Concentration on internal centres is also practised by Sadhakas according to their special predilections of temperament. The process of psychological freedom achieved is similar to the one in concentration on external points or forms, the only difference being that in internal concentration the objects are only forms of thought instead of physical locations or things. The idea of the 'external' and 'internal' is really with reference to one's own physical body, so that it is more a procedure adopted for convenience rather than a system which has any ultimate objective significance. Whatever is concentrated upon externally may be regarded as a psychological image in internal concentration. One special feature which is discoverable only in internal concentration is that in this method one can conceive any form of reality to one's own liking, which may not have anything corresponding in the physical world, such as the ideas of all-comprehensives, togetherness, unity, harmony, supreme abundance and even such ideas as of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. But the last mentioned three ideas actually transcend the idea of internality and open up the concept of the universal.

The idea of universality overcomes the barriers of externality and internality created by the mind with reference to the body and the personality and visualises all things, including one's own individuality, as organically related to one another in a wider completeness to which there are no such things as subject and object, or the seer and seen, which are the outcome of self-reference by each particular individual in contrast to other individuals and things. The universal is incapable of even imagination since thought is always subjective and externalises the object. Thus the concept of the universal should be regarded as almost an impossibility. But, for purpose of meditation, a conceptual universal may be presented before the mind through the mutual transference of meaning between the subject and object, which would result in three alternatives: (1) Every subject is also an object to others, (2) every object is a subject to its own self, and (3) there is neither a subject nor object where there is mutual determination among parts of a whole. Every unit of existence may be conceived as a whole in itself, i.e., an organism, self-determined in every way. There can be many such organisms, smaller and bigger in a series and the universe is the largest organism. To conceive it as it would conceive itself is to be able to think the universal. In meditation this technique would involve a little effort of thought and of the will to maintain awareness of a transcendence of the subject-object relation, in any of the ways suggested above. Since the bodily individuality as a psycho-physical organism is maintained mostly by the tension obtaining between itself and others which it regards as objects, any procedure which will overcome or release this tension would be a welcome method of contemplating the universal. The seekers who belong to this last category should indeed be very rare and few in number, for this super-normal thinking is not given to everyone because of the habit of the mind to pin faith in sense-objects by isolating them from its own location. The Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita are replete with descriptions of this state of consciousness, wherein the multiformed universal is contemplated. Special mention may be made of the 3rd and the 4th chapters of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the 5th and 7th chapters of the Chhandogya Upanishad, the 11th chapter of the Bhagavadgita as also the description of the Absolute in its 13th chapter. This is the way of Jnana, pure knowledge or impersonal meditation.

The methods of meditation in Bhakti or love and devotion emphasise the personal form of God more than the impersonal and instead of the fixing of consciousness in its role as pure awareness, as in the path of knowledge, direct emotion as love to the form in which God manifests himself before the contemplative mind. The Vaishnava theology conceives God in a fivefold series of manifestations known as Para or the Supreme, Vyuha or the group, Vibhava or the incarnation, Archa or the symbol of worship and the Antaryamin or the indwelling. The Para is God conceived as the transcendent creator, whose nature is awe-inspiring, and his uplifted presence carries with it a feeling of inaccessibility and a grand remoteness from the dust of the earth. Vyuha is God conceived as a group of manifestations, known in Vaishnava scriptures as Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, corresponding almost to the mutual relationship of Brahman, Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat in the terminology of the Vedanta. Vibhava is God in an incarnation manifest in the planes of creation for redressing the sorrows of the denizens of the planes. Archa is the image or symbol used in external or internal worship, a limited form meant to help concentration of mind on God through a finite focus which gradually enlarges upon wider realities, stage by stage. Antaryamin is the counterpart of Para, God as the indwelling presence, not far removed from creation as the creator thereof, difficult to approach, but the very soul of creation, living within it and capable of vital contact in any speck of space or atom of creation.

