The Mind, Meditating Upon the Infinite, Becomes Unlimited

Because of long concentration upon the little body and its necessities, the soul has forgotten ifs omnipresent nature.

God is omnipresent. Man’s soul, made in His image, has in it the seed experience of omnipresence. That omnipresence is hidden in the little soul as a tree is secreted in a small seed.

Looking at the body daily causes the mind to think of itself as confined in flesh. The mind, meditating upon the body, becomes limited by it. The mind, meditating upon the Infinite, becomes unlimited.

Meditation upon the Infinite, as it grows deeper, convinces the mind that it is not encased only in the little body, but is in everything.

In Meditation, the Soul Remembers Its Vast Body as God

The spiritual man, through the spreading light of sympathy and meditation, learn to feel the woes and pains of other souls. He feels that the world is his home. That is why the meditating aspirant must do away with little body attachments.

He must learn to be proof against warm or cold climates. He must learn to overcome hunger and pain. He must learn to conquer all the attachments that govern the little body, for as long as the mind is focused on the body, the soul cannot remember its omnipresent nature.

Meditation means constant thinking of the vastness within and without, so that the soul may forget its attachment to the little body and remember its vast body as God.

Discover the Undistorted, Divine Image within You

The moon’s reflection in a pot of swirling water looks ruffled, but the moon is never distorted—it is the disturbed water that produces the illusion. Calm the water in the pot, and you will find the perfect, undistorted image of the moon.

The perfect image of God within you is distorted by your mental restlessness and lack of conviction. Your celestial abilities lie within you unharmed; it is the wave of your environment-grown, wrong convictions and subconscious bad habits that make the powerful image within you look distorted.

Learn to calm your mental waves by the magic wand of super-concentration, and you will behold, undistorted, your perfect all-conquering ability.

When the Mind Is Still, God Reveals Himself

Man is operating five telephones—the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch—controlled by the medulla and heart. The heart and the medulla are the switchboards through which these telephones contact the brain.

When a sensation reaches the brain, the sensation immediately rouses thoughts. The scientific way to do away with thought is to withdraw the attention from objects of the senses.

Through meditation you learn how to disconnect your energy from the senses and consciously go to the Infinite. You experience an expansion of consciousness from the boundaries of the body to the boundaries of eternity.

Unless you absolutely free the temple of attention from disturbing thoughts, God will not come. God doesn’t surrender Himself unless He is sure that every worldly thought is removed from your mind.

He is like a candle flame that cannot stand the gusts of restlessness. He will burn steadily when you are free from restlessness.

Excerpted from How to Awaken Your True Potential by Paramhansa Yogananda

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