PRAYER
Heavenly Father, may the magic wand of meditation touch all sounds and melt them into the One Cosmic Sound of Om.

HOW TO CONTACT GOD THROUGH MEDITATION

As Taught by Paramahansa Yogananda

(Based upon the truths revealed in St. John's Revelation, Patanjali's Raja Yoga, and upon basic principles discovered by modern science.)

Now you are eager to know the method by which you can contact God through meditation. It is necessary to achieve attunement with Spirit or Divine Consciousness before one can realize Divine Consciousness. In meditation you learn to contact Spirit, or the Creator, in reality. Words cannot convey to you the wonderful realizations and intuitions that the technique of meditation presented in this Lesson will bring you; it would be impossible even to name them all here. If you practice regularly, faithfully, and reverently, you will get them all finally. You will be able to hear the vibrations of the astral centers of consciousness and life in the spine, and in time you will be intuitionally in tune with the Cosmic Vibration. Continued right practice of this technique will give you an unparalleled command over your mind, enabling you to focus it in the most intense way on any object of thought—intellectual, physical, or spiritual. This is as true as the statement that the sun rises in the east. The technique will also help you tremendously to increase your power for the accomplishment of great work in life. Above all, it will enable you to contact the superconsciousness of the soul and through that the cosmic consciousness of Spirit, giving you the wonderful peace, harmony, and poise of mind inherent in the higher life. It helps to soothe and rest the nerves and to bring about the most desirable bodily conditions.

Pray to the Great Spirit with a reverent, loving attitude: "0 Great Spirit, help me to gather my inner powers and realize Thee through Thy Cosmic Vibration. The universe is projected from Thee through vibration. It is sustained by Thee through vibration. Vibrations pervade everywhere. Thou art transcendentally omnipresent with the Cosmic Vibration. Through vibrations in me help me to realize Thee inwardly and outwardly. Awaken my sleeping powers. Rouse my infinite energy. Lead me to the vision of Thy glorious light of peace."

OM VIBRATION EXPLAINED

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). In the begin- ning of Creation was the Word of God or the Cosmic Vibration—CM (Aum, or Amen)--manifesting as sound, impregnated with Christ Consciousness. This projected creative power of God is the God that can be known through contacting Om.

"And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light" (Revelation 22:4-5) . St. John makes reference here to the third eye in the forehead, with its divine light.

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock (sound through Om vibration) : if any man hear my voice (listen to Om) , and open the door, I will come in to him" (Revelation 3:20) .

Patanjali (a great Hindu Raja Yogi) wrote: "Meditate on Om to actually contact Iswara (God). Om is His symbol (manifestation of creation)."

"I was in the Spirit (spiritual consciousness) on the Lord's day (the day of contacting the divine realms of truth) , and heard behind me (in the medulla oblongata, 'behind' or in the back of the head) a great voice, as of a trumpet (the great blissful sound of Om) " (Revelation 1:10) .

"These things saith the Amen (Om), the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God" (Revelation 3:14) . St. John here speaks of the Cosmic Om sound as the faithful witness or proof of the running of the Cosmic Motor, the force which projected creation, and the vibration of its sound as it upholds creation.

"And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps" (Revelation 14:2). These different sounds are vibratory variations of the one Cosmic Sound. Each has its own particular rate of vibration (and hence its own particular sound) which is required to create a particular element in the cosmos.

To love or to meditate upon God, one must definitely know Him. By right practice of this Lesson He can be known, manifesting as intelligent, ever-conscious, ever-new, joyous Cosmic Vibratory Sound, or Om, reverberating all over the universe. By properly listening to and feeling this Cosmic Sound, one's human consciousness gradually becomes en- larged, its territory extended beyond the body to include the universe.

SCIENTIFIC TECHNIQUE OF MEDITATION

The following Om Technique of Meditation—and every other meditation technique that is given in these Lessons—should be practiced in your spiritual temple, the room or corner of a room that you have set aside for meditation and spiritual study. If by chance you have not yet established such a place, make it a point to do so now. Every location reflects the vibrations of the occupation for which it is used; therefore you should set aside some place that may become permeated with spiritual vibrations of prayer and God-contemplation. Thus its atmosphere will be especially conducive to meditation.

