I write these words peacefully perched upon a meditation pillow at the Hamsa Yoga Sangh Mother Center, Yogiraj Siddhanath’s Forest Ashram in the lush Sita Mai Valley of India. Here, a deep inhalation not only fuels me with oxygen, but with the primordial secrets of the universe; the breeze and I dance to this sacred breath of life and I exist in a perpetual state of meditation. As intoxicating smells waft from the kitchen, my Guru eats his breakfast and teaches; he is always teaching—and how lucky I am to learn. Here the other disciples and I practice an advanced form of meditation, Babaji’s true Kriya Yoga as given by Yogiraj Siddhanath. This is the quickest route to enlightenment, a practice that the Guru appropriately terms, “the Lightening Path.” However, when I first began meditating, I was lucky if I could sit still for five minutes without getting up due to the turbulence of my gotta-get-it-done Photo by Atul Sharma
mind. Thoughts and distractions would arise – discomforts, which often tempted me to leave the practice. To achieve success and find inner peace within, a meditation practitioner much exercise his or her will and make the practice a practice. Some tips: meditate as soon as you wake up in the morning for a set amount of time. Start with less time than you think you can sit comfortably, and soon you will feel compelled to add more time. Understand that distracting thoughts will enter your mind. Come to terms with the idea that you may need to give it time. Know that you don’t have to make anything “happen.” Yet, when you make an attempt to change your inner reality, your outer will often transformswith it. At its root, meditation is a practice that stills the mind through conscious breathing. There are myriad systems claiming conscious development and advancement. For example, a friend described her practice as counting to ten with her