Meditations

Please apply for Paramahansa Yogananda’s Lessons for Home Study here : https://yssofindia.org/yss-lessons.php or here: https://yogananda.org/ I meditate daily according to Paramhansa Yogananda's Hong Sau technique. This blog is kept as a diary to record my experience of my meditation sessions. These notes are an honest description of my meditation experiences. ‘Hoping it will help. Gurudev’s teachings work!

[godsnameisjoy]

994, 995 & 996

Date: 26 July 2026 (994)

Duration: 20 minutes at 7:25 PM

Depth:

I wasn’t feeling mentally strong enough to push for 61 minutes. My state of mind was such. So I simply chose to sit for meditation, it didn’t matter for how long.

These 20 minutes were a relief to my state of mind.*

*At this point in my writing, I was interrupted. A day had passed when I returned to finish the writing. I had lost the thought with which I was to continue the writing with.

Date: 27 July 2026 (995)

Duration: 61 minutes at 6:06 PM

Date: 28 July 2026 (996)

Duration: 61 minutes at 4:17 PM

Depth:

I could write about the most recent session but I have a better idea. At least for today, while I am posting about a total of three days, it is best I quote Gurudev Paramahansa Yogananda.

The first quote here is about intuition.

“The fourth form of intuition is the direct knowledge of the operation of buddhi, or discriminative intellect along with knowledge of the ego. One in this stage does not feel the whirl of mind, the race of prana, or the weight and confinement of the body. -- Read more: http://yogananda.com.au/pyr/pyr_intuition2.html”

The second quote by Gurudev is about stillness:

“Realization is found only in inner calmness. Calmness is loved by God. Calmness is the altar and sanctuary of the Father. Practice seeking Him in calmness. Meditation is the way. That is the best advice I can give to you. Books and classes and philosophical explanations you can have, but this do not forget: Use all your free moments to meditate and cultivate a friendship with God.”

These two quotes are teachings for someone like me, not merely good reading. I have made some meditational advances but these are not the advances that Gurudev would like any disciple to settle for. Gurudev’s words are often about where the reader is spiritually and what the reader could advance into.

[godsnameisjoy]

992 & 993

Date: 24 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 2:46 PM

Date: 25 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 1:23 PM

Depth:

Comparing the two sessions from last two days may be an efficient way to write this blogpost.

In the session on 24th July, I had to make effort to get my attention to turn away from lifetronic imagery. The distraction was real and my attention vulnerable. Of course, even the entry level sublayer of the deep sleeping mind gives the meditator the power to overcome such distractions instantly and nearly effortlessly.

In comparison, yesterday’s session had my attention firmly seated in deep sleeping consciousness. It is wonderfully quiet in the deep sleeping mind. And to not have the task to turn the inner gaze away from imagery is to have a business class version of the same quiet.

The last two paragraphs give a good picture of where my decades long meditation practice is. To be in the middle of overcoming lifetronic imagery in deep meditation is a good place to be. Lifetronic imagery is not possible without having access to one’s deep sleeping mind in meditation.

It takes many meditational blessings to arrive at the deep sleeping mind. ‘Grateful for every one of the blessings that I have received so far. Someday I’ll be granted the muscle to avoid lifetronic imagery irreversibly. Looking forward.

[godsnameisjoy]

991

Date: 23 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 3:49 PM

Depth:

Most afternoons the household settles into a lull. And then I sit up to meditate. Yesterday was different. Through a large part of those 61 minutes there was activity in the room I was meditating in. The activity resulted in unusual white noise.

Although distracted with every one of the unusual sounds, I meditated all through. The meditation couldn’t have any greater depth than what was possible with unusual ambient sounds. However, the depth I was at was good enough. It was great, really.

My attention was seated in the motionless deep sleeping mind. My attention was able to meditate uninterruptedly. By the time I felt that I was ready to close the session, I had already rested deeply in the deep sleeping mind.

In recent sessions, my attention has moved to a deeper sublayer of my deep sleeping mind. The sublayer is relatively more stilling for my attention than previous sublayers. It is a restful place without interruptions. What a blessing it is to be able to meditate in the depths of the deep sleeping mind.

[godsnameisjoy]

990

Date: 22 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 6:13 PM

Depth:

There was a slowing down of the pace of my breathing in yesterday’s session. Remembering it now, I would go with the explanation that I had hit another sublayer of my deep sleeping mind.

The new sublayer within my deep sleeping mind influences the slowing of breath. The motionless aspect of the deep sleeping mind has already helped my attention to be seated. With greater motionlessness, a slowing of breath seems perfectly reasonable.

Every set of inhalation and exhalation took the same time but the space between such sets had increased. Another sign of my attention advancing into a new sublayer of my deep sleeping mind was its readiness to view lifetronic imagery.

