In Raja Yoga we generally start with meditation. There is a great underlying philosophy in it. We find ourselves all the time busy with the worldly things. If we are not doing anything, our thoughts seem to have wings in the leisure hours. We are always in tumult and disorder. Our individual mind has become used to such type of character, and thus we have made everything topsy-turvy. Our actions and thoughts count much in our wrong making. When we remain in contact with ideas and thoughts of different kinds, they leave impressions upon our emotional feelings and senses. All senses are spoiled and adopt a wrong course. When such practice continues for a long period, we make them worse. The marks we thus make upon the senses and indriyas turn them solid like a rock, having no bodh or wisdom.

Soul is, no doubt, not acted upon, but we create such obstacles and coverings which keep it enwrapped all round like the cocoon of a silkworm. What happens then? We cannot even peep into the soul, what of realizing it. By the effect of our vicious thoughts and actions we spoil our sense of discrimination and right cognition. Those who have reached this state of solidity, as said above, do not like to come under the teaching of Raja Yoga. This is why people turn a deaf ear to what we say.

If somehow or other they make a firm determination to reach the Reality, the power of Master shall affect them. At the same time I want to add that these things can be shattered only by the help of such a Master who has the power of transmission to break open the wrapped-up things and to remove complexities. Of course the abhyasi is directed to have meditation on certain points of concentration, I mean on one of the chakras, figuratively called lotuses.

We generally take the heart for meditation. The heart is the pumping station of the blood. It sends out blood, after purification, to different nerves and cells of the body. Now we have taken the heart as the centre of meditation. The blood that runs throughout our system is affected. The solidity due to our own thoughts and actions begins to melt away. This is the first thing we begin to gain, from the very first day, by this method of meditation on the heart.

People may ask why it is necessary to proceed with meditation at the first stage of Raja Yoga. The answer is quite plain and simple. We are now gathering ourselves at one point so that our individual mind may leave its habit of wandering about, which it has formed. By this practice we set our individual mind on the right path because it is now metamorphosing its habit. When this is done our thoughts naturally do not go astray.

It is a Hindu belief, and a correct one too, that when we first came into being we were complete, and we were all in close touch with the Almighty. As time went on degeneration set in with the result that we now find ourselves in the lower stratum of humanity. Who created these things within us? It is only we ourselves and nobody else. It is we who have undermined ourselves; it is we who have thrown ourselves into the gloomy dungeon, far far away from the Godly kingdom; it is we who have wrought this havoc within us, making thereby a network interwoven by the fibres of our wrong and vicious thoughts.

Now we want to go back through downward motion to the condition from which we had come down. We use our central force at one point just as the Almighty did when He created the world by issuing forth the powers of creation from just beneath the Centre through the force of His will, in different forms and colours like the fibres of the net, to complete the creation. It was one with Him when there was no creation. He has been at His centre and shall be there when the things, which have come down, go back in Him, or to the original point called the Centre (as explained later in the book). We began to weave our own fibres of different hues and colours and we are all the time with them.

Now we want to return to our own centre. The process naturally will be to draw these things to the point of origin. We do the same thing in meditation and try to gather ourselves at one and the same point to create our pralaya, which is the state we were in when we came down. By meditation we make a will in our heart covering thereby the surroundings around the heart region. It begins to expand, extending over to all chakras (lotuses) located in our body.

Thus all the chakras begin to glow. The circle goes onward passing through region after region till all begin to be absorbed in the innermost circle. What you feel there is dazzling light sometimes, because you have made the passage from the heart towards that region where you are now. The dazzling light now begins to fade because you are going forward. You come in contact with different stages of maya as well. The dazzling light is there. When you cross it you find yourself in a totally calm atmosphere.

Here the kingdom of God begins. There are stages and stages after it which all pass through. Since it seems out of place to discuss them here under the head of Meditation we leave them aside. Now your meditation is leading you to the main goal. No practice of hatha yoga can bring about such a result. It fails after ajna chakra. Meditation — a part of Raja Yoga — is the only thing that can lead you to the end. There is no other means of approaching the Centre.

We have seen that one thought arising out of the Centre created so big a universe. We have got within us the same central force, though marred by our wrong doings. We utilize the same power which is automatic in us. We take work from the same force through meditation. This is how we proceed naturally and with Nature’s force, so to say.

When we meditate, the central power we have remains in force. It disperses the overwhelming clouds which are greatly fried up by its force. Only an abhyasi can feel it. This can only be known practically. You will soon find yourself swimming in everlasting peace and happiness. Everything ends here. There is no attachment with the world. The mind is disciplined. It is automatically regulated. Senses begin to come under control, and you gain mastery over them. To master yourself means to master Nature. When the passage becomes clear you feel the Nature’s work within your bounds and limits, rather you begin to work yourself.