Meditation
We exist in atleast 3 forms: Physical body,
Mental-Emotional body and Spiritual body. We waste our whole day and
life, our whole energy for physical body, its care taking, its
exercises, wellbeing and its pleasures. But, somehow we are not
taught to take care of our mental and spiritual bodies, their
exercises, their wellbeings and their pleasures.
Meditation is one powerful way to correct these mistakes. The real
purpose of meditation is taming the mind, elimination of ego and
then elimination of mind itself, thus attaining Samadhi- total
bliss. Here soul remains uninhibited, manifesting its complete
knowledge, complete revelations etc. Apart from this, meditation can
give-physical relaxation, relief from stress, relief from
psychosomatic illnesses, control over emotions and negative thoughts
and can purify our perceptions and perversions of mind.
There are several views about mediation. Also there are five
important concepts of meditation. Although there are 40 different
important accepted techniques of meditation in Indian
spiritual-esoteric circles, it is interesting to note that they come
from basic 5 methods of meditation. Further, so many (hundreds)
individual modifications of these techniques allow each individual
to have its own tailormade technique. In short, each individual can
practice meditation suitable to him/her.
However, meditation is not a pushbutton system. one has to have
patience, courage, hardwork and perseverance. This coupled with
right guide, right technique, right understanding and real belief
and dedication can bring success. There is a high failure rate
amongst meditators, usually this is due to
nonfulfilling of above criteria. It is sad, that meditation has
become a business of billions and many opportunists have misused and
abused this sacred spiritual science. Therefore one should be
careful.
Real, deep meditation is a spiritual ecstasy. But, this is not
hallucination; it is a neurological event. This has been largely
depicted and documented by the neurological, neuroradiological
experiments of chiefly last 5-6 years. There are specific and
consistent EEG changes with different meditation techniques. The
neurotransmitters and neural hormones of specific areas of brain are
altered during deep meditation as well as in people having regular
meditation. There are changes in brain mapping. There are
differences in cerebral blood flow in specific brain areas. The
metabolism / r.CBF of parietal association areas of left brain is
reduced during deep meditation, suggesting that the orientation of
individual to time and place is cut off/ reduced. Thus faculty of
ego awareness is reduced. The metabolism/ rCBF of frontal areas are
increased correlating with highly concentrated brain task. The
sympathetic nervous system is put to rest during meditation, while
parasympathetic nervous system gets hyperactivated.
Thus science has correlated meditation as a real neurological event
and hence its tremendous positive benefits on body and mind are
confirmed. Apart from neurological, there are equally nice effects
on body metabolism, cardiovascular and respiratory system and other
bodily systems, some of which are also documented in scientific
experiments. Hence, let us meditate from today and now, in a correct
way and persue it with patience and courage. |
