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Chapter Five

Chapter Five discusses meditation practices within the Krishna consciousness movement aimed at elevating consciousness from material to transcendental levels. It emphasizes understanding the self as distinct from the body and highlights the role of the supersoul in providing intelligence for decision-making. The chapter concludes that spiritual progress leads to divine guidance from God, as noted in the Bhagavad-gita.

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Parminder Kaur
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13 views

Chapter Five

Chapter Five discusses meditation practices within the Krishna consciousness movement aimed at elevating consciousness from material to transcendental levels. It emphasizes understanding the self as distinct from the body and highlights the role of the supersoul in providing intelligence for decision-making. The chapter concludes that spiritual progress leads to divine guidance from God, as noted in the Bhagavad-gita.

Uploaded by

Parminder Kaur
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHAPTER FIVE

Meditation in Krishna consciousness


Members of the Krishna consciousness movement practice several types of meditation in order to
elevate consciousness from the material level to the transcendental level. We shall now review them.

Meditation on the Self as Different from the Body


The first step in meditation is to understand that the self is not the body. If we meditate carefully we
can see that the body is like a vehicle for the conscious self. We can meditate on the hand, and we can
understand that the hand is not the real self. We can observe it, we can will that it move. We can
understand that it is “my hand.” But who is the “I” that possesses the hand, and who calls the hand
“mine”? That is the real self. If we analyse every other part and limb of the body, we come to the same
conclusion. The parts of the body, or even all of the parts together, are not the self. The self is
something different. The self is different even than the mind. The mind is full of thoughts, but we are
not those thoughts. We are the self that is conscious of the thoughts. In the Bhagavad-gita (13.4), lord
krsna say, “O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity,
one within the body, illuminate the entire body is changing, but the conscious self remains the same.
We can therefore conclude that the self will survive the end of the current body. The Gita (2.13) says,
“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul
similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.”

Meditation on the supersoul


By careful meditation we can perceive the presence of the supersoul. We have already seen that the
self is different than the body. But we can also observe by careful meditation how the conscious soul
takes help from the intelligence. The intelligence gives us direction. For example, if we are standing
on a busy street and wish to cross, then we have to take the help of our intelligence. If the intelligence
is functioning properly, then we look carefully both ways, and if it is safe to cross, the intelligence will
tell us to cross. But what is the source of this intelligence, which we are consulting hundreds of times
a day? The intelligence is coming to us from the supersoul. According to our degree of surrender to
the supersoul, we will get a certain kind of material or spiritual intelligence, which will direct us in a
certain way. Those who are very much influenced that directs them in a way that outside observe will
recognize as deranged. Those who are very much influenced by the mode of passion, will get an
intelligence. That allows them to act very successfully in realm of material acquisition and influence.
And those whose intelligence id influenced by the goodness, will be directed toward spiritual life.
When one is very much absorbed in the activities of spiritual progress, God himself gives good
intelligence. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (10.10), “To those who are constantly devoted to
serving me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.”

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