Om Namo Shivaya….
Assume any comfortable posture. Relax the body part by part consciously. When I relax my body, I give up my body identification as I do in sleep. In sleep also, I don’t feel my body. In total relaxation also I don’t feel my body. I feel I am bodyless. I am out of the body. This is the sign of total relaxation.
Now observe your breathing. It is called pranavikshanam. In pranayama we regulate our breathing. In pranavikshanam, we are just aware of our breathing process. Pranavikshanam makes the breathing smooth relaxed and even. When the breathing is relaxed, mind also is relaxed. Because both are interconnected. I give a strong suggestion to the mind that I am not going to bother about anything. I don’t play any worldly roles in meditation.
We will practice a small manasa puja, offering flowers at the feet of the istha devata, God in any form we like.
Visualise the atmosphere for doing the puja. A puja room, a temple or ashram. You are also appropriately prepared to do the puja. And you are seated in front of the Lord, with a plate full of flowers in front of you. And you are ready to offer the flowers. While offering, you can repeat any particular nama connected to the Lord. And the nama is uttered while offering the flowers. And you clearly visualise flowers falling on the feet of the Lord – varieties of flowers. Just try this exercise for a few minutes – you can start now.
Now do the same puja in the puja room of your heart. First light three lamps – one of bhakti, the other of shraddha and the third of thanks. In the glow of these lamps, you become aware of the form of your ishtha devata – self-effulgent, self-revealing – suffused with golden light illuminating your heart – the light of the lamps merge in the light of the self-revealing Lord. You are ready to offer the flowers. While offering, you can repeat any particular nama connected to the Lord. And the nama is uttered while offering the flowers. And you clearly visualise flowers falling on the feet of the Lord – varieties of flowers.
Spend a few minutes in peaceful silence communing with your Ishtha devata – the Light of Consciousness, self-evident, self-revealing, Omniscient, Omnipotent, All pervading Lord who blesses you with his darshan in your heart.
Now listen quietly to what is being said :- (Swami Paramarthananda)
Imagine a brightly illumined room. Every object in the room is pervaded and illumined by the light. And therefore, I am able to experience the object. When I experience the object, I am experiencing the light also which pervades the objects. Whichever object I experience, it includes the experience of the light. Every object experienced includes the light experienced. I don’t require any special effort to experience the light. We take the light for granted. Even empty room experienced includes the light experienced because the emptiness itself is experienced because of the light. I don’t require any special effort to experience the light. I don’t require any special experience to recognize the light. I don’t require any guru to give the experience of light. All experiences include light experienced. My only problem is I take the light for granted. I don’t register the ever experienced light in my mind. A guru is required only to register this fact in my mind. The fact that light is ever experienced. effortlessly. He is required to turn our attention towards the ever experienced light. I come to know that the light pervading every object is free from the shapes of the objects. The illumined objects have different forms. But the illuminator light is formless. And being formless, it is limitless. Formless limitless light illumines the formed limited objects.
Our mind is exactly like this brightly illumined room. It is illumined by the light of conscious-ness. Every thought in the mind is pervaded by and illumined by the light of consciousness. The experience of any thought includes the experience of consciousness. In fact every thought is experienced because of consciousness.
Even the experience of an empty mind, thoughts-less mind, includes the experience of consciousness. Emptiness is experienced because of consciousness. I don’t require any special effort to experience consciousness. I don’t require any special experience to recognize consciousness. I don’t require any guru to experience consciousness. My only problem is I have taken the consciousness for granted. A guru is required only to register in the mind the ever evident fact. A guru is required to turn our attention towards the ever experienced, self-revealing consciousness.
Once our attention is turned towards the consciousness, we can know more about the nature of this consciousness. It pervades the thoughts of various forms. Itself is formless. The formless consciousness illumines all thought forms. And being formless, it is limitless. This ever evident consciousness is sakshi caitanyam. This is my essential nature. I am a sakshi caitanyam.
Thoughts arrive in the mind. I am.
Thoughts are resolved. I am. Active mind is, I am. Thoughtless mind is, I am.
Sakshi caitanyam ahamasmi. I am witness consciousness. I am witness consciousness. All features come and go. Physical features, emotional features and intellectual features - all are incidental. I use them, but they do not belong to me. My only permanent feature is formless consciousness. Nirakara caitanyam aham asmi. Formless consciouness I am. Just repeat these words and see the meaning. Formless consciousness I am.
This body-mind-sense complex I am not – I am the silent witness, awareness, cit-ananda I am the awareness, wholeness – cid ananda rupah shivoham shivoham cidananadah rupah shivoham sivoham
Mano buddhyahankara cittani naham
Na ca strotra jivhe na ca ghrana netra
Na ca vyoma bhuumi
Na tejo na vaayu
Cidaananda rupah shivoham shivoham
Cidaananda rupah shivoham shivoham