7 Hour Public Meditation

The purpose is nothing but a self-dedicated service. I am executing an inner command of my Inner Pilot. He wants me to offer a seven-hour meditation to the aspiring public, and He feels that there will be some people who will derive considerable spiritual benefit from this seven-hour meditation. There are two specific reasons why I wish to hold the meditation early in the morning.

In the morning, nature is quiet or mind is quiet to some extent. Before we enter into the hustle and bustle of life, we should meditate. Meditation is the most important thing we feel in our life.

So the thing that is most important should be given first and foremost importance. This is one reason. Now there is another reason which far transcends this reason. Who comes first in our life? Any human being? No. Any part of our existence? No. Anything that we see or anyone that is within and without, cannot be our dearest friend on earth; cannot be our eternal friend, either on earth or in heaven.

It is God who is our eternal Friend, both in Heaven and on earth. So here, when we aspire or we meditate or we pray, we must feel that God has to come first at every moment. No matter which field you are in, God has to come first. So first thing first, if you consider God to be our eternal Friend, then we must give utmost importance to God. And it is He who has to be invoked, who has to be invoked before anybody else or anything else, just because he is everything to us. We have to invoke him early in the morning before we enter into Earth consciousness.

Before they enter into the meditation hall, if the seekers can have a pure heart, then they will be able to receive much light and delight. If they can do that, then they will receive peace, light and bliss in abundant measure. I ask them to keep their eyes open, precisely because quite often when they keep their eyes closed, they make friends with sleep instead of making friends with alertness and conscious awareness of the entire being. And also it has been advocated by some of the greatest spiritual Masters.

The principle that I am offering to my students, when you keep your eyes a little open, not half open, then you get the opportunity to have mastery over the physical world. And also you have some capacity to have free access to the inner world. If you keep your eyes wide open, then you strain your eyes, then your concentration and meditation will be of no avail. And again, if you keep your eyes all closed, then there is every possibility that you may fall asleep. So it is advisable for a seeker to keep the eyes a little open, and concentrate and meditate with the inner determination that he has to acquire. If he has not already acquired considerable mastery over the physical pain with the outer world, and at the same time, he has to establish a free access to the inner world.

This type of meditation is called the lion meditation. If they meditate with me, then I shall be grateful to them. If they give me the utmost opportunity to be of service to them. Soulfully, devotedly and unreservedly. What I expect of them is a receptive heart, and what they can expect of me is a heart of concern and a soul of love, to have an open heart.

And then if they can feel that we are walking along a road, we are all together walking along a road and I happen to be a friend of theirs, at least for one day. Then let them see what this friend of theirs can offer to them. Only I need an open heart, irrespective of religion, to join me while I am walking along the road of infinite peace, light and bliss.

What I do is very simple. I enter into my highest consciousness first, and then I bring down peace, light and bliss in boundless measure, and I start offering to the seekers’ souls. The seekers’ souls are not all of the same standard. Some are advanced, while others are not. So according to their receptivity, they receive peace, light and peace.

My highest consciousness far transcends my trance. Trance is not and cannot be the highest Reality, the highest Reality. The Transcendental Reality far transcends the so-called trance. There are two types of trances we come to hear. One is savikalpa, the other one is called Nirvikalpa samadhi. In the savikalpa there are thought waves, but the seeker or the Master is not affected by the thought waves. In the Nirvikalpa samadhi, there is no thought, no nature, no nature’s dance. This samadhi far transcends the hustle and bustle of the world; the sound life, it transcends. Then there is another type which is not usually connected with the first two. That one is called Sahaja samadhi, which is spontaneous. The seeker or the Master can be in a tornado of activities, but in the inner world he maintains a Pacific ocean of peace.

Now, again, the highest Absolute Transcendental Reality can surpass this spontaneous trance. Not only can, but it always does. So when I meditate in a public meeting, it is not that all the time I remain in trance. Here in the West and also in India, some people feel that when we enter into trance it is everything, that is the highest goal. Trance stage is comparatively very, very low. Highest reality, the ultimate Transcendental Reality far surpasses the trance reality. Trance reality is a high branch of the reality tree. But the Transcendental Reality we can say the topmost bough, the branch of the reality tree. So when I meditate, I do enter into trance, my own highest, my spontaneous trance. But again, quite a few times I do go far beyond the trance reality itself in order to bring down Light, Peace, Delight and other divine qualities, to feed the sincere seekers. And the sincere seekers, as I said before, receive these divine qualities or realities according to their capacity of receptivity.

When I bring this, these divine qualities, I grow into a lotus. And then I establish my oneness with the seekers who are in front of me, around me. Then I make their souls feel that they are all, each individual is a petal of the lotus that I have become. So now each petal takes time for its full blossoming. Now some petals have a quicker growth, while others are not. So, according to the inner capacity of the petals themselves, I unfold my lotus consciousness.

– Sri Chinmoy (unofficial transcript)