If you are caught in the thick of action, a situation involving people and objects, and the mind is completely disturbed and thrown off its balance, what do you do to get back in an instant?
Vedanta teaches the way. Withdraw and contemplate on the truth of reality. Who are these people I am bound with? What is this situation that is overwhelming the mind? What is this object that has gripped my mind so tightly that I am unable to get rid of? Discriminate. This discrimination is not of the negative kind, between person and person. This discrimination is all about who you are and what you are not.
This discrimination is all about what is eternal, and gives you permanent happiness to what is temporary and fleeting. Meditation itself is all about bringing the mind to its original state of freedom, its natural state of boundless, and infinite expanse. That expanse is nothing that you need to search for. It is right within you. You do not need any time to access it. It is immediately available, right here and now. Why should I do this practice of discrimination? There is a desire within all of us to be happy. We do not want that happiness to last for just 10 or 20 minutes, a day or even a year. We want it for ever. What is the way to discover such happiness? Viveka or the right discrimination is the way. There are just two parts to this discrimination and we can begin from either end.
You can choose to discover who you really are. That is the process of many meditation techniques which let you to sit down and seek the source of your own being and stay there in that experience. The other way is to constantly contemplate and negate all that you see, hear, taste, smell, touch and think as “not you”.
What is you alone, is the real thing in life to hold on to. All that is not you—literally everything in this universe that we experience with our senses and think with our mind comes under the category of “not you”.
They are bound to change and once something changes, the quota of joy received from them is gone. Viveka is the thought that helps the mind to rest assured that what is in reality you, never ever leaves you, never gets lost and never ever can give you sorrow or turn against you.
Well, all that is not you, can leave you, can get lost, can give you joy now and sorrow later, can seem very close to you, but turn against you too. If the choice is peace, then go for Viveka!
Brahmacharini Sharanya Chaitanya
(www.sharanyachaitanya.blogspot.in)