Spiritual (Chanting & Meditation) Notes (Edited) from 26 Dec. 2024 to 10 May 2025

Last updated on 11 May 2025

Given below is a slightly edited version of my spiritual notes (mainly, if not wholly, on japa-dhyana i.e. chanting & meditation) from 26 Dec. 2024 to 10 May 2025, in reverse chronological order. [The objective of putting it up publicly is that it may be of help to some spiritual aspirant.]

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10th May 2025

'Dissolve into God' has become an important part of my spiritual sadhana now. BTW, grammatically, perhaps 'dissolve in God' is more correct but from a mental or verbal chant point of view, 'dissolve into God' is more suitable and so I am using that (the latter).

Hope the following will not be too much detail but I thought of sharing it just in case it helps somebody.

1. For formless 'dissolve into God' sadhana, when my eyes are closed, I have noted that trying to focus on the Bhrumadhya (भ्रूमध्य, center of eyebrows, Ref: https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/bhrumadhya) takes some effort. So I don't focus on the Bhrumadhya while doing this sadhana now. Instead I let the attention be at what is natural to it which is usually forward and downward from the closed eyes. It is in the direction of the nose though still within the face and so behind the nose and not at any particular area of the nose. I view this nothingness area that the closed eyes naturally settle on, as the divine nothingness that is God. Note that I think that this 'dissolve into God' sadhana may also, if fully successful, result in going beyond the body, which is a strong spiritual desire that I have.
2. In contrast, if I try to focus on the core of my being, I feel it is behind the eyes and so the focusing is backwards and somewhat at same level as the Bhrumadhya. In other words, it is behind the Bhrumadhya and behind the eyes, at the level of the Bhrumadhya. This focusing on the core of my being takes effort as compared to focusing attention on what is a natural point/area in closed eyes state. But in the meditation for raising the core of my being to the Sahasrara chakra and then go beyond the body that way, I feel that this focusing on the core of my being (felt behind the eyes at level of Bhrumadhya) is a necessary first step. I don't do much of this type of meditation nowadays and instead opt for the above 'dissolve into God' meditation.

The following is something I have been using for many months now (perhaps years but only from sometime after Jan. 2022). Earlier I was not ready to share it publicly. Even now I am sharing it only partially. I view my life as a recluse as like, I repeat, like (life of) a monk in a cave. So I have a mental chant for that too, which I use at times when I am not in meditation mode and am into work or some physical activity (including walking). That chant is:

• (Like) monk in a cave. Walk to --sensitive-so-snipped--. Work to --sensitive-so-snipped--. Chant to --sensitive-so-snipped--.

The above chant resonates well with me when I want to get out of meditation mode into work or physical activity mode.

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24 Apr 25

What do I really want to do in life now? 

I want to be able to rise above body consciousness and then come back to the body if the body is in reasonable shape.

Related chant: Go beyond this body. Om Sai Ram! Om Sai Ram!

I want to get into samadhi state as a way of going beyond this body. Dissolve into God or dissolve into divine nothingness are the ways in which I am trying to get into samadhi state. Ideally, if I do get into samadhi state, I should be able to come out of samadhi state and get back into the body if the body is in reasonable shape. 

Related chant: Dissolve into God. Dissolve. Dissolve.

I want to merge into Swami's Lotus feet as a way of going beyond this body, but with a possibility of coming back to this body if this body is in reasonable shape. 

Related chant: Merge into Swami's Lotus feet.

Going beyond this body is the only real and deep desire that I have in life now.

However, while I am trying to achieve this desire, as I live in society even if as a recluse, I want my life or my body living, to be of benefit/help to at least one other person. That service to other(s) gives meaning to my life/body living. As of now, some of the people that I pay for their services to me, --snip--, benefit by the money I pay them. At times, I also am of some tiny software related technical help to an ashram software project. My software development blog where I am recording my upskilling efforts in software development may be of use to me in future to help others acquire same/similar software development skills. 

[Super sensitive:] If my life/body living gets to a state of being not of benefit/help to even one other person then --sensitive-so-snipped--. [end Super sensitive]

For the above, I should remember and get inspired by the lives of my great icons of Shirdi Sai Baba and Ramana Maharshi, which have been great inspirations for me in my journey as a single, simple-living (lower middle-class Indian standard of living) spiritual aspirant from Oct. 2002.

As of now, I have struck a reasonable balance time-wise between software development learning/work (--sensitive-so-snipped--, as of now) and my spiritual sadhana. I think I am usually able to do at least 20 hours per week of software development learning/work and I spend quite some time per week on my spiritual sadhana as well.

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22 Apr 25

Be a Namasmarana Om Sai Ram and merge into Swami lotus feet tapaswi and be a Dissolve into God samadhi tapaswi.

At times, I find Namasmarana and merge into Swami lotus feet to be more suitable and at some other times, Dissolve into God.

Live with my flaws. [I continue to have some human flaws which I have not been able to overcome or master. However, these flaws do not cause any harm to others and so they are not some great negative things in terms of impact on others.]

For tapas inspiration, remember the lives of my great icons – Shirdi Sai Baba and Ramana Maharshi.

Also, as long as my body (being alive) is still providing or is capable of service to others, repeat for reinforcement and clarity: "My life gets meaning through service (to others)".

