What is meditation ?

Speaking in the plain words – mediation is just 100 % laziness. Nothing in 'you' is working in meditation. None of your - ‘body parts’ should work and the ‘mind’ too should stop functioning – then you are in ‘complete laziness’ or in ‘complete relaxation’ or in ‘deep meditation’.

First of all one should know – why the people are moving? Why we are all changing from one position to the other?

This is simply because – in a given position a person [any being] is not happy and hoping for ‘joy’ or ‘more joy’ people are moving from one position to the other but, unfortunately in the new position too we fail to find joy and we keep on moving to ‘new’ positions always. You might call this with myriad different names like - doing job, eating, playing or enjoying etc., but, deep down we are in want of [more] happiness behind all these doings.

But, the fact is that ‘none’ really ‘none’ of these 'changes' could make us happy. Before attaining ‘it’ [the position or state] we feel ‘it’ would make us happy – but, after a long struggle [change of positions] once we had attained ‘it’ we would come to know ‘it’ is not happy at all and again we seek something different in order to be happy and we keep on moving in this way. This we call - ‘life’.

After a prolonged motion, lifelong movement – one [very few out of myriad] comes to know that ‘nothing’ or in other words ‘no change' of position could make us happy.

But, lord ‘Shiva’ or ‘Buddha’ - is simply sitting - ‘like a statue’. This is because, they are ‘happy’ in the given position and there is no need for them to move on. Hinduism says - when nothing is ‘functioning’ in us ‘’god’ only comes into play or ‘joy’ comes from ‘within’ as in a ‘spring’.

‘we’ the moving beings – when we are tired of all our movements – after coming to realization that ‘no motion’ could make us ‘happy’ – when we ‘sit like a Buddha’ – then the ‘spring of joy’ comes out from ‘within’. This in other words we call as – ‘enlightenment’ or ‘god realization’ or ‘nirvana’ or ‘satori’ or ‘samadhi’ or ‘inner blooming’ or with myriad different name - but, deep down what happened is as explained above.

Contrary to the ‘good job syndrome’ [common man's belief or perception that only good job could make them happy] – the Hinduism says ONLY this ‘total laziness’ or ‘total rest’ - could give you complete relaxation or complete ‘joy’. In this situation – the ‘joy’ will come from ‘within’ and ‘joy’ could only come from ‘within’ according to the Hindu scriptures and as we generally think ‘joy’ could never come from outside, from ‘work’ because, what we are searching ‘out’ is not present outside actually but, it is present deep ‘within’.

After moving or travelling for a long – once the sojourner has reached his ‘home’, no more motion but, he just sits and relaxes. That is what meditation is all about! It sounds simple – but, is not so simple in practice! Because, we have been moving, we are in the Newton’s ‘inertia’ of motion and it is really hard to come to rest and ‘sit’ still. Our momentum will not let us sit and relax but, once we taste the ‘joy’ of that ‘sitting still’ we will never look back at – ‘work’, the Hindu scriptures refer to this as - Anaavrutthi Sabddhath - the attained, will never return back to this world again !

Physically one might easily sit like a ‘Buddha’ but, it is very difficult to keep the ‘mind’ still and the purpose of all the spiritual practices is nothing but, making you ‘sit still’ especially internally [stillness of mind] - like a ‘Buddha’ but, of course different religions follow different methods to achieve this.

The statue in a ‘temple’ is standing or sitting still, only to teach you this concept - if you sit or stand [physical posture is not important in the advanced stages of meditation] still, like a statue – you will become ‘god’. This stillness refers not just to the ‘external’ but, mainly to the ‘internal’ stillness. After attaining to the ‘internal stillness’ though the ‘body’ might be at work, it will not spoil the ‘internal stillness or peace’.

I hope this discussion sheds some light on - Meditation...!