I got this book as part of “Writersmelon Book Review Program”.
“To meditate for the sake of receiving anything is against etiquette. The best attitude is one of love and gratitude, which develops over time as a result of our ever deepening contact with the source within.”
Publisher : Westland
Date : 16 Jan 2018
Book Length : 212
Buy : Amazon
Table of contents
Why Heartfulness.
The seeker’s journey.
Demystifying Meditation.
- Attitude.
- Yogic Transmission.
Practising Heartfulness.
Meditation.
- When and Where to meditate.
- The meditative posture.
- Relaxation.
- How to Meditate.
- How long to Meditate.
- The Meditative State.
- Cleaning.
- Doing the Cleaning.
- Prayer.
- Connecting through Prayer.
- The Heartfulness Prayer.
The Guru.
The Role of the Guru.
Review :
“Focus on the practice. Focus on the three elements of the Heartfulness practice : Meditation, Cleaning and Prayer. Practice is the most important thing because it is
through practice that everything else comes. Without practice there is no yoga. it is practice that leads to mastery of yoga, and mastery of yoga only means mastery of one’s own self.”
” Focus on the Practice”….
Meditation has been an integral part of my life from past few years, but there had been times when i wasn’t regular with it, its only 2 years back i started doing it seriously….seriously means everyday but still there have been gaps. Regularity and Practice was the thing i was lacking. Infact not doing Practice is the main hurdle for anyone who is trying to make meditation a habit. In that case the author have brilliant convincing skills because i am on it already.
for example, someone courts a romantic interest for years, but, eventually, the other person backs off. or you may expend a lot of time trying to build a business relationship, but it proves fruitless in the end. wouldn’t it have been better to understand the reality of these situations from the very start?. Meditation provides a level of insight that allows us to appreciate situations for what they actually are. This can save us years of time.
Therefore, meditation is an enormous timesaver. I would even say that the less time you have, the more vital meditation becomes. If you can meditate for even five minutes at a fixed time everyday, it will be of great benefit. So do meditate – especially when you don’t have enough time.
Now what is the effect of meditations in daily life..this has been covered extensively too but the one point that can explain it in short is It provides us with a level of insight that may actually help us to avoid many of the grave situations before it can even happen. Now that was a point worth noting down. so whenever i feel lazy and want to skip meditating for a day i just refer this. That is just enough for motivation.
Whoever has been doing meditation on their own will understand how much of doubt lingers in the mind on whether we are doing it correctly or not. Just like yoga, though not that strict, meditation does have a proper defined way of doing.
Being a book addict and an extreme introvert, a book or in that sense any book which would do the job of explaining how to do it was always in the back of my mind and in my Amazon’s wishlist. Fast forward to Writersmelon review program featuring this book and i immediately signed up praying that i would get it and TADAA i got it.
My first tryst with this particular branch of meditation “Heartfulness ” was in my workplace (there are many types of meditations from what i have read like one where we focus on breathing which i had been doing till now….mantra meditation etc etc). My college’s vice principal introduced it to us, she used to call us after work to do group meditation in her cabin, there were seminars, people who have been practicing heartfulness for 30-40 yrs were called for delivering lectures. so though i know the various steps in it, i didn’t knew the essence of it or the meaning of it. This book dissects each and every step bit by bit, part by part.
Its very imperative to know and understand the reason behind what you are doing and why you are doing giving you a confidence and self assurance that you are afterall doing it the right way.
In this book Kamlesh Daaji along with Joshua pollock answers every query you may have in your mind regarding heartfulness and that too with crystal clear clarity that even a novice will understand except for the patanjali sutras that may need more than one reading but make sure you read it thoroughly, as yoga is India’s find and for that matter meditation is part of our rich history.
Now the many things explained are…(I repeat..its brilliantly explained)
What is meditation?
What role does it play in your everyday life?
Is there any particular time or place you should meditate?
What is more important to meditate regularly or to meditate on the same time everyday?
What are sandhyas or conjunctions? What are the effects of meditating on sandhyas or conjunctions?
Why we do relaxation before starting meditation?
How can you create a meditative atmosphere?
Why posture is important?
What are patanjali sutras?
Why you should meditate with your eyes half open for a few more minutes after you are done with your meditation?
Why you shouldn’t drink water immediately after meditating?
How to handle a difficult experience in meditation?
What is cleaning?
What role does a guru play? is it necessary to have a guru?
Especially why do we meditate on “Divine light is in my heart”? … Now….perhaps this even i have been doing wrong..
It’s not a mantra that we repeat : “Divine light is in my heart, divine light is in my heart”. That would only disturb us. It would be artificial and effortful. Rather, the thought of divine light must disappear from our minds in order to give way to the actual experience of light in the heart. The object of meditation is something that we feel, not something to think about. People tend to misunderstand this. if you try to hold it as a conscious thought, you are only concentrating. That is not meditation.
That makes sense!!
The other thing that bothers everyone who ever did meditation is thoughts.. how to control our thoughts?..
The thoughts we have in meditation are like wine flowing out of its bottle. They have been inside us all along, even if we weren’t aware of their presence. we only become aware of them when we’re meditating and they start coming out. Thoughts come only to leave, you see. So let them come.
Sometimes, we experience really intense thoughts and emotions during meditation. They can be unsettling. The reason is that we tend to repress such thoughts and feelings in the normal course of lives. you have thoughts that you think are bad, and you say, “No, no, no!” and push them down into the recesses of your subconscious. That doesn’t get rid of them, though. They remain inside you, shading your experience and shaping your behavior in subtle ways. In meditation, such thoughts resurface. They are like the air bubbles that rush upward in a pot of boiling water. know that they are in the process of leaving you and pay them no mind.
I am always happy when someone complains of a turbulent meditation because it shows that they have released something that they were harbouring inside. So i think that we should refrain from judging our meditative experiences. What is far more significant is the way that you feel after your meditation is complete- not during. It is meditation’s long- term affects that we are really after.
I haven’t came across such an optimistic view on this before…things just got easier from here.
Why i have included paragraphs from the book is because that’s the only way to provide insight on the contents of the book besides i like quoting down paragraphs in my blog that way i will be able to refer it anytime i want, since i can’t carry my books everywhere with me but with my blog i can.
I thought of including more paragraphs but that would mean writing the whole book, which honestly i tried but i got tired and gave up and it is also against review policy😝 . I was lucky to have received a review copy atleast i could share a few insights with you.
Few more…
Meditation does not create anything at all. meditation reveals, that which is real, that which is authentic, that which is true. lies are created. untruth is created. reality can never be created – it is as it is.
Real meditation begins when you are no longer aware that you are meditating. it begins when you go beyond experience.
The truest form of gratitude is to make good use of what you receive.
when we are filled with tension and worries, we tend to deflect the higher help that comes through transmission. By relaxing ourselves, we accrue greater benefit.
Final Verdict :
Highly Recommended to anyone who needs help with meditations because this book has depth and is very convincing.. not just for heartfulness it is worth to read if you want answers on why, what and how of meditation.
Love – O – Meter : 5🌟
That is why we involve the heart in this process. The heart is the organ of feeling, after all. The attempt to think about divine light tends to get in the way of feeling it. It keeps us tied to the mental plane and prevents us from going deeper.
