Day 218 - Internal Worship of the Self

Day 218 -  Internal Worship of the Self

Nature of Perpetual Meditation

The Lord declared the greatness of internal worship of the self, which purifies completely and destroys all darkness. This worship involves perpetual meditation, whether one is walking, standing, awake, or asleep, in and through all actions. One should contemplate the supreme Lord seated in the heart, bringing about all internal modifications. This internal intelligence should be worshipped with whatever comes unsought, remaining firmly in the stream of life and experiences, bathing in self-knowledge.

Contemplation of the Lord

One should contemplate the Lord as:

• The light illumined by solar and lunar forces.
• The intelligence hidden in all material substances.
• The awareness flowing through bodily avenues.
• The prana (life force) that moves in the nose.
• The transformer of sense contacts into meaningful experiences.
• The dweller in the heart, throat, middle of the palate, middle of the eyebrows, and tip of the nose.
• The knower, doer, experiencer, and thinker of all thoughts.
• The intelligence in every limb and the reality in the thirty-six elements.

Worship Through Life Experiences

The Lord is to be worshipped with everything that is effortlessly obtained:

• Enjoyments of the body, like eating, drinking, and pleasures.
• Illnesses and all forms of suffering.
• Activities including life, death, and dreams.
• Both poverty and prosperity.
• Fights, quarrels, sports, and pastimes.
• Emotions of attraction and aversion.
• Noble qualities like friendship, compassion, joy, and indifference.

The Lord should be worshipped with all kinds of pleasures, whether sanctioned by scriptures or not, and with whatever is obtained without effort.

Maintaining Equanimity

Worship involves maintaining equanimity towards all percepts, pleasant or unpleasant, and realizing that everything is the one self. One should abandon divisive notions like "This I am" and "This I am not" and understand that "All this is indeed Brahman," the one indivisible consciousness. One should worship the self in and through all that is obtained, without craving or rejecting, and without getting excited or depressed.

Sweetness of Equanimity

Equanimity is sweetness beyond the senses and mind. Whatever is touched by equanimity becomes sweet. True worship is performed in a state of equanimity, where the mind is utterly quiescent without thought. The wise man should experience infinite expansion within himself while performing natural actions externally without craving or rejection.

The Worshipper's State

A worshipper of this intelligence, established in equanimity, does not experience delusion, ignorance, or ego-sense, even in dreams. One should worship the Lord of the body (intelligence) with all that is brought by time, circumstance, and environment, resting in supreme peace, devoid of desire.

Advisory for Modern Society

Modern society can benefit from internal worship by integrating meditation into daily life, seeing all experiences as opportunities for self-realization. This approach encourages maintaining equanimity and recognizing the divine presence in every aspect of existence, leading to inner peace and harmony.