The path of Bhakti also conceives methods of concentration of mind by Sravana or the hearing the glories of God, Kirtana or singing his names, Smarana or remembrance of him, through Japa, etc., Padasevana or adoration of his feet in his manifestations or in his essential being, Archana or formal worship by ritualistic methods, Vandana or prayer offered to God, Dasya or the attitude of being a servant of God, Sakhya or the attitude of friendship towards God and, finally, Atma-Nivedana or self-surrender to God. These are various means of reaching the consummation of divine love by which the mind is fastened upon God's existence and all his associated attributes as omniscience, omnipotence, compassion, and the like.

The technique of concentration of mind in the Yoga system of Patanjali is concerned more with the volition aspect of the psychological organ than the understanding and feeling, as in Jnana and Bhakti. The will plays here the prominent role and concentration is the effort of the mind to fix its attention on the different degrees of reality, viz., (1) the physical universe of five elements in terms of the space-time relation and the relation of idea, name and form; (2) the five elements in themselves independent of these relations; (3) the inner formative principles of the five elements in terms of the space-time relation and the relation of idea, name and form; (4) the formative principles of the five elements independent of the relations; (5) the joy which follows from this concentration on transparent being; (6) pure Self-awareness that ensues thereby; (7) retention of the memory of the extermination of all mental forms in the finest essence of Self-awareness and, lastly, (8) realisation of Pure Being as the Absolute.

A system of spiritual living known as Karma-Yoga rarely gets associated with meditation. But Karma-Yoga is really meditation in action and it is a Yoga by itself It is, however, difficult for beginners in spiritual life to imagine how an action can also be a meditation, for action is usually associated with movement, physical or psychological, while meditation is regarded as attention in which all movement is checked. The action, which Karma Yoga is, differs from this usual definition of action as distinguished from concentration or attention of mind. An exposition of this method is mainly found in the Bhagavadgita where expertness in action is identified with balance in the attitude of consciousness. Yoga is not only supreme ability in the execution of perfected action but is at the same time stability of consciousness or equanimity of mind. The two aspects of this particular technique cannot be reconciled as long as action is limited to the personal activities proceeding from desire. Karma-Yoga is desireless action, which alone can be consistent with spiritual consciousness. The Self which is pure balance of existence is co-extensive with cosmic reality and can therefore be reconcilable with action when it is transformed into an impersonal process of spiritual being instead of a personal activity of individual desire. This concept of spiritualised action is an advanced step in Yoga and cannot be prescribed to novices who cannot imagine anything beyond their bodily personality. But once the spirit is grasped, a seeker moves unscathed in life, unaffected by likes and dislikes and contemplates divinity in all actions which he identifies with the processes of the universe. In lesser concepts of Karma-Yoga, it is defined as one's attitude to all activity as a form of the movement of the properties of the external Nature, of which one remains an unconcerned witness. It is also regarded as action performed in the spirit of service of God or even service of humanity and all living beings, the fruits of which the performer does not long for but offers up entirely to God.

In internal forms of meditation a special feature is a system known as Kundalini-Yoga. Here, the human system in its subtle make-up within is regarded as a microcosmic specimen of the universe and attempt is made to manipulate the powers of Nature by the regulation of forces within one's own individuality. The realms of the cosmos correspond to the centres in the individual, which are accepted to be seven in number. Concentration on these centres in the microcosm stimulates the forces lodged in the centres which bear an intimate relation to the relative centres in the macrocosm. Thus, meditation on these centres is tantamount to meditation on the reality of the cosmos. Enormous details on such meditations are laid down in a group of texts called Tantras, which enunciate methods of a gradual overstepping of the grosser forms of Nature through ritual, worship, recitation of formulae, regulation of breath and concentration of mind. Since some of the ways prescribed in the Tantras seem to take the seeker along the roads of sense-objects and the material Nature, though with a view to transcending them in spiritual experience, the danger of a set-back or fall for the inexperienced and the unwary is more in this path than in the other methods of Yoga. The technique is very scientific but not entirely free from the fears of temptation and retrogression when attempted by unpurified minds.

All the procedures of meditation are, in the end, ways of awakening the Soul-consciousness which, in its depth, is, at once, God-consciousness. What is apparently extraneous and outside one's body gets vitally woven up into the fabric of one's being in rightly practised meditation. In brief, meditation is the art of uniting with Reality.