Q&A:The hour of meditation

During your meditation if you feel really inspired, I can you increase the length of time that you meditate?

In the beginning it is better just to remain in a meditative mood and read spiritual writings or sing devotional songs. If you have been meditating for half an hour, then after two or three months you can increase the length of time, but do not increase it suddenly. Even if you are inspired, please increase your meditation time by degrees. Otherwise, if today you are meditating well and all of a sudden you double your meditation time, then in a subtle way pride will enter into you. You will be bloated with pride the whole day, and then the following day this pride will not allow you to meditate at all. You will think that you have received everything from your meditation, so for two weeks you will not even get up.

Meditation is like eating or taking exercise. If one day you cat too much, the next day you will have stomach problems. Or if you have the capacity to do five pushups and one day you get inspired and do twenty, the following day you will be too sore to do even one. So always increase your capacity slowly; then you will have no difficulty. If you are inspired to meditate longer, increase your time only by two or three minutes. If your inspiration continues to increase, after a month or so your meditation will be ten or fifteen minutes longer.