2# Heartfulness Rejuvenation

Another essential feature of Heartfulness Meditation (Sahaj Marg) is called cleaning i.e Rejuvenation and involves the removal of impurities, emotional complexities and mental distortions which are the result of past thoughts and actions, and which hinder our ability to sustain spiritual progress. In this insightful teaching, we learn that the habits, tendencies and impressions (samskaras) gently drop off, as a result of this cleaning, and as we continue the practice. Even a short time of sincere practice will leave us with a feeling of lightness and free us from self-imposed limitations.

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to day two of our Heartfulness Institute Masterclass.

Let's get straight into our practice and allow ourselves to reset and deepen our meditation.

Hello everyone.

Welcome today to the second element of the Heartfulness practice.

We like to call it cleaning or rejuvenation.

What is the relation between cleaning and rejuvenation?

It is like concentration and meditation.

Meditation produces a state of concentration.

Cleaning rejuvenates us.

It's a by-product.

It's the result.

I think it is one of the most important elements of this Heartfulness practice.

What is cleaning?

What is it that we are trying to clean?

Let us try to first understand the difference between karmas,

Samskaras,

Impressions,

Perceptions.

And I'm not going to go in depth.

Suppose you look at someone and it creates such an impact in your heart.

Oh,

She is so irresistible,

For example.

And for days you keep thinking about her.

The impression has caught you.

In the scientific world,

Second law of Newton,

Or first law of Newton,

I'm not an expert in physics,

But actions and reactions are equal and opposite in direction.

But in the field of spirituality,

The reaction to a particular action has no measure.

It can be drastically so profound that a mere glance can produce such an impact that you don't forget all your life.

So the result in the spiritual world need not be equal and opposite.

It can be as large as encompassing the whole universe or nothing at all.

It depends on us.

This particular practice tries to remove the certain perceptions which we gather because of whatever reasons.

Someone sees to a particular idea and says,

Oh,

This idea is good or bad.

The other person sees the same idea and says,

Oh,

This is useless.

The other person sees the same idea and says,

Oh,

It's so great.

What makes such a difference?

All of us are not attracted to the same thing to the same extent.

We all have different degree of reaction to the same thing.

Our impressions,

Our background,

Our perceptions,

They work like these colored glasses.

We all wear colored glasses in our consciousness.

How to perceive the thing as it is?

You have heard the story of a great lover who was trying to meet his beloved,

Who was living across the river side.

That night,

Even when it is raining heavily and has to cross the flooding river,

He catches hold of something what he felt it was a log crosses the river.

The door is locked,

So he's trying to climb it to the first floor of his beloved.

He thinks what is rope,

Holds it and climbs it up and enters beloved's chamber.

Later on,

Beloved asks,

How did you climb?

How did you come?

He said,

You left a rope for me to come up.

This laughing,

A rope,

I never left a rope for you.

I didn't even know you were coming.

Anyway,

Then when they see through the window how he climbed up,

It was a huge snake.

He felt it was a rope perception.

He was madly in love.

So your little thing seemed as if things are helping him to achieve his goal.

Then he's returning and sees the log that he thought it was,

It was a dead corpse.

So perception again.

There's a beautiful example of an elephant or a horse tied by rope to a small plastic chair.

Imagine the impact of such a perception,

Horse or an elephant who can bring down the entire tent in a circus,

But it is tied to a mere small plastic chair.

Again,

It's a matter of perception.

Our ideas,

Our thoughts,

Our impressions,

They have such a hold on our being.

We need to clean that and see the things they are.

So I would like to share with you all how to get rid of these impressions,

Perceptions,

Reactions or broadly speaking karmas or samskaras,

How we can remove them.

All our daily activities are like carbingers collecting all these things,

Knowingly or unknowingly.

At the end of the day,

When most of our daily activities are over,

We come home to 10,

15 minutes of relaxation,

Spending time with the family.

Sit down quietly in some nice cozy corner in your house and try and apply this particular technique.

This whole technique is to bring about or bring out the inner abilities from us so that we see things as they are.

We like to remain pure.

We like to remain simpler.

The complexities and impurities that we gather or let's put it differently,

The complexities and impurities that we have accumulated because of these daily activities which are unavoidable,

We have a chance now before these impressions or before these cognates get settled in the deeper level of my consciousness,

I like to remove them.

See,

Often we see when somebody says,

Do you know such and such a song?

Then we try to find,

We scan through our mind,

We try to find the cognates of this song buried in our mind.

If these cognates are found that yes,

The song is there,

I know about this song,

Then you sound so wise or full of knowledge,

Oh,

I know this song.

But if these cognates are not found,

Then you say,

Oh,

I don't know it.

I remain ignorant about it.

So we all carry a certain level of cognates which we recognize in our interactions.

And these are these cognates which go on interfering our daily activities.

Either we know or we don't.

And complexities arising out of all these cognates,

Buried impressions,

Interfere with our judgments.

Either we make too much of judgment or too little of a judgment because of lack or full clarity.

So this practice of dissolving the impressions that are acquired within us over the course of our daily activities is taken up seriously at the end of the day.

Removing these complexities,

What would you expect?

Simplicity isn't it?

When we remove impurities,

Natural result is purity inside.

