Dear Guruji,
Pranam. I recently started meditation (about 3 months ago). Looks like I'm progressing very well. I have a question — When I am meditating, I feel my mind is instructing me or ordering me. For example: If I see a small light then it says go further go further, do this do that, or it's not ok etc. etc. I would to know who is this? Is this mind or inner being? If it is a mind then how to stop mind chattering? When I say stop..stop..stop then still it keeps chattering like by closed lips.
—Ganesh M Patil, United States
Dear Ganesh,
I wish I could tell you that this is your soul intuition speaking to you, but I suspect that it is instead just the mind, wanting to have its say. Why does it want to have its say? Because you’ve allowed it to do so all your life. It has momentum. All of us must contend with this unfortunate tendency.
How to stop it? You’ll some very effective strategies in this article. Another strategy is to realize that mental restlessness usually comes from agitation of the heart, with its desires and attachments. Therefore concentrate first on calming the heart – not suppressing the heart’s feeling, but rather hitching the heart’s feeling to your highest aspirations, and keeping that heart focus with you as you meditate. When you keep the heart calm and uplifted, the mind will tend to follow. Pranayama breathing techniques can help in this regard, as can chanting. So, for that matter, can the simple act of inhaling deeply, holding the breath and tensing the entire body, then exhaling and relaxing.
Here is another technique recommended by Paramhansa Yogananda, one for reversing the flow of mind & life-force toward senses & material objects:
Sit upright. As you inhale, with deep concentration, visualize the life-force and awareness flowing up through the 3 lower chakras into the heart chakra. Upon reaching the heart, exhale and remain breathless as long as comfortable, feeling life-force & awareness flowing toward higher chakras.
Try some of these practices. They will prove helpful.
Blessings on your practice,
Gyandev
