So, You Wanna Meditate?
Meditation is only the seventh step of Yoga. Without first attending to the preliminaries you want to get established in the seventh limb! Is this possible? First, get ethical perfection. This alone is sufficient work for several lives. Study (the) Gita. Find out if you have developed one hundredth part of one virtue which the Lord has prescribed for all aspirants. If you have done even this, you have deserved the human birth. This eradication of evil qualities and cultivation of good ones is such a difficult task that there is no use treating it lightly. If an aspirant gets real Samadhi in a hundred births, that is very great achievement. God is perfect and unless and until all the evil qualities are eradicated and the divine qualities acquired to the degree of perfection, there is no samadhi.
(pg. 7, Sermonettes of Swami Sivananda)
"...morality is the basis of spiritual life...Practice of morality leads to purity of hearty, and attainment of Self-realisation. Without morality, you will become a spiritual bankrupt.
"Without ethical perfection, there is no spiritual progress. Without spiritual progress, there is no emancipation. Ethical perfection comes through the practice of Yama and Niyama. Asanas and Pranayama form the second stage. Concentration and meditation form the third stage. Samadhi is the summum bonum. Thus, the human soul aspiring after perfection goes from stage to stage and finally merges itself in the blissful glory of the highest union. Aim, therefore, at moral perfection. Spiritual success is half achieved through strong moral foundation.
"Always bear in mind that the primary condition of success in the spiritual life is an earnest longing for purity. So, be sincere and very earnest in your Sadhana and strive for purification and sound ethical culture." (pg. 116, Ethical Perfection)
"Right from the very beginning of your spiritual life, you must understand clearly that in true humility, sincere desire to root out gradually pride, egoism and jealousy earnest and unceasing introspection to find out one's own defects and improve oneself, lies your hope of progress. Witout this, all sorts of Sadhana become a delusion and a waste." (pg. 98, Ethical Perfection)
You may also want to read the following articles:
If you click on "Yamas and Niyamas" you will get to read so many articles on the issue of "ethical perfection".
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