My attention has behaved this way for years now. It shies away from a new depth of mind it is being granted access to during meditation. The shying away is often evident in my attention settling with a feature of an earlier depth of mind for an entire session. It is typically a feature it is trying to outgrow.

After about the first 30 minutes in yesterday’s session, my attention spent about 15 minutes getting interrupted with lifetronic imagery. That’s fine. After more than two decades of my practice, I know how my attention behaves. I spent the last 12 minutes of yesterday’s session repeating one of Gurudev Paramahansa Yogananda’s affirmations.

[godsnameisjoy]

989

Date: 21 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 4:04 PM

Depth:

Like a handful of sessions before it, this session was without self generated interruptions. Having advanced a bit into the deep sleeping mind, the only distraction so far has been lifetronic imagery.

Lifetronic imagery occurs when the attention has learned to be seated. The seat exists in the motionless deep sleeping mind. Once seated, attention draws freed life energy to the spot it is seated. In my experience, life energy pooling fixedly within the head is the cause of lifetronic imagery.

When I say that my hour long session was uninterrupted, I mean that I have been able to practice the technique of choice without glancing at lifetronic imagery. I guess that it is about resting one’s gaze after having got the attention to be seated.

The slightest shift in the gaze behind shut eyes seems to be causing the difference between watching lifetronic imagery and practicing the meditation technique. May my gaze receive the blessing of being fixed on the meditation technique.

[godsnameisjoy]

988

Date: 20 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 1:43 PM

Depth:

Uninterrupted, is how my sessions are going. I have wanted such uninterruptedness in thought for so long now that I am afraid that I may be rejoicing a few sessions earlier than I should be.

Beginning at the deepest part of my mind that my attention is able to go to during meditation till moving to relatively shallower parts, I was able to practice the technique of choice for 60 minutes straight.

Spiritually meaningless lifetronic imagery is the main distraction in the sublayer of the deep sleeping mind where my attention meditates these days. Such imagery wasn’t an obstruction to the practice of technique. Not yesterday.

To be able to practice any proven technique uninterruptedly has the power to bring about dramatic changes. I can sense it. It is like not losing steam while meditating. On the contrary, it is like gathering storm into place.

In Mission: Impossible - Fallout, there are lines that convey the way I am feeling about an uninterrupted mental practice. From Google AI overview: “ A cloaked delivery man initiates a secret password protocol by saying, "Fate whispers to the warrior, 'A storm is coming.'" Hunt replies, "And the warrior whispers back... I am the storm."”

[godsnameisjoy]

986 & 987

Date: 18 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 3:10 PM

Date: 19 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 3:09 PM

Depth:

Although I write this blogpost in the early hours of 20 July, I had thought of writing it soon after yesterday’s meditation session. The session had a moment in it that I haven’t experienced before.

The experience reminds me of Gurudev Paramahansa Yogananda’s quote: “The soul is bound to the body by a chain of desires, temptations, troubles, and worries, and it is trying to free itself. If you keep tugging at that chain which is holding you to mortal consciousness, some day an invisible Divine Hand will intervene and snap it apart, and you will be free."

Many scores of my meditations since September of 2025 have been sans self-interruptions. For the last 10 months my attention has been given access to my deep sleeping mind in meditation. The mind space is motionless. Its motionlessness undoes the compulsion to move with desirous thoughts.

Minus distracting thoughts, meditation techniques can be practiced uninterruptedly. In trying to remain committed to 61 minutes straight, I was able to practice the Hong Sau technique by Gurudev Paramahansa Yogananda for long.

At a later point within the 61 minutes session, the practice had gained enough momentum to snap out of thought-chains. It felt as if the technique had undone thoughts hooked to my attention.

The thoughts in these early sublayers of the deep sleeping mind are lifetronic in nature. Yet, they are thoughts with no spiritual significance.

Now I mustn’t jump to the conclusion that I have irreversibly undone the distraction of lifetronic imagery. It may take several scores of sessions to train my attention to avoid lifetronic imagery. Gurudev has suggested to avoid them and so I will. May I continue with my practice to be able make my meditational gains irreversible.

[godsnameisjoy]

985

Date: 17 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 2:03 PM

Depth:

With yesterday’s meditation session, I completed a 16 days streak with my preset 61 minutes timer. It’s a relatively short streak that I have never had before in my two decades plus practice.

I don’t consider myself set in the habit to sit for 61 minutes in daily meditation. It is best that I continue with actions that support the ongoing streak until it becomes a dependable habit. Among the biggest supporting actions that I am taking just before sitting up for meditation is to turn the phone to ‘do not disturb’.

The very act of putting the button on is helping my attention switch off its connection with the handheld screen. Yesterday’s session had my attention seated firmly in its place within my head, in the depth of the deep sleeping mind’s motionlessness.

