In 2,
800 centers in 40 countries,
It offers people all over the world an opportunity to find peace,
Joy,
And spiritual fulfillment.
Teachers of science of spirituality present a simple and natural method of meditation leading to inner and outer peace.
It provides a means whereby people of all ages,
Religions,
And nationalities can integrate meditation into their lives.
This practice has been referred to as Sarat Shabd Yoga,
Sat Mat,
Or meditation on the inner light and sound.
Along with the study of meditation,
Practitioners learn how to develop noble human values that will transform and enrich their lives and enable them to make positive contributions to the world.
Satrajinder Singhji Maharaj is the head of science of spirituality.
Born in India in 1946 and educated at IIT Madras as an engineer,
He also completed his higher education in Chicago,
Illinois.
Having trained in spirituality by great spiritual adepts,
Sankarapal Singhji Maharaj and Sant Darshan Singhji Maharaj,
He has a keen understanding of both mysticism and science.
Before taking the spiritual mantle from Sant Darshan Singhji Maharaj,
He had a successful career in research and development in the world's leading telecommunication institutions.
He travels extensively teaching this meditation practice throughout the world.
His work has been recognized and honored by countries and international institutions throughout the world.
He has authored several books including Inner and Outer Peace Through Meditation,
Empowering Your Soul Through Meditation,
Spiritual Pearls,
And Spiritual Thirst.
He has also written several Hindi and Punjabi books.
His discourses are broadcast over several radio and TV channels.
This following quote sums his mission,
".
.
.
By spending time daily in meditation,
We will come in contact with spiritual realms of light,
Love,
And peace within.
Divine love is so fulfilling and intoxicating that we experience a joy far greater than any we can know on this spiritual material world.
" And now I'll introduce our speaker tonight,
Arvind Nayak,
With a degree MBA,
Educated as an electronics engineer,
He works as a technology and business professional in the Minneapolis area.
Working with his wife,
He leads the Science of Spirituality Meditation Center programs,
And as a speaker,
Public relations,
And outreach coordinator.
He has been studying a practical form of meditation under our spiritual teacher,
Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj,
Since 2003.
He has been conducting talks,
Classes,
And workshops on the topic of meditation,
Where he discusses how incorporating meditation into our daily routine can be life-changing.
So with that,
I'll call Arvind to the podium.
Thank you,
Gloria,
For that wonderful introduction to the center,
As well as our beloved Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj,
Who's head of the organization.
So welcome,
Everyone.
How's everybody doing?
Great.
Welcome to the center.
Thank you for being at the center today.
And today's session is dedicated to introducing meditation,
And in fact,
Also not only meditation today,
But also certain principles and certain ways that we can learn and incorporate in our lives in the next few weeks and months.
If you come along on the journey,
We have a wonderful series of talks and events organized to help you start from the basics today,
And then by the end of the December year,
Hopefully you'll feel a reasonable accomplishment if you just come along the journey.
So today,
I'm going to talk about what is meditation,
How do I learn it,
What are the benefits,
And what is the technique involved.
There are so many different types of meditation out there that we get bombarded with so many techniques,
And we wonder,
Like,
Is this meditation or that meditation,
Which one is better?
And the Science and Spirituality Meditation Center is a great place to learn,
Because we learn meditation as a science,
As a science as well as as an art.
So when I say the word science,
It means there is a systematic knowledge that is available,
Which is,
So it's not based on just,
You know,
Somebody's belief,
Or it's not just based on,
Okay,
You know,
Some feelings of peace,
This actually works,
And the scientists and the doctors have studied meditation for many,
Many years,
And have studied the impact on many people,
And the benefits are universal.
It is,
That's another aspect of science,
You know,
It's like whenever we have a,
You know,
If we have a headache,
Let's say,
And we go to a doctor,
We don't ask the doctor,
Like,
I'm a Hindu,
I'm a Christian,
You know,
Which medicine,
And it doesn't matter,
Right?
I mean,
As long as it fits in your,
It works,
Because that's how science is,
You know,
It's supposed to work,
So meditation is like that,
It works for everyone,
Universal,
As long as we're human being,
If we concentrate,
If we go within,
We are bound to experience some of the benefits,
Where the benefits are going to come,
It's bound to transform our lives,
In fact,
The Science and Spirituality Meditation Center is dedicated to teaching meditation throughout the world,
And it's taught by volunteers,
We're all volunteers,
That's another interesting,
That's why all the programs are offered free,
And the only reason why the volunteers give here is because they have personally experienced some benefit,
Is enough to feel excited about it that they want to share,
And that's the only reason why this meditation center even exists,
You know,
There are many reasons why people build commercial buildings,
But this is really built on the selflessness of many of the volunteers,
Including the spiritual master,
Sanwajinder Singh Jmaraj,
And so I'm also here because I experienced some benefit,
And my wife joined me,
And my kids joined me,
And we have been experiencing,
We are,
We're happy to share,
And we hope that today you learn something as you go out of this session.
