Q. Is the goal
of meditation to gain chitta shuddhi and chitta naichalyam? Is purity of mind necessary for gaining
enlightenment? Is meditation for the sake of gaining adhikaritvam for studying Vedanta?
A. Chitta here means mind – it has other meanings in different contexts. Chitta
Shuddhi is purity of mind. Is purity of mind necessary for gaining
enlightenment? Absolutely.
Why? First of all, we have to understand what do we mean by
purity of mind? What is a mental impurity? That we can define very clearly.
Mental impurities are emotions like hate, anger, frustration, sadness,
depression, those are mental impurities. And if your mind is full of such
mental impurities, you're not likely to make much progress in your spiritual
practice in general. So chitta shuddhi then is the removal of those mental
impurities like anger and hurt.
So the goal of
meditation here is chitta Shuddhi - purity of mind and secondly chitta naishchalyam
– naishchalyam means steadiness, the ability to focus your mind, the ability to
concentrate your mind with one-pointed attention. This is absolutely a
requirement and again any dedicated practitioner of meditation can definitely
gain chitta Shuddhi- purity of mind and chitta naishchalamyam - that ability to
concentrate and have a one-pointed mind.
Does meditation help you gain preparedness for the study of Vedanta?
Absolutely.
