Swamiji TV

Other links



Podcast details

A Beautiful Day for Practice

A morning satsang addressing common obstacles in meditation.

"When I meditate, after a while I go so deep within myself that I don't want to practice the mantra. Even when I repeat the mantra, I feel vikṣepa (distraction/agitation)."

"Therefore, whenever you meditate, you will have to face worldly thoughts. Even if you go somewhere in the mountains or the Himalayas... these thoughts—the very purpose of this saṃsāra—will not let you be free."

The teacher begins by appreciating the shared practice before addressing a practitioner's question about distraction during deep meditation. He explains that encountering thoughts is inevitable, as the world is inherently active and created from sound. He details the threefold disturbances (tṛitāpa): from other creatures (ādhibhautik), from cosmic energies or spirits (ādhidaivik), and from within oneself (ādhyātmik). Using the example of a mosquito bite during meditation, he illustrates how sensory awareness indicates the meditation's depth. The talk concludes with an unfinished reference to a teaching from Guruji.

Today is the most beautiful day. This early morning, we had the opportunity to be together, to meditate together, to practice together, to have breakfast together, and to see each other—all guru brothers and sisters. Our subject over the last two days has clarified many things for our minds regarding how and what we should do and practice. Meditation is something we should practice every day, but a question often arises: "When I meditate, after a while I go so deep within myself that I don't want to practice the mantra. Even when I repeat the mantra, I feel vikṣepa (distraction/agitation). It is as if I would only like to be with myself in beautiful feelings." Yes, your question is very important, very good, and it is not only for one person, for you, but for all practitioners. We know that every good thing also has obstacles. Meditation has different levels. What we all meditate with, using different imaginations, is not meditation. That is only a concentration technique. We try to withdraw our senses and our mind from the external world and try to come to our inner world, to our inner Self. But the vṛttis (mental modifications), the thoughts, are connected with our vāsanā (latent impressions), our desires, our ambition, our expectations, our daily life situations or problems. Any existing problem, or even something good, involves our mind. And so when you sit for meditation, all thoughts come back to you. Now, what should we do in these moments? Should we stop meditating or continue? We shall continue. This saṃsāra, this world, is a world full of noises. In this world, something is always happening. This living planet is working. Karmabhūmi (the plane of action) is working; earth is working, water is working, fire is working, every creature is working, and you are working too. Therefore, it cannot be that there is nothing, no movements. That's not true. Saṃsāra, this world, was created out of noises, from the sound Oṃ, the resonance which is the cause of this creation. And now this resonance manifests differently. Some sounds disturb you, but others do not. And what you like, others don't like. So, this liking and disliking is divided between individuals. Therefore, whenever you meditate, you will have to face worldly thoughts. Even if you go somewhere in the mountains or the Himalayas, or to a beach or a small island, these thoughts—the very purpose of this saṃsāra—will not let you be free. Even the great sages, the very great yogīs who go for hours and hours into samādhi, are also surrounded by certain disturbances of purpose: ādhibhautik, ādhidaivik, and ādhyātmik. Tṛitāpa—tāpa means fire, tāpa means heat, and tāpa means problems. The Tṛitāpas. The first disturbances come from different creatures: humans, animals, mosquitoes, flies, ants, snakes, scorpions, tigers, lions, birds, and so on. Life is not safe in this world. Jīva jīva bhakṣati—life will eat life. Animal will eat animal. But there is one word which divides the human from the animals, and that's called the 'human'. It didn't say the human will eat animals. Animal will eat animals. But still, humans can also be eaten by other animals. So, this ādhibhautik disturbance, from all these different creatures, is also a subject of disturbance for your meditation. Therefore, you cannot run away from this. But humans have buddhi (intellect), humans have intellect, and humans can protect themselves from those disturbing factors from ādhibhautik. We put up a mosquito net, we make a fire, we build a house—many, many things we can do for protection. But many thousands of years ago, there was no mosquito net. Life was not so easy, and that's why the human population was less. There was no quick medical treatment. People died from small mosquito bites, from spider bites, from snake bites, and from disease. An appendix, which nowadays is not a big deal to operate on, but at that time people died from it. Nowadays, there is more protection and care for human life. But still, humans are not happy and humans are creating more complications day by day. So, it doesn't matter how deep you are in meditation. A mosquito doesn't know that you are meditating. And when a mosquito sticks into your skin, you feel it. And when you feel the mosquito stick, it means you were not in deep meditation. That's a very clear answer, because you felt it. When you are very tired and sleeping very deeply, how many mosquito sticks on your skin do you not feel? Only in the morning you say, "Oh God." So it means we are still experts in sleep, not in meditation. Ādhibhautik, ādhidaivik, and then the illnesses—mental illness, physical illnesses, many, many illnesses, and of course mental illnesses. It is said to be the biggest punishment for your sins, to be mentally ill, a mental case. This is not discrimination toward those who have these mental problems. But God protects us, and God may help them to become healthy again. Ādhidaivik, and also from the different energies, spirits—what you call... you have some protection from angels. We call devas, you call angels, or from different energies that can be negative or positive. Therefore, ādhidaivik, ādhibhautik, and ādhyātmik. These are the three tapas, three disturbances, and we have to first become free from these. And they will attack you all the time; it's not easy to get rid of them. But Gurujī said in one bhajan, satsaṅg with Moojī.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

Email Notifications

You are welcome to subscribe to the Swamiji.tv Live Webcast announcements.

Contact Us

If you have any comments or technical problems with swamiji.tv website, please send us an email.

Download App

YouTube Channel