So the way I will facilitate this session today is there will be obviously some introduction,
Some theory,
And I'll be explaining some of the basic fundamentals,
But you might have some questions,
So feel free to raise your hand and ask it,
It's going to be interactive,
Okay,
So it doesn't mean to be just a lecture,
It means to be interactive,
And then we are going to play a small video,
Also to learn a little bit deeper from directly words of Sanwajinder Singh Jmaraj,
And we're going to,
Of course,
The most important thing we're going to do is we're going to practice meditation.
We're going to actually practice step by step some of the techniques so that we can go home and practice on our own.
Now,
I ask everyone to be a little patient with learning meditation,
Just like any other thing in your life,
Okay,
So I don't know if you have ever gone to gym,
I'm assuming you've gone to gym,
You've probably signed up for membership,
And then you go day one and you spend 15 minutes and you say,
Where is my weight loss?
I have been here for 15 minutes,
I've been looking at all the machines for 15 minutes,
So why it hasn't changed my weight yet?
Well,
You know,
The instructor is going to tell you that,
You know,
You have to spend some good amount of time regularly,
You have to,
You know,
Take my help,
You know,
I'm going to tell you how to do certain exercises,
And you have to give yourself a few weeks,
And then you can see the transformation in yourself,
And then you will feel excited about it.
But meditation is not any different,
But some of the benefits you might experience right away,
Like feeling calm and peaceful,
But some of those benefits actually are transforming,
Which means it changes us not in a way that we become a different human being,
We become best of us,
We already are.
So it transforms us into the best,
So I'm Arvind,
So I'm becoming better and better Arvind every day if I meditate.
I don't have to become someone else,
Okay,
So that's important.
The other thing I want to lay out the foundation is by practicing this meditation,
You are not subscribing to any other religion or any other,
You know,
Change of your belief system,
Whatever it is,
Everyone stay in their belief system,
They stay in who they are,
It's just a process of going within and taking something from within us,
Which we already have,
Okay,
And experiencing something that we already have.
And so no one needs to worry about,
Oh my goodness,
If I do this meditation,
Do I have to mean that I'm violating some of.
.
.
In fact,
The masters of this science of spirituality have already done research in all religion,
And you will find references to exactly the same technique and the spiritual principles in all religions,
All major religions,
At least I would say all the major religions as we know,
And so that's why we call it science of spirituality,
These principles are universal.
If you are a Christian,
You remain Christian,
If you're a Hindu,
You remain Hindu,
If you don't believe in God,
That's fine too,
Because this is all about experience.
Meditation is a process of experiencing who we already are,
And we do not have to like close our eyes and say,
Okay,
I believe in it or believe in that,
It's an experience process,
And so I'm just going to give you the technique,
Which is again universal.
So what is meditation,
And typically we're a little running behind,
So I'm going to go a little faster,
Usually I go through introductions and all that,
But just raise your hand,
I'm going to do a quick one,
Raise your hand if you are a regular meditator.
Okay,
Few of you,
Okay thank you.
Raise your hand if you have dabbled into meditation once in a while,
But not necessarily a regular meditator.
One,
Okay,
Thank you,
Only one,
Okay,
And then what about the rest is,
Just raise your hand anyway,
If you never meditated.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
All right,
Five,
Never meditated.
So those who have not raised their hand so far,
I don't know where you belong to,
But I'm assuming you're curious enough to be here,
And you will learn something.
So thank you for sharing that,
And as you can see,
There's a spectrum of people here,
Those who meditate regularly,
And those who are curious researching and have already done some research,
And those who have never meditated.
And my goal is to really provide a session,
A useful session for everyone.
So let's dive into it.
You know,
Of course,
Why would you meditate if there were no benefits,
Right?
So there are benefits,
And the benefits are at different levels,
So physical benefits,
They are connected with our body.
So those,
You've heard this many times,
Of course,
Many people say,
I'm very stressed,
And I need to find a way to address my stress.
I need to,
You know,
Get over the day-to-day stress that is built in my life.
And,
You know,
You sleep every day,
You try many things,
But something still doesn't address the fundamental stress in our body.
And meditation allows us to address that stress.
These days,
If you go to a doctor,
There are more and more and more doctors on a,
They recommend their patients because they can see that most of the root cause of the diseases is coming from a stressful life.
