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How to be one with Yourself

A discourse on the two main types of meditation and their application for harmony and self-inquiry.

"Meditation means to be one with thyself. The whole day you are working and extroverted... Meditation re-establishes the real relation with yourself—with your body, mind, intellect, consciousness, and soul."

"After this comes the next step of meditation: Who am I? Or what am I?... you see the changes in your body, mind, and emotions. Everything has changed since you were born, but your real self did not change."

Swami Maheshwarananda explains the concepts of passive meditation and active, creative meditation, which includes contemplative problem-solving and artistic work. He describes meditation as a means to establish harmony within oneself and with society, before progressing to deeper inquiry into life's purpose and the true self, using both active and passive methods.

Filming location: Strilky, Cz.

DVD Number: 507.

Meditation is practiced around the world, which is very good. Many of you, dear brothers and sisters, joined the webcast this morning, where I explained different kinds of meditation. One meditation is passive meditation, which was and is still practiced in āśrams and monasteries. Those who dedicate their lives completely to spiritual achievement spend more time in passive meditation. The second is active or creative meditation. This meditation has two parts. The first part is sitting down to meditate to realize your dharma, your duty, or to contemplate how to be successful—whether in business, farming, family, or spiritual life. Through this meditation, you search for a solution and receive an inner answer, an intuition. This belongs to active, creative meditation. The second part of creative meditation is artistic work: painting, sculpture, designing, singing, playing instruments, and so on. This also includes your everyday work where you fulfill your duty but create something beautiful. This means you are not working only for money, but to give the world and others satisfaction. In old times, people were employed and paid to work, but they did not work solely for payment. They did something that made their self happy and others happy. In their hands, they had work; in their mind and mouth, they had the name of God. They were not working by the clock; they were truly working. So, there is creative and passive meditation. Many people would like to know how to meditate and what meditation is. All of you sitting before me are practitioners of yoga in daily life. Many have practiced for 30 or 40 years, some for one, two, or three years. So, you know what meditation is and why to practice it. However, through the webcast, there may be many friends, brothers, and sisters who wish to meditate but do not know what it is or how to do it. I would like to offer you very simple examples and an easy way to meditate. Meditation means to be one with thyself. The whole day you are working and extroverted, with many thoughts and activities. This means you have very little connection, relation, or awareness of yourself. It is crucial to know and have a relation with yourself. If you only work and work, you come to stress and depression because you are far from your real self. Meditation re-establishes the real relation with yourself—with your body, mind, intellect, consciousness, and soul. When all come into harmony, there is no stress, and you are happy. Family life can only be successful if there is harmony. The father and mother should have time for the children, or partners should have time every day to speak about life situations, feelings, problems, and thoughts for two to three hours. If you spend two to three hours daily with your partner and children, there will be no problems and no question of divorce. This is part of our life. Then you will have no tensions, you will not be aggressive, you will be relaxed, and you will have a happy life. Relation means, first, to have a relation or connection with thyself. Second, to establish a harmonious relation with society: your family, friends, colleagues, relatives, neighbors, and so on. Then there will be no fear in you, and you will feel that you belong to this society. You will feel that your being in this world is important for all, that you care about others and others care about you. Immediately, you feel protected and loved by all. There is no feeling of loneliness. That is the beauty of life, a comfortable and happy life. Therefore, meditation means, again, creative meditation to establish a harmonious relation and be ready to help others. If someone is in need, give them something and pay your attention. Then comes the second level of meditation. You sit down and think: What is the purpose of my life? Why did God give me this life? Why was I born as a human? Is it just to have children, work, eat, and sleep, which animals can do too? So, what is my purpose? For this, you close your eyes, sit down, and think—passive meditation. You dive within thyself. Or you do active meditation to find the answer again: What is the purpose of my life? You go for a walk in the forest, to a park, along the beach, near a river or lake, or in a beautiful landscape. You look and sit down. It gives you an answer. Nature is talking to you. Whatever you see with open eyes is talking to you and answering your questions: What is the purpose of my life? My obligation, my dharma towards family, society, other creatures, nature, and so on. Immediately, you establish a very harmonious relationship with the whole of nature. After this comes the next step of meditation: Who am I? Or what am I? Am I this body? If I am only this body, then why is my body getting older? And why do I say ‘my body’? Why don’t you say ‘I am the body’? So, you are not the body. You are not the thoughts, nor the intellect, nor emotion. What are you? In this inquiry, you can also use both kinds of meditation: passive or active. In active meditation, you will see your body as only an instrument. There is someone or something working differently. While working, you see yourself as only an instrument—your body, senses, and mind are all instruments, but a different power is working. In passive meditation, asking “Who am I?”, you see the changes in your body, mind, and emotions. Everything has changed since you were born, but your real self did not change. What is that? For that, they close their eyes and sit. You can meditate in a monastery, an āśram, a yoga center, a church, any holy place, or anywhere—in a park, garden, or at your home. So first, research and establish a harmonious relationship with your body, mind, emotions, intellect, and with the surrounding world.

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:

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