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20 Apr 25

I am trying out:

Chanting when suitable (walking, getting into meditation zone, even while going to sleep and after waking up): Dissolve into God ('visualized' as inner nothingness).

This alone (inner nothingness God) is the lasting truth. All else is passing show but follow Sathya, Dharma, Shanti and Prema towards the passing show.

Use Ramana Maharshi meditating in Patala lingam as inspiration.

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19 Apr 25

"How does a Yogi go out of the body and then come back" https://chatgpt.com/share/680371ec-d558-8013-8afe-979b2b6fbfec

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8 Apr 25

I think I should reduce or even drop the uncover the divine within approach in favor of simply dissolving into the divine. Dissolve is easier to do. Uncovering the divine approach takes more mental effort. Maybe I need to strike some balance. Typically do the easier dissolve approach. At times when I'm in the mood and when I have the mental energy, that's when I can do uncover the divine.

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6 Apr 25

Two types of meditation that I practice now

1. Focus on Bhrumadhya as part of focusing on beingness/awareness-I. Go beyond body. Attempt to raise awareness or core of being to top of head... Sahasrara chakra ... And beyond thus going beyond the body.

2. Dissolve into nothingness . This is an attempt to get into Samadhi state.

--sensitive-so-snipped-- related meditation

1. As the --sensitive-so-snipped--, focus on --sensitive-so-snipped-- and dissolve into God.

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15 Mar. 2025

Be ready anytime for --sensitive-so-snipped--.

I sense the core of my being somewhere in the top part of my head. It is not in the heart area or centre of chest area. It is somewhere behind the center of the eyebrows, the Bhrumadhya.

I think that one way of going beyond the body is to take the core of my being up to the centre of the top of my head and then make it go outside the top of my head.

Intuitively I feel that withdrawing my attention to the core of my being and going deep into it and dissolving in it may open up some interesting possibilities related to going beyond the body.

I think that even if such possibilities do not emerge, acquiring the ability to stay in such a state for long period of time would be a very helpful milestone achievement in my meditation practice. I can even consider --sensitive-so-snipped-- happening while in such meditation practice or such a state.

I should try to achieve ability to start getting into such a state anytime. So like anytime --sensitive-so-snipped-- which is more of an extreme option, this anytime withdrawal into core being maybe a wonderful solution to many hard problems related to manageable level bodily problems as well as mental worries. This can emerge as a current objective that I should have in my meditation practice.

An interesting aspect of this practice is that going deep into the core of my being and keeping the attention there with an approach of trying to uncover deeper aspects of my being leads to, at least sometimes, a deeper state.

------

Uncover the divine power within.

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12 Jan. 2025

Go deep into the Bhrumadhya. Dissolve into the Bhrumadhya.

This is with eyes closed and I also say, this is the only lasting truth, lasting reality and this resonates very much with me and I feel so intuitively convinced about it that from that satisfaction I sometimes say, Hari Om Tat Sat or (only) Om Tat Sat. 

This is the only lasting truth, lasting reality, all else is passing show. I also do Soham mantra along with deep breathing with one nostril closed for a little time usually, mostly at the beginning of the meditation session to sort of get into the mood. Note that Anulom Vilom involves alternate nostril breathing which I do sometimes but not always.

Today being Sunday, I spent some time on this as Sunday is my off day so to speak and it was a very satisfying meditation session.

For the past few days, due to my main desktop computer having stopped working, I have had to do a lot of thinking, lot of contacting people, lot of reading up in terms of coming up with a solution, perhaps in terms of upgrade, and also confirming that easy repair is not possible. I also had to think about the cost involved for the upgrade. And also explore getting the right technician in Puttaparthi, who is based in Puttaparthi and will be easily accessible to me in future, especially if I get the upgrade done through him.

So all these things were sort-of perturbing me to some extent. I think that is part of life for an individual software developer based in Puttaparthi. So it's not that I was overly stressed or something. But I would say that I was somewhat stressed and doing lot of thinking about this. To some extent, I had got into some compulsive thinking and looking up information related to this issue, where I could not easily break from that routine. Today's meditation session helped me really get a good break from all that compulsive thinking and somewhat stressful thinking about the issue. I feel that I was able to connect well to the eternal truth within which gave me lot of peace and relaxation. 

Note that a working resonable config computer is essential for me to do software development. I was exploring commercial work possibilities, which I have suspended for a few days till I get this desktop computer repaired and working again or upgraded and working again.

So this desktop computer is absolutely necessary for me to do proper software development work in the areas that I am looking at. The desktop computer not working is a major issue for my software developer work. Perhaps that's the reason I had got into this somewhat stressful mode and compulsive thinking which this meditation session has really brought me out of. But then I expect I will be getting back into this as I get into resolving the computer issue again. 

If this computer repair issue once again leads to lot of thinking and stress from which I need a break, I know what to do now. Just get into Bhrumadhya meditation session and perhaps also the Soham mantra deep breathing session.

What is the meaning of "Hari Om Tatsat"?, https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-Hari-Om-Tatsat

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26 Dec. 2024:

Anytime mindless chanting for improving control / mastery over the mind.

[10-May-2025-Addition (for explanation): The 'mindless' word is key. Once I get into the rhythm of the chant, verbal or only mental, the worrying or thinking part of the mind becomes very less active or even inactive. The meaning of the chanted mantra is not important. The important thing is getting into the rhythm of the chant.]

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