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Benefits of Rajyoga
The benefits of meditation are enormous. It calms our mind and body. In these fast and frenetic times, it has the most important ability to replenish mental and emotional energy.
Meditation enables you to create new attitudes and responses to life, giving you a clear spiritual understanding of yourself.
Meditation is the process of re-discovering, enjoying and using the positive qualities latent within you. Like any skill, meditation requires practice to achieve positive and satisfying results. By doing a little every day, it soon becomes a natural and easy habit, which generously rewards you for the little effort it involves.
What Does Meditation Do?
Meditation energizes your awareness bringing both peace and wisdom to a busy mind. It expands your capacity to love and heals broken hearts. Also it dissolves many fears replacing them with lightness and freedom from anxiety.
Meditation is both the journey and the destination, revealing the secrets of consciousness and the treasures of the soul. It develops the power to be more alert and to be effective in our interaction with each other and with our precious world. But perhaps the greatest gift that comes with meditation is the glow of inner peace that is both gentle and strong.
The practice of Raja Yoga meditation or intellectual communion with God brings into the soul many powers. Of these, eight are very important. Please refer to the adjoining diagram.
The Power To Pack-Up
With the ability to go within, one can learn how to pack up all wasteful thinking in a second, so that there is lightness and freedom from burdens and worries, though there may be many responsibilities. One’s mind is scattered over the wide world and so much drawn out to men and matters that he is unable to sleep or to detach himself at his will. With the practice of meditation, one can wind up one’s thoughts at one’s own will.
Power To Tolerate
Just as trees offer the same fruits to people whether they gently pluck the fruits or pelt stones at them, a yogi tolerates all attacks on him and does good even to those who offer brickbats at him. In the light frame of mind, one will be able to tolerate all types of situations and people to the extent that there is no sense at all of having to tolerate something or someone. With the understanding that each one is simply playing their role in this immense world-drama, impatience, irritation and annoyance disappear like mists before a bright sunlight.
The Power To Accommodate
Just as the ocean accepts different rivers that flow into it, whether polluted or clean, one will be able to adjust to all that is happening around him, so will a yogi be able to accommodate others with him. It power makes one broadminded. One will be able to adjust into all the happenings around him. Even when the atmosphere is charged with negativity or impurity, one remains unaffected.
The Power Of Judgment
One will learn to take correct and quick decisions. One will get the ability to accurately assess any situation with clarity and confidence. In a detached, impartial state of mind, one can judge one’s own thoughts, words and actions to see if they are beneficial. One will become a judge of the self and not of others.
The Power Of Discrimination
Just as an expert jeweler can easily distinguish between the false and the pure diamonds (or gems), one will acquire the power to distinguish between right and wrong or good and bad. One can accurately discriminate between real truth and the apparent truth, between things of temporary value and those of eternal value and between superficial and the subtle. The power helps in recognizing illusions even when they are sweetly decorated and enticing.
The Power To Face
Meditation develops the power to endure hardships. Adversities like death of those on whom one depends may come and high storms may rage strongly, yet his flame of equanimity does not get extinguished. Having confidence in one’s spiritual state brings the courage to face any type of situation.
The Power To Co-Operate
The natural result of all the powers is that I am able to share with others the tasks and qualities that my Father has given to me. There is no feeling of competition, so I can give as well as accept suggestion as to how to proceed with the task of world upliftment. By learning meditation, one will develop the spirit of co-operation. This is a great achievement because if everyone gives his little finger, the society could lift great mountains.
The Power to Withdraw
With full awareness that I (soul) am is an entity different from the body, one can withdraw from the senses and become a point. In the same way that a tortoise retreats into its shell in a moment of danger, or just to rest, a person would be able to retract himself from any situation and remain protected.
A Spiritual Lifestyle
What supports the practice of meditation but does not require leaving home, career and family?
A Spiritual Lifestyle
The journey awakens within,
when the songs of remembrance begin,
the child of the Father is lost in the Ocean of Love.
Holding the hand of the Guide,
through the path of confusion inside,
tears become pearls in the silence and passing of time.
The song of remembrance is sung in unlimited rhyme,
the song of remembrance is sung in unlimited rhyme,
Dance away, to the beautiful music you wanted to play,
dance away, in your heart, in your heart.What is a Spiritual Lifestyle?
Regular daily meditation is the way to build and strengthen your spiritual awareness, experience the natural positive qualities of the soul and achieve freedom from fear. This process is greatly enhanced when your outer lifestyle complements and assists in your spiritual growth. Regular observance of four spiritual pillars, a vegetarian diet, and a balanced routine that incorporates physical and mental relaxation are the elements that comprise a spiritual lifestyle.
Four Spiritual Pillars
A spiritually fulfilling life is based on a foundation of four pillars:
• Daily practice of meditation/yoga
• Regular spiritual study
• Spiritual relationships and fulfilling responsibilities
• The service of humanityDaily Meditation Practice
Daily meditation/yoga provides the means to explore, discover and reconnect with one's self and with God.
Regular Spiritual Study
Regular, daily spiritual study provides the right quality food for mind and intellect, the two key faculties of the soul.
Spiritual Relationships & Responsibilities
Through the experience of soul-consciousness others are recognized as spiritual beings and a feeling of brotherhood grows. By transcending the divisions of color, sex and religion, relationships become more smooth and rewarding. The exchange of respect and spiritual love becomes the basis of interaction. The decision to deal with others’ good qualities means there is no longer the give and take of sorrow, rather an emphasis on acceptance and tolerance.
Spirituality is not an escape from life’s responsibilities. You have a responsibility to your immediate relationships—family, colleagues and friends—and it is in those relationships that your ability to apply what you are learning spiritually will also be tested and strengthened.
Spiritual Service
Finding an appropriate way to use your growing spiritual power and understanding for the benefit of others in the wider community is also a method of sustaining your personal growth. Spiritual service occurs on many levels, including spreading peaceful vibrations into the atmosphere and helping others develop awareness of their own spiritual qualities through good wishes and pure feelings.
Vegetarian Diet
In respecting and caring for our bodies, diet needs deep consideration. A vegetarian diet is especially beneficial in developing the clarity, concentration and subtle focus which spiritual development requires.
With an understanding of the power and quality of thoughts and vibrations, we also give attention to the quality of our consciousness as we prepare and eat our food.
Physical & Mental Relaxation
Providing rest and relaxation for the body is as important as it is for the mind. The body will not relax if the mind is not relaxed; however even when the body is injured or ill, it is still possible for the mind to relax. Meditation is an important self-healing component when one is recovering from physical illness.
The timing and extent of physical relaxation activities depends on your personal metabolism as well as your professional and family responsibilities. However it has long been recognized that the most effective time in the daily cycle for meditation and spiritual development is in the early morning, before the routine activities of the day begin. Taking time each morning to meditate, study and understand spiritual principles and values provides both mental and spiritual nourishment for the day to come.