Instructions🔗

This meditation involves two separate techniques: one for cleansing the Ajna, and the other for energizing it. Our lower chakras mainly need cleansing and channeling. The higher chakras need energizing also – pumping up the energy to the chakra. In the two phases, you will need to alternately close and open your eyes.

Step 1: 5 minutes

Close your eyes and focus on your ‘third eye’ - on the area of your Ajna chakra. Just see through your eyes, whatever images you are seeing behind the closed eyes.

Step 2: 5 minutes

Now open your eyes - but do not see! Look through your eyes, not with your eyes. Don’t look with your two eyes as you normally do. Instead, try seeing with your third eye, as if your brow chakra were actually an eye that you could see with.

With your third eye, look intensely at the master’s third eye in the picture. Alternatively, you may look at the flame of a lamp lit with ghee or sesame oil. Try not to blink. Initially, you may feel some discomfort. You may experience a burning sensation in the eyes, or tears may come. Let it happen. This is all part of the cleansing process.

Repeat both steps twice, then repeat only Step 1 and end the meditation.

Be prepared to have unusual experiences during this meditation. Your Ajna has never been activated before. Opening the Ajna will open you to a whole new realm of experience.

You may see visions of your favourite deities, or find that Swamiji's form disappears and is replaced by a point or beam of light. Sometimes you may see total emptiness where his form or picture was.

Don't be alarmed or lose your clarity at these moments. You are not being hypnotized! In fact, only now are you finally being dehypnotized. Only now is your superconscious awakened.

If you see only light or emptiness, it is a sign that you have done the meditation with deep sincerity. Because that is the truth of our nature. We are all nothing but energy. The physical body that we perceive as our own, and the physical existence of everything around us, is nothing but an illusion.

That's why the Ajna chakra is known as Maya Harana – destroyer of illusion.

Sahasrara Dhyana (Gratitude as Prayer)

Heals the chakra : Sahasrara Location of chakra : On the crown of the head Chakra locked by : Discontentment Chakra unlocked by : Gratitude & Bliss Meditation technique from : Sufism (Islam) Duration : 30 minutes

Sahasrara Dhyana is the simplest possible meditation technique! It involves the effortless process of paying our gratitude to Existence for everything we have in life, and which we have taken for granted till now. Although the meditation is deceptively simple, it has profound effects on our conscious and subconscious minds. When we recognize that we are part of the total scheme of Existence, and that we are lovingly taken care of by Existence every minute, we are overcome with gratitude. We become truly thankful for what we receive every moment, even if it is as basic as the use of our very limbs and senses. Gratitude is your response to recognizing the abundance of Existence. It is a wonderful flowering energy within you.

If you are using the ASP tape, listen to the Sahasrara music. Else, play any soothing music which appeals to you. Allow the music to flow through you, to enrich you. Let the music become part of you.

Experience it as if it arises from your own Being. Now, think of whomever you want - God, your favorite saint or your chosen deity. The form is not important. But pay your gratitude to Existence for this gift of Life. Life itself is a great gift from Existence. Have we worked very hard to deserve this life? No!

So living itself is enough reason to be grateful. When you give your thanks to Existence, remember all the people who have made your life what it is today. Start with your parents - the people who gave you life. Pay your deepest gratitude to them. Ask their forgiveness for any wrong that you may have done them. In the same way, forgive them for any way in which they may have hurt you.

Forgive completely, feel only gratitude! Now remember each person who has helped you in life - the doctors in the hospital where you were born, your teachers in school and college, your friends and relatives. Pay your gratitude to them all. Think of the strangers who have helped you - the farmers who grow your food, the weavers who weave your clothes. Thank them all.

Even your enemies have played a role in your life, they have taught you something. Drop the anger. Drop the hatred. Forgive them and ask forgiveness. Do it with all your heart, with total sincerity! Have you thanked Existence for the beauties of nature? Have you thanked the sun for warming you every morning? Have you paid thanks for the water you drink? How many things we have forgotten to pay our gratitude for! Now you can do it. Give each and every one your thanks. When you pay your thanks to all of Existence, also remember the enlightened masters who have made us aware of the joy of gratitude. The purpose of all enlightened masters, through the ages, has always been the same: they want to lift you into bliss, into Ananda. So the best way to thank them is – simply to be blissful! Finally, pay your gratitude to the Sadguru, the master, for happening in your life. The relationship with the master is the ultimate relationship. Existence itself has appeared in your life in the form of the master, so that you may break all your boundaries and merge joyfully into the Divine. Where can you find the words to thank the master enough? Just remain silent. Let your heart overflow with deep love and gratitude.

When the music stops, remain in silence for a while. Remain in the attitude of gratitude and bliss. For as long as possible, stay in silence. Turn your awareness inward and enjoy the peace and contentment within.

Sahasrara Dhyana can be modified to an ‘anytime-anywhere’ meditation. Cultivating a permanent attitude of gratitude and positivity can work wonders for your physical and emotional health. With gratitude, you will see that Existence simply responds to you. Gratitude is your channel to commune with the energy of all Existence.