We all have stressful life because we have lots of things to do.
We have lots of things going on in our life.
We have big,
Big goals,
And we want to achieve all of them,
And we have a long to-do list,
And we start in the morning,
And the evening we check out that we haven't even gone 10% of our to-do list,
And the to-do list have grown.
So you feel like that,
Then you are,
You know,
You know that is how it is to just keep day in,
Day out,
Day in,
Day out,
Keep running,
Running,
Running,
And we feel,
Never feel like,
Oh,
I have accomplished something profound and take a break.
So meditation,
If you can incorporate in your daily routine,
You notice that you start feeling relaxed,
You're feeling addressed,
Rest and relaxation,
You feel some stillness,
And then you're able to see things better.
You are able to prioritize better.
You feel that,
You know,
You have some sanity in your life,
And so when you address the stress,
You notice that it addresses your blood pressure problems,
Sugar problem,
Your hypertension,
You might have some headaches going on,
And other health issue.
The reason is stress creates certain hormones,
They're known as cortisol,
And cortisol is enemy of immune system,
And if your immune system is attacked,
You know,
Anything can get you.
So what meditation does,
It addresses the fundamental stress,
Which addresses cortisol,
And by addressing cortisol,
Our immune systems becomes better.
We're able to deal with day-to-day physical,
Medical problems.
So it is absolutely no secret.
There are so many scientific papers and so many clinical research has been done.
If any one of you are interested in really finding the proof of that,
I can help you get there.
The next is the mental benefits.
Obviously,
The stress over time,
You know,
As you can imagine,
It can result into fatigue,
And you know,
People can,
It becomes,
Affects your mental health,
It affects how you respond to situation,
Or chronic stress can affect somebody's psychological situations.
They may not seem in harmony with their environment,
And may respond in a different way.
Doing regular meditation starts helping those people also,
Everyone.
I mean,
We are all,
A tremendous drive around,
You know,
Mental health is not a,
Doing a stigma against mental health.
So all of us,
It can happen to any of us.
Just like we can all fall sick,
Mental health can also affect any of us over time.
So having meditation in our daily routine makes us strong,
Makes us strong to address some of the mental challenge that may come in our life.
Same with emotional benefits.
Many people feel angry.
They are angered by the environment,
They're angry on maybe the government,
Their financial situation.
Maybe you're angry on your health problems.
And so,
Many of them have up and down relationships with each other,
I mean,
In our family,
In our friends.
And all of that affects us tremendously.
So having meditation gives us,
Again,
That inner stability,
Which allows us to have a very positive relationship building,
Because we are emotionally stable with the help of meditation.
And when we are stable,
We see things from a different point of view.
We see things,
We have more empathy.
This is,
Again,
Scientific research has been done,
That meditation actually changes our frontal lobe and our brain.
It's also called prefrontal cortex in a medical language,
But actually it becomes stronger.
It has more energy here,
Which is a region which we use for making decisions,
Especially critical decisions,
Responding to a crisis kind of situation.
And so if you're having a more stronger frontal lobe,
Also gives this ability to respond better.
And you notice that there's been a lot of research has been done.
Those people who are in jail,
And they notice that they've made some poor choices,
Poor decisions because of some emotional,
Because of anger.
They got angry quickly,
They got upset quickly,
And they responded in a negative way.
And now they're being punished for that.
The impact of meditation on our emotional stability is very well understood.
But the most important thing we can always look at,
Which is,
You know,
All these are great benefits,
But there's important benefits,
Spiritual benefits.
Many of us are looking for a sense of meaning and purpose in our life.
Many of us are looking for love in our life.
And you know,
Love is the biggest healer.
And where do you find this love?
I wish there was a Walmart store and they had a product called Love and we can buy it.
I wish it was available in the in the nature somewhere that we can pluck and eat it.
I wish it was being distributed somewhere.
The spiritual scientists who we call saints and mystics have been looking for this resource for forever and they know where to find it.
Guess where it is?
It is within you.
All the love,
Because you know,
The creative power we call God power,
Made us and filled us with tremendous amount of love.
Unfortunately,
Because of our attention is so much focused on the senses that we forget that the love is there.
It's like a rich person who is having millions of dollars in the safe box or something,
Safe,
You know,
And but you forgot the password.
It has millions of dollars in it,
But you forgot the password.
So you're busy earning like five dollars and ten dollars and you know,
And somebody says,
Why don't you open your safe?
Oh,
Because I just don't have the password.
I don't know how to open it.
So that's where meditation helps because we don't know that we have a tremendous amount of love coming from within us.
