What are the different types of meditation (dhyan)?

Four types of meditations

Of the four types of dhyans (meditations), humans are constantly preoccupied with only one. What dhyan are you in now?

Questioner: The dhyan of 'I am Shuddhatma.'

Dadashri: That is awareness (laksha). Dhyan can only be done when one becomes the dhyata, the Self. Here in Akram Vignan, we have passed through all the stages of dhyans, dhyata (relative meditator) and dhyeya (worldly goals), have passed the eight stages of yoga and attained awareness of, 'I am the Soul.' Here, one remains as the knower-seer (gnata-drashta) and in eternal bliss (parmanand) in every situation.

If someone comes along and tells you, "Get up now and come and have your dinner", and you remain the knower-seer and in eternal bliss, but when you go down there, someone else tells you, "You can't dine here", here again if you remain in your Self as the knower-seer and in bliss, then it is called shukladhyan.

Unnecessary arguments, adulterating goods and short changing customers in business is raudradhyan. Waiting for customers to come to your business is artadhyan. If a person is preoccupied waiting impatiently for customers, he is in artadhyan.

On the one side Lord Mahavir has given us the 45 Agams and on the other he has given us simply four words; both carry the same weight. The precise understanding of these four words is the same as having understood the 45 Agams. What are these four words? They are raudradhyan, artadhyan, dharmadhyan, and shukladhyan.

What is this world like? If someone is meant to be your customer, he will buy from you even when you charge him sixteen and a half Rupees instead of the sixteen and if he is not, then even if you charge him fifteen, he will not buy from you. Have this much faith!

To worry about your own well-being is artadhyan. It is also artadhyan to have worries about your daughter and how you will cope with the expenses of her marriage when you have no money. She is still young and to worry about the future is artadhyan.

If someone you do not like comes to live with you for a few days, you will think, 'I wish he would leave. Why did he have to come to my home?' Such internal bhaav (dhyan) is artadhyan and if you say, "He is a worthless person", that is raudradhyan. You are in artadhyan and raudradhyan.

If you have to make rice pudding from pure milk, you should put sugar in it, not salt. Putting sugar in pure milk is dharmadhyan. Dharmadhyan is to have the understanding that all miseries that come your way are due to your own karma and mistakes.

When one has learnt the four words of Lord Mahavir, then he has accomplished the study of the 45 Agams.

The true dharmadhyan of the vitarag Lords, will destroy all conflicts.

What is dharmadhyan? It is to have no negative bhaav (feeling) towards anyone who causes you harm and to take the support of Gnan that tells you, "I encountered this person as a result of my karma." Dharmadhyan is to bless the one who insults you in front of a large crowd and to forget the incident. The Lord has said it is dharmadhyan if you feel indifference towards insults and not remember them. But alas there are people who will not forget an insult till they die.

A person with dharmadhyan is considered to be shresthi (a man of highest quality). All day long he obliges others from the moment he wakes up. He has an obliging nature; he makes others happy even when he is suffering himself. He suffers pain without any artadhyan or raudradhyan. You will never see a frown on his face; on the contrary his face will always be glowing. He will help solve everyone's problems. He is never biased towards anyone. What are the qualities of a true Jain? A true Jain is considered to be one with the highest human qualities. His aura radiates for fifty miles around him!

Today, these men have become sheth - masters and bosses (the noun has changed from shresthi to sheth). If you ask their drivers and their workers what they think about their boss, they will say, "Don't even talk about him!"

Today these shresthis have turned into competitive players in the worldly life. If their neighbor buys a new couch, they too will go out and buy one even if their couch is only two years old. They are stuck in competing with people. One can make do with a cushion to sit upon and pillows but instead they compete with their neighbors. How can these people be worthy of the title of sheth? The Indian concept of cushions and pillows on the floor is a great concept but people do not realize this and instead run after couches and sofas. When they see other people's couches they feel they too should have one, and then the squabbling starts in their home. The chauffer has a sofa in his home and so does the sheth. All this is very unnatural.

People even imitate clothes. If they see someone making rotli (Indian flat bread, chapatti) on a gas stove, they too will run out and buy a gas stove. Do they not realize the difference in the taste between rotli cooked on charcoal and rotli cooked on the gas? There is no problem in buying things but why do it out of competition? People have lost their humanity with such competitiveness. People are regressing. Animal-like behavior will merit a birth in the animal kingdom. Otherwise a shresthi is a very happy and content person and is constantly thinking about how he can make others happy. Only he who is happy can make others happy. How is a person to make others happy when he himself is miserable? Unhappy people do bhakti and are preoccupied in working to become happy.

Setting aside all talks of moksha, should you at least not have control over artadhyan and raudradhyan? How can anyone be allowed to continue in them? But what are you free to do? You are free to do dharmadhyan and yet people are freely preoccupied in doing durdhyan (negative meditation). Should you not at least have awareness of what is appropriate and what is not?