by Haṁsadūta dāsa

Hamsaduta dasa, personal secretary for Western Europe to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, first joined the Krsna consciousness movement in 1967. He has recently organized the openings of Krsna consciousness centers in Heidelberg, Munich and Stockholm.

THE MEDITATION BUSINESS is flourishing. Soon, it appears, every suburban town will have its regular classes in yoga meditation for health and freedom from neuroses, and every college campus will have its yogi in residence. But despite the popularity of meditation as put forward by various yogis and meditation societies, few people know the true meaning of meditation. According to the Vedic scriptures, the original source from which knowledge of yoga flows, most forms of meditation are virtually impossible to perform in the modern world, and therefore one should learn to meditate by the simple method of chanting and hearing the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.

One may find the Vedic directions for true meditation in the Sixth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita, which explains that the goal of meditation is to absorb the mind in Krsna consciousness and enable one to see the transcendental four-armed form of Visnu within his heart. This system of meditation entails many difficult austerities. One must sit in a rigid posture in a sacred and secluded place, completely control the body's urges for sensual gratification, and utterly renounce sex. The scriptures say that such meditation was indeed possible in Satya-yuga, an age long past when men lived for 100,000 years and the celebrated Valmiki Muni, the author of the epic Ramayana, meditated for 60,000 years to achieve perfection. But in the modern age, Kali-yuga, the Age of Quarrel, such meditation is practically impossible because there is no guarantee that one will live for even sixty years. The so-called meditation now practiced in our modern cities may provide a lucrative business for the shrewd few who teach it, but in achieving the real goal of yogic meditation it has no practical value.

Despite the great difficulties of meditation in this age, however, the scriptures describe Kali-yuga's one great facility:

"This Age of Kali is an ocean of faults, but it offers one great advantage: in this age one can attain liberation simply by chanting the holy name of God." (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 12.3.51)

Therefore, those who are sentimentally meditating but do not know the true meaning of meditation should stop wasting their valuable time and chant the holy names of God as found in the maha-mantra-Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.