Now, we come to the more practical initial stages, after considering something of the supernormal aspects of Yoga meditation. What should we do at the initial stage? We have to sit; that is all. Sthira-sukham asanam: we have to be seated. We cannot stand. We have already seen that it is not a proper posture. We cannot lie down. We have to be seated in that particular Asana or that particular posture, which is convenient and non-painful. And we should introduce into our mind the ideas of nobility, sublimity and divinity. We should tell ourselves that we are seated, even though for a few minutes only, for a magnificent purpose, which has a value not only to us as individuals, but to the whole of society, why, to the whole world.

The false idea that meditation is an individual affair has to be removed from the mind. Many so-called spiritual men, religious men, and devotees get side-tracked into this erroneous notion that meditation is an individual business, and that it has no connection with other people. The spiritual seeker may be under such an impression, and others also may drive such ideas into his head. People make a distinction between social service and spiritual meditation, as if they are two different things. They try to project the view that while social service benefits a large number of people, meditation is an individual affair which does no good to anyone other than perhaps the meditator himself. This is a bogey that hangs heavy on our heads, even when we are about to touch the fringe of God Himself. The devil will not leave us even to the last moment. Because, the devil works the most when it tries to feast on our intellect itself, and afterwards we cannot think any more in a proper manner. Who on earth says that the outside is different from the inside? Have we not been repeatedly emphasising that there is no such thing as an inside and an outside for this vast Creative Force called Purusha and Prakriti, and by other names variously? In this vast atmosphere of an inter-related system of values, called creation, what is inside and what is outside? So, how can there be an individual effort? What is the Bhagavad Gita but this great gospel that there is no such thing as individual activity at all? Such a thing does not just exist. So, there is no such thing as individual meditation also. There is no such thing as 'my practising meditation'. Therefore, it is stupid to the core to imagine that social work is different from spiritual meditation. The two cannot be isolated. Meditation is a cosmic activity and not an individual's effort. It is not a mister or a mistress sitting in the corner of a house and thinking something for one's own self, calling it meditation. It is touching at the very base and root and switchboard of the cosmos. When we properly adjust ourselves to the requirements of true concentration or meditation, we interfere with the structure of the cosmos itself. At that time, we are not individuals, we are not social units. We are sparks of that Spirit and units of the Cosmic Force. When a particular drop in the ocean begins to think, quite naturally, that thought of that drop will have to affect the whole ocean. There is no such thing as an isolated activity of a drop in the ocean. It is not there. Every drop is the ocean itself, and therefore, when it starts acting, the whole ocean becomes active. So, when an individual starts concentrating with a proper understanding of the meaning of concentration, the whole universe concentrates. What a joy, what a satisfaction, what an energy comes and how happy the person is at that time! He will not be able to speak afterwards. His mouth will be shut at the very thought of this great energy that seeps into him and the joy that comes on account of his correct apprehension of the very meaning of concentration. How glorious is Yoga! Thus we must ratiocinate and understand the true significance of Dharana and Dhyana. We are not doing anything for our own selves. We are doing it for everybody. The greatest service that anyone can do to the whole of creation is to commune with the Creator who is not different from His creation.

The spiritual seeker must accommodate these noble ideas in his mind. It may take sometime for him to think on these lines, to think like this. He may not be able to do this at once. It does not mean that the moment he sits for concentration, he will be able to think like this, in the way we have outlined. The mind will not be ready to think like this; it has its own idiosyncrasies and anxieties, emotions and worries. When there are emotions, tensions, one should not sit for meditation. At that time, one should go and take rest, lie down, sleep for an hour. If one is very much, disturbed in his mind, he would be well advised to go and sleep, or take a cup of tea or coffee, or go for a long walk musing within himself as to what has caused the sorrow in his mind. No one can be friendly with God by being an enemy of man. One has to be friendly with every stage of creation, and Yoga is nothing but this establishment of amity and friendliness in every level of creation. All tension and disparity is overcome by a gradual accommodation of oneself with the atmosphere in all the levels in which it may manifest itself. So, there should be a proper mood in the mind to sit for concentration. Otherwise, it will be boring; these noble thoughts will not always occur to the mind. Very rarely do such thoughts come unless one is in the presence of a great person, or one is reading a mighty scripture, or some miracle takes place.

So, in a proper mood, with a sober mind, with no other occupations in the mind, no other engagements calling for attention, one should be seated in a posture, and one should try to concentrate the mind in the manner suggested. At the outset, a need for an external form may be felt. How can anyone think anything when there is nothing in front of him? That is why generally people keep an image in front of them. It may be of Christ, it may be of Krishna, it may be of Devi, it may be of any blessed thing. The person who sits for concentration must open his eyes and gaze at the portrait of that mighty incarnation whom he adores as his divinity. Do we not feel stimulated within us when we see the picture of a great man, whom we adore as a mighty genius born in this world, much more so when we think he is a divine incarnation? When we look at the divine portrait, we will be stirred. Why go so far to incarnations? Even if we look at the portrait of a mastermind in any field of life, we become stirred in our emotions to some extent. It may be even a Churchill or a Khruschev, an Einstein or a Kennedy. When we look at these faces, we will be moved into a peculiar mood that will take us beyond ourselves, to speak the least about the psychology of the human mind. And if we have before us a portrait of such mighty individuals like Krishna or Jesus Christ or Mohammed, or great mystical masters like Lao-tse or Confucius or Zoroaster or any such mighty individual that has trodden this earth, we will be lifted beyond ourselves. This automatic lifting of ourselves beyond ourselves is itself a concentration and meditation. We cannot help being raised above ourselves when we look at the portrait or the picture of these people. Automatically this elevation takes place. So, taking advantage of this psychology of our mind, we may have a portrait in front of us. These are the most initial stages of concentration. Many people love their own father or mother. They have an immense love for their father. Okay, let these people keep the picture of their father or mother in front of them. There are others who have an intense attraction for things of the world for reasons of their own, and those things are all good enough, provided they have the capacity to raise the mind above the limitations of body-consciousness, for the time being at least.

