Meditation 5

So all these practices are intrinsically linked to each other and can form a comprehensive or holistic way of having superiority over the vagaries of mind. It is very easy to train and control a pure mind, just as it is easy to control a docile and good natured horse.

However it requires a lot of patience and determination. Mind is a very powerful enemy, unless one has formidable strength of will, battling with mind is not easy. A lot of patience is needed because focusing or concentration does not happen easily; it needs a lot of time before one can even concentrate for a few minutes, unless one starts at a very early age. One has to get rid of desires arising and anxieties looming large and all other kinds of thoughts which tend to surface up just as one starts looking inwards. Sri Ramakrishna narrated a small parable on determination about a young boy who, in order to get water, began digging in a place, but getting disheartened with only rocks and sand and no water, he left it and began digging at another place and in this way made several attempts by digging at several different places. Instead if he had persisted, he could have probably struck water in the very first place itself. Meditation is also like this. One may be disheartened initially by the inability to control the deluge of thoughts and to focus on one thing, but if one persists, which for a long period for some and short for others for unknown reasons, one may be able to get some success.

Another key thing is that even after getting some success one should not stop and become egoistic thinking that one had achieved everything. The journey is long and there are many stops en route. Sri Ramakrishna depicted this with another parable – a woodcutter while walking through a dense forest and yet not being able to get good wood, was advised by an ascetic to proceed further. He did so and found a sandalwood forest whose woods were very valuable, but he thought that the ascetic had told me to move on, not to stop in the sandalwood forest, so let me carry on. In this respect while travelling further he came across a silver mine, a gem mine, a gold mine and a diamond mine resp. and became immensely rich. Meditation is also similar. On the search for truth one may get many initial glimpses, but just as one should not be disappointed with initial hurdles put forward by a very powerful enemy, the mind, one should also not be elated by some successes in focusing or concentrating, as the mind is vast and deep like an ocean and there are many gems hidden below which can be brought up by delving deeper and deeper.