AT THE FEET OF THE MOTHER
Ask Alok da

Is not an increasing effort of meditation needed and is it not true that the more hours you meditate the greater progress you make?

The number of hours spent in meditation is no proof of spiritual progress. It is a proof of your progress when you no longer have to make an effort to meditate. Then you have rather to make an effort to stop meditating: it becomes difficult to stop meditation, difficult to stop thinking of the Divine, difficult to come down to the ordinary consciousness. Then you are sure of progress, then you have made real progress when concentration in the Divine is the necessity of your life, when you cannot do without it, when it continues naturally from morning to night whatever you may be engaged in doing. Whether you sit down to meditation or go about and do things and work, what is required of you is consciousness; that is the one need,—to be constantly conscious of the Divine.

  • The Mother

21st April 1929

Source: CWM Vol. 03: Questions and Answers (1929 – 1931): 1929 > 21 April 1929

Link: https://incarnateword.in/cwm/03/21-april-1929#p26

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Alok da,This might not exactly be a serious spiritual question with depth but forgive me for asking this . One consistent pattern from childhood is that one sees is that in all the images and depictions that one gets acquainted of rishis,yogis is that they really have massive long hair. Shraddhalu ji in today’s times also has that look. But there’s this fear/tension of hair loss among young men today, it’s quite a psychological blow on one’s confidence and what not. And one opposite pattern has been that so many men of the homeless type or labouring class , even with all the malnutrition and what not really also have good hair and I’ve seen men young lads thinking about this being a result of life of low stress and what not. Does yogic concentration/metabolism have any indirect ripple effect on having a healthy hair cos that’s how all these rishis are adorned, I know it might sound silly but am curious

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