Maharishi Śuka continues, “Spiritual ignorance (avidya), which is the cause for this samsāra (the cycle of repeated re-births), can be destroyed by meditating upon the Supreme Lord!
Trapped in this endless river called samsāra, which can be compared to the never-ending River Vaitariṇi that needs to be crossed by the being who is travelling to Yama loka (abode of the Lord of death), the individual suffers as a result of his past deeds. Even after seeing fellow beings suffer the person does not remember God”.
Day in and day out we see people suffering. We see death and birth at every juncture. We observe people dying in this process of suffering. Yet, despite all this, there is no awakening within us. The realization that one day we too will have to face similar situation does not arise in us. This is so astonishing.
Hence the person who craves for comforts is a great fool! There are many whose thinking is tuned only towards happiness and comforts. ‘I need this; this did not materialize per my desire; I am yet to be rewarded for this; I should live luxuriously in this manner’ and so on. Eternally they contemplate upon comforts and luxuries. In the process they completely forget about the Supreme Essence. Such persons are losers.
“The Supreme Lord, who is a personification of completeness, has this universe composed of the 3 worlds (lokas) as His body. In a thumb sized form He resides within the heart space of the human being. Although He is the size of a thumb, He is invisible. He holds in His four hands the lotus, conch, mace and discus.
Some persons meditate upon the Lord in this form mentally.
Yogis visualize the Supreme Lord as having a happy pleasant face, wide lotus-like eyes, wearing yellow garments, wearing on His head a crown made of many precious stones and wearing armlets made of shining precious metals on His powerful arms”.
Each person can visualize the Lord per his/her desire and meditate upon it. His forms are infinite.
“Great Yogis retain the delicate lotus feet of the Lord in the centre of the lotus called their heart and meditate upon them. On His chest, Goddess Lakshmi resides. His neck is adorned with the Kausthuba gem. He wears a long Vanamāla garland that never ever withers.
His body is beautifully decorated with golden waistband, golden rings, anklets, bangles and other precious jewels. His clean black hair is beautifully oiled and curled. His charming smile coupled with the shining hair adds to the beauty of His face. With His vast enchanting smile and playful glances, He rains down blessings upon His devotees through the movement of His beautiful eyebrows.
Through those short swift lightning-like movements of His eyebrows He grants blessings. That small tinge of illumination called compassion that is seen in those eyebrows is what gets showered upon His devotees. He rains down blessings upon them.
Such a glorious form of the Lord should be focused upon until a stage of total concentration and stability of mind is attained. Starting from the feet up to the enchanting smile, each limb of this Lord Krishna, who holds the mace in His hand, should be contemplated.
With this the inner mind gets completely purified. The ability to retain the mind exclusively at a spot for a certain period of time is attained”.
The Lord should be visualized with all His weapons, His ornaments and decorations. The mind should be fixed on each ornament. ‘Aha, how beautiful are those feet. They are permanently imprinted in my mind. Aha, how beautiful is His anklet! How beautiful is His crown! In my mind I am able to see it glitter. How beautiful are those ornaments that adorn His chest! How wonderful is that discus which He holds in His hands! All these are now visible to me. I can see the Universal form of that Supreme Lord! Aha, I am able to see His beautiful lotus eyes and eyelids. His divine names are nectarous to the ears! Aha, how divine! I can see in my heart His tender smile.’
This practice can be done only when a person is sitting steadily in a particular posture. For this reason, steady posture is extremely important. With this contemplation, the mind obtains the ability to fix itself and remain steadily at a particular point.
It is imperative to give up all bodily comforts. The relationship to this human body should be destroyed. All thoughts pertaining to it should be eliminated.
When the mind is thus fixed at a particular limb, we should understand that the mind has conquered that particular limb. Always begin with the feet and proceed upward towards the head. At first meditate upon the gem studded sandals which He wears. From there visualize His feet and then the anklets that He has worn. Now contemplate upon His shanks, knees and then waist. At that point observe His gem glittered waistband. After stabilizing the mind at one of these limbs, gradually move up to the next limb. In this way meditating upon each of the limbs, try to understand the complete Universal form of that Lord.
This is the proper procedure for meditation. It should necessarily be abided by. It is incorrect to haphazardly focus upon any limb as one pleases because the mind tends to get distracted. It will be impossible to restrain the mind. To be frank, it is very difficult to get stability in seating posture itself. Only after this step is mastered, this meditation upon His limbs can be begun. When the restless mind is focused firstly at his feet and then gradually taken step by step to other limbs, it will stabilize.
Om Namo Narayana! Srihari! Krishna!
