Meditation sharpens your intellect

Let me answer by telling you a short story… There was once 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. 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 axe within us. Our knowledge is like the strength of the arm and the axe 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 invisible energies 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 extracted out of its ore. It is the process of eliminating what is unwanted and extracting only what is needed. 

Similarly, life is like the ore, the wanted mixed with the unwanted. You cannot directly take what you want or what is positive. Meditation is the process to eliminate all that is not required leaving you with what is required. It removes the negative karma extracting only the positive karma. And like you can shape what you want with the iron taken out of the ore, one can make what he wills of himself with his positive Karma. 

To lead a happy and successful life you need a sharp intellect and most importantly the elimination of negative karma. Both are achieved only through meditation. Atma-Dhyana is one of the most powerful processes to sharpen the intellect and eliminate negative Karma and to experience a new life and a new beginning. 

Realising the need for meditation, one should waste no more time and practice this science to experience a life of abundance. Aham Brahmasmi!!

Shri Aasaanji is a non-reli gious, contemporary Spiritual Master and the founder of the Atmayoga Foundation (Institute for Inner-Science and Self-Transformation) www. atmayoga.in