And guess what?
Love is not different from life.
We're living being,
We're alive and we're full of love and we just have to experience it.
And meditation allows you to exactly do that and experience amount of love that is hidden with us.
And guess what?
Overall effect of meditation is that we become a peaceful human being,
A loving human being,
We become a calmer and I put this challenge to everyone.
So when you get up in the morning,
Let's say you look into mirror.
I'm assuming everyone looks into mirror,
Right?
You get up in the morning and say,
This is me.
How am I looking?
Is it good?
Think about,
Imagine,
You know,
Pretend like,
You know,
Kids play pretend game.
So pretend that you are two different human being now,
You and your own image.
So let's pick up a name.
What's your name?
Loretta.
Loretta?
Loretta.
Loretta?
Loretta.
Loretta one and Loretta two.
Is that okay?
So Loretta one is looking in the mirror and there's a Loretta two inside the mirror.
And both are exactly the same,
Except they make two different choices.
So Loretta one says,
You know,
I have a big to-do list.
I'm going to go out,
I'm going to take care of all these things.
I'm going to,
You know,
Run on my chores and I have to go to grocery,
I have to,
You know,
Take care of my grandkids,
My kids,
I have to meet this relative,
I have to do this job and that job.
And when I have done everything,
I'm going to go home and I'm going to meditate to find peace because I'll be so stressed that I would need meditation.
And Loretta two says,
You know what,
I'm going to meditate first.
I'm going to be peaceful first.
I'm going to empower myself.
I'm going to experience love within and I will be peace and calm.
And then I'm going to go do whatever I can do.
So she starts half an hour late,
As you can imagine.
Now you tell me at the end of the day,
Who is going to be more peaceful,
Loretta one or Loretta two?
Two?
Two?
I haven't had anybody who says Loretta one because we know that Loretta one is going to be so busy that she's even going to forget the meditation.
True?
It's happened to all of us?
We're so tired.
We go like,
Oh my God,
I just didn't get a chance to meditate.
So I'm going to do it tomorrow.
And then tomorrow your same is going to repeat.
Right?
And this goes on in our life.
And so all of you seem to know that Loretta two is going to be more peaceful.
But do you do that?
You don't.
And so I hope that today you're going to sign up with Loretta two with Loretta two and you're going to say,
I'm going to be the meditator first and then I'm going to do my work.
Because guess what?
When you're peace and calm,
Guess what happens?
You can see things more clearly.
You can address each problem.
You can do one thing at a time and focus on them and get them done.
And end of the day,
If you can't get everything done,
You still feel accomplished because you've done a lot of great things.
But Loretta one is like chasing after everything.
She's trying to multitask.
She's not able to concentrate.
She has to get frustrated and stressed.
And end of the day,
She doesn't have time to meditate because all the day is gone.
But that is what we are missing.
We all know these answers.
See,
I didn't tell you that.
Who's is better?
You knew it.
Loretta two,
Who is meditating first is going to be a better,
Peaceful human being at the end of the day.
And that's what we are trying to do.
We know this,
And we're just trying to get it out of ourself.
So what is the benefit to the world?
If you're peaceful,
You're peaceful,
You're peaceful,
You're peaceful,
You're peaceful,
You're peaceful.
If you spread the peace around you,
You spread the love around you,
You help people out.
You know you heard the ripple effect,
Right?
So when you help someone,
They feel inspired,
And they help someone else.
And they go inspired,
And they help someone else.
So the peace spreads like that.
So we need more people to be spreading the ripple of peace.
So guess what?
That's the benefit to the world.
And we don't have to wait till the world becomes peaceful so that we can meditate.
That's good luck with that approach.
You know,
I used to think like,
Oh my goodness,
First the world should be peaceful,
And then I can have a peaceful time to meditate.
I can't meditate because there's this problem and that problem,
And they're never going to be over.
So how about I start with myself?
Therefore,
It is said that peace begins with me.
You know,
Our spiritual master always says,
Peace begins with me.
Mahatma Gandhi said,
You know,
You have to be the change you want to see in the world.
So that's what we are trying to do here,
Okay?
So hopefully this is making sense.
Now why people meditate?
There are so many reasons for people to meditate,
And I want to just lay out a few lists,
And you can pick your reasons,
And all reasons are good,
Okay?
There's nothing wrong with which you pick.
Or you may pick one today,
And then two months later you realize that,
No,
No,
No,
Actually I think I want to meditate for this reason.
So the first reason is many people meditate for relaxation.
There is so much stress,
So much of turmoil in our lives,
And we don't want to get time for ourselves.
