All of us remain ever so engrossed in our mundane preoccupations that we hardly find any time for our spiritual pursuits, something which is much more important to our eternal self.

All of us remain ever so engrossed in our mundane preoccupations that we hardly find any time for our spiritual pursuits, something which is much more important to our eternal self. Many of us are often found saying that they remain so occupied with their work that they hardly find time for anything beyond work or personal affairs, let alone spending time for matters religious and divine. Notwithstanding this, we always have expectations that God will answer our prayers to grant all our wishes.

Is that not conflicting and contradictory? If we, being such puny creatures in the humongous cosmos, find no time for God, why should we expect God, being the master of the multiverses, to find time to answer our prayers? It is said that our prayers are very powerful and their vibrations, if made with concentration and devotion, could reach the Almighty. However, a hurried or half-hearted prayer or a prayer with divided attention is never answered by God. We, being the children of God, should commune with Him like His true children. If we earnestly pray to him as His children, He responds generously. Let us take an example. If there are many sons of a father, who shall he be attached to more or favour more? Of the many sons, those remembering him or making an effort to stay in touch with him shall be more loved or favoured.

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It is natural for the father to think that other sons are self-sufficient and happy enough not to require his help or favour. Same is the case with God. Those who remember Him with love, devotion and regularity are more favoured and blessed than those who do not. There are said to be two approaches to reach out to God ~ inward and outward. The inward approach guides us to look inside our soul consciousness to find God. The outward approach goads us to search for Him in places of religious worship and through complex religious rituals and sacraments. Hinduism has space for all paths to God. One should adopt one of these paths and reach out to God with all honesty and true devotion. One of the best ways to approach God is through yoga (union), as stressed by Hinduism.

This yoga or union is the 'union with God'. Through yoga and yogic practices, we can unite with God. Many wonders of science invented in the West are used in the world, including in the East. Similarly, yoga is for all even though it was invented in the East, India to be precise. One who practices yoga is called a yogi. And anyone who has established God in his soul temple is a yogi. It has rightly been said that we should seek God in our bodily temple first before visiting a brick-and-mortar temple. And what better way to seek God than through yogic meditation. Across different cultures, meditation refers to focusing one's attention deliberately ~ whether on the breath, a sound, a mantra, an image or simply the act of observing the mind itself.

In ordinary life, our mind jumps from thought to thought ~ worrying about the future, reliving the past or reacting to emotions. Meditation gently trains the mind to notice this restlessness and return to the present moment. Through meditation, one can reduce mental clutter and distractions, enhance self-awareness, build emotional stability, and improve focus and creativity. Meditation is, thus, said to reduce stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure and heart rate, improve attention span and memory, help manage pain and insomnia, enhance emotional intelligence and empathy, and promote overall mental well-being and resilience. From a scientific perspective, regular meditation changes brain patterns ~ lowering stress hormones like cortisol, improving emotional stability, and even increasing gray matter in areas linked with memory and empathy.

While many practice meditation for relaxation or focus, in deeper Indian traditions, it is a path to self-realization ~ understanding the nature of the mind and the self. In yogic philosophy, dhyana or meditation is one of the eight limbs of yoga that leads to Samadhi or the union with the higher Self. Meditation is, thus, the art of stilling the inner storm so the self-reflection becomes clear. It is not about escaping life, but engaging with it more consciously. It is not about suppressing thoughts, but understanding them more clearly. And it is not about changing who you are, but it is about seeing who you truly are beneath the noise. Any posture which keeps the spine erect is said to be good for meditation, according to Patanjali. By penetrating the third eye or concentrating at the space between our eyebrows, we can dive deep inside ourselves and experience the Divine. By doing so, we can also develop our intuitional capacity or the sixth sense.

When the fog of ignorance is removed by meditation, we see the right path and see God. God is immanent in the infinite bounties and beauties of creation. If we stay tied to the mundane and the finite, we cannot move towards the infinite God. We cannot perceive the infinite God with our finite senses. Waves cannot exist without the ocean, but the ocean could exist with or without waves as the originating source. Even though the wave cannot measure the ocean, there is still a point of contact between them. Where the infinite becomes the finite, there is a point of contact.

However, we need to expand these points of contact to extend our consciousness to infinity to be able to experience the infinite God. We have all descended from the infinite into the finite. God has condensed his consciousness into different finite forms, whether animate or inanimate. If we have never seen or tasted an apple, anyone can fool us about what it looks or tastes like. Same is the case with God-realization. As they say, we cannot love something we do not know. Knowledge of God must precede the love for him. And meditation is one of the most effective ways to know our real self and God.

One reason for God creating us is that we find time to love Him and return to Him. We are fortunate to have been born as a human, who with mediational prayers, can return home, unlike many other creatures. The true practice of religion is to sit still in meditation and talk to God, closing the door of our senses which are outward-oriented. Through regular meditation and meditative practices, we can recognize our inherent power. God made us in His image as asserted in Hinduism, in the Bible and many other religious scriptures. We all have the same power as Him. But we need to develop this power. Being children of God, we have immense powers which we need to recognize and realize through regular deep meditation. By the power of our mind, we can see further than the furthest.

But strong meditative practices require strong willpower. Our willpower is what makes us divine. When we stop using this willpower, we become human. Many of us express their helplessness saying they do not have strong willpower to engage in such practices. But when we resist something or persist in something, we are using our willpower. We all have this willpower required to engage in uplifting spiritual or meditative practices. We need to recognize it. Behind the human will, there is a divine will which can never fail. But our willpower develops in the right company. If we want to be singers, we need to go to someone who is a very good singer, has knowledge of singing or likes singing. Keeping company with those not associated with singing will not help us.

The same is the case with spiritual practices. We need to associate ourselves with the right kind of people with dedication and will. A time will come when everything is accomplished by us at will. In fact, proper visualization by the exercise of concentration and willpower enables us to materialize our thoughts. As we continue practicing visualization, our thoughts start getting materialized. If we can tap into the inexhaustible source of life through the powerful instrumentality of meditation, we can be freed from the limitations of our body.

(The writer is an IAS officer, presently posted as the Transport Secretary, Government of West Bengal. The views expressed are personal)