Go to your spiritual temple and prepare to practice the Om Technique of Meditation. You will need a small table, about as high as your chest when you are seated, and a straight chair covered with a woolen blanket that extends down under your feet (to insulate you from earth currents) . Lay a pillow on the table. Then seat yourself and place your elbows on the pillow. The elbows should be just high enough so that you have no difficulty in reaching the ears with the thumbs; the spine and head must be held straight at the same time. This matter of position is very important, as the spine must be erect. You will have to experiment, adding more pillows to the table if necessary, until the right height is reached for maintaining the proper position in comfort.

METHOD OF PRACTICE

God has enabled you, by means of your eyelids, to close your eyes and shut off distractions during meditation; He has also given you "earlids" to shut off mind-diverting sounds during deep concentration. These are the cartilaginous flaps (called tragi) at the external ear openings. With your thumbs push them gently in so that they close the ear holes, serving as stoppers to shut out outer sounds. During meditation the thumbs tend to loosen their pressure, so at the outset press firmly enough with the thumbs to close the tragi comfortably tight over the ear openings and thus shut out external sounds as much as possible. Cotton may be used if you have sensitive ears.

When you have placed your thumbs gently over the ear openings, place your little fingers over the lowered eyelids, at the outer corners. Very gently press against the eyeballs so that they do not move restlessly. Place the other fingers of both hands on the forehead. Turning the eyeballs upward and inward, converge your gaze at the central point in your forehead above and between the eyebrows. Practice will make it easy. This practice is beneficial to the eyesight when rightly done as described in this Lesson.

Keep your eyes fixed at this Christ Consciousness center for longer and longer periods when you practice. This will train the optic nerves and eyeballs to adjust easily to the position and thus permit the free focusing of the optical currents of the two physical eyes into the one spiritual eye. At first you may be satisfied with trying to keep your eyes fixed at the point between the eyebrows. After practice, however, you will be able to do this so that the eyelids don't quiver, and the eyeballs do not move. Then you may see a few lights occasionally. If you do see any light, concentrate on it.

By learning to focus your eyes in this way and by concentrating on any light that you see, you are preparing to see the astral light of the spiritual eye—a luminous sun, with a dark round spot inside it and a star inside the dark spot. This third eye—the door to the Infinite—is mentioned in Matthew 6:22. "If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Many other lights will come, but no matter how long you have to practice do not be satisfied until you get the one mentioned above. Should you be bothered with hallucinations, keep the eyes open, turned upward, and fixed on the point between the eyebrows.

With your eyes fixed in this position—or on the astral light that will appear through practice—mentally chant, "Om, Om" (making no sound, nor any movement of the tongue) . Keep listening in the inside of the right ear to any vibratory sound you hear. Reverently be one with the vibration. You may hear in the beginning the purely physical vibratory sounds caused by the heart, lungs, diaphragm movement, circulation, and so forth. Go deeper. As you continue to listen, your concentration will deepen of itself and you will begin to hear the musical vibratory sounds of the subtle astral centers in the spine.

Concentrate with the greatest intensity of mental effort on any sound vibration that comes to you, and be one with it. Immerse your mind in it. Let the mental chanting of Om and the holding of the eyes in the upturned position be done automatically—without mental effort. All your concentration should be on listening to the different vibrations you will hear, first the physical and then, as you listen more deeply, the astral. There will come a time when you can hear the Om sound—which is like the roar of the ocean. If by chance you hear the ocean-roar sound first, you won't have to concentrate on any other sound. Listen intently to Om and feel your consciousness expanding with its vibrations, like an ever enlarging sphere, into eternity. You may be content that you are making progress toward hearing the real Om sound when you hear in the right ear the sound of a great gong or bell emanating from the dorsal center in the spine, opposite the heart.

