Just hold the attention in your heart and minus the traffic around it. Don’t allow the attention to identify with the traffic lights, horns or noise (thoughts, feelings or objects), e.g., just as Arjun in the Mahabharat, who saw only the eye of the bird that he was aiming at and not the whole bird.
It is not a task that one has to struggle with, it will well up gently and naturally and then stay with you in comfort as peace in the soul.
This vibration in your inner being “I am”, is not personality driven, it does not engage with any thought form.
This may feel like a constant effort in the beginning as the poor ego is desperately clutching on to the mental identity it had built so dearly which you are trying to unshackle yourself from, these are birth pangs and they are painful.
Later it becomes your natural self, just as the knowledge of your name or gender, one doesn’t struggle to remember that.
A deep contentment and silence will prevail inside your being, where you are not searching for peace, you are peace. Don’t be afraid, you don’t have to give up anything. It is like thieves in an empty house. There is nothing to take away.
To be free one doesn’t need to throw out everything. You perceive things, you enjoy them while they are there, but you don’t log in. E.g., the famous example of two birds on a tree. This is our state as we are form oriented. That which witnesses both is the you. The witness is impartial and not trapped in the body of the birds. A personal virus of forms invades the seer’s vision.
There is no form in the ultimate. The delusion can persist only in a personal identity.
Prarthna Saran is president of Chinmaya Mission, Delhi.