I am often asked, “Guruji, why should I meditate”? Let me answer by telling you a short story. Once. there was a woodcutter who despite not being the strongest, cut more wood than anyone else. When asked how he did it; the woodcutter replied that he did nothing different from the rest of the group. But, he still came back with more wood than the strongest of the lot.
One day, his master secretly observed what he did and found that the woodcutter sharpened his axe before and after cutting the wood. It was the sharpness of the axe and not the strength of his arms that decided the amount of wood he could cut. In life too, each of us has this strength and ax within us. Our knowledge is like the strength of the arm and the ax is the intellect. It is the sharpness of the intellect that gives relevance to the knowledge one has. A sharper intellect allows one to get the same results faster and easier. Real strength is not building the body or simply acquiring knowledge but in having a sharp intellect.
Meditation is the only method to sharpen the intellect or buddhi. Without a sharp intellect one can use neither their physical strength nor their knowledge prowess.
There is another invisible but powerful component to our existence, accumulated over this life and past lives. We call it Karma. These invi-sible energi-es are the determining factors for one’s success and suffering both in the present and in future.
The only way to remove the unwanted Karma or unwanted energies is Meditation. Meditation works exactly like smelting. In smelting a metal is ext-racted out of its ore. It is the process of eliminating what is unwanted and extracting only what is needed. Shri Aasaanji is a non-religious Spiritual Master and the founder of the the Atmayoga foundation (Institute for inner science and self transformation).
