Meditation or Prayer
Question
Hello; It's almost 2 years that I'm practicing brahmacharya. I learned about it first here then I read Sivaananda's book. My question is about meditation. I used to practice meditation for almost 10 years but I went through some distress and family strife and the result was an unrest mind so that I was not able to sit and meditate anymore, and after a while I lost all interest in meditation, and gradually forgot about it at all. Now it's almost 8 years that I haven't had meditation time, but recently I started praying. I started praying and through (what might someone call) scientific prayer I started to find faults and shortcomings in my character; bad behaviors and false attitudes. What I'm trying to ask is that can these two, prayer and meditation, be compared to each other? Can through prayer I gain my equilibrium once again to get back to meditation? Can meditation hide our faults (ego-related faults)from our site, but prayer bring them to our notice? Thank you for your answer and the efforts you put on disseminating knowledge of brahmacharya to people who are looking for purity.
Answer
1. Start with prayer, with devotion to God. When the devotion becomes intense, one automatically goes into meditation.
2. Meditation is the final and most advanced activity that can be performed by oneself. It supersedes prayer, for in prayer, one wants something; while in true meditation, one wants nothing. The Ego (which has wants) is set aside and the self alone shines, real meditation occurs.
All defects are ultimately burnt through meditation on the Supreme and true knowledge (from the self) shines forth, further to long practice of correct meditation. Therefore, all that is to be known, can be known through meditation.
ॐ तत् सत्
(That Supreme being is the absolute truth)