In the middle of the session, the doorbell rang. I paused the timer to see if I was required to attend the doorbell. Still in my meditation place, after the doorbell was taken care of by a family member, I returned to meditation. My attention didn’t waste time in returning to its seat inside my head.

That’s the power to concentrate at will. It is power that money can’t buy. Also, I wanted to add that at the very beginning of yesterday’s session, I couldn’t help but compare those early moments with the first few moments of when I sleep.

In meditation, my attention goes all the way to my deep sleeping mind. I am aware of my attention covering the distance and taking its seat in the deep sleeping mind. When I fall asleep, I only follow part of the distance covered by my attention.

In falling asleep, I make no effort with my attention. Long before my attention arrives at my deep sleeping mind, I lose all awareness. I can see why a progressively deep meditation practice has the power to change for the better one’s regular sleeping habits.

[godsnameisjoy]

984

Date: 16 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 2:31 PM

Depth:

Yesterday’s was the second session that I began by putting my phone on ‘do not disturb’. Just knowing that my phone can’t disturb me anymore helps in keeping a decent depth of meditation.

Entering meditations somewhat tired helps too. When the attention is craving rest, it races to the calmer regions of one’s mind. I have known this since my attention was given access to my subconscious mind in meditation. That would be comfortably more than a decade back.

Yesterday’s session in the deep sleeping mind was possible because my attention raced its way to it in the first few minutes of the session. Unlike a few recent sessions, once my attention had rested, it didn’t keep moving towards the shallow surface of my waking mind.

I was pretty collected through all of those 61 minutes. I didn’t feel the need to open my eyes until the first bell at 60 minutes. It was also good to sense my attention not twisting and turning in its seat between lifetronic imagery and the meditation technique.

Of course, it is simply wonderful to be as uninterrupted in one’s flow of thoughts as is possible in the motionless deep sleeping mind. There are no earth bound desires distracting one’s meditations in the deep sleeping mind.

As of now, I have spiritually meaningless imagery, generated by life energies pooling at a fixed spot in the head, to deal with. However, unlike outwardly desirous distractions, lifetronic imagery doesn’t have muscle power. I don’t have to apply any effort to my attention in order to avoid lifetronic imagery.

The uninterrupted quality of a certain sublayer of the deep sleeping mind is such that one can end up feeling powerful enough to stick and unstick songs in the head at will!

[godsnameisjoy]

983

Date: 15 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 1:50 PM

Depth:

I would guess that it was the first 20 minutes of this session with depths that are my attention’s best so far. My attention had arrived the sublayer of my deep sleeping mind where it can afford to be unmoving and meditating uninterruptedly.

It is interesting to note what happened after about the first 20 minutes. My attention would meditate uninterruptedly for a bit. Then, lifetronic imagery would take up my attention. Realising that I wasn’t meditating, my attention would instantly return to the meditation technique at hand.

I simply kept going between lifetronic imagery and the meditation technique until the end bell rang at 61 minutes. For both, lifetronic imagery and deep meditation, my attention had to be seated.

Yesterday’s single meditation session was about my attention meditating while seated in the deep sleeping mind and my attention forgetting that it was meditating while being shown lifetronic imagery that is possible only when life energy begins pooling at a singular spot within the head.

Basically, mental distractions in my meditations don’t dislodge my attention anymore!

[godsnameisjoy]

982

Date: 14 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 3:38 PM

Depth:

I repeated an affirmation for the last 22 minutes of this session. The first 39 minutes of the session had a concentration gradient to it.

I began the session at the deepest best, in the deep sleeping mind. Gradually, my attention moved to the progressively shallower parts of my mind.

Thankfully, for the most part of moving through relatively shallow parts, my attention remained unmoving, influenced by the deep sleeping mind.

Getting my attention habituated to not moving too much with every passing thought is amongst the biggest meditational advances. It is possible to meditate uninterruptedly inside one’s head with an attention so gently firm in its seat.

The body is allowed to move like it should but the attention can be set to anything you want it to. That’s priceless.

[godsnameisjoy]

981

Date: 13 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 2:25 PM

Depth:

My attention remained collected enough for the first 54 minutes of the 61 minutes preset timer. In those 54 minutes, my attention began with the best depths that it could arrive at.

I was somewhat sleepy and tired when I had sat up to meditate. So my attention happily raced to my deep sleeping mind the moment I had turned it around in the opening prayer.

Must be roughly after the first 20 minutes that my attention began making its habitual return to the shallow surfaces of my mind. In a progressive manner, my spinal vibrations got stronger with every passing minute.

I didn’t mind my spine not holding the stream of life energy going up till my head. I didn’t mind because my attention remained with meditation despite strongish spinal vibrations. Knowing full well from experience, I didn’t mind the stream of upward moving life energy not turning into even greater inner peace in my head.

My attention remained with meditation despite an absence of any sign of further meditational advances. That’s the power of attention being seated in deep sleep mind’s motionlessness.

