Friday, December 7, 2007

Let it be now... or it will be never

(1) When I started meditation and went to the ashram for the first time last July, my grandmother, who is nearly 70 now, told me, ' is it the age for someone to go to Ashram, do meditation etc? You are still young. You have life to see.. all these things can be done later in life.' If we look at old people, how many of them are really treading the spiritual path? How many of them really meditate everyday?

(2) I was talking about meditation and the quest for the inner Self to a relative of mine who is a highly placed professional (in his forties now). He is placed very well, earns well and well settled with family. So when I told him about meditation, his reply was, 'Hmm.. I understand all these but you know what, at this age it is very difficult. I understand your enthusiasm about it. These kind of things should be taken up early in life like in your twenties or teens or later in life. But now at this age of mine.. its very difficult. There is so much of work, managing people etc., you see? And what about my daughter! I have get her to go places, get her degrees from good universities and get her married etc.'

(3) In my University, I again keep talking about meditation, enlightenment etc. to my colleagues and peers of same age as mine, in twenties or early thirties. As soon as I talk about them, I get different kinds of responses like -
"Nah, its not my cup of tea..."
"Ya, I will think about it..."
"I am not mature enough for all these ..." (that's silly isn't it?)
"I am still thinking about my life .. may be I will think about this also ..."
Some just give me looks and go away :)

(4) We are trying to arrange a meditation program for kids in Singapore. So we often talk to parents about sending their kids for this program. As soon as we start, some parents get scared. Their immediate reply is, 'he's just a kid. Let him do stuff what kids of his age do. Why unnecessarily bother them about adult stuff.' And these kids that we are talking about are in their teens (hmm.. are they still kids??).

From these discussions, one thing is clear ...
AGE... is an easy excuse. At every point in our life we keep postponing, we keep giving excuses to do exactly what we need to do in this birth. We have time for everything and everyone except ourselves.

At every stage of life, we have an excuse for saying a NO. We give an appointment at a later date. In this process, we simple forget that we are simply forgetting ourselves till we reach our grave or funeral pyre.

A simple act like meditation can be integrated into everything that we do, while at office, while at home or outside. The problem is we see meditation as a different object from ourselves. Time and age become big issues. Each one at different stages in life believes that there is no time of meditation.

The truth is time and age are just excuses. We do everything else because we think they are adding value to our life but the truth is they are taking us away continuously from the reality, from our own selves. We are continuously being pulled away from realizing ourselves.

Mind you, spirituality or meditation not only unravels our true potential but can simply be a tool to grow in this materialistic world like job or studies or relationships or whatever.
Swami Nithyananda says, 'Why do you brush your teeth everyday? Why do you take a shower everyday? Why do you go to market every week? Why do you play everyday? You never forget to them promptly everyday because it has become a part of your lifestyle. Why should meditation be any different?'
Just think about it - at every stage of life, if we keep saying this is not the right time, then when is the right time?? Let it be now...

8 comments:

Anupsar said...

This post is thought provoking.
It is because of the conditioning in parents ( these parents were conditioned when young by their parents) that people give
priority to getting job, getting married, and try to sustain it and tell they don't have time for anything else.
90% of the parents and teachers don't know why are they here, what happens after this birth or even aware of their emotions.
Then where the kids will have interest in knowing them. All what kids are trained is to study hard to
get that dream job(again what parents want them to be) and get married ... rest of the story is untold and if someone tells them,
u will take rebirth -- thats it, he is insane :)
It is just the ignorance, people don't want to know... the rest is just words. But existence has its way for
each so doesn't mean that it is anything wrong --- Let it be -- like we had dinosaurs , and now there is humans and existance has its
plan for each and every element in it -- flow with it, let it be natural for each of us .... bud, flower and then fruit :)

Sri Nithya Arpanananda said...

Hi Anu

Yup going with the flow is fine. But all I am saying is - for the bud to flower and eventually become the fruit, we need to add water to manure and that surely is in OUR hands :)

N!
Arpanananda

Anupsar said...

existence will send rains :)
Jokes apart, I am not saying we should not meditate, we should by all means. I was just saying that being ignorant and not able to know it is ignorance will be taken care of by existence for everyone. right ?

prabhu.i.am said...

Nithyanandam Anupsar...

You tend to say, Ignorance is bliss, and let existence show the way!

Surely, existence will show the way, but its gonna be the hard way! Better to learn scratch-free!

Anonymous said...

i really don't feel that there is a time which we have to take off for meditation...i dunno what it is for all those people who have given excuses but for me meditating is everything that i do ... it be my work my responsibilities my relations...MAY BE even those people specified above meditate every second doing what they want and just that they still did not recognize their meditating ability..."Theres a time for everything" don't take it literally...it just means that the frequency of nature's energy and an individual's energy has to flow in a perfect SHRUTI and then the energy will tell him WHAT HE IS AND WHY HE IS HERE...

prabhu.i.am said...

Dear Anonymous...
May be you are unique. If you meditate while doing your usual routine, you are really blessed! Please continue meditating...

For those who aren't aware* that they can meditate (or are currently meditating) while doing their daily chores, then for them, it's better to set some time, say half an hour, to consciously meditate. Once your awareness increases, you will know how to meditate even outside of this stipulated half an hour.

*NOTE: If you aren't aware that you might be meditating during your other activities, then it means you aren't. Meditation is when there is awareness.

In Nithyananda...

Anonymous said...

hi prabhu

i m jo..yes i do agree that meditation is wen there is awareness...let me make my previous comment more clear.."may be they still have to recognize"..i meant that they are actually in that level of energy.. just that they have a different name for it other than Meditation....after all that word 'meditation' or any other form of it in any other language was created by us only!!!! i believe that everyone who does watever wholeheartedly is actually meditating..just that they have their own name for that feeling...i call it ENERGY..

Anonymous said...

Hi Jo

I totally agree with one of your statement (I am sure Prabhu also does) that "everyone who does watever wholeheartedly is actually meditating". True and that is the whole concept of meditating throughout the day.

But as Prabhu rightly put, there are handful of people who are actually in that state. Most often than not, our mind is not still. It starts moving back and forth trying to evaluate what we are doing. It either goes into the future, thinking about the result or it goes into the past searching for what went wrong or right previously. That is when we have slipped out of meditation or whatever word you want to call it.

Meditation is nothing but "being aware of what you are doing and being in the present moment" and if you are able to do it while you are at work, then good.

Also remember, when you consciously are aware of everything you do, you go inward. The two happen together. Only when you are completely within yourself, at your core can you be meditating when you work etc. Else we are only fooling ourselves to be.

Normally, at work or whatever one does, our energies are concentrated towards external work. Isn't it? Our intellectual mind is still working on the external work. And however much we would like to call that meditation, where the mind operates, meditation NEVER happens.

So, setting aside half an hour for meditation just helps you to give an appointment for your SELF what you called as individual energy in your comment. You cannot touch your the core of your individual energy as long as your intellect falls in the way, as long as your mind exists. Your mind has to drop and that is possible by looking into yourself and meditation does help in that way.

In Nithyananda
Arpanananda