Many people are sleep deprived.
They don't want to get time to sleep because we're sleeping late,
We're getting up early,
We're working hard.
Some people are working two jobs or,
You know,
Or trying to do two jobs,
And they just don't have time,
And they want to relax.
And meditation,
It looks like an active relaxation.
So let me tell you what's the difference.
You know,
Sleep is a good relaxation,
But sleep is only for body and to the brain,
But it doesn't go to the mind level.
Meditation affects,
It relaxes us at the mental level,
In the inner level.
And so it's a calming exercise,
It is an exercise of being stress-free.
The other,
Some people meditate to control their mind,
Because they can see their mind is running million places at one time.
Have you experienced,
Has anybody experienced that here?
Like sometimes your mind just can't stop thinking.
Okay,
Don't believe me?
Okay,
Let's do an experiment.
I give you one minute,
And you have to just sit quiet,
And see if any thought come in your eye,
In your mind.
And you don't try anything,
But just see if a thought comes.
Try to be thoughtless.
Okay,
Can we do it for one minute?
I mean,
We,
Hopefully we can try it,
Right?
So just sit comfortably.
If you want to close your eyes,
You can close your eyes.
Just try to be,
Just try to be and not think,
And see how easy your difficulties.
I'll give you a minute from now.
Thank you.
How many people had thoughts?
And be honest.
Pretty much everyone,
Except for a few people.
So you were really,
Honestly,
Did not get any thought?
That's great.
But most people had thoughts,
Right?
It's impossible to put our mind to rest,
Because our mind is constantly running,
Running,
Running.
We're so used to,
We can't even,
We have no idea how to stop this train.
Now imagine if you had a car like this,
With no brakes,
That doesn't stop.
How would you live?
It's impossible,
Right?
And that creates some kind of a tension and some pressure in our life that we can't even stop thinking,
Even if you want to.
The mind is,
Has full of energy.
It's like it doesn't have any brake.
And so many people want to stop or pause or control the mind or rest the mind.
In our science and spirituality tradition,
We call it stilling the mind.
Try to still.
Now have you seen a lake,
Shoming?
We live in Minnesota.
I'm sure you're one of the 10,
000 lakes.
You have seen it.
And especially if the weather is windy and stormy.
If you see a lake,
What do you see?
The waves.
Yeah,
So that's a good observation.
So when the lake is windy,
You see the waves.
What else you see in the lake when it's,
When it's weather is disturbed or stormy?
Can't think about anything else,
Right?
Maybe some boats,
Maybe on that at the most,
Right?
So good observation.
Now imagine you go in a one fine morning when the weather is perfectly still and the water is perfectly still and you go early morning at five o'clock when the stars are still there and there's no cloud and maybe some light is there.
What do you see?
You see the reflection of the sky,
Right?
You see the still water.
There's a still water place actually.
If you look at the water,
You can even see the bottom of the lake if there's enough light,
Right?
You might see fishes,
You may see bottom rocks.
And if you look at it from an angle,
You see the reflection of the universe.
And if you're lucky,
In certain parts of Minnesota when there's not enough light,
You might see the reflection of our Milky Way,
Right?
You might have seen some photographers take the pictures of that precious time when you can see the reflection of Milky Way.
You can see in the sky.
You can also see in the lake as a reflection.
So what is happening?
That stillness gives you access to something beyond just the water and the waves,
Right?
It's like our mind.
When our mind is,
You know,
Running fast,
We only see thoughts.
What do we see?
So the waves are like thoughts.
I have this thought and I have that thought and I want to,
You know,
What happened yesterday and what's going to happen tomorrow and what am I going to do this and what am I going to eat,
You know?
That's all we know.
But when the mind is still,
You get access to something profound,
Something beyond.
You get access to inner light.
You get access to the stillness.
You get access to peace.
You get access to love and that is uplifting.
It is so uplifting that people feel blessed and the happiness that they have not experienced anywhere in the world.
That happiness is beyond the words and that is the magic of becoming still.
So some people also do the mindfulness.
Now you heard this word many times and probably and mindfulness is also a way of,
You know,
Awareness.
It's another word for awareness.
When you,
Nothing,
So it is a very,
What do you call it,
Paradoxical word.
Let me show you an example.
Go figure who you relate to more.
The left person or the right,
The dog.
You see that both are having mindful one way or the other.
One is full of thoughts.
So the mind is full of thoughts and the dog is mindful.
See the difference?
What is the dog thinking?
Thinking about nature.
He's not even thinking about nature,
Just experiencing nature.
He's looking at nature.
He's absorbing seeing four trees and one sun.