I have discovered my deep sleeping mind in September of 2025 after a practice lasting about 25 years. In all those years prior to the depth of deep sleep, as and when my attention shied away from the depths, I felt compelled to abandon the session I was in.

[godsnameisjoy]

980

Date: 12 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 5:02 PM

Depth:

To have one’s attention fixed is a huge benefit of meditation. To have one’s thoughts not be scattered via a variety of outward pulling desires is wonderful.

While working, to have one’s thoughts moving towards a singular healthy outcome is a huge benefit of having one’s attention fixed and not fixated.

To have one’s attention fixed due to the influence of deep sleeping mind’s lack of motion is a huge benefit. Such a quietly fixed attention is possible only after destroying every last one of the obsessive desires.

There is freedom of thought in having one’s attention seated comfortably at a spot. I don’t know how else to describe it. The world becomes a home with no walls for the attention that is seated.

[godsnameisjoy]

979

Date: 11 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 4:17 PM

Depth:

With this session, I completed a 10 days streak of daily 61 minutes of meditation. Yesterday’s session was a straight 61 minutes after a few sessions that were broken.

The first many minutes were wonderfully deep. For today, I wish to copy-paste lines under ‘Dhyana’ within the Wikipedia page for Patanjali’s Ashtanga (8 limbed) Yoga. Here goes:

“Adi Shankara, in his commentary on Yoga Sutras, distinguishes Dhyana from Dharana, by explaining Dhyana as the yoga state when there is only the "stream of continuous thought about the object, uninterrupted by other thoughts of different kind for the same object"; Dharana, states Shankara, is focussed on one object, but aware of its many aspects and ideas about the same object.”

Deep sleeping mind’s lack of movement makes it possible for the attention to learn to be seated. What I am experiencing now is closely described in the words ‘stream of continuous thought’. It is the fixed position of my attention during at least some time period of my meditations that’s making such an unbroken stream of thought possible.

The blessing is that the unbroken thought is of inner peace. The profound kind of standalone peace. This peace is distinctly different from an outer lack of disharmony. This is peace that is capable of making unconditional happiness an irreversible reality.

Of course, I am not going to advance into irreversible joy as a meditator unless I continue meditating daily.

[godsnameisjoy]

978

Date: 10 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 3:29 PM

Depth:

In the first 20 minutes or so of the session, there was enough depth of concentration to keep my attention fixed. The next 20 minutes or so, there was some loss of concentration. I wasn’t meditating with a fixed attention in the second phase.

In the last 20 minutes or so, I wasn’t even meditating. I was praying. I was praying for better thought. I was praying for an ability to imagine certain future financial situations.

I noticed that I am more imaginative with a personal financial doomsday. For financially difficult days, I seem to know exactly what I’ll do. In fact, I have some scenarios rehearsed in my head. I am equally imaginative when I choose the daydreaming route to riches.

Future possibilities of realistic financial situations is where I lack imagination.

[godsnameisjoy]

977

Date: 9 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 3:33 PM

Depth:

I was together again! After a handful of sessions that were relatively scattered in nature, yesterday’s session had my attention fixed to a spot.

The spot really is a vantage point where I can avoid getting caught in the currents of all possible thought types. The vantage point is like a well earned throne.

There sure are several immediate benefits of having one’s attention fixed like this. However, the really big benefit is that without such a fixing of attention, I won’t be able to make further meditational progress.

Of course, I see all meditational progress as spiritual progress. In Sage Patanjali’s 8 limbed Raja Yoga instructions, step 7 is ‘Dhyana’. The 7th limb is about fixing one’s attention.

Naturally, every time my attention doesn’t fix itself to a spot, I feel that I have regressed. And every time it does, I know I am progressing, no matter how subtly.

[godsnameisjoy]

976

Date: 8 July 2026

Duration: 61 minutes at 5:32 PM

Depth:

Two to three sessions before the one last evening were shabby compared to the first 26 minutes of the session last evening. These 26 minutes were so quickly deep that I thought I had finished an hour of meditating.

At 34 minutes remaining, I opened my eyes. Then again at 17 minutes. I only sat and prayed leaning forward with eyes open in the last 13 minutes of the session.

I began shaking a lot with spinal vibrations after I checked on my phone the first time. It was almost as if the stream of life energy didn’t want to go as far up as my head after the first 26 minutes. Strong spinal vibrations aren’t sustainable. So I sat with a body stretched and prayed.

Gurudev Paramahansa Yogananda suggests sitting for a while after every session. I think He suggests it as an opportunity to augment the experiences of the session. Of course, in more than two decades, I have barely done anything other than the basics taught by Him in His lessons.

Having committed to the 61 minutes preset timer, I chose to sit through it in prayer. Thankfully, I faced no inner rebellion doing so.