Article taken from saibaba yahoo group...good one so wanted to share it with you all....
What do you mean by meditation (dhyanam)?
Some people say that meditation is sitting with perfect
silence without any process of thought.
Such a contention is meaningless because it virtually amounts to a nice
sleep. These people further misinterpret
that such a meditation is the concentration on formless God (Nirakara). The Gita says that one cannot concentrate on the
formless God (Avyakthahi Gatih).
The meditation on formless God becomes real if one concentrates on the
true knowledge of God. The Veda says
that true knowledge is the real form of the Lord (Satyam Jnanam Anantam
Brahma). Knowledge is formless. Therefore the formless God only means the
true divine knowledge about the Lord.
This is the correct interpretation of Shankara’s philosophy.
The great ancient Vedic sages sat in formless meditation and
this statement means that they concentrated on the divine knowledge (Brahma
Jnana) which was expressed as Upanishads in their mutual discussions
(Satsanga). The actual meaning of the
word Dhyanam is the process of functioning of intelligence (Dhee or Buddhi) and
it pertains to the field of knowledge (Vijnanamaya Kosha). Some people interpret that meditation means
concentration on the form of the Lord like the light blue colour, peacock
feather on the head, flute in the hand etc. [referring especially to Krishna]. Instead
of concentrating mentally upon such objects, one can see these things in a picture
or see the objects directly kept on a table.
If these things constitute divinity, then there is no need of
concentrating on these things. One can
attain the divinity by applying light blue colour on his own body, by wearing a
peacock feather on the head and by holding a flute in one’s hand. Such a divinity can be attained without any
meditation. So meditation of this type becomes
meaningless. This is the reason why Shankara
discarded the meditation on a form (Saguna Brahman).
Of course attraction towards the Lord due to these external things
will help a person to develop attachment for the Lord. One may be attracted to Lord Krishna by such
things and then finally get attracted towards His divine knowledge as preached
in the Bhagavad Gita. These things may
be initial promoters but the final end is only the divine knowledge, which will
help a person in his effort (sadhana) to please the Lord. The divine knowledge resulting in self-realization
will impart a tension-free peace and tranquility to the mind. In this state, one will attain perfect health
of body and mind and thus the benefit is directly seen here itself. E.g. If one realizes that this gross body of
the soul is only the external dramatic dress as said in the Gita (Vaasamsi
Jeernani), he will immediately realize that these family bonds are just
like the bonds in a drama. The soul
forgets the bonds of the previous birth as an actor forgets the bonds of the previous
drama. If these bonds were real, the
soul would have remembered its relatives of the previous birth. Such a divine knowledge, on memorization,
enters the nerves of a person and he will not have any tension about his family
members. He will do his duties without
any trace of tension. This is the
salvation while alive (Jeevanmukti) .
Thus meditation means continuously remembering the divine
knowledge, which yields the direct fruit here itself. Such a person gets a fruit in the upper world
also. The one and only Lord is the
authority both here and there. Anybody
blessed here will also be blessed there.
If one is not blessed here he is not blessed in the upper world either. The grace of the Lord or the anger of the
Lord is uniform both here and there. One
who is not blessed here cannot be blessed there. Thus the true knowledge blesses any person
here and there. Meditation is the continuous
thinking of such knowledge and other interpretations are either useless or of
little use.