Meditation & life – compartmentalized or integrated

Our love needs to be seen, not just through the words that we speak but also through the actions that we do.

The Bhagavad Gita (2.55) describes the characteristics of an enlightened soul and states that their speech is an important characteristic, specifically in terms of how they stay unaffected by life’s dualities—neither by praising them disproportionately nor by cursing them disproportionately. Later, the Gita repeats this element of speech when describing not just generic spiritually advanced seekers but specifically devotionally advanced seekers. They have three characteristics (10.9): their minds are absorbed in Krishna, their words are centered on Krishna, and their lives, in terms of their actions, are dedicated to Krishna. Thus, while words are undoubtedly important, they are placed here within a tri-parted framework that also includes the internal element of the mind and the more externally engaged element of activity using one’s body.

Meditation and Life Integration

Now, what goes on in someone’s mind, or where someone’s mind goes or does not go, is something that we generally don’t have access to. Therefore, the parameter of making our mind our home—making our mind focus on Krishna, or ensuring that our mind makes its home in Krishna—is a parameter that we can use for our personal self-evaluation of our consciousness.
For gauging how devoted someone else is, we need to look not just at their words but also at their actions, especially at the congruence of their words and actions, or the absence thereof. When we understand that the immersion of one’s entire being is signified through one’s thoughts, words, and deeds, we get a holistic framework for deciding the spiritual authenticity and advancement of others.
While we don’t want to become judgmental in our dealings with others and fix labels on them, we need to be discerning so that we can know whom to trust and whom to associate with, ensuring we are assisted and not impeded in our spiritual growth.

Our words and deeds can be complementary in the sense that our words can be illustrated through our deeds, as people see in action the principles that we are speaking about. Through our deeds, our words can be illuminated, in the sense that people understand the principles and purposes driving our actions when we explain the rationale behind them with our words.
When we are striving to meditate on Krishna, such meditation won’t be tangible or transformational if we compartmentalize it into just one activity that we occasionally do because it provides us some stress relief. It will be tangible and transformational when it is integrated, or when the underlying principles, worldview, and value system are integrated into our entire being, and we also manifest them through our words and deeds.
While we do need to wholeheartedly strive to concentrate during our meditation sessions, we also need to dwell on and analyze the kind of words we are speaking during the rest of our day, apart from our meditation time, and the kind of deeds we are engaged in. The more those words and deeds are synergized and harmonized with our spiritual values, the more we’ll find that our inner meditation will become immersive and transformative.

Summary:

• A person’s consciousness and character can be gauged holistically by considering a tri-parted framework: what their default thoughts are, what their words are about, and what their actions are directed toward.
• When we are devoted to some higher cause, our words can be illustrated by our deeds, and our deeds can be illuminated by our words, thereby bringing about a synergy between the two.
• To meditate effectively, we need to not just strive wholeheartedly to focus during our time of meditation but also strive to center our words and actions on the divine during the rest of the day when we are not directly meditating.

Think it over:

• What are the parameters with which we can gauge a person’s spiritual authenticity or advancement?
• Explain how speech and actions can synergize.
• What’s wrong with compartmentalizing our meditation and seeing it as an activity unconnected with the rest of our life?

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10.09 The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.