There is a story told about a young girl whose name is Misri. Misri is as sweet-natured as her name; she has a charming face too. One day, she attends a wedding. At the same wedding is a handsome boy named Murli. Like his name, Murli has a voice as melodious as that of a flute. His singing touches people’s hearts. Murli and Misri fall in love the moment they see each other. They decide to meet at 9am the next day.
The next morning, Misri says to her mother, “You know, Murli is very talented—he sings well, which you saw yesterday at the wedding. When he sang, everyone forgot the wedding and listened to him. I want to learn from him. So I will be gone for a short while and will be back home in 30 minutes.” Her mother replies, “Yes, Murli is a good singer. But he might not agree to teach you. Still, you can ask him.” Misri leaves home assuring her mother that she will be back before 10am.
So Misri and Murli meet. The clock strikes 10, then 11, then 12, then 1 and finally 2pm. Misri suddenly realises that she was supposed to be home before 10. So she runs home; it is 2.30. Love made Misri and Murli lose all track of time. When your heart awakens with such deep love, meditation becomes easy.
As of now, our love is for worldly things. We are so in love with them that we forget everything. When in the throes of worldly pleasures, our mind does not wander. This happens to ladies who play cards in clubs. They don’t realise when the hours fly by.
We have to divert this love—we have to remove it from the world and bring it to the Lotus Feet of the Satguru. When we give God so much love, meditation becomes as easy for us as eating food or drinking water. Now, we cannot meditate because true love for the Lord has not awakened within us. That’s why our mind keeps wandering. How can it be steady?
There is an easy way to meditate, which my Master, Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani, taught me. Take a flower and keep looking at it. There will come a time, when, on your own, you will go within; and then your mind will be focused on the golden flower that is within you. And meditation will not be difficult.
One day, a businessman came from a far away country to seek the blessings of Gautama Buddha. He brought with him a golden flower, which he offered as a gift at the Lotus Feet of Gautama. The Buddha took the flower and kept on looking at it. Two hours passed. When Gautama finally took his eyes off the flower, he looked at his disciples and told them that to learn meditation, one must take some flower and keep looking at it.
On another occasion, as Gautama Buddha was giving a sermon on meditation, he drew a circle on the ground. His disciples asked him: “Gurudev, why are you drawing this circle?” He replied: “I will be drawing a flower in the circle.” And he did. Then he asked his disciples to keep looking at the flower. “By doing this, your mind will become steady; your eyes will close automatically and you will see a golden flower within you,” he said.
The significance of this is that if we love anything, our mind remains concentrated on that thing; it becomes automatic, we do not have to put forth any effort. Only, we should be able to arouse such love within us. When we fall in love with someone, our thoughts revolve around the person all the time. Similarly, the love for God should awaken within our hearts. Then meditation will be as easy.
This was first published in the February 2012 issue of Complete Wellbeing.
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