Hello and welcome to episode 9 of The Ask Sri Vishwanath Show. Today I want to talk about a secret tool used by ancient sages to get the maximum benefit from meditation. This is a powerful secret you may not have heard before!
Today’s question comes from Paul who lives in New York. Paul says “I have been meditating for a decade now but I cannot seem to apply the peach I achieve during meditation to my daily life and work. The moment I stop meditating I become disconnected from my consciousness and I feel like it has been a waste”
Thanks for the question Paul. A lot of people have this problem. Beginners and those who are more advanced. Today I want to talk about an interesting concept called chewing the cud. It was introduced by Sri rama Krishna paramhansa who was a guru to Vivekananda.
We should have a goal and the goal is to draw the butter from the milk. You need to extract the right amount of consciousness and carry it throughout your day.
Get the milk
So the first step is to get the milk. The second is to set it to curd. To do this it must be set in a quiet place. It must be somewhere that it will not be disturbed. Then you must churn the curd.
So let’s explain these steps. First, getting the milk. You know this part. You know that you must meditate to get in touch with your consciousness. You are already doing this. The second step, setting it to curd, well you have only partially done this. You went to a quiet place but Krishna and all the great ones say that you shouldn’t differentiate between your mediation hours and other hours in the day.
Meditation is not about just sitting in a pose. It’s a state of mind that you must carry with your throughout the day. Think of it like your beating heart. Your heart cannot stop so neither should this state of mind.
Don’t look at meditating like eating or something that you have to do. Having an allocated time is fine but you have to think of meditation as a 24 hour, 7 day week, 365 day experience. When you meditate you become extremely focused and there are no disturbances so you are able to get in touch with your consciousness.
So how do we keep this state of mind for the rest of the day? I want to give you some examples form my book: The lens of Krishna. If you would like to read more it is available on our site, you can download it for free.
Three pictures
So during your waking hours I want you to think of three pictures in your mind. These images in your mind should remind you of God or Krishna or some other higher power. It could even be an image from nature or a religious symbol, it doesn’t really matter. I have loads of pictures in my head but 3 is enough.
During your waking hours meditate on these pictures by thinking about them for one second each. Do this 8 or 10 times a day. The more you practice the less you will need to think of them. Eventually you will realise that you may only need to meditate on them once or twice during the day and the effect will last for hours and hours.
Krishna says when you think of heat you think of fire. Fire is the gross object and heat is the quality. Meditation is subtle so to make it a gross object we must visualise it during our waking hours. It’s very easy to do this. Just use those 3 pictures. You could be driving in the car or working at your desk and you can think of them. It will only take a moment to think of them but the benefits will last much longer. When you visualise you will be connected back to that state of mind again.
A process
Remember the setting to curd is an ongoing process. You should be trying to achieve this state of mind on a constant basis. Do this little task for 3 seconds 8 to 10 times a day and you’ll be getting the second step right.
This is interesting. Ram Krishna came up with the term chewing the cud. In some southern parts of India people will bathe the elephants. It’s a wonderful thing to see. Eight or ten people will stand by the elephant and brush their bodies to keep them clean. After the bath the elephant is encouraged to go back to the stable because if it stays out it will get dusty and dirty again and it will lose all the benefits of the brushing and cleaning.
Stay clean
So after you meditate go to the “stable”. Don’t allow yourself to get “dirty” again. The moment you get up from meditating don’t start talking. Stay in the moment for a while. Don’t let that peace of mind be disturbed. Take your time after meditating to reflect on the state of mind. You need to let the curd sit. You must have confidence in meditation and that it’s power will help you.
Look at meditation as a bathing of the soul. You need to stay as clean as possible for as long as possible so when you get up don’t let your first thought be of worldly things. If your first thought is of worldly things then all your bathing and meditating will have been a waste as your mind will be disturbed and you’ll be covered in dust again. All of those steps will be wasted.
Chew the cud
Here is an example. A person visited a holy place and RamaKrishna Paramhansa asked him where he went after that. He said he went to his mother in laws place and he had a nice time. RamKrishna immediately told him to leave, he said after you visit a holy place you must chew the cud. You must churn the curd and allow it to become butter. He should not have done such a worldly thing after visiting a holy place. He did the hard work and then he disturbed it again.
Don’t get involved in worldly things after meditation. Take ten or fifteen minutes to reflect on it. Make sure you get your reward after all that hard work. Make sure you get that butter. That is always the goal. Once you get it you can enjoy the wonderful things that come with it
I hope this answers your question. Remember you keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them.
