Meditation brings us high and deep experiences of peace, light and bliss; glimpses of the Beyond within. Yet for most of our everyday lives, we are not operating from this higher state of meditation, but from our moment-to-moment flux of mental and emotional awareness.
For meditation to be practical and effective in our lives, it is essential to assimilate these higher realisations into our everyday consciousness – to blend the infinite in the finite.
Fear, doubt and worry can only linger in the finite. Once our limited and limiting body, vital and mind surrender to and receive light from our unlimited spiritual heart and soul – which is to say, once we experience and assimilate real meditation – fear, doubt and worry must disappear, calmed by clarity, swallowed by love, dissipated in the indisputability of ecstasy.
Left to themselves, our finite body, vital and mind will instinctively retreat and isolate, blocking out the higher light of the heart and soul. To counter this tendency and ensure continual assimilation of our meditation, Sri Chinmoy advises us to imagine a flow of consciousness or light from our heart of meditation throughout our mind, vital and body. As the flow of a river is constant, continually connecting each part to every other, so must we keep our everyday consciousness open and connected to our higher self:
“Right after meditation you have to feel that the light from the heart is like a river that is flowing to all the parts of the being. The consciousness-water, the consciousness-river, has found a way to flow most satisfactorily into the other parts of the being. So there will be no fear at all. At that time you will feel a connecting link between the heart and the other parts of the being.”
– Sri Chinmoy