The usual habit of the mind to think only in one particular way persists continuously throughout one's life. A total transformation of the process of thinking in an entirely different manner is next to an impossibility for any human mind. Hence, the method that is to be adopted should be in terms of a graduated progress in the visualisation of the object of meditation.

Whatever be the maturity of our thoughts or the extent of our education, the mind will still go on telling us again and again that there is something in front of us which is our divinity, our god, our object of meditation. Some people struggle to avoid this concept of something being in front by imagining that it is present somewhere in one part of the body only, such as the middle of the eyebrows, the heart, etc. Even then, in spite of the attempt to place it in one's own personality, it will remain a kind of external object. It will never get identified with oneself. One may feel in the centre of the eyebrows something standing, sitting, or placed in some posture, but not united with oneself entirely.

In order that the mind may not be forced to think in an unusual way, it is better to give it a long rope; start with the very same concept which it is accustomed to and gradually raise this vision of the object in the direction required. There is a well-known illustration known as shakha-chandra nyaya, which means the way in which one can locate a star in the sky, in the midst of many others. There is a star in the sky called Mrigasirsha, for instance, and I want to show you where exactly it is above. Thousands of stars in the sky can be seen on a clear night. Now, which one is the Mrigasirsha? If I say, "Look at this," and point my finger to that particular star, my finger is not touching the star, and you will not know where the star actually is. Then, the method I adopt is: Do you see this tree in front of me? Do you see one branch shooting off in an eastern direction? Do you see a little twig rising from the particular branch, rising vertically up? Just above that vertical shooting twig, do you see a star there? To the right side of it do you see something twinkling? That is the star Mrigasirsha. Now you can see and know where it is.

So much time had to be taken in order that the distant star could be located for the purpose of correct perception. In a similar manner you have to adopt certain techniques when you go for meditation. The mind will always have to say something contrary to your ideas, that the object is far away, and is in one place only. Let it be so. Let the object be in one place. What is your object?

Bringing back to our memories what we have considered earlier, that object is something which is very desirable, but it is in one place only. There are other things external to it, outside it, many things in the world which are other than this one desirable object. The mind will say that there are many other things, also. When the mind wanders like this in the thought of other things than the particular chosen object, open your eyes. Generally, where the eyes are, there the mind also is. When you look at a thing with open eyes, the mind also goes with this visual perception. Keep an image in front of you; what that image may be is left to your choice. It may be a painting, photograph, idol, symbol, diagram, anything that will satisfy your feelings. Open the eyes and look at it for as long a time as possible so that the mind feels delighted that it is there: "My desirable thing is just in front of me. I am very happy to look at it! Come, come!"

After a few minutes the mind will again jump into something else. It will not agree to go on thinking continuously even the most desirable object because this open-eyed concentration by the mind is actually the conscious level of the mind operating. The human psyche is not merely the operation of the conscious mind. Even when you are looking at a thing and consciously thinking it, your whole being is not comfortable on account of the other subliminal layers of the personality getting disturbed by a subtle subterfuge of feeling of an indescribable nature.

Even the most desirable object can disturb our personality inwardly for certain reasons which the conscious mind cannot know at that time. We cannot be comfortable in the presence of anything for a long continuous period because mostly our thoughts are on the surface of consciousness. We have never an idea that we have also subconscious levels, and deeper still an unconscious sea of potential urges.

When a presentable object is placed before the conscious level of the mind, tentatively it appears to be satisfied. Inasmuch as the satisfaction is tentative, the lower subliminal layers do not interfere, just as a mother will allow the little baby to crawl to some extent in any direction while keeping an eye that it does not go too far. A little freedom is given to the crawling child, but when it goes too near the steps where it is likely to slip and fall, the mother will run and pull it back. Likewise, the subconscious which is our real mother, as it were, which is what we really are basically, will not suddenly interfere with our conscious level's operations. We may go on gallivanting anywhere with our conscious mind, looking at things and enjoying them, but if we persist in concentrating only on one thing and are likely to forget the possibilities of other things also in the world, the subconscious will say, "thus far and no further." Immediately it will move in some other direction. What is the direction towards which it will jump? It will go towards those things which are ignored in our conscious visualisation of the object.

