Rajas and Meditation

There are three gunas (qualities) of the mind/body. They are Satva (positivity, lightness), Rajas (activity) and Tamas (inertia, sleep).

All the three gunas are part of our system and are required.

Rajas or Rajo Guna puts us to activity. Any activity that we perform, whether it is getting up and going to another room or playing basketball, Rajas is required. But, it is the Rajogun imbalance which can prevent you from going deeper in your meditation. If you are getting lot of connected thoughts in your meditation, it could be due to Rajas imbalance in the system.

Doing some light exercises or Yoga before the meditation can really help balance the Rajo gun. Few rounds of Sun Salutations before you sit for meditation can be very effective.

Below is a link of Sun salutations performed by a senior Art of Living faculty at Art of Living’s international headquarters in Bangalore, India.

Life Meets Meditation

How does meditation connect with real life? 

Why people really do it ? 

How can we tune into "the joy of quiet" despite the daily demands of an often over-stimulated life?

Join us for a enchanting webinar with "Rajshree Patel", senior teacher from the Art of Living, as she leads a fascinating interactive discussion about the intersection points of meditation and real life.

Webinar Details:

"Life Meets Meditation "an exploration with Rajshree Patel, senior teacher from the Art of Living

Tuesday, March 20th at 6pm PT / 9pm ET Click here to register 

This session will be online.Participation is free but you will need to register in order to receive the link to attend.

Q and A with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q. Why should people meditate in our modern society? 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:  If you look at the benefits that meditation brings in our life, you will find that it is all the more relevant. In ancient times, meditation was used as a way for finding the Self, for enlightenment. Meditation was a way to overcome misery and problems. It's the way to develop one’s abilities.

If you want, keep aside enlightenment. Today’s  stress and tension in society calls for meditation. If you take more responsibility, more meditation is required. Greater responsibilities and ambitions you have, greater is the need for you to meditate. If you have nothing to do, you may not need meditation as much.

The busier you are, the lesser time you have, the more desires and ambitions you have - all the more is the need to meditate. Because meditation not only relieves you of stress and strain, it also enhances your abilities,strengthens your nervous system and mind. Not only does it help eliminate stress and tensions, releasing toxins from the body and soothing the mind, it also makes you more capable, enhances you in every way. What else do you want?

I would say if you want to be happy and healthy, you’ve got to meditate

Q: How does the Art of meditation help the mind, the body, spiritual aspirations and relationships and society as a whole?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Meditation helps to change your perspective. It improves the way you perceive things. It brings clarity in the mind. It improves your interaction with people around –what you say, how you react and act in different situations, you become more aware. In general, from a stress-free society to peace and health in individuals and from a violence-free society to a sorrow-free soul – all are side effects of meditation.

Q: Guruji, to retain the state acquired in meditation, what should I do?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Just keep doing what you are doing now. You have to continue doing it, again and again. ‘Baar baar Raghuveer samai’: Again and again meditate.So do meditation,sadhana and satsang and talk about it as well. Anything that is in your speech, the mind and in action gets firmly established. If you do your sadhana and the rest of the time you keep talking about petty things,whatever juice you got after your sadhana will start fading away. That is why in speech also,let that state find expression.Whenever you talk,talk about knowledge,talk about love.Then you will see it gets more firmly established in you.

This is the importance of satsang.In satsang we talk about the good things,we talk about knowledge,meditation and miracles.You talk about miracles happening in someone's life -isn't this what you discuss? How many of you talk like this,only about miracles? What happens when you talk only about miracles?Everyday something new happens in your life and so many new lessons are learnt. So the mind becomes strong with these kinds of discussions.

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Meditation for Body, Mind & Money!

Full time workers who used a traditional 'silent' form of meditation became much less stressed and depressed compared to more conventional approaches to relaxation or even placebo, according to one of the most thoroughly designed studies of meditation ever published in the online journal Evidence Based Complementary Medicine, a leading publication in its field.

A team of researchers led by Dr Ramesh Manocha at Sydney University’s Meditation Research Program, monitored stress levels of full-time workers in Sydney’s CBD to determine the effectiveness of meditation in combating this widespread and expensive problem.

The study was done in three groups for a period of two months, it showed that those who used Sahaja Yoga meditation (silent form of meditation) showed significant reduction in their stress levels compared to those who used other methods of meditation that didn't involve thoughtless awareness.

Dr Manocha states “The eight-week clinical trial provides strong evidence that there are measurable, practical and clinically relevant effects of meditation, and particularly those that are aimed at achieving the experience of mental silence”

Stress can be due to events such as buying a home,marriage, work or anything. Work stress is described by many experts as a modern epidemic and the majority seeks help from General Physicians, who are often at a loss to know what to recommend that is safe, effective and scientifically evaluated.

   

Workplace stress costs U.S. employers an estimated $200 billion per year in absenteeism, lower productivity, staff turnover, workers' compensation, medical insurance and other stress-related expenses. It costs the Australian economy $15 billion per year & cost to the economy of UK is approximately  £100 billion per year according to study by Mental health charity Mind.

Considering this, stress management may be world’s most important economical challenge of the 21st century.

At present many studies are coming up with scientific facts which strongly prove that meditation is something that can be used to both prevent and reduce stress and hence it has broad implications for health and economics of the Society.

In the Art of Meditation course by Art of living, participant is taught to use a simple sound mentally which then allows the mind to settle down and go within. When the mind and nervous system are allowed to repose a few moments in the profound silence, the blocks that clog the system gradually dissolve.

 “When the mind is calm, alert and totally contended, then it is like a laser beam-it is very powerful and healing can happen”- Sri Sri

 Research Paper on Meditation

Sometimes to Open your eyes, you need to Close them!

With meditation, and with a relationship to your mind, 

You can use the power of the mind to achieve what you aspire !