And what is the guy seeing the same place?
Nothing.
Isn't that how our life is?
Where sometimes we have right in front of us one of the best things of the world and yet we are not able to enjoy it.
Sometimes we play with kids and but we are thinking about work and we are at work and worrying about family members,
Like you know what happened yesterday and what is going to happen tomorrow and then and we want to be here but our mind is somewhere else.
Does that happen to anyone?
Right?
In fact,
While you are here you have already made many trips.
Okay raise your hand if I haven't made a trip.
Right?
We met a trip in between like oh you know what tomorrow oh yeah that reminds me of this thing or this that reminded me of this thing or that thing and then you made a trip.
You spend few moments there and then you bring it back and then again you get the thought and you can go on somewhere and when you're gone you miss even some words and then your mind may reconstruct some of it back but you might lose it.
You might say oh yeah what was it saying?
You know I work in companies and corporations and we have meetings you know I'm sure many of you also have meetings and in your people attend meetings and in this meeting and they're fanatically working and the person who is let's say doing a presentation and he's asking questions so what do you do what do you understand about this or they ask a question like Joe so what do you think about my proposal and Joe said oh wait a minute can you repeat that again because Joe was thinking about next meeting.
He was preparing for his meeting which is the next meeting so he was not paying attention to my I'm just making it up right Joe.
Joe is my friend so I can pull his legs.
I'm not paying attention to I can pull his legs but that's what happens so we may be physically here we may be may not be here mentally and we make trips and that is very normal behavior so don't don't kick yourself but the point is there is a you realize that when you are your body and your mind and your attention is together then you are enjoying you enjoy it more you are in the blissful state you are you're putting a hundred percent and guess what this is very now many times our day-to-day life it may not be very obvious it doesn't make so it's so much difference okay I pay attention don't pay attention to how does it matter you know somebody is talking to you you listen 30% of it 70% of you don't care and that's okay because the other person also doesn't care whether you care or not and the life goes on right but it matters where it matters it matters especially if think about those who are surgeons and they have to operate on your brain or heart now can they afford to make trips they can they say oh well you know this reminds me of a patient that I've operated two years ago he died I'm not sure if this is going to survive you know you don't want that kind of a patient doctor to operate on you you want somebody to be paying full attention right and same with the athletes you know those are athletes in Olympic you know they're running if they start worrying about who's ahead of me and who's gonna win and whom am I gonna lose and what gonna happen if I lose and I put so much money to practice and well they're definitely gonna lose and those who are when they see you just notice that their attention is on and their forehead there's they call it in zone being in the zone and that means they are paying attention to whatever is happening right now they're putting hundred percent and those are the people who win now if you or I can do that level of attention in our day-to-day work we will enjoy our life we'll be able to accomplish more and be successful or doesn't even matter sometime what success is the fact that we did it with love and full attention is itself very satisfying and fulfilling right so that's our goal of meditation also so anyway keep going on keep going on another aspect of meditation is one of the aspect is discovering ourself some people say I want to know what is my true potential you know already the scientists and the doctors are saying we only use like a 1% of our brain but imagine 1% of our brain but even lesser than of our mind and our even lesser of our soul and spirit we're not we're hardly using the power and what has happened is we are very very very powerful we're like the prince and the princess and the kings and the queens and we are acting like beggars because we have no access to our own wealth and so many times we realize that many of us know that oh you know what if only I could apply myself hundred percent I can achieve so much right you've you thought about it like this many times we all think about it I think about it like oh I wish I I had done better if I had studied better I would have got a little bit more marks I would have got a better college I would have done better job I would have you know you know things like that but that's only still outer world we're talking about being a better human being how about how best human being we can be and and that's the that's the the part of meditation which we call this now we're getting into spiritual zone is discovering true potential of who we are and what we are capable of so when little things gets us when little things derails us we can realize that oh I'm not just you know weak person to derail for the small thing I'm not going to get angry for those little things I have a bitter bigger goal and I can deal with this calmly and we feel the inner strength the next is the self-realization now realize the saints and mystics in all traditions have been saying for thousands of years that we're not the human being having trying to get spiritual we're the spiritual being trying to go for human experience just absorb that for a second we're spiritual beings having a human experience we have forgotten our true identity and meditation allows us to rekindle reawaken we're soul and what does it mean to be soul what would you do differently if you think you're if you know you're a soul anyone yes sir so you would not worry about the problems of the shell for example you would probably have a higher purpose that's a good good answer thank you anybody else yes joe be kinder how about that a little bit kinder if your soul then souls one of the characteristic of soul is compassion and kindness and love and so when you're connected with love