When a yogi again and again fights his restlessness and distractions, and with ever-increasing intensity tries to feel divine communion in meditation, he will form a good habit of calm interiorization. In time this habit will displace the mortal habit of restive sensory bondage and will lead ultimately to realization of Divinity.

Though I was born with the blessed perception of Spirit, once in a while during my youth, my mind became very restless when I was engaged in the practice of yoga meditation. During some of these periodic attacks, I would visualize myself as playing football—a game I very much enjoyed, and at which I was adept. At first it seemed that my habit of mentally playing football could not be erased. Nevertheless, I tried persistently to make my meditations longer and more intense, endeavoring to make each day’s realizations deeper than the spiritual perceptions of the previous day. In this way I became accustomed to remaining continuously in soul joy. The formation of this habit led to the experience of ecstatic bliss in omnipresent Spirit.

“If, again, thou art not able to practice continuous yoga, be thou diligent in performing actions in the thought of Me. Even by engaging in activities on My behalf thou shalt attain supreme divine success.”

If a devotee falters in yoga practice, being habitually restless and materially active, then with devotion and faith in God, he should support his meditations by increasing efforts to perform in God’s name all physical, mental, and spiritual actions. His meditative activities and the outer work of physically, mentally, and spiritually helping others should be motivated by the sole desire to please God. In time he will feel the presence of Him who is ever conscious of the struggling devotee’s efforts.

The Bible tells us: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” By performance of right actions with faith in the Lord, a devotee will ultimately find, through perceptible response from Him, proof of His unseen presence.

Even if the seeker is discouraged by lack of tangible results, with blind conviction he should keep on with his meditations and serviceful actions, out of awe and love for God. One who slackens or discontinues his efforts will find that his mind returns quickly to the sphere of matter, its habitual resting place. But the devotee who perseveres with unabated zeal, desiring to please God, will ultimately find Him.

The cure for restlessness is continuous effort to be peaceful regardless of success or failure. Strong, die-hard restive habits at last are destroyed by the gradual strengthening of the good habit of practicing interiorized calmness in meditation.

I knew two extremely ignorant students, in my high school days in Calcutta. Owing to their inability to grasp the class lessons, they were subjected to daily chastisement from the teachers. One of the students “couldn’t take it”: he quit school and remained uneducated. The other boy, no matter what insults he suffered, kept on trying. Everybody was astounded when at the end of the year he passed creditably his final examinations.

Similarly, the Bhagavad Gita here advises even the most restless devotee—one who lacks a karmic predisposition that facilitates yoga practice—to meditate persistently anyway, out of love for God and a desire to please Him, for by that continuous spiritual activity he will ultimately succeed in God-realization.

“If thou art not able to do even this, then, remaining attached to Me as thy Shelter, relinquish the fruits of all actions while continuing to strive for Self-mastery.”

If a devotee, owing to materialistic tendencies and mental perversity, is unable to perform material and meditative actions in the thought of God just to please Him, he should cling to the Lord with faith, seeking refuge in His unconditional love, and perform all actions without concentrating on their fruits. Such relinquishment means renouncing preconceived expectations and trusting in the Lord’s compassion and grace to so order the outcome of one’s endeavors that they will conduce to the devotee’s ultimate highest good.

Just by cultivating a simple faith in God—even a blind faith in the beginning will do—and by trying unselfishly to perform good deeds and meditative actions without focusing on their results, that devotee in time will grow in spirituality; his mind and heart will become purified. A mind freed from the likes and dislikes that are born of the results of selfish activities is able to manifest soul qualities.

When a restless person, for example, assiduously performs scientific meditation techniques without a preconditioned expectation of results, he meditates better; he will not be disturbed and distracted by any frustrated craving for rewards. The spiritual novice, used to the entertainment of the senses, often expects similar experiences from his meditative efforts. His mind is long conditioned to considering as stupendous and desirable anything dazzling to sight, sound, or sensory feeling. But in the highest thought-realms of divine consciousness, spiritual experiences are very subtle—and therefore sometimes pass unrecognized by the devotee expecting dramatic manifestations. The greater the subtlety of one’s spiritual experience, the greater its relative physical and spiritual effect. Phenomena are the manifestations of the Noumenon, or God. The former are cognized by the sensory faculties (physical or astral) and the latter by soul intuition. In the words of my guru, Sri Yukteswarji: “To know God, don’t expect anything. Just launch yourself with faith into His blissful Presence within.”

Thus, even without the singularity of desire to please God, the devotee will ultimately find Him if he remains sheltered in the Lord by thinking about Him during all good activities, and by fully surrendering to Him the outcome of all actions and all happenings in his life. Here the devotee might wonder: “How can I think of God and surrender to Him without knowing Him?” That is the value of scientific yogic techniques of meditation. The devotee has a specific concept on which to concentrate that leads to the experience of God, and a proven method for making that concentration effective. For example, if the seeker, in spite of extreme restlessness, continues to practice the Self-Realization Fellowship technique of meditation on God as Aum, he will eventually hear the cosmic sound, the Word or Amen, the vibratory presence of God as the Holy Ghost. As he keeps on listening to the cosmic sound with devotion, and without restless eagerness for results, in time he will feel a blissful expansion of consciousness in the omnipresence of Aum; and behind the sacred vibration he will come to know the blessed Spirit.

Just as a person who uses the right methods to squeeze olives or grind mustard seeds will be able to extract the hidden oil, so the devotee to whom God is not perceptible in the beginning will find Him by the “pressure” of loyal devotion and the unselfish performance of good actions, material and meditative. Some day the merciful Omniscience, feeling the constancy of the devotee’s goodness, will flow into and permeate every fiber of his being.

Previous Page

Please note: Copyright © Self-Realization Fellowship. All rights reserved. Except for your own personal use, or for brief quotations in reviews, no part of this page may be reproduced or transmitted without permission in writing from Self-Realization Fellowship.