Devotional Meditation

(in the Hindu tradition of bhakti yoga)

Devotional meditation starts with a heartfelt prayer said with feelings of humility and surrender to your beloved Radha Krishn. Next is arti, where the devotee waves a diya (flame) in a circular motion before the altar. The significance of the arti is, that the devotee is surrendering his body, mind, and soul for the Divine Beloved’s service. While doing the arti, you should think of God’s Grace, kindness and lovingness, and earnestly feel that your life is for the Divine service of your beloved Radha Krishn.

In chanting meditation, have devotionally loving thoughts. You don’t have to bother about concentration of the mind, you only have to drown yourself in the deep thinking of Their love. There is no physical posture for devotional meditation. You should sit relaxed in any way, and channelize your thoughts in the remembrance of the playful acts of Radha Krishn and Their associates. The descension of Supreme God, Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji, has said, "Krishn chanting purifies the mirror of the heart, subsides the agonizing fire of the material mind, develops the cool effulgence of divine love, brings forth the Divine knowledge, and sprouts the bliss of Krishn love that brings complete divine contentment at every step of one’s life."

This meditation can be done aloud, with the aid of a harmonium or a drum or you can simply listen to, or sing with a recording of a chanting meditation specially imbued with pure devotional attributes. Most importantly, you must continuously remember the name of Radha Krishn in your heart, as instructed by the Spiritual Teacher. Along with this remembrance, every moment, you must try to feel the personified presence of Krishn or Radha with you. You can take the help of a picture of Radha Krishn for your imagination, but you should form your own mental image of Them according to your own liking of features and decorations.

You can talk with Them, walk with Them, play with Them, dance with Them, and embrace Them, but your must always keep in your mind that They are your most loving Beloveds. You should love Them with a humble desire to receive Their Grace. Submit your intellect and vanity in the love of your Divine beloved. Such feelings of love and humbleness are called surrender. Surrender is enriched through the Grace of a real Saint who has attained Divine love. Then the devotee speeds up his progress on the Divine path and enters into divine love consciousness.

 To improve your feelings of love and affinity for Radha Krishn you should do regular devotion every morning and evening (according to your convenience), in which you should quietly remember Radha Krishn and Their name wholeheartedly. Then sing or listen to the chanting of the name of Radha Krishn. While remembering the name and singing or listening to the chant you must meditate, which is the most important part of your devotion.

Meditation should be done like this: Imagine that you are sitting in a most beautiful Divine garden of Vrindaban abode, Yamuna river is flowing nearby, the weather is pleasant and the atmosphere is filled with the divine perfume of uncountable kinds of fragrant flowers which are blooming all over Vrindaban.  There you can watch any of the plays (leelas) of Radha, Krishn, Gopis, or Gwalbals which are going on. You can also think that Radha, or Krishn, or Both, have appeared before you and you are looking to your dearest Divine darling very closely, and He or She is also looking towards you with love and affection. Meditation can also be done with open eyes in a quiet room, but it is preferable that you should do it with closed eyes.

Every moment try to retain this feeling that you are looking to your Divine Beloved. A feeling of exclusive love and ownness is the main factor of meditation. Such feelings of loving affinity deepen your meditation. Selfless yearning for Their vision is ’bhakti’ or ’devotion’, and lively imagination of Their playful Personality with feelings of selfless love is ’meditation’. When yearning appears in the heart, tears of love come. These tears wash out the impurities of the heart. This is the only way of purifying your heart, and qualifying you to taste the sweetness of Divine love. Otherwise devotion remains dry and meditation becomes a routine.