you are all love how can you become angry and how can you become less than loving right so being identified with soul transforms the way we live the way we look at things we don't get we are not gotten by little things here and there we don't worry about things because as a soul we know that right things will happen and we know that we can um you know the per the purpose of this human life is to know that we're know that we're soul so everything is trying to teach us and we don't lend the lesson so the lessons keep coming back to us and some people um of course also go beyond the soul that god realization when we when we say science is spirituality god god is that creative power that created everything in this universe including all the life force including all human being and so if that force created us it is we're not talking about religious connotation we're talking about the nature the higher nature that created our life force and irrespective of what we call it it's the one force that we have all with access to so just like you know a mother can have five children and doesn't matter who is bigger smaller who is more intelligent smarter how is how they look the mother loves everybody equally and similarly uh you know god loves everyone equally so god has given equal access to everyone and it's up to us to realize that that um and so what we call the ultimate goal of some of the people is to realize god okay but you have to choose what is your goal okay i'm just laying out these are the reasons why people meditate it's up to you what makes sense to you we're not here to tell you you should do this or that but these are the reasons and i we hope that uh whatever wherever we feel comfortable is still a lot of benefit to our life okay so uh you know we're talking about controlling mind you know just to debunk the misnomer that meditation doesn't control the mind meditation actually frees you from the mind so it stopped letting the mind control you because our mind is uh is a kind of energy which is going to be there no matter what it's going to be it's always the nature of mind is is to constantly change to constantly think and so what we discover is the soul which is not changing which is stable which is love and by being connection with love we become still and we become empowered okay so that's exactly what our spiritual master and Sanjinder Singh ji Maharaj says a love far greater and more fulfilling than any we know in this outer world is waiting to embrace us with open arms within now when we think about love now there are many types of love there are love like i love pizza and i love ice cream that love right well i love candies we're not talking about that love we're talking about a conscious love a love which is uh awaken its force a life force and it is awakened it is conscious it is it's like love can talk to us it has an identity and that love is waiting within us with open arms and it's we who are so busy outside that we can't experience it i'll tell you a story which will make the point clear this is a story of a lady her name was Rabia Basri and she was a saintly lady and she used to teach meditation to her community and it was so difficult for the community to absorb the process of meditation they would hear from one ear and and forget it from the other ear they'll just say all right i see and she used to say well why don't you meditate with me and they will say yes yes i'm going to meditate tomorrow and then and they were all busy so one day she came up with this idea to her friends and her she had set of disciples who would follow her who revere her but uh but did not understand the concept of meditation or going within so she came up with this idea you know this was the time when um talking about the light all right so there was a time when there was no light that's what i was gonna say that's what i was gonna say when there was no artificial light so people used to put the lamp the oil lamps and so one day you know fortunately it was a half moon or there was a moon outside and she was used to live in a hut and outside her heart she was looking for something the disciple friend came out and said what are you looking for Rabia and she said you know i i used the needle to sew and i've lost it and this guy says oh yeah okay no problem i know it's dark there's a moonlight so let me help you find it and you know he started looking and then a few minutes later somebody else come and somebody else come and then pretty few minutes later there were like 14 15 people looking for a needle and they spent a lot of time and they say why can't find it uh so one of them dared to ask her like so Rabia where exactly you dropped it because we can't seem to find it here where you were looking and she said oh actually i was i lost it inside my home and they were like are you crazy like why are we looking outside she said because you know i ran out of the oil in the lamp so there's no light inside but there's light outside so that's why i'm looking outside and everybody kind of surrounded her and said okay let's let's talk to her Rabia you don't get it you know just because you don't see inside doesn't mean you're going to find your needle outside it's inside you have to go inside you have to create the light inside we'll give you the oil and then you will see the needle there's no point in looking outside and Rabia calmly said but isn't that what i have been telling you for all these years that the happiness is within you and the bliss is within you and the fulfillment is within you but you have been busy looking outside and that was her way of giving message and so we all do that we all think that i wish i can just get this job and i'll be happy if i can get this uh you know lottery ticket that that's done if i can get one car and one house and a little bit bigger you know maybe two cars if you already have one car and maybe a four bedroom if you have three bedroom and maybe uh you know if you have five thousand square feet you want ten thousand square feet you know it's always the the this the happiness seems step or two away but that's the illusion because happiness no matter what you can even ask bill gates is he finding happiness in the money he's probably finding more happiness and giving it away but uh but the happiness the saints and mystic have been telling for thousands of years and all traditions that