Many people avoid meditating because they feel that meditation requires some extraordinary ability to concentrate that they don’t possess. However, the fact is that all of us have the ability required for meditation, as is evident whenever we get lost in a common activity: worry. When we worry, thoughts often leave our immediate circumstances and go towards some problem, be it real or imagined. And letting our thoughts take us away from our circumstances is the essential ability required for meditation. Thus, all of us have the ability to meditate; we just need to redirect the focus of our thoughts from a temporary worldly situation to an eternal other-worldly reality, Krishna.

Of course, this redirection may initially seem difficult due to the default momentum of the mind to gravitate towards worldly situations. We can, however, muster the determination to counter the default motion by contemplating the contrasting effects of worrying and meditating:

• Worrying agitates us, whereas meditating pacifies us
• Worrying confuses us, whereas meditating illuminates us
• Worrying exhausts us, whereas meditating energizes us.

Lest we fear that things will go wrong if we don’t worry about them, we can take heart from Krishna’s assurance in the Bhagavad-gita (09.22) that for those who meditate on him, he takes care of their worries about protecting what they have and providing what they lack.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 09 Text 22

“But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form – to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.”