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individual surrounded by problems prepare his mind for undertaking meditation? Even if the right mentality is created, how can inveterate habits, nourished for years, be changed?
Ans. Tension is at the root of some habits. The indi
vidual continually afflicted with one problem or the other becomes a victim of tension. In order to mitigate that tension; he takes to intoxicating drugs. This affords some superficial relief, but the inner tension becomes more pronounced. That inner turmoil no intoxicants or drugs can remove. Scientific experiments conducted at various places have proved that hypertension which medicines failed to alleviate, was quite resolved through meditation. Our experiences during the shivir-period have also established that the individual undergoes a great change while practising meditation. Many people given to excessive use of intoxicants, and others suffering from causeless excitability have been found to change greatly after attending a dhyana-shivir.
It is an indisputable fact that the more tense a man is, the more stubborn he becomes. In a state of obstinacy, he cannot realize his error. The psychology of dhyana can create a state of non-insistence. Meditation, in itself, is an exercise of humility, of non-prejudice. During meditation, the ego dissolves, pertinacity disappears, gentleness grows and pliability develops. The reason is clearthe practitioner of meditation makes progress in the direction of direct experiencing of truth. When truth is realized, there can be no obstinacy of any kind. Only one who knows truth by hearsay may be importunate, but the man who perceives truth directly, surrenders himself completely to it, and in such a situation there is no room for any kind of obduracy to develop. It does not require any effort to bring about a change in a non-assertive
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