each one draws tumbler full water from it, the water in the tub diminishes. At one place we have deposited a lorry load of sand. If each one carries away a basket full of sand, the quantity of the sand will diminish. One may kindle a million flames with one flame but the primordial flame remains unchanged. There is no diminutive phase for this primordial flame. So after thus meditating upon the flame, slowly you can establish the form that is dear to you inside the flame and meditate on that. It is the best form of meditation to think that the form which one adores is in the flame and that that flame is in all. Today there are various types of meditation that are being propagated. We come across people who talk about it but none who have experienced it. These are all artificial meditations. If it were so easy to sit in meditation and transcend the body, would the seven sages of yore spend so many years to transcend the limitations of the body? Wouldn’t they have known of such an easy method? They say that within a few minutes the body consciousness is forgotten and then they reach state of trance. Just because the body consciousness is lost, we cannot describe that state as meditation. Body consciousness is also lost by drinking two bottles of wine; can that be called as meditation? So meditation is that which would make us forget the body consciousness and awaken and experience the super consciousness.   4. How to do Jyothi meditation