Most of us if not everybody are not conscious of the need to regulate our minds until life knocks on our heads hard. We get on in life with the default state of mind that we somehow got from birth. But Life teaches us the need to regulate or discipline our minds at some stage of life. We are lucky if that stage arrives at an early stage of our life. However the effect of the current upheavals that the world is undergoing like never before in the history of mankind is somehow making the humans introspective and turn inwards to search for answers to the existential questions such as “Why am I born?”; “What is the purpose of human life?”; “Who am I”; “Why there is so much suffering around?” “How to be happy under all circumstances?”etc. Our Science and technological advancements have no answers and the questions stare at us day in and day out more intensely than ever before perhaps. Scientists today are engaged in the research on Consciousness like never before; and it is no surprise that there is more inclination towards Meditation, Yoga and the Evolution of Consciousness today.
Fortunately, it is better late than never that we are trying
to be more aware of our inner Self, Mind and Consciousness. Our Rishis of yore
and Spiritual Giants born in this country discovered innovative ways of
discovering our Selves. Heartfulness System of Meditation is one such effective
systems prevailing in India 100 years old tradition. Regulating Mind is the
most important ingredient in the process of Evolution of Consciousness.
Mind is a critical component of Consciousness and the main
cause of one’s fall if it is not regulated and also becomes the cause for our
emancipation if regulated. The words Mind and Consciousness will be used
interchangeably in this context. Consciousness technically has four main
components: The Mind, Intellect, Ego and Consciousness called Manas, Buddhi,
Ahankar and Chit in Sanskrit language. In the present context
regulation of Mind includes all other components also. All these are invisible
entities/faculties inside our human system.
The question comes how to handle these invisible faculties
that are responsible for our life. If one observes keenly, the life of a human
being revolves around these four things. And they are polluted by our fears,
worries, negativity and impurities such as Desire, Anger, Jealousy,
Miserliness, Pride/Arrogance, hatred etc. These impurities create complexities
that our mind is stuck with. Complexities are complicated thought patterns
created due to the impurities that we have accumulated over a period of time.
Now the job is to restore the original purity of these faculties and NOT to
reject them. The whole attitude should be to NOT to treat Manas, Buddhi,
Ahankar as enemies but befriend them and put them to right use for our
evolution.
The Heartfulness practices were received from above by the
Great Rishi Shri Ram Chandra (of
Shajahanpur, UP, India) of 20th century when he was in the highest
Yogic State of Consciousness. They are very simple practices designed to suit
the needs of the busy modern man. They can be easily integrated into our modern
day life. In fact one of the cardinal teaching says, one should balance the
material and spiritual aspects of life for the successful flight of the soul to
soar high; and one should not ignore one for the other.
What is Heartfulness at the outset? Heartfulness is
all about heart essentially; the centre of our Consciousness; a place where we
experience everything; the seat of the Divine; where one experiences Feelings
and Inspirations; the compass of our life; the source of inner guidance, the
Conscience; and so many other things that we would discover as we tread the
path.
The Simple Heartfulness Practices include Relaxation
of body and mind (that relaxes and prepares one for Meditation); Meditation
in the morning; Cleaning Process in the evening; and Prayer as a
Yogic process at night just before going to bed.
What makes Heartfulness stand apart from other prevailing
practices is Transmission of divine energy or Pranahuti in
Sanskrit and the yogic process of Cleaning. Transmission is a subtler
than the subtlest energy prevailing in Nature; a vibration less vibration that
has the power of transforming a human being at the fundamental level that
percolates to the surface as we progress. The Yogic process of Cleaning is
something that removes the past impressions that includes negativity; also
removes the heavy emotional baggage associated with the impressions thus making
us feel lighter and lighter. Anybody with a brief practice with an open mind
can experience the effects of Transmission and Cleaning.
