Live Purposefully If you don't live life on purpose you live life by accident. Why do some days feel like a motorway pile up? It's because you haven't sorted out your purpose yet. The highest purpose is always giving, or serving others, without wanting anything in return. This is why relaxation is always impossible if we are always 'on the take'. There is an overall purpose for your life, and each of the many scenes which fill your day are opportunities to serve your purpose. Take time to think deeply, listen to your intuition, and with patience, the reason why you are here, and what you uniquely have to give, will occur to you. Then you can live your life 'on purpose'. Meditation Meditation simply means the management of your thoughts. It is to have the ability to think of what you want and when you want, without interference from other thoughts. Meditation is to develop the ability to concentrate on a particular subject without being attracted and influenced by the five senses, the five vices and the five elements. Yoga, which is associated with meditation, simply means to have union or make connection with some object, subject, person or God. However, yoga is usually associated with spirituality. Yoga is to have connection and to have dialogue or sweet conversation with the divine source of inspiration, whom many call God. Meditation, therefore is a prerequisite or condition that assists spiritual seekers to have unbroken, undisturbed and continuous access with divinity and this experience is called yoga, another form of prayer. Practical Positive Response Training To The Mind (cont.) If I believe that I am just the physical body and that my thoughts are simply results of chemical and electrical processes in the brain, and not something I can consciously control, I let go of the key of taking charge of what is going on inside my mind. In meditation, my intellect recognizes and realizes that my thoughts are my own creation, of me the soul and not the body and that I, the soul, using the intellect, which is also a part of the soul, can make choices about them. When I realize that my natural state is to be the master of my mind and not to be dictated by it or dictated by the brain, I start taking charge of what is going on inside. When I practice being a master of my mind repeatedly by practicing meditation regularly, the new habit of creating only positive thoughts settles inside me and my habit of responding negatively with a negative state of mind to negative situations, begins to change over a period of time. I start responding positively even to negative situations. So, meditation is a major transformation process of the habit of thinking negatively, which then has positive results on my personality and behavior. Tomorrow we shall further clarify the process which has been explained in today's and yesterday's message, with an example. Soul Sustenance Experiencing God’s Presence I need to understand that God is a person (although the Supreme Person), like us, and not some formal or non-personal energy, with whom we cannot communicate and have a relationship. If I know God's form, location and sanskars, I can direct my thoughts towards that One and immediately start experiencing the connection. The sentiment expressed in the phrase, ‘O God, wherever I am, you are with me', indicates the closeness of the soul and God. It expresses the experience of the presence of God, in a similar way to two lovers who carry each other in their hearts. In this way God's presence is a spiritual experience that I can have wherever I am. It doesn't mean literally that the Supreme Being is present in everything. It's a feeling and not a fact. The sun is the source of our physical necessities. It purifies the water, makes the plants grow to produce food and oxygen and provides a suitable range of temperatures for our life here. To give life it doesn't need to be present in every particle. Its effect in the form of light and heat is felt throughout the solar system. In the same manner, for the effective practice of Raja Yoga meditation (as taught by the Brahma Kumaris) God is seen as a sun of perfect sanskars, the source of spiritual qualities and powers and, as such, doesn't need to be present in everything. Even though His residence is the soul world, God can be with me since the sense of closeness is beyond physical dimensions. One thought and I can experience Him in the soul world and be in His presence! Message for the day Concentration on positive thoughts brings power and growth. Expression: Whatever thoughts are concentrated upon, those thoughts become powerful. It is like the growth of a seed. When a thought, a positive thought, is planted in the mind and it is concentrated upon, it becomes like sunlight adding energy. The more the concentration on them these thoughts begin to grow. Experience: When I am able to create a positive thought, each morning and water it with attention throughout the day, I am able to find myself becoming more and more powerful. Negative circumstances or people with negativity do not influence me but I become a powerful source for finishing that negativity. I am able to maintain this positive thought under all circumstances.