Value: Meditation - November 2025
Third Week: Focus in Meditation
We all know how to focus. For instance, when reading a book, our attention is on the words, their meanings, and our understanding of the subject. When driving a car, we focus on the road and the traffic around us. Is the focus the same in meditation?
In meditation, focus is essential, but it should not be directed toward anything familiar to the mind. The goal is to reach the deeper layers of the mind—its underlying essence, where thought flows originate. This is akin to observing the riverbed through the flowing water.
External support
Traditionally, the worship known as upasana of your favorite deity should conclude with meditation. After invoking the presence of Bhagavan in an idol, you should focus exclusively on Him. The external form serves as a support to remove your attention from all other thoughts and to maintain your concentration on the divinity that the deity represents.
Gently chanting the name of Bhagavan, in a way that you can hear it while gazing at the form, will help calm your mind. This is neither the loud chanting of Vedic mantras and stotrams nor the repetition of names with a japa mala. It is simply a soft whisper to help you maintain mental stillness.
After a few weeks of practice, you will be able to visualize the form of Bhagavan in your mind with your eyes closed, while continuing to whisper the name or chant silently within your mind.
Internal support
The inner stillness that is gained from the above practice should be followed by abidance in the higher Self and not just remain as emptiness. For this, you can choose verses from the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita or other texts to meditate on. Essentially, these are used to assert the nature of the Self and negate the false notions of oneself, popularly known as anvaya and vyatireka, respectively.
Through this practice, you begin to affirm and abide in the eternal presence, and simultaneously recognize the false nature of the ego and discard what you have been living and identifying with for many lifetimes.
A verse from Mundakopanishad:
यत्तद्-अद्रेश्यम्-अग्राह्यम्-अगोत्रम्-अवर्णम् -अचक्षुश्रोत्रं तद्-अपाणिपादम् |
नित्यं विभुं सर्वगतं सुसूक्ष्मं तद्-अव्ययं यद्-भुतयोनिं परिपश्यन्ति धीराः || १.१.६
The men of wisdom know the Self to be everywhere, which cannot be perceived by the senses, cannot be grasped, having no roots and qualities, having no eyes, ears, hands or feet (these are negations - that which you are not), which is eternal, omnipresent, all-pervasive, supremely subtle, imperishable and the womb of all beings (these are assertions - that which you are)
A verse from the Bhagavad Gita:
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचित् नायं भूत्वा-अभविता वा न भूयः |
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतः-अयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे || २.२०
This Self is never born or dies. (negation) Having come into existence, again it never ceases to be. It is unborn, eternal, undecaying, ancient. It is not killed when the body is killed (assertions)
