Table of Contents
Part I — Meditation
- Question: What does it mean to meditate?
- Question: Can you reveal the inner secrets of meditation to me?
- Question: Guru, you have talked about meditation many times, but it still seems like a very vague word to me.
- Question: What is the relationship between concentration, meditation and contemplation?
- Question: After we have finished meditating, how do we go about contemplating?
- Question: How can we tell which message we hear during meditation is the right one?
- Question: Why is meditation so spontaneous one day and the next day not?
- Question: How can one overcome a feeling of hell and doubt when one meditates?
- Question: How does one bring the mind under control?
- Question: How can I tell if I am meditating too much?
- Question: How do we receive God's Grace?
- Question: I am giving a lot of importance to aspiring through music.
- Question: If I get creative ideas while I am meditating, should I accept them or should I just try to feel with my heart?
- Question: At the end of meditation, I feel very good. Is there anything I should do with that feeling, or any way to utilise it?
- Question: Guru, how can we have a feeling of giving and not expecting in our meditation, especially when we receive a force from you?
- Question: Guru, are you bothered by noise and other disturbances when you meditate?
- Question: Should I meditate on my third eye?
- Question: When I meditate, I lose energy and get tired. Is it because I meditate too much?
- Question: How many times should we meditate per day?
- Question: How long should one meditate? How long can one meditate?
- Question: Is it better to keep your eyes open or closed when you meditate?
- Question: Can one meditate any place, even if one is walking or driving?
Part II — Light
- Question: What is the most important thing for the spiritual aspirant to bear in mind?
- Question: How should you meditate on a particular quality — for example, light?
- Question: Is it necessary to control the mind first in order to receive the divine Light?
- Question: What is the source of the higher Light?
- Question: How quickly does a mantra remove desire from the mind?
- Question: What is the purest Light?
- Question: How can we attain the experience of purest Light?
- Question: When you say, "Peace, Light and Bliss," what do you mean by Light? I keep trying to get a definition of Light and nobody is able to tell me.
- Question: Guru, I often see Light as energy or forcefulness. Would you comment on that, please?
- Question: Oftentimes I have the feeling or sensation that I see Light, but my mind doubts it very forcefully. I was wondering if the Light I see is real or imaginary.
- Question: Can the physical consciousness lag behind, whereas the psychic consciousness is receiving higher light?
Part III — Discourses
Part IV — Hartford television interview
- First interviewer: I've heard about meditation, but I really don't know too much about it. This morning our guest is Sri Chinmoy, who is an expert in the area of meditation. He has lectured at many universities and written several books on the subject, and he also conducts twice-weekly meditations at the United Nations. It's nice to have you here this morning, Sri Chinmoy.
- Second interviewer: What are some of the exercises? What can you learn from reading a book about how to empty your mind and heart? How would the readings inspire you to be able to do this?
- Second interviewer: We are talking with the distinguished authority on Yoga and meditation, Sri Chinmoy. Sir, what about the housewife who is at home with three screaming children in the morning or most of the day? Or the business executive who is just running from here to there for appointments all day long? How can they sit down and take a few moments to meditate? How can you get them to calm down from their daily activities?
- First interviewer: I've read about classes that you can go to and some seem very expensive, something like $300 for a class. Do you feel there is commercialism in meditation?
- Second interviewer: You mentioned the presence of God a number of times, and that would lead to another question: Is this God compatible with every religion that anybody might belong to?
- First interviewer: I remember reading in the paper one day about certain scientific studies in terms of the physical effects that meditation has on the body. What are some of these?
- Second interviewer: Peace and love are wonderful things to have and we should all have them. But what do you do if you are trying to express a feeling of peace and love but people around you are running here and there, backstabbing and what-not in the everyday business world, let us say? How can this really help the situation?
- Second interviewer: I think, though, that a lot of people will look upon somebody who is meditating and so on as kind of weird, bizarre or mystical. How do you counter that feeling?
