Shloka : 115

कृष्णस्तदवताराश्च ध्येयास्तत्प्रतिमापि च ।

न तु जीवा नृदेवाद्या भक्ता ब्रह्मविदोऽपि च ॥ 115 ॥

અને શ્રીકૃષ્ણભગવાન તથા શ્રીકૃષ્ણભગવાનના જે અવતાર તે જે તે ધ્યાન કરવા યોગ્ય છે; તથા શ્રીકૃષ્ણ ભગવાનની જે પ્રતિમા, તેપણ ધ્યાન કરવા યોગ્ય છે; માટે એમનું ધ્યાન કરવું; અને મનુષ્ય તથા દેવાદિક જે જીવ તે તો, શ્રીકૃષ્ણભગવાનના ભક્ત હોય અને બ્રહ્મવેત્તા હોય તોપણ ધ્યાન કરવા યોગ્ય નથી; માટે એમનું ધ્યાન ન કરવું. ॥ 115 ॥

And Shri Krishna Bhagwan and the incarnations of Shri Krishna Bhagwan are worthy of meditating upon; and idol of Shri Krishna Bhagwan is also worthy of being meditated. Therefore, they should be meditated upon; and human beings and deities etc. souls are not worthy of meditating upon even if they are devotees of Shri Krishna Bhagwan and are having the divine knowledge of the characteristics of Supreme God i.e. Brahmvetta; therefore they should not be meditated upon. || 115 ||

Commentary

Here, Shri Sahajanand Swami has mentioned Himself as Shri Krishna Bhagwan. Shri Hari has mentioned in Satsangi Bhushan: "I, Shri Swaminarayan Bhagwan, am also called as Anadi Krishna; I am the cause of all the causes and the illuminator of all the luminous forms." Also says that: "I, Shri Swaminarayan Bhagwan, am worthy to be meditated upon. And My incarnations like Krishna, Nar-Narayan etc. are also worthy to be meditated upon. My idols made up of metal, wood, stone or pictures are also worthy to be meditated upon; but My Ekantik devotees should meditate upon Me only." When God appears in the form of human being and visits place to place He is called 'Pratyaksh' i.e. before your eyes – direct incarnation, as well as God in the form of idol is also 'Pratyaksh'. "I am Pratyaksh in the form of idol", this has been stated by Shriji Maharaj. For that reason,one should give up the understanding that the idol is made up of metal, wood, stone or a picture and with the understanding that the divine Supreme God is in form of idol, one should meditate upon it. And a human being or deity etc. are not worthy of being meditated upon, evenif, they are great scholars or devotees of Shri Krishna Bhagwan. Therefore, they should not be meditated upon. But the devotees can be meditated upon alongwith God because there are four types of meditations described by the scriptures viz. Saang i.e with body parts, Upaang i.e. with coverings of body parts, Salil i.e. the form depicting various playful characters and Saparshad i.e. with devotees. Therefore, without contemplating the divine form of Shri Hariji, only a devotee should not be meditated upon.

Now, before meditation one should know the characteristics of meditator - the one who meditates i.e. Dhyata, meditation i.e. Dhyan, object of meditation i.e. Dhyeya, and the purpose of meditation. The characteristics of Dhyata i.e. meditator are like this: a true meditator is he who has understood in real sense the ultimate worship of Shriji Maharaj and the knowledge of His glory through contact of God-realized saint or Mukta of Shri Hari, who is not egoistic, who is completely surrendered, who has completely renounced the enjoyments of the objects of five senses, who is peaceful and who has balanced approach towards criticism-praise, respect-insult.

The form of meditation is like this: (1) Visualize oneself as a soul separate from the three bodies and meditate upon the human form or idol form of Supreme God Shri Swaminarayan Bhagwan. Now the whole idol could be meditated upon or one part at a time could be meditated upon.This is called the meditation of physical nature i.e. Avarbhav. (2) Visualize the soul united with the Aksharbrahm which is the cluster of luminous brilliance of Shri Hari and meditate continuously and with great affection upon the divine form of one's Lord Shriji Maharaj who is residing in Akshardham. This is called the meditation of spiritual nature i.e. Parbhav. (3) Visualize one's soul united with the divine form of Shri Hari, considering oneself as the divine form of Shri Sahajanand Swami with total concentration, without any distraction and with peaceful mind, meditate upon the complete form of Shri Hariji considering one's ownself as disciple and Shri Hariji as master. This has been considered as the best meditation of spiritual nature i.e. Parbhav.

Now the form of 'Dhyeya' i.e. object of meditation: The object of meditation is the divine form of Shriji Maharaj. Shri Hari Himself has described in Satsangibhushan, Satsangijeevan and Sarvamangal Stotram etc. scriptures about how to visualize the divine form of Shriji Maharaj. As per the instructions one should visualize the divine form of Shri Hari and meditate upon it.

And the purpose of meditation is to experience the boundless bliss of unity with the divine form of Shriji Maharaj with great affection, similar to that of Anadi Muktas.

Moreover, while meditating one should contemplate on the splendour of Shri Hariji. One should consider Him as all doer and His idol should also be considered divine. One should be glad to see the idol of God surrounded by the white light while meditating. But if only the light without the idol is visualized one should not feel peaceful but get irritated. And thus, if one is not interested in the bliss of Akshar, he experiences the bliss of Shriji Maharaj equivalent to that enjoyed by Shriji Maharaj Himself.

Now, there are four obstacles on the path of meditation. First is 'Laya' i.e. chit (mind) feels sleepy. To remove this obstacle one should wake up the mind. Second is 'Vikshep' i.e. when mind is distracted through the desires of sexual pleasures. These thoughts should be discarded by thinking about the bliss of Shriji Maharaj. Third is 'Kashay' i.e. very forceful feelings of like-dislike, attachment-hatred etc. When the mind is confused with the strong feelings of like-dislike, it should be detached from the objects of attraction or aversion through absolute knowledge. And fourth is 'Rasaswad' i.e. the desires to have the capacity to know past-present and desire to enjoy the tastes of tongue. These desires should be discarded through the knowledge of the glory of Shriji. Without conquering these weaknesses, meditation cannot be attained. Without attaining the meditative state one cannot evolve and without evolution salvation could not be attained. Therefore, the devotees, who aspire to meditate, should conquer these weaknesses. Mind should be pulled out of all the objects of senses and one should concentrate one's mind in the divine form of Shriji Maharaj who is all pervading. Such devotees attain liberation, even though they exist in their physical form.