happiness is within us love is within us we have to go and that is why we went to meditate i know i've talked enough so how about we practice a little bit and then we're going to play a video so i invite you to first of all so this is a technique which we call jyoti meditation now jyoti is a sanskrit word for or hindi word for inner light so not talking about this light you don't have to look at the lamp the light we're going to experience from within how do you experience light within you have to do three steps very simple but not easy and i say it not easy because if it was easy then everybody would have gotten it by now right so that's why we will we will walk through step by step so first step is to still the body now that doesn't seem very challenging many people say yeah okay i can sit for stillness no problem i can sit for 20 minutes half an hour without moving without moving so that's a less of a challenge the second challenge is stilling the senses now when i say senses is because our senses are constantly connected to the outside world so stealing the body is first step but withdrawing from the senses is another step so the senses do not disturb our mind because our mind is waiting to it's like a hungry thing you know it's always waiting on give me more give me more and 83 of our attention goes from the eyes so brain is hungry to see things you know if you close your eyes i mean have you tried to close your eyes and walk i know some people can't see unfortunately but if you cannot see it it'll be very uncomfortable right it's 83 of our attention it works through the eyes then the 13 works through our ears and constantly we want to hear and and both of them together make 97 percent and the last three percent is the sense of smell taste and touch so that covers 100 so if we can sit still close our eyes sit in a quiet room do not eat anything or or put anything in the mouth while we're meditating and we make sure we do not touch anyone as we sit for meditation we can sit we can sit together but do not have to hold hand in hand or we can keep a safe distance so that if one person moves it doesn't disturb our concentration and the third is we're not going to put some incense trick or perfume or anything because that will be distracting so we just keep it as simple and neutral and so if you do this five things the hardest is going to be the ears there will be some sound which is not in your control we have one ability what we call tuning out so we can tune out so if some sound come you can just ignore it because you're safe here so we're going to do that so that accomplishes the number two goals which is to still the senses then the third one is the hardest one even if you do this too what's what's going to happen our mind yes our mind is still traveling at 100 miles an hour right and it doesn't have any breaks so that's the hardest part and so i'm going to introduce a technique part which is given from the science of spirituality tradition and hopefully that'll help you still the mind we need to practice it's not going to happen today it's going to happen a little bit you'll be lucky if you experience some stillness but if you want to keep practicing so first i want you to experience the stilling of the body let's just do that can everybody find a comfortable pose in which you can sit for about next 10 minutes so find a comfortable pose wherever you're sitting find a pose and you can uh some people if you want to fit on the floor you're welcome to do that if you're comfortable in the seat that's fine just relax your legs and feet relax your torso keep your back straight so that it doesn't it doesn't call for attention and relax your shoulders you can you know those who do yoga exercise probably know a little bit of shoulder movement relax your neck so there's no tension in any part of your neck you will notice that sometimes you get stressed in the neck even if the stresses is in your day in your life so relax your neck a little bit and then sit comfortably close your eyes gently once you close your eyes your role is to gaze in front of you so what i'm going to do for next two minutes i'm just going to leave you there just keep gazing and observe what happens to your attention it's important that you observe it whatever happens your effort is to gaze in front of you with your eyes closed and keep your eyes relaxed and you can put your arms in your laps so you're absolutely calm and close your eyes and gaze in front of you and just try to keep gazing now you may see darkness you may see some reflection of light whatever you see just keep gazing there i want you to be there for two minutes and observe what happens to your attention i'm going to turn off the lights and after two and after two minutes i'm going to get out and then give them the third step so let's it starts now thank you so so thank you and you can gently open your eyes but remain seated still you would notice that it was very hard to keep gazing without any other help so in order to still the mind that's the last part i'm going to give you a next step which is to repeat a word in your mind you can repeat any word with which you feel comfortable if you can use god's name or you use mantra or you can just simply say love or peace i would recommend pick one love or peace if you're not sure and just repeat in your mind so please close your eyes again and keep gazing in the middle but this time the only thing additionally you're doing to still the mind is to repeat a word and i'm going to give an example out loud but you have to repeat in your mind so you're going to say peace peace peace keep the words very simple simple gently repeat in your mind very very lovingly repeat and keep gazing in the middle of what you see keep the gap between the words so you can still the mind so let's do it for next six to seven minutes and i'm going to get you out of meditation at that time if you find yourself wandering into thoughts gently bring your attention back to gazing and continue repeating the word you selected and i'm going to get you out of meditation about six to seven minutes just enjoy this meditation moment thank you so so so so so so so so so so so and gently open your eyes so i know it was a brief meditation how many people feeling good about it relax calm sleepy it was just a small sample actually but i hope that you still feel a little calmer
