DEEPENING PRACTICE OF MEDITATION—Swami Smarananandaji

Stillness is of most importance. In fact, if I am to give you only one or two keys to deepen your meditation, I would say, one is REGULARITY, two is practice of STILLNESS. These two are of most importance for success in our daily meditations…

[Stillness] is true communion where neither the devotee nor God needs to talk. In the ultimate sense, who is talking to whom? I am communing with my Higher Self…It’s deep communion with my Higher Self. That can happen only in stillness. That doesn’t happen when we are practicing hong sau, kriya or Aum…no, it happens only in stillness. That is why the meditation techniques hong sau, Aum, kriya, are to be treated as vehicles to take us to a point where we START MEDITATING, COMMUNING WITH GOD IN DEEP SILENCE…

Just put yourself in the presence of God. You assume that Guruji is in your heart, just feel. Or, you are in the heart of Guruji. And sometimes I visualize that little picture of Guruji with the puppy in his pocket. Like puppy I keep watching Guruji, I am the puppy, you know (audience laughter). It’s bringing in God, there’s no conversation. Just before Christmas, I bring in Christ, those few weeks. Before Janmashtami, Bhagava Krishna. Just be in the consciousness…be one with him. That is stillness, there’s no talking.

Then you feel what is this meditation all about, why saints say that meditation gives us JOY. That stillness always comes with a sense of joy, that feeling. Never miss that, never miss that. It’s very, very important…And toward the end, practice of devotion, talk to God and pray for others, pray for yourself…

LET ME SHARE WITH YOU A SHORT STORY. A devotee came out of his meditation, someone asked, “What did you do in your meditation?”

He said, “I was communing with God.”

The next question was, “What did you tell God?”

He said, “I did not tell anything to God, I was listening.”

That was followed by another question, “What did God tell you?”

“God did not tell anything either. He was also listening.” (laughter from the audience)

When you do this regularly, you come to a point where you will say—each one of you—it is not difficult for me to sit for meditation, but it is difficult for me to get up from meditation…you don’t feel like getting up from meditation…And that can happen every day, if you give time for STILLNESS.


excerpts from “Deepening Practice of Meditation” Swami Smaranananda CD

L to R, YSS Swamis Shraddhanandaji, Smarananandaji, Shantanandaji