How To Meditate

Pulkit Sharma shares some practices to help you meditate better, and urges you to creatively design and modify your meditation routine to realise your unique aspiration.

A few years ago, a spiritual master reluctantly approached me for psychotherapy. He was serving as the head of a yoga sect and had been meditating for over four decades. He shared that he had made great spiritual progress by the standards of his yoga system and for the last 10 years, had been initiating and guiding other aspirants. However, he candidly admitted that some perverse thoughts continued to bother him, and at times it became difficult for him to distract himself from those thoughts. As a result, he was deeply disturbed and wondered whether his spiritual growth was just a farce. Although the spiritual master had an intense desire to evolve spiritually, one may wonder where he went wrong. If we look around, there are many people like him who completely devote their lives to meditation in the hope that it will automatically uplift them into a transcendental consciousness, but perfection eludes them. Then what is the way out?

Correct guidance is extremely relevant, especially in today’s times, when new schools of yoga are sprouting up in every nook and corner, each claiming their meditation technique to be the best. Though this boom in spiritual sects has given seekers many options, it has also confused them. Spiritual aspirants wonder which technique of meditation is the best. They often come up with queries like how should one sit, should one focus on an object or just let the mind wander and observe whatever comes up, is there a mantra that, when repeated, bestows spiritual powers, how long in a day should one devote to meditation, and what are the indicators that one is making progress? When faced with a similar dilemma, a careful reading of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother’s writings helped me dispel the illusion around meditation, giving me clarity on what meditation really is and how one must practice it. While everyone is different and needs to find their own way, I found the following practices quite helpful.