I pray to the divinity in you. Do you understand why we bring our hands together in the gesture called praying hands? What do you mean by praying hands? Two hands meet, jiva meets Brahman. Your prayer should be so intense that you become One, you are lost in Brahman consciousness. So, greeting others thus, means that I pray to the Brahman in you. It’s not a gesture meant for any human being. It’s a gesture for the Brahman that you see, you recognize, realize in others. When you start doing this, then you cannot fight with anyone, you cannot hate anyone, you cannot despise anyone, you cannot injure, hurt or kill anyone. That’s what it means.
Even after having rest in the blissful state of deep sleep, a human being wakes up, comes out. Why does he come out? He wants to experience the joy that he had in deep sleep. It means that the joy experienced through our senses is better than that experienced in any other way in the external world. So, this external world experience is not invalid. We want to have all our experiences here. I want to see God with my own two eyes. If God exists somewhere, I want to see him. If God exists somewhere, I want to smell him. If God exists somewhere, I want to touch him. This is the human tendency. So, the Upanishads say, experiencing is not limited to the waking, dream and deep sleep states; there is a state beyond the three states which is called Turiya, the highest, where there is no sadness, where there is no pain. Of course, sadness and pain disappear when you are in deep sleep. Who is your son, who is your father, who is your beloved, who is your lover? In deep sleep, you forget all that. It means that in this state you have to experience aloneness. You are all alone there. You cannot say to your wife, “Let’s both go consciously into deep sleep and be aware when we are sleeping.” No, you become aware only when you are awake. That sleep experience is your personal experience. Your dream is your personal dream; it is not your wife’s dream or your child’s dream. Your sleep is your personal sleep. You go to a personal chamber, but it is not a universal experience. It lacks universality, because we are all not there.
Now we want a joy which is experienced by the whole universe. Truth is that truth which encompasses the whole universe, which is beneficial universally, which is a universal truth. A personal truth, an individual truth is not considered to be totally valid. The joy which you experience in deep sleep is higher than the joy of the waking and dream states. But the yogis say that there is a state beyond, in which the joy we experience is higher than that of the three other states. It is a permanent joy unlike the fleeting, temporary joy of the other states. The yogis say that when you go to the highest state you will experience the whole universe; when you attain that summit, that peak, you will see everything from there, all around, above and below. Turiya is that final state the yogis strive to attain in order to achieve complete bliss, in order to fulfill their one single ambition, that of attaining Absolute Truth.
At present, your now is not now, it’s your past or your future. Your mind always goes to the grooves of the past, or sometimes tries to fathom the future through your imagination. If you learn how to keep your mind here and now, the future can be called into the now, because during that time, your mental capacity, your mental horizon expands. That is possible.
Meditation should not be colored with cultural or religious values. There is nothing like Hindu meditation, Christian meditation or Buddhist meditation. Meditation is meditation. It’s a method of going to the center of consciousness from where consciousness flows on various degrees and grades. How to make the body still, so that during that time your muscles take complete rest? How to breathe properly, in a harmonious way so that body and breath coordinate perfectly and your nervous system gets perfect rest? How to lead your mind to a state of equilibrium even for a few minutes, so that your brain and thinking process remain at rest? This way you can lead a healthy life in a comprehensive way, holistically, this is my point. We will consider this systematic approach. When you sit for meditation, suppose you receive a hunch. And then you expect to receive it again the next day, but you don’t, and you wonder, “Yesterday I received a hunch that came true, but today I am not receiving such hunches. What’s the matter?” Perhaps when you received that hunch, your mind was calm; perhaps you were in a state of tranquility, prepared to receive that knowledge which is already in the infinite library within you. Today you are not in that situation. But if you systematically practice, you can receive every day that knowledge which does not flow through the mind but flows through inner vision. There is a method of meditation for that. Well, there is only one thing that I cannot do for you, and that’s called meditation. You will have to do meditation for yourself. I can cook for you, I can wash your bottom, I can change your diapers, I can clean your room, I can do your laundry, but I cannot meditate for you. You will have to meditate for yourself. As the Buddha said, “Ye, light thy own lamp. Nobody will give you salvation.” You are an individual, you do your individual karmas, you have your individual mind, you have individual thinking, you have individual emotions, you know yourself best and only you can know yourself. You have to establish a state of equilibrium and tranquility which gives you peace.
Reprinted from “Om the Eternal Witness” by Swami Rama