Meditation has been defined as emptying of the content of consciousness. This is the meaning and the depth of meditation, the emptying of all the content- thought coming to an end.

Easily said. What are the thoughts we get during meditation. The nature of thoughts encountered by are all intentional. It is intentional consciousness that we always encounter. The thoughts can be personal-intentional transpersonal- intenational or universal-intentional.

But what we first encounter are the noises or sounds etc., of the surroundings in which we meditate. For totally annihilating all the thoughts that we encounter during meditation we must understand these thoughts as different from the thoughts that have already become our memory which is a bundle of experiences. Also the valuational judgements we have made on such past experiences and the attitudes and goals that we have formed based on such experiences have to be made as not disturbing.

In the system of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga the meditational practices are aimed at just achieving these two. The morning meditation in which we are asked to give a such suggestion that it is Divine Light without luminosity (not a fact of experience so far) does not permit any intentional consciousness to operate. Thus the consciousness is kept free not from the Freedom to Choose but is given the Freedom not to Choose. This makes us possible to not apply any of our intention to the sensory and other inputs to consciousness. This leads us to a state of Outer silence from Outer Noise. Thus the habit of forming intentions is kept under control. As the meditation practices advance the nature of forming additional loads of intentional consciousness ceases and this is what is called by the state in which no future samskaras are formed.

The meditational practice of cleaning advised in the evening, deliberately aims at getting rid of the effect on our consciousness of the memories and experiences of the past which have formed layers in intentional consciousness. This may not lead to total annihilation of such memories (samskaras) but the process of reduction of such load starts. If the intentional consciousness now makes a firm attachment to the Ultimate Being the process of lightening continues and load shedding happens during dreams and states of contemplation.

With the relative quietening of the effect of intentional consciousness, pure consciousness which does not have any of borders and demarcations based on fragmented intentional consciousness , the state of Silence is experienced. As is the nature of any experience it is transitory and leaves a memory. Then a new category of intentional consciousness namely seeking recurrent experience of such Silence where the consciousness finds Poise and balance is sought after. The urge for this leads to states of Prayer.

This urge is sought to be strengthened by resorting to prayer during night before retiring to bed.

Thus we find the three meditational practices advised by Rev. Babuji are specifically oriented to the 3 tasks at hand to arrive at Pure Consciousness which is beyond all types of intentional consciousness.

The stages of meditation can be examined as 1. A state when the intentional consciousness is such that it is not able to choose any one of them and it is all confusion 2. A state when the intentional consciousness is such that it is compelled to choose one or a few of the related thoughts, such as one, which itself is a perceived compulsion due to the various relationship with other beings that it has developed during life 3. A state when the intentional consciousness is not coerced to choose any particular thought but feels free to make a choice from the various thoughts or thought patterns that are getting confronted by it and 4. A state when the intentional consciousness is free not to choose from any of the thoughts. The 3rd state mentioned above enables a person to choose a thought which promotes a set goal. But when the goal is determined as being one with the Being or Ultimate the thought should be incapable of thought about. The best example being what Master has suggested "Divine light without luminosity". But before coming to this level it may be that the intentional consciousness takes into consideration the auspicious qualities of the Divine. The 4th state mentioned is really one which is had when such thought leads to a condition when pure and simple Silence experienced and the consciousness is in a state of non-reflexion. As any other state such a one is also transitory and temporal, even as the very nature of consciousness is condemned to.