Meditation - Soham






Meditation - Soham - I am That
However, it is not something that one does by sitting for a couple of minutes or hours. Contemplation of the Lord should be always at all places.        
Sri Ramana Maharshi was once asked, "How long should one practice meditation? 15 or 30 or 45 minutes or an hour?' His reply was, 'You should continue doing it till you forget that you are meditating. As long as you are conscious (physically aware) that you are meditating, it is no meditation at all." The consciousness of body and mind and the thought of yourself should become totally extinct. The experience of only the object of your meditation should subsist, i.e. nothing else but the presence of divinity. The state of meditation is experiencing but without the consciousness that you are experiencing.
  • Let us close the eyes. Keeping the eyes closed, let us put the breath in rhythm to make it normal and calmer. In our mind (mentally) repeat "SOHAM'. (1-2 mins.) Our attention on the breath we notice that it gets refined.
  • As we inhale mentally repeat "SO", we exhale mentally repeat "HAM".   
  • With eyes closed meditate for a few minutes. (15-20 mins.)
  • Keep the eyes closed, stop repeating the mantra. (2-3 mins.)
  • End meditation. Softly and slowly.

(Thoughts in meditation are part of it. We allow them to be there, but when we get aware that we are thinking, we go back to the breath, put the attention on the breath and watch. We notice that it gets refined and we listen again to the mantra Soham in the breath.
It is an effortless process, we can do nothing wrong.
Our state of mind is not always the same, therefore, we do not expect anything in meditation. We take it as it comes.
After about twenty minutes of meditation we stop repeating the mantra and wait with closed eyes about two or three minutes to get out of it, before we open the eyes.
If we do an effort in meditation or get out of it too fast, it can result in headache. It should be very easy and effortless and after meditation we feel good and relaxed and there are less thoughts, every meditation we transcend the mind, but in that moment we are not aware of it, it is a state of no feeling of time and space and when we get aware of it, we are back in the mind.
The process of mantra repetition is called Namasmarana, and by that we transcend or go beyond the mind.)

In meditation, there are three aspects: the one who is doing the meditation (i.e. the subject), the object of meditation (i.e. God), and the act or process (i.e. the rapport that the subject is trying to establish with the object).
Proper meditation or the culmination of meditation occurs when the three factors --meditator, object of meditation, and act of meditation-- coalesce and merge into one. In the state of meditation, the meditator, the object of his meditation and the process of meditation have fallen away and there is only One, and that One is God.

All that may change has fallen away, and That Thou Art (Tat Twam Asi) is the state that exists. It is an experience of unity (without the meditator being conscious of himself). As one gradually returns to his customary and habitual state of consciousness, the lamp (jyothi) is again placed in the heart and kept lighted there throughout the day.

One should understand that what comes about in meditation as one moves deeply into it is not the thinking of the light but the forgetting of the body and thereby the direct experience that the body is not oneself. This is the stage of contemplation, when the body is totally forgotten. It cannot be forced. It comes about by itself and is the stage that naturally follows concentration. Vivekananda said that in meditation he was unable to find his body.
Conversations with Sathya Sai Baba, XLIX, by John Hislop
      
   
Practicing concentration, contemplation
     
Assign the job of a watchman to the mind by following one of the practices described below in order to concentrate and contemplate more.

Pranayama - Breath
      
(1) Keep eyes half opened, and focused on the tip of the nose. Inhale through the left nostril, closing the right nostril with the right thumb. As the breath goes in, it utters So (meaning 'He'); then exhale through the right nostril, closing the left nostril. As the breath goes out, it utters Ham (meaning 'I'). Inhale and exhale slowly and deliberately, conscious of the identity of He and I (yourself), which it asserts, until the breathing and the awareness grow into an unnoticed process. Keep the mind as a watchman to note the incoming and outgoing breaths, to listen with the inner ear to the Soham that the breath whispers and to witness the assertion of your being the Divine, which is the core of the Universe.
Sathya Sai Speaks VII, "Questions Answered"

      
You could also chant Soham, inhaling So and exhaling Ham. Harmonize the breath and thought. ... If you have some flour on your palm, hold it near the nostrils, it should not get fluttered in the least; the breath has to be soft as that. The mood of relaxation produced by Soham is a precondition for a profitable meditation session.
Sathya Sai Speaks V, "Japa, Sadhana"

      
It is by practice and after a period of time that it reflects in our own consciousness and we get to the result of it and realize the inner divinity as transcendence in our own consciousness. 
We meditate usually twice a day morning and evening to purify the mind.

With regular practice we get aware of the OM (Soham) as the sound of the universe and it can be present and awake in our inner conscious also during the night in the sleep as OM.

Set right your habits, purify your conduct and cleanse your behavior.
Even one bad habit can destroy all health, happiness, charm and joy. Control yourself and do not yield to the temptations of friends or social conventions and become prey to bad habits. The body is the temple of the Lord. Keep it in good and strong condition.
Also be aware that it can be damaged from qualities such as anger, hatred and greed, or from sloth, sleep and inactivity. When you get angry and/or violent with anyone, quietly repeat the Name of the Lord to save you from your anger. Drink a glass of cold water, or lie down in a bed until the fit of fury passes through. When you are angry, you abuse another and the other person does the same, so tempers rise and heat is generated which causes lasting injury. Five minutes of anger can damage five generations of relationship, so be careful.
Baba

  
Om Asato Ma Sadgamaya      -  Lead me from untruth to truth
Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya      -   Lead me from darkness to light
Mrutyor Ma Amrutamgamaya -  Lead me from death to immorality
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti       -   Peace Peace Peace

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