Remember the same analogy I mentioned to you last time that your personality is not in one place only. It is an admixture of forces joining together and coming from various levels of the personality, from many previous births through which we have passed and the several possibilities of our future births, also. Thus, the past and the future will not allow you to be continuously conscious of one thing alone in the present. You will be pulled and pushed from two different directions. This is why the scriptures in Yoga tell us that we have to be a little bit cautious in knowing ourselves well before we embark upon the Yoga of meditation wholeheartedly. We have to bring to the level of our conscious thinking whatever is buried deep inside, also. You should not keep something secret within and then appear to be well off on the surface level. If you have something troubling in the deepest level of your mind, that has to be brought to the surface of consciousness, to the daylight of proper understanding. You have to look at it together with your looking at the object of meditation.

If you start visualising the object which is the target of meditation with only the power of your will, minus an adequate understanding going with it, your heart will rumble inside like troubled waters. Even for a month you may not know that anything is happening to you at all. Go on with your meditations for three months, six months, with earnestness and intensity of concentration, carried on at fixed hours of the day, every day. Then the whole personality which has been ignored earlier will rise up to action. A neglected individual can do anything; an ignored disease can erupt in any form, and a neglected creditor can give any kind of trouble. Anything rejected totally, as if it is not there, while it is really there, can cause such troubles that we cannot foresee.

You are your own danger, and you are inviting that trouble by ignoring some part of yourself and imagining that you are only some side or aspect. You may believe that you have no desires because you are in a holy place, thinking holy things. It may look true, but it is not wholly true. When you leave the holy place, go to the railway station, the bus stand and the market, that which you have not taken into account at this present moment will come up and engage your attention adequately. It is better that you guard yourself about it now itself before you prepare yourself for meditation. We should not be having secrecies about our own selves. Are you going to hide something in yourself? You may not declare yourself to other people for certain reasons, but will you not declare yourself to yourself? Tell your own self honestly what you are. Will your heart say that you are a God-man, a spiritual seeker? If you are honest, you will realise that you are a dustbin filled with umpteen cravings, submerged longings, and disturbed emotions. If you are dishonest to yourself, you will not progress even by one inch.

Most people have the capacity to know what is inside them. While you are in a temple or a satsanga, in the company of great souls, what you really are in the subconscious or unconscious may not come to the surface of your mind. If you want to know what you really are, what you are basically at the root of your being (other than what you are appearing to be in public), you have to leave your home for some time, because your home atmosphere conditions you into thinking in one way only. Go a long distance, some 500 kilometres away from your house. It may be a holy shrine, it may be Uttarkashi, Gangotri, Rameshwaram, Varanasi. Never write any letter to your family when you are staying there. Make a decision that for one month you shall not leave that place. You should not have any correspondence with your family. Do not send letters, because other people will then start writing to you; do not write anything. Go to a place where people do not recognise you, so that they may not come and chat with you. Let the atmosphere be strange. If you go to a large city, people may not know who you are. You are just one pilgrim among thousands. Live in a place where you are literally alone. For a few days you will feel like fish out of water. You have lost your peace of mind with nobody to talk to; you are lonely.

The social part of your personality will revolt against the individual life that you are forcing into yourself. Most of us are in a social atmosphere and if you are wrenched out of that social condition, literally placing yourself alone, you feel miserable at that time. Being literally alone is very difficult to conceive but it is necessary to pass that test, also. Can you live alone?

Stay for a while, for a month at least, in a place where you are unknown to people and you have no connection with anybody. You have plenty of time for yourself; nobody will disturb you. When you have your little breakfast or lunch, etc., sit and cogitate about what is happening with your mind. The first thought will be that you have lost something. You may have pain in the body or feel that you are not fit for this, that your desires are not being satisfied, something looks odd, not quite all right.

All the desires submerged will slowly creep out. Do you know how many desires you have? They look like several things, like the many branches of a tree, but they are all capable of being boiled down to certain units, just as medical science tells us that all illness is threefold, known as vata, pitta, and kapha - windy, bilious, and phlegmatic. These are the three humours in the body. When these are maintaining a state of balance, we feel healthy. But if any one of them is out of balance, it will rise up and indicate an illness. Though diseases appear to be manifold, they arise from a threefold disturbance in the body.