Roopdhyan Meditation – The Pran of Sadhana
What is the importance of meditation in sadhana? How to practice meditation and become an expert? What is Roopdhyan Meditation? There are many questions that arise when one hears that meditation is the ‘prana’ of sadhana. In this article by Swami Mukundananda, all aspects of meditation are clearly described for users to follow. Roopdhyan meditation is a technique where you have to imagine the picture / image of your beloved God and retain it in your mind. Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj has composed one of the best teachings for a Sadhak (spiritual aspirant) in ‘SadhanaKaruPyare’ which literally means, ‘Practice Sadhana my friend’. In verse thirteen and fourteen, he explains the importance of dhyan. The acharyas or great sages speak to enlighten and not entertain. To ensure that the principle sinks into the heart of the reader, they keep repeating the same principle again and again. In these verses, he repeatedly says that dhyan or meditation is the prana or life of your sadhana. Pran is the life air. As long as the life air is in the body, this body has value. The very moment that life air leaves,this body is only worthy of being eaten up by animals. Similarly, the pran of your sadhana is dhyan, the meditation that you will be doing. If you do not do the meditation, your sadhana is lifeless. So, how to practice meditation? Shri Maharajji says in verse fifteen and sixteen that you must bring the form of ‘Ishta Dev’, your worshipped and beloved form of God into your mind. Recall and place that image before your eyes and then do your meditation. When you have the image in front of you, your mind will have a basis to rest upon and a basis to love. You wish to practice love for God. That love is so easy when you keep his form in front of you. Without the form there is only light. Your mind will react, “I have never seen him, I don’t know what he looks like or what he does. How can I meditate on him?” The mind refuses to go there. It’s not easy to love a shining beam or a source light but it is very easy to love somebody with wonderful qualities and lovable activities. If you keep Shri Krishna in front of you, your meditation will turn into a breeze. This is Roopdhyan meditation, which is meditation upon the form of God. Some people ask, “I have never seen God how do I bring his form to mind?” Many people
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have a husband or a wife, a son or a daughter, father and mother. We love them instantly by recalling their picture or form in our mind. Loving God is very much the same. We have never seen God, how do we imagine him? Kripaluji Maharaj gives us the solution. He says,“Do not despair; you make a form of God as you like. His original form is divine; you cannot bring it to your material mind at this stage. Wherever your mind goes, it is the realm of Maya and God is beyond Maya. Hence, as a person under the control of Maya (Mayadhish), how will you recall him (God) in your material mind? It is not possible.” Some people recommend meditating on a source light. That meditation is on a form that is material. Although we are meditating on light, that is also being “imagined” or made up by the mind. That light is not the divine light. The divine light cannot be imagined with the material mind, whether he is formless of with a form. He (God) is beyond your mind. Yet, he is causelessly merciful. God says, “It does not matter which form you choose. You imagine a form in your mind. Use it as your basis and increase your love.” God says, “When your meditation develops to the highest level, at that time I will bestow my grace upon you and your material mind will be divine.”It is with the help of that divine mind, a seeker can have the divine vision of Shri Krishna. You will see him as he is and not an imagination of the mind. This is the highest stage and will happen later on. At the moment, in the early stages, the matter of interest is, “How do I purify my mind?”The simple answer is, “Imagine God’s form as you like.” Everybody has got different tastes. If five people go to select a piece of cloth, they will all have different choices. One person asks for a light color while the other says make it red. The third says, “No, make it saffron.”The fourth says, “Saffron? You want to become babaji? Make it green.”They all have different choices. Why? They all have got different tendencies which are called sanskars (conditioning) which are accumulated over endless past lives. Similarly, in the direction of God, everybody has got different choices. If Shri Krishna says, “You only have to meditate on Ganesh (the form of an elephant God).” Many people would say, “The mind does not get attached. What do I should do?”Hence God says, “It does not matter. I have got infinite forms and names. Those infinite forms include the form that you will make with your mind. So, you make my form and increase your love.” This is why Kripaluji Maharaj says “Make Shri Krishna sit in front of you and then do sadhana.” Whenever you are doing a kirtan, try to imagine that Shri Krishna and Radha ji are there with you. The guru is there and then do kirtan. It is only then your mind will remain absorbed. You will feel the connection. You will experience the love grow. You will experience the result of sadhana and you will move forward in your journey towards love for God in leaps and bounds.
ध्यानहीहै साधनाका, प्राणजीवनप्यारे [13]
Dhyan hi haisadhanaka, pranajivanpyare [13]
ध्यानबिनुसिसाधनाहै, प्राणबिनुतनुऩराये [14]
Dhyanbinu sab sadhanahai, pranabinutanupraye [14]
मनकोजोभायेिनाऱो, रूऩवैसाप्यारे [15]
Man kojobhayebana lo, rupvaisapyare[15]
सामनेहररकोबिठाकर, साधनाकरूप्यारे [16]
Samneharikobithakar, sadhanakarupyare [16]
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