This both in turn,

Simplicity and purity,

Brings about naturalness within our system.

Now what is the process?

How do we do this cleaning during these three Heartfulness Masterclasses?

We are enabled because of this transmission or this initiatory process.

We are enabled somehow to do this cleaning on our own.

We are given enough of capacities and know-how or a technique so that we can remove these daily accumulations.

Our activities,

Our daily activities,

Rather create a lot of complexities and impurities.

And they somehow color our consciousness.

It impacts our heart and impacts our mind.

Eventually it affects our meditative consciousness.

For example,

These impressions can lead us to endlessly mull over repetitive thoughts.

Imagine something that you have forgotten during daytime or you did not complete it during daytime.

It creates a certain level of impression and it haunts your mind just before you go to sleep.

So incomplete work,

Something that you did wrongly also haunts us.

So when we do this cleaning,

These impressions are removed in such a way that not the memory is removed,

But the impact of such a failure or success is removed.

The impact of our actions,

The impact of our inactions,

Impact of our thoughts,

Impact of our ideation or impact of the surrounding,

Means our boss or some innocent things can also impress our mind.

And slowly we realize that as I do more and more cleaning,

My inner being is so focused.

It remains purer and simpler enough to see things directly.

We perceive things directly with it,

I think,

As a result.

This is again a matter of experience and I would like you to feel what a difference it can make to our consciousness.

So today I would also demonstrate to you,

Actually walk you through this process of cleaning.

Another way of understanding these impressions or samskaras or karmas or perceptions,

You can compare them with seeds.

Seeds,

Something that would under a particular environment,

Given a right environment,

They get the opportunity to sprout.

If these seeds sprout and take hold of our consciousness with a wilder manifestation of it,

It's difficult to control their growth.

It becomes a jungle.

We like to organize our thoughts.

We like to plan our things properly in such a way that a particular seed should grow in a particular environment,

A particular place,

Like a master craftsman or a great gardener who would plant certain seeds in certain locations at a certain time.

In such a way the beautiful garden can come.

That if seeds are left alone to grow wherever,

Whenever,

Everywhere,

Then it becomes a jungle.

Thoughts and ideas left uncontrolled,

Unregulated,

Ungeneralized,

Uninspired,

Creates a jungle,

A chaotic life.

This process of cleaning helps us regulate all these things.

Not only it removes certain impressions from our deeper levels of consciousness or even mundane level of consciousness,

It actually inspires us in choosing the right thing,

Making right decisions in life.

This process has to be ideally done just after we come home.

You know,

I'm a retired pharmacist.

I used to work 9 to 7 and by the time I came home it was generally 8 p.

M.

So by 8.

15 I would sit in my room and would use this excellent cleaning process.

It would help me regain strength,

It would rejuvenate myself and it would calm me down further.

And most importantly I felt that if I had not done my cleaning then I would be interacting with that frustrated mind,

Chaotic mind,

Spoiled consciousness to a certain extent with the family members.

Imagine you come with certain irritated state and interact with family members.

Wouldn't it be beautiful if I can get rid of this through a simple process of cleaning?

Today we will be doing this cleaning only for about 10 minutes or so.

But later on in your day to day life I would wish that you would do this cleaning for at least 20 minutes to see the immediate results.

If you have more time extend it up to 30 minutes but I would not recommend this cleaning process to be done more than 30 minutes at a time.

So let's begin.

Let's do this cleaning.

This is how we do it.

Just like meditation we close our eyes very gently.

Now the focus here is the back part from top of the head till the tailbone,

Shoulder to shoulder back part.

We have to think that all the complexities and impurities are going away.

This is a kind of sankalpa,

This is happening,

Complexities and impurities are going away.

From where?

From this back side.

From top of the head till the tailbone.

Imagine that and think that they are going from that back side.

And how?

Think that they are going in the form of smoke.

So let us rethink this process,

What we are doing.

We are simply making a sankalpa or a suggestion that all complexities and impurities are going away from my backside in the form of smoke.

Continue with this process.

If you are settled with this much.

I would like you to do one more thing,

Accelerate this process.

Now gently add the next element to this cleaning process.

Imagine the light is descending from above.

It is entering from the front side of your system and passing through the entire system,

Entire body.

Moving out from the backside now,

Helping us remove these complexities and impurities.

This light in turn is helping me fill up the vacuum left behind by the removal of complexities and impurities.

At the end of this cleaning,

Generally we make a firm suggestion that yes,

All the complexities and impurities are now removed.

And that I feel not simpler and purer.

Okay.

Now that cleaning is done,

I would like you all to write your observation.

How do you feel after cleaning?

How this experience differs from meditation?

I would like you to pay your attention to it.

Pay attention like a scientist would,

To see the difference in process and its results.

Today when we finish this 10 minutes of cleaning,

I would like you to meditate the way we meditated yesterday.

Those of you who are joining us today,

Who could not attend the first master class on meditation,

Please revisit.

It's available.

But just to give you a quick learning on how to meditate,

Just simply close your eyes and think that the source of light is already present in my heart and it's pulling my attention inward.

I'll be transmitting to you today again.

Please sit like this for about another 15 minutes or 20 minutes.

The end of which I'll say that's all.

Thank you.

Reviews

Great! Thank you