By Swami Satrupananda

How will the pandemic play out?  Who will win the U.S. Presidential election? How will it impact me?  You ask these questions because you want certainty in the future.  You seek this certainty because you have forgotten the certainty of your own existence.  Your own existence is unchanging, eternal.  You will feel unsettled until you know and live from that inner certainty.  It’s time to stop looking for certainty in the world and find your eternal, unchanging Essence within.

Technology can make us feel like we are in control of our lives, providing the illusion of certainty.  “Siri, set a timer for 5 minutes.”  “Alexa, play music I like.”  Our phones are smart.  Our homes are getting smarter.  Stores are opening with no cashiers and no checkout lines.  Technology has helped declutter your mind of telephone numbers as well as appointment times and dates.  Yet your mind still churns.

You try to calm your mind by finding certainty in external circumstances.  But you are looking in the wrong place.  To find certainty, look for it in your own existence.  The sages from India describe your innermost Essence as unchanging and eternal.  In the Vivekachudamani, the 8^th century yogic sage Shankaracharya described this Essence:

Aatmaan [your Divine Existence] is birthless and deathless. It neither grows nor decays. It is unchangeable, eternal. It does not dissolve when your body dissolves. — Translated by Swami Nirmalananda

You exist beyond birth and death.  You have never not existed.  You will never stop existing.  Nothing you can take away from yourself will make you less you.  Nothing you can add will make you more you.  You are unchanging and eternal.  You exist.  Your existence is the one Eternal Existence that is being everyone and everything.

I remember my first experience of the eternity of my beingness.  It was early on in my meditation path.  An awareness arose that I always existed and will always exist.  It was a knowing beyond my intellect.  Having been steeped in the time-space continuum from my scientific education, my intellect was blown away.  I could not understand my experience with my mind.  Yet I knew my Eternal Beingness was more real than anything my mind could ever understand.

It is incredible that I had such a profound experience of my own eternality so early on in meditation.  This is the specialty of Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation: a Meditation Master shows you the way.  Swami Nirmalananda is a modern day-Meditation Master, a representative of an unbroken lineage of Masters.  She opens the door inside to your own certain Existence.  She is the catalyst that fuels the discovery, making it quick and easy.

Well, at least she makes it quicker and easier.  This is a process of discovering and learning to abide in your own Existence.  It is a bit peculiar:  if you are eternal, beyond time, why don’t you know it all the time?  The answer is a four-letter word: mind.  Your mind draws you outward.  

Your mind runs around the world seeking certainty that can only be found inside.  It’s not just your mind.  Everyone’s mind does this.  It’s called the human dilemma.  Each of us is the one eternal Existence, yet we don’t know.  It is the ultimate quest in life — to know your own eternal Existence.  So your mind needs to do some work.

By using your mind to turn inward, you can discover and live in the certainty of your own Existence.  Abiding in your eternal Essence, you continue to live in the world.  But you approach it from a different place within yourself.  While living in this uncertain world, you are based in the certainty of your eternal Existence.  To get there, follow the path shown by Swami Nirmalananda and dive within.

By Swami Prajñananda

Deep and easy.  This is the specialty of Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation.  Even first-time meditators often experience deep meditative absorption in their very first meditation.  We call this “dropping in.”  You sit and repeat the mantra (your tool for meditation).  After only a few repetitions, you settle into a deeper dimension within yourself. 

The first few times you “drop in,” you may think you fell asleep.  But this is not the same as sleep.  Instead of going into unconsciousness, you are delving into Consciousness-Itself.  When you open your eyes after your meditation, you feel more energized, expanded and settled within.  This is something different than sleep.  This is the beginning of your awakening. 

Awakening is a good description because you progressively become more aware as you continue meditating.  Awake means “to become conscious or aware of something.”  That is what happens when you meditate — you become aware of something.  You become aware of your own Divine essence, which is pure, whole and complete.  Yoga calls this your Self.  Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation gives you easy access to your own essence, your own Self. 

This experience changes how you feel within yourself, even when you’re not meditating.  You feel better, more alive and more you.  Yet you may not know how you got to that deeper level or how to stay there.  You plunge in and then, like a cork in water, you bob out.   Inside and outside seem disconnected.  How do you bridge that gap?

When I first started meditating, I was a school teacher.  I squeezed all my yoga practices into the morning before my 8 am start time.  It was a tight schedule.  Everything was planned down to the minute, so when I finished meditating, I would jump up!  And then I was off to the next thing on my list.  There was no time for me to linger after my meditations.  So, I felt a disconnect between my meditation seat and my day-to-day life. 

You can extend your meditations beyond your mediation seat.  Simply linger after your timer goes off.  When you open your eyes, contemplate your meditation experience for a few minutes.  Notice how you feel.  Linger in the afterglow.  This is one of the reasons why we recommend journaling after every meditation.  It helps you to linger longer in your meditation.

Lingering is described by K.semaraaja in the Pratyabhij~nah.rdayam:

Samaadhi-sa.mskaaravati vyutthaane bhuuyo bhuuya”s-cid-aikyaamar”saan-nityodita-samaadhi-laabha.h.

— Pratyabhij~nah.rdayam 19

The permanent state of absorption is cultivated by dwelling on one’s own identity with consciousness (Chiti) over & over again. 

— Translated by Swami Nirmalananda

The sage K.semaraaja explains that not only is it possible to linger in your meditation, you can cultivate a “permanent state of absorption.”  He is describing a pathway to Self-Realization.  You can realize and live in this knowingness of who you are at the deepest level of your being. 

You can practice Self-Knowingness.  It starts with meditation.  You repeat mantra and dive deep within to experience your own Divine essence.  When you finish your meditation period, instead of jumping up and out, linger and deepen down and in.  Instead of leaving meditation for the world, extend your awareness to include the world without losing who you are.  This is the state the great Masters have described through the ages.  But it is not exclusive to those who lived in the past.  This is possible for you too.  To make this a reality, in the here and now, meditate.  Meditate and linger in your own essence.  Take that knowing and being of who you are with you into the world and into your life.  Cultivate Self-Knowingness.