Variations of the Om sound emanate from the various cerebrospinal centers. All of these sounds will come to you by and by, through regular, deep practice of the Om Technique of Meditation. The four lower centers in the cerebrospinal axis control the elements in man of earth, water, fire, and air. The vibratory activities of each center produce a characteristic sound. In meditation the yogi may hear first the hum, as of a bumblebee, emitted by the earth or coccygeal center at the base of the spine. The water or sacral center has a flutelike sound; the fire or lumbar center a harplike sound; and the air or dorsal center a bell-like sound. The etheric or cervical center, at the base of the neck where it joins the spine, emanates a sound as of rushing waters; and at the medulla oblongata the deeply meditating yogi hears the symphony of all sounds together—the oceanic roar of the Cosmic Om Vibration. It is this symphony of sound that you are striving to hear, above all, when you practice the Self-Realization Fellowship Om Technique of Meditation.

After you have practiced listening for the Om, you may put forth active mental effort once or twice to see the light of the spiritual eye in the forehead. By practicing faithfully you will be able always to see the light with closed eyes, while hearing the vibrations with closed ears. It takes long practice to be able to see the light at will with open eyes. When one can do that, it shows distinct spiritual advancement. However, listening for Om is the most important, more important than seeing the light. This cosmic sound, expression of the Cause of creation, is omnipresent; hence by being one with it, one acquires the same quality of consciousness.

Listen to the various sounds with ears closed, employing the techniques described in this Lesson. As you develop, you will be able to hear the Cosmic Sound of Om with open ears in a quiet or even a noisy place, by the use of a little concentration. However, even though you can hear the Cosmic Sound with open ears, do not forget to practice the technique regularly with ears closed, as you have been taught in this Lesson.

Practice this technique for ten to fifteen minutes during your meditation in the morning; twenty to thirty minutes or longer when you meditate before bed. Bow mentally to God when you are through. Both intensity of mental effort while practicing and duration of practice are needed to reach higher and higher states of concentration.

If time allows, listen for the Om sound longer than the period suggested. Aside from the inner experiences of astral sounds, there also arises a great calmness. Hold to that calm during and after meditation as long as it is possible for you to do so. Apply that calmness in the practical situations of life—in dealing with people, in studying, in business, in thinking, in controlling yourself, in getting rid of any fixed mental or physiological habit or condition that you consider unnecessary or harmful, and so forth. Whenever situations demand discrimination and wise action, recall immediately the calmness felt during and after concentration; fall right into that mood, and meet situations from that calm center.

While practicing concentration, deep intensity of mind is necessary, but there should be no feeling of physical or mental strain. Practice with reverence and feel that in calmness, and in listening to the vibration, you are contacting the Great Spirit who is present within you as Soul, and whose expression is Cosmic Vibratory Sound—the vibration of Bliss. You will positively feel results after faithful practice. Even in the beginning the earnest student will get the valuable results of calmness and joy. Calmness you will certainly have. Deep intuitions come after prolonged practice.

Further, this technique will put you, by and by, in touch with the unexplored reservoir of soul power. Do not be impatient. Keep on! Make study and application of the SRF Lessons a part of your regular routine, as much a part of your day as eating or sleeping. The most beneficial effects flow silently over the whole mental and physiological constitution. As in everything else, highest results cannot be attained in one day. Practice—practice and apply! This Lesson is founded on tried and proven experience, from the time of India's Golden Age down to the present day. Self-Realization Fellowship students all over the world write to us, telling about their contact with the One Spirit as a result of their faithful practice of this technique. Everyone can have the same glorious experience if he perseveres. Without regular practice, which brings these changes in the inner consciousness, the student will not realize his goal. But with faithfulness in daily meditation, the bliss of Om will come.

Say your prayers after contacting God through Om. Fill yourself with Om, or the Holy Ghost, "the Great Comforter," and diverse spiritual powers will manifest through you. In Om-Christ-Bliss the abode of all healing powers will be found.

The Self-Realization Fellowship is the official body that teaches Kriya Yoga which is the advanced teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. Click Here To visit their website.