Hi, Initially I got into meditation practice 2 years back and did for 6 straight months. Then I stopped my practice & I started again on Feb 2,2019 . I get wonderful experiences while mediating like vibrations, tingling sensations between brows, seeing colors and I experience my body being very cold & chill sometimes . Am I progressing in a right way? A Guru said I can get answers for choosing my career too in meditation? Kindly guide me how to do that as I’m confused w.r.t my career life.
—Ramya, USA
Dear Ramya,
So wonderful that you have restarted your meditation practice. It seems you are receiving lots of encouragement in the form of positive experience. The first thing to remember is that to really make spiritual progress, regular, daily meditation practice is essential. Make meditation as much a part of your daily pattern of living as eating or talking or sleeping. When we drop our practice, worldly concerns and duties quickly draw us out of our center and then it takes some real discipline to get started again. The experiences you are having in meditation serve to inspire you to keep going but they are not the final goal of Self-Realization. It is wise not to become too attached to them. The best indicator of your progress is how calm and centered you are in your daily activities and an increasing sense of connection with the divine presence in whatever way is most personally meaningful to you. In fact as you progress on the spiritual path and in your meditation practice, experiences such as these may shift or even go away as you go deeper.
There is an important visual experience which may come to us in meditation which you might like to know about. Yogananda directed us to concentrate at the point mid-way between the eyebrows when we meditate. It is possible to see there, with inner vision, the spiritual eye. The spiritual eye is a circular field of deep blue light surrounded by a ring of gold. In the center is a silvery-white five-pointed star. The spiritual eye is not a part of the physical brain. It exists in everyone and all can see it when their minds are deeply focused and calm. The five pointed star at the center of the spiritual eye is the doorway through which our minds can penetrate into the inner kingdom of God. There is much more that can be said about the spiritual eye and meditation. I encourage you to take a look at Lessons in Meditation by Jyotish Novak.
The spiritual eye is important for your second question as well. The way to receive guidance about a personal subject such as career is to offer the question up to the point between the eyebrows in the calmness and peace at the end of meditation. Offer the question without desire for a particular answer. It is not necessary to actually see the spiritual eye to do this. Then tune in sensitively with your inner intuition at the heart center where we receive answers. You may need to ask on several occasions. You may receive the guidance at some time later rather than immediately after asking. Don’t be surprised if the guidance is something your rational mind did not think of. The guidance may come as a feeling, an inner ‘knowing’ but may also come as visualization or words. True guidance always comes with a sense of peace and expansion. If the guidance you receive has an emotional charge to it, either positive or negative, ask again at a time of increased calmness and peace. There is also a book on drawing intuitive guidance, Intuition for Starters by Swami Kriyananda which you might be interested in.
Many blessings on your meditation practice.
Nayaswami Mukti
