Question: How do I improve my meditation?
Answer:
Feeling the presence, and more to the point, the love of the Divine in your meditation is crucial. However, there are some things to keep in mind.
First, meditation itself is a skill that is not easily mastered. Six months is a relatively short period of time to have been meditating. However, there are some things you can do that will help.
It is said that God’s love is showering down on all of us equally but most of us don’t feel it because we (unconsciously) keep an umbrella over our head. How do we remove that umbrella so we are drenched in this love? All of the following are vitally important but if you do your best to do these I believe you will soon find your meditation transformed:
Kiirtan. Try to sing Baba Nam Kevalam kiirtan for at least 10 to 15 minutes before you sit to meditate. Allow the meaning and feeling that everything is Divine to fill you up.
Ideate on the Baba Nam Kevalam mantra (and its meaning) throughout the day. The best way to do this is to listen to as much kiirtan as possible, but if you can’t do that just try to repeat the mantra internally as much as you can. This will help keep your mind in an elevated state all the time which will make it easier to go even deeper when you sit to meditate.
Service to others. If you aren’t already doing this, find some way to perform some sort of service to others. It can be any sort of volunteer work for just a couple of hours a week, or it can even be helping out some family member – or even animals or plants. The important thing is that it is done without any thought for personal benefit and that you try to see the one(s) being served as manifestations of the Divine.
The yogis say that the true secret to meditation is this: instead of feeling that we are meditating on the Divine, try to have the feeling that He is meditating on us. That is, instead of God being the object of our meditation try to feel that you are the object of His meditation and that He is showering you with immense love.
Connect up with your local Ananda Marga group (if you have not done so already) for weekly group kiirtan and meditation. This is a tremendous aid to meditation. If you don’t know how to find them, email us with the city and country where you are located and we will send you local contact information.
