Profound Contentment

It arises. This wonderful supreme contentment - santosha - with everything and anything, arises. I watch everything rise and fall - big bursts of wonderful emotion and the deepest states of stillness. Being a passionate, artistic person is so much fun, but the emotions are overwhelming at times. This is why I love science and logic - to balance everything out. Quite fun, because I think people think that if they meditate, they become benign. Actually, this is not true at all. Meditation helps people stop being malignant - but it doesn't make one benign. I had a wonderful breakfast with my friend Sue the other day and Sue and I talked about both the pitfalls along with the boundless expansiveness one gets when one becomes "one" with all beings. We become equally at "one" with everyone's suffering and everyone's most profound contentment. And the Witness rises above it all like a compassionate, wildly blissful spectator, never becoming victim to anything.

From Gurumayi Chidvilasananda's collection of talks, Courage and Contentment:
p. 38 "Baba (Muktananda) always talked about the tremendous benefits of meditation. He would say, "You should understand that I am a miser."
And we would say, "Really?"
"Yes!" he would repeat. "I am a great miser. You see, I would not have spent my time following the spiritual path, I would not have stayed with my Guru, I would not have meditated if I didn't think this would bring benefits. Because these things yield wonderful benefits, I spent my time on them, I stuck with them." He would say, "Meditation makes a doctor a better doctor. It makes an engineer a better engineer. It makes a secretary a better secretary. Meditation makes a mother a better mother."

He would say this with such a glow on his face. Not only had he experienced the benefits of meditation for himself, he had seen its blessings in many, many people's lives. For meditation to yield such great benefits, you have to understand what the practice really is.

Why do some people not want to understand meditation? What keeps them away? In the end, it is always some kind of fear.

You would be amazed how many people on the spiritual path are secretly afraid of meditating. But then if you look a little closer, you see that basically they are afraid of everything. Whenever I thought I was afraid of Baba, it was because I had other fears as well. Whenever I thought I was afraid to do something, it wasn't simply one particular thing that scared me, I was afraid of many other things as well. It isn't that people are afraid of meditation only; they are afraid of many other things too, so they constantly manufacture drama in their lives. It's as if all the drama will somehow mask their insecurity; it will hide their fears, and other people won't be able to see what is really going on with them. They may practice this deception knowingly or unknowingly; it doesn't really matter. From whom are they hiding this fear? Most of all, from themselves.

If this description rings a bell for you, take a moment and think about it. You may be afraid of your own innate goodness. If this is the case, isn't it because you are afraid of many other things in your life as well, many people, many projects, and many places? Fear so often holds people back and cuts them off - and not just spiritually.

Where do these fears come from? How are such terrible fears created? Basically, from your own thoughts. You think of something bad, and you are filled with fear. Many of your fearful thoughts are simply habitual, even instinctual...(skip skip, buy the book from Siddha Yoga Foundation)...

p.40
"The mind conjures up its own fears, makes them a reality, and then suffers because of these fears. If only you would realize that you are much bigger than your fears. Baba once said:

Thoughts are neither as pure nor as powerful as you are. What can a person who is helplessly robbed by his thoughts hope to achieve in life? Does someone deserve to be called a human being when he allows himself to be plundered by trivial, insignificant, useless, and silly thoughts? Shouldn't a person have self-respect? Shouldn't he be aware of his worth? Shouldn't he have the ability to throw away paltry thoughts and set his mind on the path of God?"

SadGurunath Maharaj ki Jai!