Is Meditation the Same Thing as Yoga

The word meditation is often used as a synonym for yoga. The word meditation purports to be the translation of Hindi words yoga, dhyan and samadhi. The spiritual practice of yoga, dhyan and samadhi was discovered by the ancient Indian sages-rishisthousands of years back.

Mahavtar Baba Ji The truth is that these spiritual practices were alien to western civilization and hence there is no exact version for them in English language. The word meditation is, therefore, only an approximate expression for yoga. According to dictionary, the word meditation means thinking, mulling, rumination, deliberation, musing, reflection and words with similar meanings. You may meditate over a problem that may make you sad, unhappy and tense. Of course, you may also meditate over a situation that may make you happy and relaxed. But meditation in the sense of yoga, dhyan or samadhi never makes you sad. On the other hand its objective is to eliminate sadness and tension and make you relaxed, peaceful, happy and blissful. Meditation in the literal sense is only a preliminary or a facilitating step to achieve a state of yoga, dhyan or samadhi. We need to explain the meanings of the words, yoga, dhyan and samadhi .

Daya Mata
Yoga is actually a mathematical term. It means addition, one of the four most fundamental mathematical processes. The word yoga meaning addition in mathematics acquires a higher connotation or significance in the realm of spirituality. It is that you add your spirit or soul called aatma in Hindi-- to that of supreme soul called paramaatma in Hindi or God in English. In literal sense, you try to add, integrate your soul-aatma to the soul of the supreme entity, i.e., God or paramatma.

Yoganand You experience supreme happiness when you are in a state of yoga-addition, integration or merger of consciousness- with the highest source of blissfulness. But how does this addition take place between the two souls? The answer can be approximately explained in mathematical terms. When you add a two with a three, it becomes five. This addition becomes a kind of merger where at least the smaller digit two loses its identity and becomes a part of five. When it is five, how do you know it is 1+4 or 2+3 or 0+5? This, ideally, is the aim of meditation or yoga. When you perform meditation in its true sense, you are so lost in the process that you lose consciousness of your body or existence. You are immersed into a spiritual experience. This kind of loss of consciousness of body is often experienced by the great yogis, saints, sages, thinkers, philosophers, artists or scientists. Remember Archimedes, the great Greek engineer, mathematician, astronomer and inventor who came running out of the bathroom into the street shouting Eureka, Eureka. So ecstatic he was that he forgot that he was naked. That point of time is

known as Eureka Moment, the moment of supreme bliss and forgetfulness of the body and its surroundings.

Archimedes in bath tub How did Archimedes arrive at the Eureka moment? Of course, he might have started by meditatingthinking upon the issue. Gradually he concentrated, focused so deeply on it that he acquired a state of yoga with the goal of his meditation. He was so ecstatic that he lost awareness of the consciousness of his body when he achieved that goal. An extreme focus or attention brought through the process of yoga is called dhyan. Samadhi is a perennial state of spiritual ecstasy. Yoga and dhayan are the first two stages of spiritual pursuit to reach the ultimate state of samadh. Great souls such as Christ, Buddhha, Mahavir and many others acquired that ultimate state of blissfulness.Christ did not feel the pain of crucifixion since he was in a state of samadhi.

Yukteshwar Giri The objective of yoga is to achieve those moments of ecstasy when you lose consciousness of your physical identity. It, of course, cannot be denied that the process of yoga leading to dhyan or samadhi starts with meditation. Meditation is only a path that, if followed accurately, may lead to a state of yoga. True spiritual phenomena cannot be explained adequately through mundane processes or examples like mathematical additions or subtractions. These are only pointers to spiritual situations that are too deep for words. They can be understood only when they are actually experienced. Resource:

Peace and Happiness through Self-Empowerment