OFFER EVERYTHING TO GOD
(Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda)
We have been sitting here for the past half hour in silent meditation. There has been no guidance for this meditation. As far as I know, neither Gurudev nor Pujya Swami Chida- nandaji—both of whom deeply believed in the necessity of meditation—ever offered guided meditation. Perhaps they wanted us to find our guidance from within.
Many of us, of course, are not satisfied with our meditation. Our mind doesn’t behave the way we think it should. Some of us struggle with our mind. Others, however, just let it be and watch it do what it wants to do. Some have the experience of something else taking over their mind, and their meditation then takes on an entirely different quality. For others, the mind goes quiet; it is as if there is nothing there except silence and a deep peace. Others will have insights, some, visions. Everyone’s experience is different; it is their own individual experience.
Is there any experience that is preferable? This each one has to decide for themselves, but there is one thing that we can all do if we want to follow instructions from Gurudev and Pujya Swami Chidanandaji. No matter what our experience has been in meditation, we can depersonalise it by offering it to God.
In other words, from a certain point of view, it doesn’t matter what our experience has been during the meditation period; what matters is who we think the meditator is. If we are convinced that it is we, the ego, that is meditating, then no matter how quiet our mind, how glorious the experience, we are missing the whole point. On the other hand, if we have a very restless meditation period, totally unsatisfying for the mind, but then we recognize that it all belongs to God—because He alone is—then our meditation has been a success.
Finally, the only purpose of our spiritual practices and our spiritual life is to recognize the oneness of all things and that we are an essential part of that oneness, not separate from it in any way. We become the oneness that we really are. Whatever separation we feel now is simply a creation of our mind, and it is that false creation that is meant to be undermined by our meditation period.
Sometimes the meditation itself will undermine that false identification. But whether it does or not, if we offer the meditation to God, especially if we offer it with understanding—the understanding that everything belongs to God because He alone is—then our meditation period has served its purpose.
* * *
