In meditation, do not strain the eyes. Do not strain the brain. Do not struggle or wrestle with the mind. It is a serious mistake. Many neophytes commit this grave error. That is the reason why they get easily tired soon. They get headache and they have to get up very often to pass urine during the course of meditation owing to the irritation set up in the micturition center in the spinal cord.
Make no violent effort to control the mind. Do not wrestle with it with force. It is a mistake to do so. But, rather allow it for a while and let it run and exhaust its efforts. The mind will jump now like an untrained monkey first. Gradually, it will slow down. Then you can fix the mind on your Target either on a concrete form or on an abstract idea. Get up at early morning. Sit comfortably in the Padma, Siddha, Sukha or Svastika Asana. Keep the head, neck and trunk in one straight line. Relax the muscles, nerves and brain. Calm the objective mind. Close the eyes. Do not struggle with the mind. Do not voluntarily and violently drive away intruding thoughts. Gently allow the divine thoughts to flow. Steadily think of the point of meditation. Have sublime, Sattvic thoughts. Vicious thoughts will, by themselves, vanish.
Even if the mind runs outside during your practice in meditation, do not bother. Allow it to run. Slowly try to bring it to your center. By repeated practice, the mind will be finally focused in your heart, in the Soul, the Indweller of your hearts, and the final goal of life. In the beginning, the mind may run out 80 times. Within six months, it may run 70 times; within a year, it may run 50 times; within 2 years, it may run 30 times; within 5 years, it will be completely fixed in the Divine Consciousness. Then, it will not run out at all even if you try your level best to bring it out, like the wandering bull, which was in the habit of running to gardens of different landlords for eating grass, but which now eats fresh gram and extract of cotton seeds in its own resting place.
If there is much strain in meditation, reduce the number of hours for a few days. Do light meditation only. When you have regained the normal tone, again increase the period. Use your common-sense all throughout practice. I always reiterate on this point. Have the one all-pervading feeling. Deny the finite body as a mere appearance. Try to keep up the feelings always. Whatever elevates you, you can take it up for your advantage just to elevate the mind and then continue your prolonged meditation. You must daily increase your Vairagya (Dispassion), meditation and Sattvic(pure) virtues such as patience, perseverance, mercy, love, forgiveness, purity, etc. Vairagya and good qualities help meditation. Meditation increases the Sattvic qualities. Just as you conserve the energy by observing vow of silence, so also you will have to conserve the mental energy by stopping useless thinking. Then you will save abundant reserve energy for meditation.
Remember these three word-images: PURIFICATION, CONCENTRATION, ABSORPTION. Repeat them mentally during meditation. This is a triplet. Remember this triplet. Purify the mind. Get rid of impurities such as Lust, Anger, etc. Perform selfless, desire-less actions. This will purify the mind. Then practice constant and deep meditation. The mind will be absorbed eventually.
As a clever cook, in serving his master, notes the kind of food that he relishes and hence forward serves it and gets gain, so the aspirant too notes the conditions such as nourishment, etc., at the moment of attaining meditation and Samadhi and, in fulfilling them, gets ecstasy again and again.
Reference
Mind – Its Mysteries and Control by Sri Swami Sivananda
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