Science of Spirituality a spiritual organization dedicated to transforming lives through meditation

Today, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj spoke of how we can handle feelings of pain and hurt, so they do not deter us from our spiritual development. There may be times in life when someone has hurt us and caused us great pain. There may also be times when our thoughts, words, or deeds have inflicted pain on someone else. When someone hurts us, it is easy to get angry and retaliate. But anger and retaliation will only escalate the original situation and increase the pain, causing more turmoil in our lives. By the same token, when we recognize that we have consciously or unconsciously brought pain to someone else, we may be filled with remorse at the thought of having hurt another being.

Saints and spiritual Masters speak of the wisdom of letting go to get God. Feelings of pain, anger, regret, and remorse can render us unable to focus on what is truly important in life: our spiritual progress and finding our oneness with God. We need to learn to forgive and forget. If someone has hurt us, let us forgive them, forget the incident, and move on. When we have hurt someone, we should repent and resolve to “do no more.” We need to forgive ourselves, learn from our mistakes, and resolve never to repeat them.

Meditation helps us in this regard. When we meditate, we defocus from the outer world and focus our attention on the peace and stillness within. As we embark on the inner spiritual journey and connect with God’s love and Light within, we experience our oneness with God. We awaken to the truth that we are all connected through the Creator, and everyone is an extension of God. We all have the same goal. When this truth dawns on us, we realize that this life is about being loving and caring as we help each other reach our shared goal. Forgiveness and compassion then come easily to us.

Every day is a gift, and we should resolve to live it happily, with vigor, joy, and peace. We need to embrace our oneness and unity, and this begins with finding peace and stillness within through meditation.

When we close our eyes and sit in meditation, we find that we are instantly bombarded by thoughts that distract us from our practice. Today, addressing the audience gathered at the SOS International Meditation Center, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj revealed the nature of thoughts and how we can overcome them.

Thoughts, said the spiritual Master, are generated by the mind all day long. As we go about our daily activities, we focus on the task at hand, and our attention is not distracted by our thoughts. In contrast, when we sit in silence to meditate and close our eyes, suddenly, thoughts that were continually playing in the background seem louder to us. They make their presence known, and we recognize them. This happens because we have not fine-tuned our practice of stilling the mind, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji said. The thoughts will only go away when the mind is not focused on them.

The key, therefore, is to fine-tune our ability to be in a state of no thoughts. To do this, we still the mind during meditation through the mental repetition of a calming word. This way, the mind does not have the energy to send thoughts our way. We also need to practice the skill of focusing our inner gaze. Using an example of how young children can stay focused on a TV screen for hours, the spiritual Master described how we should focus on the inner screen to experience the realities of our existence. As we fine-tune our focus, the distractions will gradually disappear. It is all a question of practice and being so engrossed in the screen before us that nothing can distract us from the experience.