Guided Meditation for World Peace and Harmony

By focusing on AUM, feel the importance of the experience of AUM through deep visualization, harmonizing and drawing us to peace within. Nayaswami Devi is one of Ananda's founding members and its spiritual co-director, together with her spouse, Nayaswami Jyotish.

Transcript

Nayaswami Devi:

Hello, everyone. We're going to lead you through a guided meditation now on the waves of AUM and expansion of the heart with love.

Our Physical Reality and the Deeper Truth about the One Vibration

Paramhansa Yogananda taught that this universe that we perceive through the physical senses seems to be made up of succinct distinct units of reality. There's a tree, there's a leaf, there's a dog, there's a person, and they're all different. They're all separate. But the teachings from the great spiritual masters of India, and in fact, of all religions, teach us that all is a unity, that all creation is part of only one vibration. And the deeper we go within ourselves, the more we experience that center of our own self, which is united with all centers.

Now, as we've mentioned, Paramahansa Yogananda taught that meditation is concentration on God or one of his qualities or attributes, and the qualities that we're going to be focusing on today are sound, which, in the mystical sense, is the AUM vibration, I'll explain it in a moment. But through that experience of the AUM vibration, the inevitable consciousness that emerges is a sense of unity and love for all creation.

The Sacred Vibration of AUM

Now, the AUM vibration is something that does not come exclusively from any religion. It says, in the Bible, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God." Well, this word is the AUM  vibration. It's not a word the way we think of as something we pronounce with our vocal cords and travels through sound waves and other people hear it and it has a definition or meaning.

The AUM vibration is something that's reflected, as I say, in all world religions. In the Hindu tradition, the chanting of AUM is a sacred sound. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the word Amen is a sacred word. In the Muslim tradition, the sound or word Amin. And even in the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism, there was a word, Ahunavar, which had the same connotation, "the sacred word."

And if we think of the word in the most expanded sense, because the word is just a vibration traveling on sound waves, it's the sacred vibration. It's the vibration, one might say, it's the song of creation. Out of the silence, the stillness within ourselves, we can perceive the song of creation, the sound of AUM, which is vibrating in every aspect of creation.

And why is this important? It's important because we are made up so much more of energy and consciousness than we are aware. If every person in this world would begin to harmonize their consciousness with this sacred vibration, there would be no war, there would be no enmity, there would be only universal love and brotherhood. Now this AUM sound, I believe everyone has heard it, whether they realize it or not. When we become very still inside, when all external sounds disappear and fade away, there is that vibration. 

And Yogananda, in fact, gave a specific meditation technique for listening to this vibration. But it's not a vibration that we hear, it's not a sound that we hear, necessarily, with our auditory nerves, with our ears. It's a sound that we perceive with our whole being, with our soul nature, because it's a sound that is the vibration which, in fact, holds the whole universe in manifestation. If we want to create it... anything in this world, whether it be a harmonious relationship, a garden, or a creative project like writing a book or music—if we can tune in to this vibration of AUM, the vibration, the sound of the vibration of love, everything we do, everything we create will have deep purpose and meaning for others.

Tuning Into the Vibration of Love

And so now I'd like to guide us together, tuning in to the waves of AUM and expanding love. Let's sit up comfortably and relax your body. Feel that any tension is just melting away. You are safe. You are sound. You are protected in a field of cosmic vibration that unites all beings in a great dance of love.

Now bring your awareness to the point between the eyebrows.

I hope you're sitting in a quiet place so that there aren't distracting sounds. It makes such a difference in the ability to relax, to sit in the silence. (pause) Sitting in the silence.

And then if you can, try to become aware, particularly in your right ear, of a slight inward humming vibration. And feel that vibration infusing your whole being with a great sense of peace.

And feel your whole being like a bubble of peace expand. And as it expands, feel that AUM vibration. You're dissolving into the great wave of this cosmic sound. Feel this great wave spreading out to distant shores.

You are one with all creation. You are one with the cosmic sound. You are one with the most distant star, with the most tiny atom. All space floats within your being in this great shoreless sea of AUM.

And now, in that great vibration, let your heart, the natural love of your heart, begin spreading out, wave after wave, touching those in your neighborhood, in your city, in your state, spreading out across your whole country, this wave of love coming from your heart as we rest in the ocean of AUM. See it spreading out, enveloping our whole planet in love.

See our whole solar system as a tiny spark of light illumined by the love that is the foundation of all creation. Feel that wave of love go to the most distant galaxy—the beauty of the dance of the cosmos. We are one with AUM. We are one with cosmic love. We are one with all creation.

 (Chanting AUM 3x) AUM, Peace, Amen