The Relaxation process removes the stress accumulated at
various parts of the human body, relaxes the mind to an extent and makes the
practicants ready for Meditation. The purpose of Meditation is to regulate or
discipline the Mind; The purpose of Cleaning is to get rid of the past and
negativity and also to deepen the Meditations; The practice of Prayer on a
daily basis helps one to get rid of guilt feelings that causes heaviness in the
heart and also helps one to develop selflessness, humility, an attitude of
surrender to the Lord.
As cited above, the Mind, Intellect, Ego and Consciousness
are the invisible entities/faculties whose state defines the life of a human
being. They are also called the Subtle Bodies, or the Sookshma Sharir
in Sanskrit. The idea of any Yogic and Spiritual system is to restore the
purity and simplicity of these faculties that are corrupted by complexities and
impurities also called Karma, Vasanas, Samskaras in Sanskrit created by
our wrong thinking and actions. In other words all the subtle bodies are
stressed out and Yoga is the process of de-stressing everything about the human
system at all levels.
Normal interactions with the external world done with “I”
consciousness forms impressions on the heart and gradually solidify into
tendencies or Samskaras which in turn would settle on these subtle bodies and
misdirect/misrule the subtle bodies that effect human life in total. These
impressions/samskaras can be removed by the Heartfulness Yogic process of
Cleaning. Deeper impressions can also be cleaned with intense Cleaning
procedures. Anybody with a brief practice can experience the lightness or the
buoyancy that is experienced at the end of the Cleaning session; and a sense of
simplicity and purity starts prevailing. This Yogic process removes the hold of
the past on us and allows to approach life with freshness and thus one can
avoid developing Prejudice the greatest evil in human being that arrests our growth.
This practice also improves one’s will-power and self-confidence.
Meditation according to Heartfulness is continuously
thinking about the source of divine light present already in the heart of the
human being. Thought is supposed to be highest thing or kingly thing in the
human system. We use the thought power in this Heartfulness Yoga to restore the
Purity and Simplicity in us. As we meditate, the thought evolves/matures
into feeling; that is we start with the thought of “the source of divine
light in the heart” and as we hold onto this thought for some time we start
feeling the Presence of this Source of Divine light. Over a period of time one
starts to almost get rid of thoughts and attains an almost thoughtless
situation (it is important to remember that this is not the goal of
meditation). After every Meditation one feels a state of Peace and also there
is a shift in consciousness. Meditation facilitates the expansion of
consciousness to soar higher into the sky of Super Consciousness and also dive
deep into the sea of Sub-Consciousness. A peaceful heart performs at its peak
in every endeavour. Expansion of Consciousness helps one to become more
accommodative, more tolerant, accept the challenges in the right spirit and
thus solve effectively.
And the Prayer is something that connects us with our
innermost Self, the real Self, the higher Self, the Lord. And it is practiced
at the end of the day just before going to bed; that is the last activity of
the day. There is a four-line prayer prescribed the Heartfulness System which
when repeated mentally twice or thrice with an attitude of humility, love and
devotion and meditate on the meaning of the prayer, creates a vacuum or
emptiness in the heart, that would instantly connect to the higher Self and one
starts receiving the transmission from the Source indicating the connectivity.
The practice of this prayer on a daily basis over a period of time changes the
inner environment into prayerful state always attracting the Grace of the Lord.
The qualities that one develops through this are humility, selflessness, an
attitude of surrender, love, patience, empathy etc.
In the final analysis, the Mind whose function is to think
and the breeding ground of thoughts becomes full of divine thoughts, the most
refined thoughts; Intellect evolves into Intuition and then into Wisdom; Ego
transforms or gets refined into Humility or Love. And the Consciousness evolves
into a Divine Consciousness. And this is termed as the Evolution of
Consciousness to the highest.
The practice of all the above practices on a daily basis develops
a meditative state in one’s self and acts as an armour that protects us from
forming fresh samskaras or impressions. This meditative state is also called
Constant Remembrance that finally matures into Love Divine, the unconditional
Love and finally ends up in attaining the state of the highest human perfection
that is open to any human being.
Thank you.
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