Persons who are not gifted with the capacity of intense concentration have to begin with meditation, whereas for those who are gifted with the capacity of concentration, meditation is unnecessary. “It is sufficient,” says SHRI MEHER BABA, “if they concentrate their minds on the mere form of a God-man*, or some simple formula like ‘I am neither Sharira (gross body), nor Prana (the subtle body which is the seat of desires and vital forces), nor Manas (mental body which is the seat of the mind); I am ATMAN (soul)’.”

CONDITIONS OF INTELLIGENT MEDITATION:

Meditation has often been misunderstood as being a mechanical process of forcing the mind upon some idea or object. It is therefore but natural that most people should find great difficulty in their attempts to coerce the mind in a particular direction, or pin it down to some particular thing. Any purely mechanical handling of the mind is not only irksome but is ultimately bound to be unsuccessful.

The first principle which the aspirants, therefore, should remember is that the mind can be controlled and directed in meditation only according to the laws inherent in the makeup of the mind itself and not by means of the application of any mechanical or semi-mechanical force.

Many persons who do not technically “meditate” are oftentimes found to be deeply and intensely engrossed in systematic and clear thinking about some practical problem or theoretical subject, and their mental process is, in a sense, very much like meditation, in as much as the mind is engrossed in intense thinking about a particular subject-matter to the exclusion of all other irrelevant things. The reason why meditation is often easy and spontaneous in such mental process is that the mind is dwelling upon a subject in which it is interested and which it increasingly understands. But the spiritual tragedy about ordinary trains of thoughts is that they are not directed towards things that really matter. On the other hand, the object of meditation has always to be carefully selected, and must be spiritually important. It has to be some divine person or object, or some spiritually significant theme or Truth. But in order to attain success in meditation, we must not only get the mind interested in the divine subjects or truths, but we must also begin by trying to understand and appreciate them. Such intelligent meditation is a natural process of the mind; and it avoids the monotonous

* See Appendix, page 32