One should gaze at the picture, gaze at the image, look at the idol, and begin to feel the greatness, the nobility, the sublimity, the force, the knowledge and the power and the capacity of these forms, of the individuals or incarnations, whom one is gazing at. Then the eyes must be closed, and the outer form or image must be forgotten or dropped from the mind. And one should begin to closely think, "How would Einstein have thought? He was a great man. How would he have thought? Why is it that I cannot think like that?" If one starts analysing his own mental processes, he will be lifted beyond himself. The mind of Einstein could go beyond the limitations of ordinary empirical objects and probe into the mysteries of space, time and causation. Oh, how wonderful! How could Jesus Christ have thought during his days? What was the thought of Krishna? What was he thinking everyday, from morning to night? We can go mad if we think like this persistently. How could we imagine what they were thinking? What was Sankaracharya thinking everyday from morning to evening? What was Jesus Christ thinking? What was Lord Krishna thinking? What is Brahma thinking, what is Vishnu thinking, and what is Siva thinking just now? We will go crazy at once if we start imagining in this manner. Well, this craze is good if it could take possession of us. So, thus the mind should be brought back to the point of concentration. If one cannot think anymore, the eyes may be opened, and once again the gaze may be directed at the portraits, and the presence of the wonderful values mentally associated with the persons may be imagined as present in the forms and portraits. The eyes may be closed once again and an attempt may be made to entertain these thoughts independently, without an external prop of pictures and idols. All this may take some months of effort; it may take even years. The mind cannot be so easily brought into harness for the spiritual purpose, because it has got various impressions, Samskaras, suppressed desires and frustrations.

After some months and years of practice in this manner, one will find that an external image is not necessary. The idol and the picture become redundant; one can think for oneself. But even when one thinks like this, one thinks only on the earlier pattern. Though there is nothing outside, inwardly there is the same concept of the very same form which was visualised in the earlier stage. So, the difference arises only between the physicality of the form and the conceptuality of it, but the characteristic of it remains the same. So, the further succeeding stage of concentration would be to entertain only a concept, independent of the outside form. Practice in the foregoing manner must be continued for a long time, must be persisted in, until one is able to get to every succeeding stage of meditation.

All this is a bare outline of the possible stages through which the spiritual aspirant may have to pass. Though the stages may vary from individual to individual in their detail, in broad features, they are perhaps something as outlined above. In the beginning, there is the necessity for an external form, a prop. Afterwards, there is no such necessity. One has gained the capacity to think only and the very thought itself is enough. The third stage is more advanced, and here comes real religion, real spirituality, real mysticism, real Yoga. We may call it a real divinity that takes possession of us. The omnipresence of the Almighty which we were trying to tether to a particular form begins to make itself felt even outside this form, just as a pot that is sunk in the ocean contains water not merely within itself, but also outside itself. So, His omnipresence is not only in the form that one is meditating upon, but is also outside it. If this omnipresence is in one form, why should it not be in any other form? This charity that one develops is a higher religion, beyond the religions present in this world now. One becomes a really religious person when one begins to see the same God in all the forms, not merely in one form, in just one concept of Christ, Krishna, Brahma or Allah. A person goes beyond the limitations of religious faiths, and becomes a truly religious, impersonal super-individual, and no more remains the merely individual religionist that he was earlier. The omnipresence of the Almighty thus makes itself felt also outside the form that one worships. It is here that the seeker will see a kind light flashing in front of him. Until this stage, no light will be there. The seeker will have only the suffering of concentration, and a pain sometimes felt due to the effort required. But, when he comes to the third stage, he will feel the liberation of a light from the atom of concentration, a flash that will strike like a lightning in front of his mental eye, which will look like a light before the physical eye. He will imagine that he is seeing a light with his eyes, though it is not seeing of any physical light, but an internal flash which is released on account of the concentration that he has been practising. Just as energy is released by bombarding an atom, the mind atom, when it is bombarded, releases an energy in the form of a light which is super-physical. So, here in the third stage of concentration, the seeker is in a blessed mood, feeling that one is lifted above the earth. He does not any more think that he is a man of this world. He belongs to other worlds also. And he has friends not only in this world, he has friends in other realms also. He can summon their succour if he so needs it. He will begin to see light flashing forth in the shape of various forms and everyone will be his friend. He will be able to smile before every person. He need not have to frown or close his eyes at any person in the world afterwards. He has no enemy and he will not be able to dislike anything. That would be an utter impossibility for him. Everything will be able to exude a love and an affection which he could not discover earlier in anything in this world.